Work advances on Fish Lake Trail

Nine years ago, the Spokane Parks and Recreation Department spent $300,000 in transportation grant money to pave four miles of former railroad bed near Scribner Road in southwest Spokane County.

At the time, officials hoped the money would be followed by more grants to complete an 11-mile route from west Spokane to Fish Lake, near Cheney.

The former ribbon of rail was carved from hillsides and bedrock early in the century and used by Union Pacific Railroad trains until 1973. The route passes through pine forests and provides some choice scenery along Queen Lucas Lake.

The city purchased the right of way in 1991 with the long-term goal of building a trail.

Now, the city has won a $1 million state grant to continue development of the trail, parts of which remain rough for bicycle travel and virtually inaccessible to the public.

“It’s been a project that’s been on our radar screen for a number of years,” said Louise McGrody, special projects coordinator for the Bicycle Alliance of Washington.

Grass-roots work by the alliance, the REI outdoor-equipment store in Spokane and the Fish Lake Trail Action Group has put some steam into the rails-to-trail project.

Last weekend, volunteers built a temporary trailhead in Spokane where Lindeke Street and Lindeke Court merge, a short distance south of Sunset Boulevard and Government Way. The volunteer work party has become an annual event.

A year ago, 75 people turned out for a planning meeting arranged by Spokane Mayor Dennis Hession. The mayor and City Council included the Fish Lake Trail in their legislative requests last winter. Local lawmakers, including Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, supported the allocation.

Susan Ashe, the city’s director of legislative and public affairs, said winning the state grant was a good example of how community cooperation produces results.

Joshua Hess, outreach specialist for REI, said his company adopted the Fish Lake Trail last year as its main community service project and awarded the bicycle alliance $5,000 to lobby lawmakers for funding.

He said additional paving on the route and construction of the trail head should draw more people to the trail, and with more users will come more interest in raising additional money for completion of the trail.

Once developed, the Fish Lake Trail will connect Peaceful Valley and the Centennial Trail to the Columbia Plateau Trail, which runs southward from Fish Lake and Cheney on old Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway track.

There is one big obstacle to completion of the Fish Lake route: The old rail right of way meets two active rail lines. One of the crossings is at the south end of Queen Lucas Lake at a rail location known as UP Junction.

Creation of a safe trail will require two pedestrian bridges over the active rail lines. The cost is estimated at $4 million for the bridges, McGrody said.

However, the trail has other bridges, including a pair of steel structures that span Interstate 90 in Spokane.

In all, completion of the trail is estimated to cost $6 million, McGrody said.

The section between Scribner Road and Fish Lake is not considered safe for travel because of the live rail crossings. Also, going onto BNSF Railway property is considered trespassing.

Taylor Bressler, the city Parks Department’s manager for planning and projects, said no decisions have been made about how to use the state grant. “I’m still trying to figure out what’s the best way to spend it,” he said.