Fife to Grand Forks

Day 2 - August 14, 2014

Weather: Rain overnight, then cloudy for the first half of our ride with rain returning as we neared Grand Forks.

Trail description: The trail from Fife continues downhill with much the same surface as before: twin ruts, small rocks but firm and fast. About 4 kilometers from Fife a paved road crosses the trail obliterating the grade: a short detour circles around the problem area and rejoins the trail. 2.5 kilometers later the grade bottoms out at the Kettle River, easily crossed on the first (and largest) of several bridges over the Kettle. West of the bridge the trail changes completely thanks to a gas company that laid a pipeline below the trail and graded over it with gravel. The landscape changes too, becoming a mixture of grassland and low pine trees. The trail now trends uphill to Grand Forks but at a very shallow grade compared to yesterday's uphill. As the trail enters active farmland between the Kettle River and highway 3, it becomes narrower with grasses overhanging the trail edges, and the railbed appearance is replaced by more of a farm track with steeper pitches up an down, and numerous gates to open and close. Some of the gates have two parts: a larger vehicle gate, often locked, and a smaller un-locked postern gate which even when open is partially blocked by an obstacle―a steel bar or a large rock―to discourage cattle from escaping if they find the gate left open. These obstacles require some care to lift loaded bicycles over without damaging your drivetrain. A few kilometers from Grand Forks the Nursery Trestle crosses the Kettle River and the trail into town is paved with asphalt. The trail enters a sawmill property and veers away from the original railbed, ending in a parking lot near the 68th Avenue bridge. A sign shows trail users a map of Grand Forks and which streets to follow to regain the trail further west on the north side of the Kettle River, although there is little signage after this point to guide users (we couldn't find where the trail resumes and the rain blunted our desire to cycle every meter of the trail so we gave up and headed for our motel).

Wildlife: One marmot at the Cascade Gorge bridge.

Other trail users Several other cyclists and some dog walkers.

Distance and elevation: Distance travelled was about 31 kilometers, including a steep (up to 15%) two kilometer climb on the newly-paved Fife Road to reach the trail at Fife, 610 m.a.s.l. (meters above sea level). The elevation at the first Kettle River crossing where the trail bottoms out is 480 m.a.s.l., making our downhill portion 130 vertical meters in 6.5 kilometers. Beyond this the trail gains only 50 vertical meters in the final 23 kilometers to Grand Forks Station (at 530 m.a.s.l.) but the trail rolls up and down a lot in between.

Average speed and time on the trail: We left our motel in Fife at 9:00 AM and reached Grand Forks at 12:45 PM. Our average moving speed was 13.6 k.p.h.

GPS tracking: We used a Garmin 910XT to record our distance and elevation.

Elevation profile of the trail between Fife and Grand Forks. Elevation to and from our start and finish motels on Highway 3 are also shown

With only about 30 kilometers of riding today we had a leisurely breakfast before gathering behind the New Horizon Motel to start our second day on the trail

We climbed back up Fife Road, cycling the flatter bottom part but when it pitched up to a 15% grade we all got off and walked. The paving trucks were still hauling asphalt up the hill but had moved beyond the point where the trail crosses the road

The trail passes high above the town of Christina Lake

There are few cattle guards on the C&W trail compared to the KVR but the ones we did cross, we mostly walked

A fork in the trail fooled our lead riders. General rule of thumb: if it doesn't look like a train would go down there, take the other fork. Notice the bridge in the distance: it carries the trail across the Kettle River

The trail bottoms out at the Kettle River. Just around the bend in the distance the river enters Washington State and flows south into the Columbia River

Traffic jam of dogs and bikes on the first of several Kettle River bridges

A view back north of the railway trail as it cuts a straight line across the side of the valley

West of the bridge the trail surface changes to a smooth, rock-free gravel, having been graded after a gas line was buried beneath the trail. It is also the beginning of the Gilpin grasslands: open fields mixed with groves of pine trees. We are now climbing again, but very gently compared to the uphill of yesterday

Our second bridge: back to the north side of the Kettle River at Cascade Gorge where the river squeezes through narrow rock walls

There are lots of gates along this stretch. Trail etiquette is to leave a gate in the condition you found it: if it was closed, reclose it; if it was open, leave it open

The trail threads its way through a narrow strip of grassland between the Kettle River and highway 3

The smooth trail is occasionally interrupted by hummocky ground and sandy spots that caused low speed stalls and a bit of walking

About ten kilometers from Grand Forks the rain returned

A lonely outhouse stands like a sentinel near the trail

The Nursery Trestle over the Kettle River marks the end of the gravel and the start of an asphalt paved trail into Grand Forks

Our digs for the night: Johnny's Motel with its ever-busy English owner

Johnny's has its own English phone box and a sign pointing towards London (which is apparently 7399 kilometers from here)

Across the highway from Johnny's is the "Golden Heights" house, originally a private residence built in 1896 by a dentist from Montana who had the house prefabricated in California, shipped in pieces to Spokane by train and by horse and wagon to Grand Forks. Of late it was an inn and restaurant but now sits unused in disrepair

Grand Forks has many, many deer wandering its streets

The clear sky provided us a lovely evening before the clouds and rain returned overnight

Continue to Day 3: Grand Forks to Midway        Return to Home Page