July 12, 2019 – day 10.

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A cyclist had earlier warned me to prepare for disappointment on the so-called Great American Rail-Trail Washington State.

And I was disappointed today.

Twice I was turned back at points on the where bridges were impassable. You can see where I backtrack on my route video.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

My first roadblock came right at the beginning of the day. The bridge over the I-90 was out.

Without hopping fences that meant a 6 mile detour. But a detour including coffee and bacon on a stick!

Farm country has a lot of fences. And other impediments to cycling.

On the other side of the bridge the GART continues on to Army land — Joint Base Lewis McChord. It did not look welcoming. One tunnel MIGHT be closed on that 22 mile section.

I decided, instead, to detour via the I-90 stopping at the Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility.

The I-90 is not all that bad. It has a very wide shoulder.

Once reaching the gorgeous Columbia River I tried to rejoin the Great American Rail-Trail.

Once again, no go. The bridge over the river was out. 😕

I backtracked again now forced to cross the Columbia on the I-90. Not good. There is no shoulder at all crossing the bridge.

Look — the railstotrails.org website is lousy. Not up-to-date.

Not having their own app they rely instead on TrailLink, also lousy.

The Great American Rail-Trail is more of a concept than a thing. 

I decide to skip the next section as well trying to resume (last chance GART) at Warden past Moses Lake.

I road the service roads beside the I-90 freeway. Not much shoulder but hardly any traffic.

By the way, there is a town called George, Washington.

This is lush cropland. Lots of potatoes. Lots of corn.

This was my longest, hottest day so far. On a whim I decided to get a cheap motel in Moses Lake.

For dinner I followed the crowd over to Chevron.

Day 1 | 2 | 3 | 4-5 | 6-7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12-13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | info | video