This is a short video from a couple days ago, on April 25, 2014. I ride home from EWU on this wonderful trail about once a week, year round. There is hardly ever anyone else on it. Fish Lake Trail goes from Cheney, WA to downtown Spokane, WA. It's about 16 miles, slightly downhill the whole way (obviously, that makes it slightly uphill if you start at the Spokane trailhead just off Sunset Highway. A good way to do this is take the #66 STA bus from Jefferson Park and Ride (all STA busses have free bike racks w/ room for two bikes), get off at EWU, or at the big Safeway shopping complex, then ride to the downtown Cheney then ride down Cheney-Spangle Road - the intersection where The Mason Jar cafe is located ( I think I say Cheney-Spokane Highway in the video, but that's incorrect, sorry). There is a nice wide shoulder on the left hand side. The trail head is around the first big bend, on the left, across from an auto shop. Have fun. Bring a couple water bottles! (Click on images for full size pics)
Looking South to Columbia Plateau Trailhead from the Cheney-Spangle Rd underpass. (This is the Fishlake Trailhead and parking lot a quarter mile from downtown Cheney). This goes to Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge (about 3 miles from here). CPT then proceeds 130 miles to Ice Harbor Dam near Pasco,Wa and Tri-Cities. To safely (and quickly) ride the large rail ballast, you'll want extra knobby tires (preferably you would rent or borrow a "Snow Bike," and slightly deflate the tires) especially past Martin Road near Sprague.
(See "Crazy Guy on Bike" link below for a great blog about the CPT).
Frozen springs in winter. I have ridden from Cheney many times in the winter without seeing a single person!
Fish Lake and Trail
The missing link. Here you must veer onto Cheney-Spokane Highway for a bit until you reach Scribner Trailhead turn-off. Some people ride this anyway even though it is private property. I have never done it. From what I've heard, you're gonna want a mountain bike to safely attempt it. Word has it this section may be completed in the next year or two, hopefully!
Flooding in March, 2014.
Ice on Fish Lake, early Spring 2014.
Fish Lake/ CPT Trailhead as seen approaching from downtown Cheney.
Scribner Trailhead.
Scribner Trailhead. FLT will be underconstruction here starting June 6, 2014.
Scribner Trailhead rail crossing. This is a very active train track! It is also quite uneven, so be very careful while crossing.
"Knights of Badassdom" hit a home run, then forgot what it was doing.
I was really digging this Spokane, WA filmed movie which I caught at its last local showing tonight at The Magic Lantern. That is until they killed off some of the best characters midway through the film. I could not believe my eyes. These characters had established so much gravitas, and so much potential to carry the film through the troubled, blood stained waters it was about to cannonball into, especially as Dinklage had eaten a bag of shrooms and hilariously trip out, complete with flowers in his hair.
Disclaimer: I get that Knights was meant to be campy and B Film whatever. But it had some really intelligent storytelling going full steam ahead till it decided to apparently just say FUCK IT, who cares about story" way out. I mean, they had some belly- laugh funny scenes! - rocking out in the auto shop, getting high and drunk in the Castle mansion (which my Grandma actually lived in for a couple years!), and the scenes hamming it up LARP style in the festival parking lot AKA The Fields of Evermore.
I was led to expect a similarly affecting climax and resolution, or at least a smart denouement, but everything devolved into mindless, disturbing blood and guts gore after the murder scene in the outhouse. It was hard to see a locally made film with so much potential, so many great actors, just fall apart in front of your eyes. I am starting to see now why it took them 4 years to release it.
I left the film trying to keep laughing the way I did during the first half, trying to give it an A for effort, but it was honestly more an "oh well, better luck next time" laugh. Next time you get an all star cast, don't blow it. Btw, the castle mansion that the main character lives in, pictured below, is really cool. i used to love visiting my grandma there when i was a kid. she lived in a little apartment on the top floor. check it out if u r in spokane. its at: 1323 w 8th ave. on the lower South Hill, near the excellent Huckleberries organic market cafe.
