When I was growing up in Milwaukee, I often rode trains on the Milwaukee Road . I still have a sentimental attachment to the railroad that took the name of my hometown. I was sad to learn of its demise in the 1980’s. It began as the twenty-mile-long Milwaukee & Waukesha Railway in 1850 and eventually reached Seattle in 1909. In April I drove across Washington state, looking for the route of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific railroad. On my three-day drive thru mostly rural Washington, I discovered there wasn’t much left of the Milwaukee Road, except for a superb 250-mile bike trail, the Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail. Some of the trail wanders thru abandoned arid farm land in the south central part of the state. Carry lots of water if you ride it. Farther west, the route includes spectacular scenery over Snoqualmie Pass and the two-mile-long Snoqualmie Tunnel. Don’t forget to bring your headlamp.
