Exploring The Chehalis Western Trail South
Road to Tenino, Ranier, and Yelm.
Wanderlust
Image- This is an image of the Yelm HWY overpass of the Chehalis Western Trail (CWT) from Yelm HWY. I can’t believe I just flew past this on my first trip to Lacey! I was so dead set on getting to the landmark of the Lacey Dairy queen that I just didn’t notice the sign on it that refers to the Chehalis Western Trail.
Once again, wanderlust got the best of me early on Saturday morning, December 2, 2023. After attending to some necessary business earlier in the day, I rode up to Lacey again and started exploring the southern arm of the Chehalis Western Trail (CWT). Since the winter days are so short here in Washington during December, that only gave me about two hours and 15 minutes of daylight to explore further before I would have to return home from the Lacey trail access point.
Because I really don’t care for biking through the Lacey traffic circles in the dark, I decided I would have turn back in the direction of in Tumwater at about 3:45 pm. Sunset Sunday was at about 4:20 p.m.
Triking South of Lacey on the CWT
Image- This was the view just as I rode up the CWT access ramp at Yelm HWY in Lacey. This arm of the trail leads South toward Tenino, Ranier, and Yelm.
With so little daylight available yesterday, I was determined to make progress as far as possible traveling toward the town of Tenino, one of the first destinations along the southern route of the CWT.
Image- This was the first cross street (Prestwick Drive) riding south on the CWT trail I came upon within the first mile from the Lacey access point.
I pedaled on Assist 1 mode of the Perraro Trike which is 50% pedaling effort by me and 50% for the 750-watt front wheel electric motor. Pedaling in the 50/50 mode doubles the distance per battery charge. I’m not certain how the trike manages it, but it won’t let me cheat on the 50/50 pedal Assist mode. It slows down very quickly if I fall behind on my pedaling effort. This setting did keep me at a comfortable 8-10 mph for most of the south leg journey on the trike ride.
The LCD instantaneous watts readout indicated that I was expending 50-75 watts continuously and the Trike 50-75 watts during yesterday’s trek on the mostly level CWT. That’s about 100 kilocalories energy expenditure per hour for me. I was toting my new spare lithium-ion battery in my storage bin on the back of the bike, adding about 9 pounds extra weight to the Trike weight.
Image- At the Talcott Ridge Rd. crossover, I noticed that Ranier Road runs parallel to the bike trail. Ranier Road has bike lanes at this junction which I’ll investigate further on another bike trip.
I am seriously considering acquring a third spare battery which would expand my current range from 40 miles to 60 miles, but I think it would be interesting to perform an optimization problem for the Perraro bike to estimate at what weight additional lithium-ion batteries at ~9 lbs. each (payload) would become prohibitive, weighing the trike down, reducing mileage per battery charge and overheating the electric motor too much. The answer may be built into the manufacturer’s specifications that haul weight in addition to the trike frame (133 lbs) and biker should not exceed 30 kg (66 lbs.). The Perraro can easily carry about a week’s supply of groceries for one person in the back bin.
Images in sequence- Talcott Ridge Drive CWT crossover.
The waterproof flexible covering the back carry bin can be folded back and the rider could carry his/her pretty mid-sized dog along for the ride and fresh air! There are hikers walking dogs on the trail, but most of them are on leashes as required by city ordinance.
Image- At about 3 miles into the trail ride, I came upon a Fir Tree Road crossover. Fir Tree Road does not appear to have any decent bike lanes at this junction.
Image- I came upon an 89th Ave. crossover on my southward trek. This avenue may have nominal bike lanes, but I did not have enough time before sunset to investigate.
Image- Next I came upon a T-intersection with Latigo Drive.
I recently read about an Australian brother (70 years old) and sister (75) pair that biked from France to Iceland in three months this last summer. Of course, they had to take a ferry to Iceland. They evidently averaged about 44 miles per day over the 3720-mile journey. That was quite a feat at their ages! You can read a bit about their journey if you click on the hyperlink below. Click on the blue hyperlink:
(3,122 unread) - dvangen1065@att.net - AT&T Yahoo Mail
This got me to seriously consider a goal that I recently set for myself to trike up to volcanic Mt. Ranier National Park this coming summer 2024. The gates of the park are only about 54 miles from Tumwater, making it a very reachable destination. I would have to purchase a third lithium-ion battery ($466.00) to expand my mileage to 60 miles and possibly break the trek into parts of two days. There is a considerable climb to the gates of Mt. Ranier National Park, so a two-day trek there would seem prudent. I can recharge the lithium-ion batteries at my first overnight stop, possibly in Morton or Packwood. Hopefully my wife and I will have purchased an eBike for her too by then so I can travel with her and enjoy the ride even more with my favorite traveling companion!
Image- When I reached mile marker post 13 at 3:45 p.m., I had to turn around and start heading back because sundown was at about 4:20 p.m. I got home just as dusk was settling over Tumwater. I can think of some of our friends that might like to ride along for at least part of the journey as well.
Next- Swimming for recovering more brain health and managing arthritis pain.