Tales from the Trail: Vignettes of disrupted lives from the White River Bridge closure

I made a grave error.

I wasn’t sure exactly how long it would take for me to walk from Enumclaw’s Blue Star on State Route 410 to the bridge — I had only made that trip once before, on bike, but surely it couldn’t be that long.

Forty-five minutes later, I arrived at the bridge, sweaty and regretting not bringing a water bottle.

But the trek did give me a chance to talk to a lot of people along the way, first with people (mostly) riding electric bikes back to Buckley.

One thing was constant — all the bikes were new.

“Bought my bike a week ago,” Mike said. “I’ve already put 104 miles on it.”

That’s because Mike works both at Parker Hannifin and as a coach with the Jr. Hornets football team — meaning he crosses the bridge twice a day.

“The trail is pretty dark at night, so we have to rely on lights,” he continued.

Walking back toward Enumclaw, dressed unusually professionally for walking the trail (and carrying a blessed water bottle, which shows she’s far wiser than me) was Jennifer.

I asked why she was out and about in 84-degree weather, sun beating down.

She said she works for a local dialysis center, and “I wanted to see how accessible the trail is” for her Buckley and Bonney Lake patients.

Her conclusion?

“I don’t think a lot of our dialysis patients would be able to walk this far,” she said.

That’s unfortunate, she continued, because some of her patients are considering coming to the center less often because of the traffic — it can take an hour-plus to drive from Buckley to Enumclaw.

“There’s a dialysis center in Bonney Lake, and… we’re working with our Fife unit and Auburn unit to try to see if we can somehow divert people, at least until the bridge is fixed,” she said.

Of course, then she asked me what I knew.

I told her that WSDOT hopes to open the bridge to one lane by the end of September and that King County Metro Route 915 is picking up people near the bridge to bring to Enumclaw.

That may work for some of her patients, who could qualify for reduced fares, Jennifer said, but the risks of the bridge — not just the length and weather, but the fast-moving electric vehicles — is still probably too much for most.

But she found the trek quite nice, and made note of how friendly other people on the trail were.

“People have been really polite, and they say ‘on your left. If I had a nickel for every time somebody said that, I would probably buy my lunch,” she laughed.

That certainly wasn’t my experience — most of the time, the only warning I got before being passed was the tell-tale whine of an e-bike, which raises the hair on the back of my neck every time I hear it.

Susan also said she would appreciate better communication from bikers while she walks from Buckley to the Enumclaw Safeway.

But today, she was clearly not going to work and was carrying a large paper grocery bag, which piqued my interest.

“It’s called ‘Meal Train,’” she said, lugging the bag. (I still feel a little bad not offering to carry it for her.) “This is my day.”

The meal she prepared was going to be passed off to someone waiting in a car nearby, and would end up at the house of a cancer patient and her spouse.

“Thank goodness it’s not raining,” she continued. “Come wintertime, we’re all gonna have to drive, probably all of us.”

That was a common concern for many people I talked to, especially parents with young kids in bike trailers or wagons, picking up their siblings from school.

One person had a different concern as he walked toward Enumclaw over the bridge in a blue button-down shirt, dark blue tie, dress shoes, and the unmistakable mustache.

Shayne was parked just past the bridge, but he had to “jog” 1.8 miles to the Buckley Fire Station to submit his volunteer firefighter application last week, and brave the heat in business-wear again today for the interview.

He knows he’s got a long way to go before he may be hired, but Shayne hopes the 7.2 miles he’s walked for this “puts me in good graces,” he said.

If he gets hired, this means he’ll be crossing the bridge far more often, and perhaps at the drop of a hat, if need be.

“If I do get into the academy, it’s twice a week, and on Saturdays, I have to come a full day,” Shayne said. “So I’ll definitely be biking over — this walking, it’s fun, but in the rain…”

Well, we’ve got two months of good weather, at best — here’s hoping we get more good news about the bridge before the rain hits.

Until then, make sure you bring some water.

A FRIENDLY REMINDER – NO MOTOR VEHICLES

King County would like to remind bridge commuters that non-emergency motorized vehicles (cars, motorcycles, ATVs, and, yes, golf carts/dune buggies) are not allowed.

“The recreational trail bridge located near Enumclaw does not have safety features for motorized vehicles – including motorcycles, golf carts, ATVs, and dune buggies – that can also block the 16-foot-wide trail bridge for emergency vehicles,” the county said in a press release. “Motor vehicles can also surpass the weight limit for the trail bridge, which was engineered to carry one emergency vehicle at a time.”