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Hike of the Week for Friday, May 18, 2012

Tumwater Pipeline Trail

Hike along “strong water” watching rafters and rapids

Article and photo by Craig Romano

Tumwater Pipeline Trail
Watch kayakers ride the strong
water of the Wenatchee River.

A kid-friendly hike on an old pipeline right-of-way along the crashing Wenatchee River in a deep and impressive canyon; this trail is easy and the scenery is breathtaking When the Great Northern Railroad abandoned its route over Stevens Pass and opted to go under the pass instead, its steam engines proved problematic in the long tunnel. So the line switched over to electric engines between Skykomish and Leavenworth. They built a dam on the Wenatchee (still there about three miles upriver from the trailhead) and ran a pipeline (penstock) down to a generating plant to produce electricity for the locomotives. In 1956 the railroad switched to diesel abandoning the pipeline and power plant. Continue at Tumwater Pipeline Trail.

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