June 26, 2016

Chewelah, Washington, Colville National Forest Cottonwood Loop Trail

36 miles
  We left Chewelah, (NE Wa) heading east on Flowery Trail, going east for 10 miles to the staging area. Which is the Sno Park loop off to the right side of the road.
  * The day before I down Avenza.com/pdf-maps. This is a wonderful tool if you have a mobile device. Once you down load Avenza, you can go on to the Forest Service web site, and download the Motor Vehicle Use Maps (MVUM) for the area you would like to ride. This is a free map from the Forest Service and instructions are on their map riding page. There are other maps you can purchase. It put the Cottonwood trail right on the screen and I could tell exactly where we were, and at each intersection.
 

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Then we went back to the Cottonwood Divide Road, (4342), which is at the staging area.  This is a rough Forest Service road. You will climb in elevation 1,000 feet during the ride. After 7.5 mi we came to a Y , at turned Left on to 3540. At odometer reading 17, you arrive at Middle Fork Callispel Rd, where there is dispersed camping. We turned Left, we wanted to ride the official ATV trail at Middle Fork, but it was closed.
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This is where the Avenza map comes in handy. The trail is more like a road. There are numerous roads which are dead ends or continuous roads. We arrived at the Flowery Trail road, turning Left,  onto the  highway- 8 miles  driving back to the staging area.  It is legal to drive on this road. We would rather ride on trails throughout the woods, but it seems like those in charge would rather have us ride on the roads in Washington state.

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3 comments:

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  2. AHHH the Cottonwood divide route, behind 49 degree north Shi resort what a nice place, to bad you missed the calispell ATV loop. It is a mild route with only 1 difficult area as a switch back which is fun. Be careful in Washington State riding folks. ATV's in the National Forest are still only restricted to OHV Forest service routes or ATV routes. All other Forest service roads are closed to OHV vehicles, even with WATV lic plates unless specially permitted in some areas! It is very hard to determine what is or isn't opened and should always refer to local clubs to get info! But still the formal laws regarding non OHV or ATV routes is still up in the air. Glade yo had fun in that area!

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    1. Thanks for the info. Washington, seems to have the worst ATV trails compared to other states

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Thanks for coming along!