Bill Chipman Palouse Trail

From Pullman, the trail's route gently climbs eastward along Paradise Creek, crossing it twelve times on original railroad bridges. The elevation at its highest point, the eastern terminus at the Perimeter Road trailhead in Idaho, is above sea level and the vertical drop westward to Pullman is . The trail has two rest areas, three emergency phones, and multiple interpretive areas. It is south of and parallel to State Route 270, the Moscow-Pullman Highway, which becomes State Highway 8 in Idaho. at Carmichael Road. The Latah Trail travels east to the small city of Troy at . Completed in October 2008, the trail was paved in stages over a six-year period. It parallels Highway 8, the Troy Highway, for most of its length, separating to the north a few miles outside of Troy. All three trails follow former rail corridors and result in a total length of from Pullman to Troy. ==History==

After 12 years of community efforts and donations, along with agency cooperation, the Bill Chipman Palouse Trail was dedicated on April 4, 1998. It is part of the federal Rails to Trails program, which preserves railroad corridors for non-motorized transportation and possible future transportation use. It is open dawn to dusk year round – day use only – and to all ages and abilities. The trail is maintained and managed by a coalition of park and trail representatives from Whitman County, the cities of Pullman and Moscow, the University of Idaho, and Washington State University. With non-motorized traffic transferred to the BCPT, the highway was later improved and widened to five lanes (two lanes in each direction with a center dividing lane), completed in spring 2008. The extended time frame for completion of the BCPT was because the railroad was not yet abandoned. Two rail lines ran between Moscow and Pullman and the issue was which to consolidate upon. ==References==