PATHWAYS TO PURPOSE
But in 2006, something exciting was happening in this place he’d always come to “slow down.” There was talk of converting an old rail corridor in the county into a trail. As the county had no parks department, Whittaker jumped at the chance to help, gathering a few friends and like-minded community members together to work on the project, eventually forming a volunteer organization, the Ferry County Rail Trail Partners (ferrycountyrailtrail.com), to manage it. As Whittaker once told Rails to Trails , “There’s nothing more positive or punk rock than giving back to your community.” Sections of the 25-mile trail have been opening at a gradual but steady pace ever since, in large measure through donated labor and equipment. The crushed- stone surface that the group has been putting in was a huge improvement from the railroad ballast that once lined the route, which Whittaker jokingly likens to traveling across “sharp golf balls.” Last summer, Whittaker—who used to “skateboard everywhere” as a kid—was also thrilled to add a new skate park at the trail’s southern end. “I call it a gateway drug for teaching kids healthy activities,” he chuckled. “They’re learning to get outside, to be independent and to connect with other adventurous souls.” But not one to hold still, he had his eyes on another project, too, the Children of the Sun Trail in Spokane (rtc.li/children-sun). “My love of trails expanded to this urban trail, which connects to the Centennial Trail [rtc.li/ wa-centennial], a well-known path along the Spokane River,” explained Whittaker. “Spokane is becoming a bike town, and that’s exciting for me.”
Whittaker, who has a self-pro- fessed “sweet tooth for histor- ical buildings,” bought a 1907 hotel along the trail in the city’s historic Hillyard neighborhood with his partner Sandra Bilbrey, and they’ve been working on the two-story “little fixer-upper” for the past few years. On its lower level, the hotel now includes the Hillyard Bicycle shop, which he hopes will make it easier for folks to explore the trail. The Children of the Sun name comes from the region’s Salish people, and Whittaker is excited to work with the Indigenous community to help amplify their voices. A whimsical mural by Tribal artist Emma Noyes now graces the side of his hotel, and he’s participating in a garden project in the trailside Wildhorse Park, where efforts are underway to sow plants that have cultural value to the Tribe.
PHOTOS: Opposite page: Isaiah Maxi in Sedalia, Missouri, on his Katy Trail State Park journey across the state | Courtesy Isaiah Maxi’s “Walking Across Missouri” Facebook page. This page: Mural painted by Tribal artist Emma Noyes, adjacent to the Hillyard Bicycle shop in Spokane | Courtesy Bobby Whittaker. But Whittaker’s first trail love will be finished this fall. “We’re now putting in the last piece,” he said of the Ferry County Rail Trail. “It took us years and years, but we just kept working our butts off, and now we have this beautiful community as- set. Sometimes the impossible just takes a little longer.” “We just kept working our butts off, and now we have this beautiful community asset. Sometimes the impossible just takes a little longer.” — Bobby Whittaker, President, Ferry County Rail Trail Partners
Laura Stark is the senior editor for Rails to Trails magazine.
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