A History of the Greater Wenatchee Bicycle Routes

Charlie Hickenbottom bicycling the streets of Wenatchee.

Local community member Charlie Hickenbottom recently published a book on the history of the local pavement-based bicycle routes for Wenatchee and East Wenatchee. The 283-page history book begins with the 1970s and continues to the present. The book finishes by updating the public on various bicycle related improvements planned for the near future.

The book titled Greater Wenatchee Bicycle Routes is available for check-out at the Wenatchee Public Library along with for purchase at the Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center for $17.99 which you can purchase here. All proceeds from book sales go to the Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center. To learn more about Charlie and his interest in bicycling our city streets, read below. 

Charlie Hickenbottom began bicycling the streets of Wenatchee and the Loop Trail when he moved to Wenatchee in 1992. He found the signed bike routes on city streets that were placed there in 1981.

Charlie’s bicycle is his primary vehicle around town. Most of his groceries come home by bicycle. Routes are memorized to reach stores, restaurants, the climbing gym, local trailheads and friends’ houses. When he rode with my late wife Janet, they did long road rides out of town.

In 1997 Hickenbottom volunteered to serve on the city of Wenatchee’s inaugural bike board, the Greater Wenatchee Bicycle Advisory Board. He has continued to serve in that capacity since, the board now named the Regional Bicycle Advisory Board hosted by the Chelan-Douglas Transportation Council. In 2008 he was the principal author of a bike plan update. October 2020 Hickenbottom began his research to document the bicycle history related to riding the pavement in Wenatchee and East Wenatchee. Through the pandemic he managed to conduct numerous personal interviews. He found his way into libraries of City of Wenatchee Public Works, Chelan County PUD, Wenatchee World, North Central Regional Library and the Wenatchee Valley Museum. Engineering plans of bicycle related projects were acquired from several local agencies. 

An excerpt from the Greater Wenatchee Bicycle Routes book. 

Charlie has also published a Cross Country Ski Maps of the Methow Valley-A Study of Trails and Mapping which was a three-year project completed in 2015 to chronicle a mapping-oriented history of the Methow Trail system.