Riverside State Park and 9 Mile Falls

We have wanted to ride the western end of the Centennial Trail from downtown Spokane ever since we arrived in Spokane 3 weeks ago......has it really been 3 weeks?  Finally, on Tuesday we got our act together and headed downtown in my brother-in-law's Toyota Landcruiser with our bikes mounted on our recently reassembled bike rack.  We've ridden from the house down to the downtown Riverfront area twice now, so we saw no point in covering the same ground again.  The ride from downtown to 9 Mile Falls is about 13.5 miles which translates into a total of 27 miles.  The day started cool, and breezy, and remained that way the entire ride out and back.  I wore a short sleeve shirt which was just barely adequate for parts of the ride when we were hit by strong, COLD breezes, but not cold enough to put on something warmer, which I did have.  Elaine was bundled up for most of the ride.

At our destination for the day - 9 Mile Falls

The paved asphalt trail alternately climbs up well above the Spokane River, and then descends rapidly to the banks of the river.....over, and over.....up and down, up and down.....some of the grades exceeded 10% for short stretches, but we both handled the climbs well, and enjoyed hurtling downhill, and along the shores of the river.

The trail alternated between a dedicated bike path, and road riding on a lightly traveled road.  Some of the bike path sections were obviously old railroad right of ways such as the section above, which still utilizes an old railroad bridge to span a section over water near the western end of the ride we took.  The Centennial Trail continues on westward past 9 Mile Falls, but that is as far as we ventured on Tuesday.

We stopped for about 30 minutes on our way back to eat some snacks and take in the view from one of the many benches provided along the way for just this purpose.  In addition, there were numerous rustic restrooms (pit toilets) along the way, spaced out at convenient intervals along this section of the trail, and we were grateful more than once over the 4+ hours we did take advantage of on more than one occasion.

Sometimes you just had to stop and take in the view.  


By the time we returned to the car, which we had parked in a Public Parking lot near the downtown area for $3 for the entire day, we were ready to be done.  The last few climbs kind of wore us down, but it was a good day, and it felt good to be tired......a good tired.


Wednesday we just hung out around the house.  I washed the trailer again....I last washed it at my brother's home in South Jordan over a month ago, and it had been in the rain several times since then.  I'll probably wash the coach again in the next couple of weeks as I just washed it a few weeks ago when we were in Coeur d'Alene for 5 days.  Elaine took out the front curtains that pull across the front windshield for privacy to do some minor repairs,  went shopping for some sewing supplies, and got out her sewing machine.  In addition I took delivery on a Gary Fisher hybrid bike I bought on Ebay on my sister's behalf.  They are having a birthday party for her pastor in a couple of weeks, and this will be one of his presents.  He has expressed interest in getting back into bike riding.  This will be a good bike for him.  Even though slightly used it is in excellent condition, and only needs a little cleaning, which I'll do over the next week or so.  


Today, Thursday we anticipate heading up to Mt. Spokane with our bikes in tow to do some site seeing, and a little casual riding around the area.


Thanks for stopping by!