On Thursday, I managed to work out a 2.5 hour break over lunch, and I took to the trail again. The weather was very overcast, and sprinkling rain, windy, and a bit cold, but what the heck.

I went East on the trail instead of West, and found that it was much easier to follow. I rode from mile 23 of the trail to milepost 15, clear out the east side of Spokane toward Idaho. The path followed the river on a combination of dedicated path and on-road path, and I saw some great sights on the river, a wild quail, some industrial areas, and a one fairly stinky area around a mill... It was fun.

I also found the map I wanted for the trail mounted on an information board, and from it was I was able to figure out how to go west on the trail. I headed back to mile post 23, went across the river at Riverfront Park, onto the city on-road paths, to a large bridge back over the river to a beautiful part of the trail that was all off-road and through woods and hills along the river going west and north. Wonderful riding-- it went for miles. I had to turn around at mile post 28, to get back to the conference, even though the wonderful trail went another 9 or 10 miles.

So, I got in 26 miles, but I wished I had went West for the whole distance. Oh well-- something for next time. Also, it was good to see both sides of Spokane.

Here's a picture of the trail from its website: