Sunday, January 1, 2012

Back to the Merkel Trail to Riverside

Pretty pleased with myself - discovered there's a bikers paradise that I can ride to from home. Well ok, everybody in Spokane knows about Riverside State Park already but somehow I've only recently ridden there. On last Wednesday I rode down the hill again from Merkel sports center to Riverside State Park, but this time on my new mountain bike. The trail down is slippery to start with, especially on my cross bike with cantilever brakes, and made more so by the recent snow and rain we've had. Had a much easier time with the disc brakes, didn't feel like I was holding on for dear life.

After getting safely down the hill, I took some trails to Aubrey White Parkway and the Bowl and Pitcher area; found my way up trail #25 and surprised myself when I arrived at the Centennial Trail. I'm going to like having somewhat of a short cut to get across the river instead of riding to the TJ Meenach bridge.

Still no decent pictures; maybe this year!

Coming up next: a New Years day ride on the Columbia Plateau Trail. 11 miles of the rough section going east beyond the Martin Road Trailhead.

2 comments:

  1. I'm really interested in the section of the CPT past Martin Road. I might have run into you today except that I decided to go look at the John Wayne trail at Rosalia instead. Ride-wise it was a bust because I never got on the trail, but me and my mutt still had a great time looking around. I'm thinking that I might go check out the CPT tomorrow. Looking forward to hearing about your experience.

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  2. Hi Pat - just saw this - did you make it out to the CPT? I'll get some pictures up tonight. I was on a 29er and it was rough going. Probably had too much air in my tires. Went about 8-9 mph, sometimes more, sometimes less depending on how compacted down the rock was in spots. Made it up to 12 mph a couple times.

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