Breakfast Bike Ride to Chaps

For a couple years we've thought of biking from our Shadle area home down to Chaps off Hwy 195 for breakfast.  I looked for an easy way down from the Fish Lake Trail but didn't find anything that didn't involve hike-a-bike and crossing rail tracks.  I don't mind that, but certain people I bike with are not ok with it.

A couple weeks ago we noticed how Inland Empire Way dead-ends before Hwy 195 and there's a paved path on the side of 195 leading to the new overpass.  Aha, that'll work.

So we made our way towards downtown, crossed the Monroe Street Bridge, turned right onto Riverside, then onto Sunset Blvd.  We then turned onto Inland Empire Way and rode through Vinegar Flats. I failed to take any decent pics on Inland Empire Way.

the ol' over the shoulder pic trick

Below: Leading to the paved path, and the Bike Route Information Center, which we did not check out.  If I remember right there's a big sign/bulletin board there. Or used to be.  It's always seemed like an odd spot for bike route info.

The end of the road and the start of the paved trail

The overpass - (it's not on google maps satellite pics yet). The path leads to this crosswalk to a sidewalk that goes down into the shopping area.  Debbie has moral qualms about riding on the sidewalk, so we rode to the right in the lane.

We made it! Oh sorry, no pics of our destination or our breakfast, but it was very good.  Here's the garmin page for the ride here.

For the way back, we instead rode out on Cheney-Spokane Rd and took Marshall Rd. You can access the Fish Lake Trail from Marshall Rd in a couple spots, so it's another option for riding to Chaps or the Latah Bistro.  We rode Marshall to Thorpe Rd.  Debbie was a trooper, she hasn't really ridden on gravel before.  She was on what I call my good cross bike - a Redline Conquest Pro - and handled it very well. She's been testing different bikes for her upcoming triathlons, and the gears are similar to her tri bike with two rings up front and 10 in back, but with lower gearing.  I was ready to sell it, but now we might be keeping it.  The Sram system is newish to her and only the third system in as many bike rides she's had to figure out.

At Thorpe we crossed 195 again but no overpass at this intersection.  We took Chestnut St back down into Vinegar Flats and then crossed over Latah Creek and took that dirt road the formerly-but-maybe-still-slightly-shady High Bridge Park, now home to a disc golf course.

 Here's the garmin for the the ride home.