Spokane River Centennial State Park Trail

On the Google Maps, we had seen that there were a number of bike trails around Spokane:

The green marked are bike trails. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Spokane,+WA/@47.6640852,-117.4434005,19154m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x549e185c30bbe7e5:0xddfcc9d60b84d9b1!8m2!3d47.6587802!4d-117.4260465!5m1!1e3

Some of the folks we met at Crescent Bar had recommended TrailLink, so we looked up the trails and decided that we wanted to try Spokane River Centennial State Park Trail (https://www.traillink.com/trail/spokane-river-centennial-state-park-trail/). Reviews had indicated that there were places where the trail was under construction and that it could be difficult to find the trail... we found both as we were trying to get onto the trail. We found parking near / at Riverside Park in downtown Spokane,

.. found a map, and then found some nice clean restrooms.

We thought we had a pretty good idea of where the Centennial State Park Trail could be found...

... and we found pretty views of the river...

... rapids...

...and waterfalls!

But, when we looked at the trail map on TrailLink, we found that the Centennial Trail was on the other side of the river from where we were. We decided to head across a bridge that was not part of the trail (but it was a non-vehicular traffic bridge), and travel a short distance on a couple of roads to where we thought we could hook up with the trail... turned out, the couple of roads were part of a detour of the trail in that area, so we hooked up with it rather by accident!

Finally we saw a trail sign for the Centennial Trail!

It was a nice trail once we found it!

Views of the Spokane River...

... from up above, but still pretty.

The trail had offshoots at places, and it wasn't obvious in all cases which was the primary trail. We had stopped at one of these "forks in the road" and were consulting our TrailLink map on our phones when another couple riding e-bikes rode up. They stopped and we got to chatting, and they suggested that we join up with them and they would guide us to a pretty viewpoint a few miles ahead.

New friend Dan guiding - Patti following, Carl and Deb were bringing up the rear.

We got to the viewpoint, and it was beautiful! It was so nice to get to spend a little bit of time with Dan and Deb - we found out that they are also Christians, and so even though it isn't likely we'll see them again this side of heaven, we'll eventually get to spend eternity with them!

We parted ways at "Bowl and Pitcher Overlook" - they to head to their home on the other side of the river, and us to return to the Jeep.

Heading back...

This looked to be a buzzard's nest (we saw an adult that looked like a Turkey Buzzard) - the one in this picture sounded like a juvenile looking for his meal!

Getting closer to downtown and the Jeep.

Once again, my ability to take pictures while riding means that there are no pictures of Carl other than the one that Dan took of us both! I *have* to work on this skill!!!