If bikes could sport bumper stickers, a good slogan for this upcoming cycling season would urge us all to “Bike Locally.” Last year it was steep gas prices; this year it is a plunging economy that might have many of us taking a closer look at the backyard trails and other recreational treasures we may […]
Beacon Hill/Sekani: Spokane’s Mountain Bike Mecca Read More »
That’s the crux of Friends of the Falls Director Steve Faust’s River Greenway District proposal. Right now most facets of the Spokane River and the recreation associated with it suffer from some degree of active or benign neglect. Are we will to pony up to make this area world-class? This piece appears in the current
Do We Love the River? Let’s Prove it. Read More »
Picture yourself IN a boat on a river—a drift boat, on the Spokane River. As you round the bend, you realize the gate at your take-out spot is locked. A cyclist rolling down the trail stops to portage her bike around a fallen tree. You remember making the same portage a week ago. What’s happening
A Modest Proposal: A Spokane River Greenway District Read More »
By Jon Snyder, Jon Jonckers, & Derrick Knowles Please take a moment while charging your GPS and IPhone to consider the hallowed tradition of the regional outdoor guidebook. It’s no secret that outdoor knowledge has exploded on the internet. Sites with user submitted data and comments are proliferating and enhancing what we know of the
The Secret History of Inland Northwest Outdoor Recreation Read More »
ONE OF THE BEST PARTS about cycling in Spokane is how close we are to real rural riding. The city of Spokane is surrounded by relatively quiet rural area in every direction. If you’ve not explored some of the outer edges of the county by bike, you’re really missing out on some great riding. In
Everyday Cyclist: 5 Great Country Road Rides Read More »
My four-year-old has graduated from trailer to trail-a-bike add-on tandem. She calls it her big girl bike. We never had any problems with it until this morning. We were at a stoplight on the up slope of a hill waiting for the light to change. It turned green. I pedaled forward. Bomp. Then loud crying.
Preschool By Bike Revisited Pt. 2 Read More »
The Story Behind the Justin C. Haeger Ten-Mile Memorial Run You will never find a more unassuming or modest race director than Ron Haeger. Soft spoken yet easy to understand, he focuses on creating a road race that he would enjoy and then hopes people appreciate it. Although it’s difficult to get him to talk
From Tragedy to Charity Race Read More »
A Maple St. Bridge pylon is battered by water. // Jon Snyder Ladies and gentleman, introducing the Spokane River–on steroids. The river is raging, still rising and no longer suitable for recreation activities at the moment, in case that wasn’t obvious. Spokane County has asked folks to stay out of the river. The Northwest Whitewater
SPOKANE WAS NOT UNLIKE hundreds of other cities and towns at the time that discovered the rivers that ran through them were a tremendous source of waterpower. Now, despite the efforts to harness the river-which Avista Utilities and its predecessor Washington Water Power did a thorough job of by placing a half-dozen dams along its
Our latest editorial has some folks rilled up, including reader Doug Kelley: Jon, You have got to be kidding, support? $6-8 million dollars for a track, then Brownfield clean up, then new water and sewer systems, then new bathrooms to meet ADA, then clean up old buildings and do some investment in the usable buildings.
Spokane Raceway Park Angst Read More »
