Thank You Aubrey L. White

Saturday we did a new to us bike route.  New vistas!  New things to see!  Way fewer steep hills!  Yay!

We parked at the parking lot by the grass air strip.  It's not paved, and given how dry it's been, the dirt has achieved a powdery consistency which gets all over the flip flops and one's feet.  Next time we won't go on a weekend and hopefully we'll be able to park on the graveled side of the lot.  Notice how far apart the trees are, these forests are managed extensively to avoid catastrophic fires.

We set out along the Aubrey L. White parkway.  Mr. White was one of the early movers and shakers in Spokane.  After he got rich, he set out to preserve open space for the use of the citizens.  The quote below is from this article.  There is a much longer article which covers more of his life and times.  His goal was not to let Spokane go the way of the eastern cities, with their lack of green space.

Aubrey L. White is the known as the father of Spokane’s Parks. He arrived in Spokane in 1889 and spent a lot of time mapping, marking, and noting the incredible views and features in the Spokane area. He was instrumental in bringing the famous landscape architects, the Olmsted Brothers to help design and make recommendations for Spokane’s parks, parkways, and play fields. “Spokane’s Civic Horse Trader,” one man park board, gardener, early Spokane pioneer, president of a “City Beautiful” organization called the 150,000 club, and garden editor for the Spokeman Review are just a few of the many hats worn by Aubrey L. White during his life in Spokane. He served as the first park board president in Spokane from 1907 to 1922. Once he left the park board his work did not end. He worked tirelessly to secure land around Mt. Spokane and the Bowl and Pitcher area.

The parkway runs on the other side of the river from where we usually park.  Along the way, there is a beautiful neighborhood on the non-waterfront side of the road.  The houses and the waterfront access there are private property.  It's high bank, so it's not really usable water front.

There are some small rapids for people who would like to kayak through them.

There is also a shooting range.  It has been there since 1925.  I would like it to be gone, but people like that sort of thing.  Those people are skeet shooting, it's very noisy.

Awhile back I posted about the Bowl and Pitcher rock formation.  This is it from the other side, it's way harder to see through the trees.

There is a campground there, as well.  It's small, and there are no hook ups.  It's rustic.

We've ridden to the lake a lot.  It's nice to have a new route to do.  It's just lovely and bucolic riding along and looking down at the river.