Mountain bikers may be forgiven for overlooking Seattle’s smaller east-side sibling; the second most populous city in Washington and the largest city between Seattle and Minneapolis, Spokane (pronounced Spo-CAN) has managed to stay off the radar of ride destinations.

But over the last two decades, the riding community has quietly built an enviable trail network, anchored by the state’s two largest parks and the decade-old Conservation Futures program, a wildly popular property tax measure that has saved thousands of acres of pine forests and grassy hillocks from development.

Out-of-towners may also be forgiven for expecting Spokane to match the rainy reputation of Seattle. In fact, the city, which sits at the eastern edge of the arid sagebrush steppe, windswept and scoured by ancient floods, that makes up most of the state, receives only 17 inches of precipitation a year—half the national average. And the volcanic, fast-draining soil on which eastern Washington has built its breadbasket bona fides also means that trails can stay rideable nearly year-round.

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