TRAILS -- Friends of the Centennial Trail reports making a $20,000 matching funds gift to the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission for the Centennial Trail extension in Nine Mile Falls. The funds are generated by donations and the annual Spokane Bike Swap.

The Northwest Extension will add nearly two miles of separated trail from Sontag Park to the Nine Mile Falls Recreation Area, the group says. The project launched in October and will be completed in spring, 2016.

Here's more info from the Friends:

The gift was donated from the Trail Builder's Fund of Friends of the Centennial Trail, created to provide community-based funding for trail completion and enhancement projects. Major sources of donations to the Trail Builder's Fund are private, designated gifts and proceeds from the annual Spokane Bike Swap & Expo, held the first Saturday of April. In the past four years, $98,000 in Bike Swap proceeds have been invested in the Trail Builder's Fund.
 

"Your Spokane River Centennial Trail has been a source of community pride, enjoyment and free recreation for 25 years," noted Executive Director Loreen McFaul. There is great synergy right now to complete its gaps, upgrade the asphalt surface and make it easier to navigate. It is thanks to membership support, Adopt-a-Mile partnership and Spokane Bike Swap & Expo attendance and participation that the Trail Builder's Fund can make impact gifts and help move projects along."
 

The Northwest Extension will bring trail users to the Nine Mile Falls Recreation Area on Lake Spokane, owned by Avista and managed by Riverside State Park, approximately 39 miles from the Washington/Idaho state line. And, with the additional 24 miles in Idaho, Centennial Trail users can enjoy over 60 miles of trail "book-ended" by lakes and following the Spokane River, with Lake Coeur d'Alene on the east and Lake Spokane on the northwest.