Trails Archives | Page 2 of 6 | Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation

Charles Schmid was at home on the Waterfront Trail

Charles Schmid was at home on the Waterfront Trail

He was a product of suburban Long Island, N.Y., who found deep connection with the environment as a Northwest rower and mountaineer. An engineer for a defense contractor, who organized anti-nuke meetings during his lunch hour. A patient, owlish presence at public meetings for decades, who was never shy about keeping the City’s feet to the fire on environmental regulation.

When the Charles Schmid Waterfront Trail is formally dedicated on July 7, you could make a good case that it’s as much for Schmid’s years as the avatar of environmentalism islandwide as for his work on the trail itself.

“I think just seeing the natural beauty, the spectacular mountains around here, was a big philosophical influence on his caring for the planet,” says his daughter, Jenny Schmid. “He was so passionate about mountain climbing, and he approached that the same way he approached the Waterfront Trail – slow and steady wins the […]

Charles Schmid was at home on the Waterfront TrailDouglas2023-08-30T16:06:44-07:00

In the news: Inslee presented award for trails advocacy

In the news: Inslee presented award for trails advocacy

From the Peninsula Daily News:

BLYN — Gov. Jay Inslee was presented an award for his continued support of biking trails by an advocacy group working to build connected bike trails across the continental United States.

In a ceremony at the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe headquarters in Blyn on Wednesday, the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy named Inslee the 2023 Doppelt Family Rail-Trail Champion for his support of biking trails throughout his political career.

Before attending the ceremony, Inslee biked along the Olympic Discovery Trail from Port Angeles to the campus in Blyn, a trip he made is roughly two hours.

READ THE STORY

In the news: Inslee presented award for trails advocacyDouglas2023-06-13T16:53:54-07:00

In the news: Inslee honored by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy

In the news: Inslee honored by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy

From The Urbanist:

A shared enthusiasm for trail networks and the unique recreational opportunities the Olympic Peninsula offers set the tone for this year’s in-person board convening of the national Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) in Sequim. RTC is based in the other Washington, Washington DC, and the 135-mile Olympic Discovery Trail is what lured them here.

The Olympic Discovery Trail (ODT) stretches from Port Townsend to La Push across lush forests, alongside mountains, farms, and shorelines, and in 2019 it was designated by RTC as the official western end of their 3,700-mile, 12-state, multi-use trail corridor, called the Great American Rail-Trail.

READ THE STORY

In the news: Inslee honored by Rails-to-Trails ConservancyDouglas2023-06-14T11:49:13-07:00

In the news: Seattle to the Pacific: A Dream Bike Route Gains Momentum

In the news: Seattle to the Pacific: A Dream Bike Route Gains Momentum

From the Cascade Bicycle Club newsletter:

Within a few minutes of beginning a group ride on the Olympic Discovery Trail it became apparent that Gov. Jay Inslee loves to bike.

We pedaled hard to catch up as he sped off down the trail on a sunny weekday morning.

But Inslee was in a rush for good reason. He was scheduled to speak and receive a national trails award in two hours in Sequim, 30 miles away from our starting point in Port Angeles.

I was among a lucky group of a dozen trail advocates offered the fun task of riding to the event with Inslee. How often do you get to draft the governor on a long bike ride?

READ THE STORY

In the news: Seattle to the Pacific: A Dream Bike Route Gains MomentumDouglas2023-06-14T11:50:12-07:00

Be part of the mix on National Trails Day, June 3

Be part of the mix on National Trails Day, June 3

Be part of the mix – the trail mix! Celebrate Bainbridge Island trails with a fun and healthy hike on National Trails Day, Saturday, June 3.

While you’re out, pick up the newly updated Trails on Bainbridge Island map at Hilltop (Grand Forest) and lower Fort Ward Park from 10 a.m. to noon, hosted by the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation. The large-format color map includes Bainbridge Island’s 48 miles of public trails, as well as nearby dining, services and other amenities for park and trail users.

Learn more about the Parks & Trails Foundation’s work to expand and enhance the island trail network, including the cross-island Lost Valley trail. The Foundation will also hand out its trail mix.

The Trails on Bainbridge Island map is produced by the Bainbridge Island Metro Park & Recreation District, with support from the Bainbridge Island Parks & […]

Be part of the mix on National Trails Day, June 3Douglas2023-05-17T12:28:47-07:00

New Puget Sound to Pacific Collaborative plans for 200-mile trail corridor

New Puget Sound to Pacific Collaborative plans for 200-mile trail corridor

The Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation is one of three organizations in the new Puget Sound to Pacific Collaborative, bringing communities together to plan and build a 200-mile multi-use trail from the ferry docks on Bainbridge Island, Kingston and Port Townsend to the Pacific Coast at La Push.

The PS2P Collaborative also includes the North Kitsap Trails Association, and the Peninsula Trails Coalition.

The Puget Sound to Pacific (PS2P) trail network would be bookended by the Olympic Discovery Trail and the Sound to Olympics Trail, linking communities and local connecting trails along the route.

Far more than a recreational trail, PS2P would be the spine of an “active transportation” corridor and greenway that shifts short commutes away from automobiles to human-scaled and people-powered travel modes like walking and bicycling. It aligns with transportation and climate goals and policies at every level of state and local government.

“One hundred miles are already complete, after 35 years of hard work by […]

New Puget Sound to Pacific Collaborative plans for 200-mile trail corridorDouglas2023-06-13T16:55:55-07:00

New Kubota will speed park trail building

New Kubota will speed park trail building

Here’s a gift with a bow for trail users – a new Kubota mini-excavator for trail building and maintenance.

The equipment purchase by Bainbridge Metro Parks was supported by a $25,000 grant from the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation.

The mini-excavator is the second piece of trail-building machinery funded by the Parks & Trails Foundation for the Park District.

A 2018 grant supported purchase of a PierTech “anchor-auger” system, used to safely sink steel pilings for boardwalk construction in environmentally sensitive areas. The PierTech system has been used to build boardwalks at Sakai Park and Hawley Cove Park, and a small footbridge on the Old Mill Trail near IslandWood.

“Trail building can be pretty labor intensive, requiring whole crews of summer park staff and volunteers,” says Mary Meier, Parks & Trails Foundation executive director. “Supporting the Park District with new equipment like this […]

New Kubota will speed park trail buildingDouglas2022-12-15T14:50:15-08:00

Summer Trails Crew is in the field

Summer Trails Crew is in the field

Summer Trails Crew is in the field, blazing away on this year’s signature project: a new trail along the island’s farmland district.

The trail will connect Day Road East with Lovgreen Road, skirting the west edge of the public farms’ rolling fields of grapes and berries and everyone’s favorite fall pumpkin patch.

“Dusty work, but satisfying,” said crew member Will Gleason, back for his second year with the program. “It’s a good way to be outside, working on good projects that you can see develop before your eyes. It’s a good way to spend the summer.”

Several years in the planning, the farmland trail’s half-mile route follows unopened rights of way and easements. At its midpoint, it will connect up with wooded trails through the old M&E tree farm property, 13 acres of open space south of the farmland. Another connecting trail runs along the […]

Summer Trails Crew is in the fieldDouglas2022-07-27T11:17:38-07:00

Park Stewards program looks for next-level volunteers

Park Stewards program looks for next-level volunteers

Everybody has a favorite park – that one with great features, a special memory attached, or just the one down the street.

For Pete Jones, it’s the park right next door.

A resident of the historic Victorian Lane condominiums – built around 1910, as officers quarters for a then-remote Coast Artillery Corps post at “Bean Point” – Jones has only to step outside, cross a green threshold and lose himself in the 137 acres of Fort Ward Park.

“One of the reasons we moved in was because of the park,” says Jones, who relocated to the island from California’s Carmel Valley three years ago. “I’ve been hiking in this park since day one, almost every single day.”

No surprise that Fort Ward Park is Jones’ “absolute” pick as a founding volunteer with Park Stewards, a new program of the Bainbridge Island Metro Park & […]

Park Stewards program looks for next-level volunteersDouglas2022-06-21T16:05:47-07:00

Leafline Trails Coalition launches 900-mile trail vision

Leafline Trails Coalition launches 900-mile trail vision

Gov. Jay Inslee pedaled the Sound to Olympics Trail on Bainbridge Island, as Leafline Trails Coalition today launched a visionary network with more than 900 miles of trails to safely and efficiently connect communities throughout the central Puget Sound region.

“Nobody’s ever caught frowning on a trail,” Inslee said as he live-streamed his ride up the STO from Winslow Way to High School Road, via a handlebar-mounted camera. “Everybody’s happy, ever notice that? People on trails are always smiling.”

Inslee live-streamed brief comments from the STO trailhead, hailing the regional trails plan as the most exciting mapping project since Peter Puget surveyed Puget Sound in 1792.

There are about 500 miles of trails today in King, Kitsap, Pierce, and Snohomish counties, Leafline says, but there has never before been a concerted effort to create a network that crosses jurisdictional boundaries and Puget Sound.

Currently, 56 percent of the more than 900-mile trail network is […]

Leafline Trails Coalition launches 900-mile trail visionDouglas2022-06-01T14:52:35-07:00