Trails Archives | Page 3 of 5 | Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation

SAVE THE DATE: Waypoint Woods Community Conversation, March 6

SAVE THE DATE: Waypoint Woods Community Conversation, March 6

Explore Waypoint Woods and share your ideas for Winslow’s next gateway park, at a Community Conversation and park tour, 2-4 p.m. Sunday, March 6.

The event begins with a presentation of preliminary park designs at the Bainbridge Island Rowing Stan Pocock Legacy Boathouse, 301 Shannon Drive in Waterfront Park. A walking tour of nearby Waypoint Woods follows.

Waypoint Woods is located at the corner of Olympic and Harborview drives, bounded by the Winslow Waterfront Trail and Waypoint plaza near the ferry terminal.

The Parks Foundation is leading a planning process, with Seattle-based AHBL land use and design firm, to improve the 3-acre park for neighborhood and visitor use.

Kitsap Sun: Trail planning begins for Bainbridge Island’s Lost Valley, a link in a cross-island rout

Published in the Kitsap Sun, Nov. 24, 2021:

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND – Tromping through a hidden section of forested property near the head of Eagle Harbor, Connie Waddington reflected on her first visit to Lost Valley about 20 years ago. Then, she’d been a member of the city’s Open Space Commission tasked with determining how to spend funds from an $8 million bond measure approved by voters in 2001.

She remembered thinking: “Woah, who knew this was here?”

“We’ve all driven around Eagle Harbor and all of those places and here’s this beautiful place that nobody had any idea existed,” Waddington said.

Lee Cross, a member of the commission, told the Sun in 2004, “You have a feeling that you’re in this sort of lost world, and a dinosaur could stick his head around the corner. You have no sense at all that within a relatively short distance there are quite a few […]

Kitsap Sun: Trail planning begins for Bainbridge Island’s Lost Valley, a link in a cross-island routDouglas2021-12-07T09:34:54-08:00

Rediscovering the Lost Valley for public trails

Rediscovering the Lost Valley for public trails

THE MIST TURNED INTO A DRIZZLE, THEN A STEADY RAIN, THEN A DOWNPOUR.

Not the most auspicious afternoon for even a Northwest hike in autumn. So the party tramped about 50 yards down the sodden trail, paused for a quick photo, and retreated to the shelter of a nearby barn to chat and recall the day, nearly two decades ago, they first bushwhacked across this same land.

“That was coming from the creek, up this way,” recalled Andy Maron, who served on the City Open Space Commission when “Lost Valley” first slipped into the local lexicon.

“I remember jumping over that stream,” Maron said, indicating nearby Cooper Creek. “You didn’t have to wade it, but jump over it.”

There was no trail in those days, and Maron, fellow Open Space Commissioner Connie Waddington and an ad hoc group of explorers crunched their way through […]

Rediscovering the Lost Valley for public trailsDouglas2021-11-16T08:34:07-08:00

STO Sakai Pond Connector gets a warm welcome

STO Sakai Pond Connector gets a warm welcome

Great turnout for the STO Sakai Pond Connector dedication and Trail Mixer! If you’ve not walked this new trail yet, check it out and discover sublime Sakai Pond for yourself – and trails leading up into Sakai Park and beyond.

Thank you to the City of Bainbridge Island for partnering on this great dedication event, and planning forward with Bainbridge Metro Parks on the trails next leg north. Together, we’re building out our island’s public trails network to connect neighborhoods, parks, commercial and service centers, and transit for a better, greener island community.

STO Sakai Pond Connector gets a warm welcomeDouglas2022-02-10T22:50:43-08:00

Building a greener urban trail on the STO

Building a greener urban trail on the STO

Let history record that the Sakai Pond Connector’s first user came not on wheel or foot, but hoof.

As crews feathered in the last of 400 feet of asphalt on the Sound To Olympics Trail’s newest leg, a black-tailed doe emerged from the woods, sampled a newly planted tree at the trailside – not to its taste, fortunately – scampered across the new trail and off into the highway lanes.

“Be smart,” one onlooker enjoined in the deer’s direction.

“Or lucky,” said another.

Highway traffic paused briefly, the doe disappeared across the far shoulder, and work went on. By the end of the day, STO Sakai was done.

Let the wheels and feet follow.

That the deer found the trailside so tantalizing owes to the aggressive planting schedule (formerly “restoration,” now “assisted natural revegetation” in the parlance) of Northwest trees and shrubs.

[…]

Building a greener urban trail on the STODouglas2022-02-10T22:51:33-08:00

Take a hike… new Trails On Bainbridge Island map shows the way

Take a hike… new Trails On Bainbridge Island map shows the way

Even if you think you’ve hiked them all, you may find a surprise or two on the new Trails On Bainbridge Island map.

Such is the pace of change on the island’s public trail network, now 42 miles and getting longer almost by the month.

And if you’re coming from off island, well … has Bainbridge got some great hikes for you. Pick a trailhead – you can even take a shuttle to get there.

Fully redesigned and updated, Trails On Bainbridge Island is now available at visitor-facing venues around the island. The full-color, large-format map has a range of features to guide islanders and visitors alike.

Several miles of newly added public trails, including Blakely Hill and the Sakai Park trails, which link in turn to the larger network
Trails are now color-coded by […]

Take a hike… new Trails On Bainbridge Island map shows the wayDouglas2021-09-27T16:13:49-07:00

New south trail entrance for Gazzam Lake Preserve

New south trail entrance for Gazzam Lake Preserve

Gazzam Lake Preserve has a new south entrance. The Summer Trails Crew put the finishing touches on a new trailhead from Deerpath Lane last week, along with 700 feet of all-new trail through the woods.

Visitors to the park will find the new trailhead at what’s presently marked as the Peters Trail entrance, to the right of the Deerpath parking area as you face west. Newly widened, the path runs off into the woods as before, but now also forks left to a newly built trail running west. This new trail meets Gazzam Lake’s main path at the Veterane trailhead.

The park’s current Deerpath entrance (more road than trail) will be abandoned, as Kitsap PUD fences off the water towers and makes other changes in the area.

The Summer Trails Crew wrapped up the three-week Gazzam Lake project last week with final graveling and compaction. […]

New south trail entrance for Gazzam Lake PreserveDouglas2021-08-24T12:14:38-07:00

Summer Trails Crew blazing old trails, and a few new ones

Summer Trails Crew blazing old trails, and a few new ones

Such is the breadth of the Bainbridge park system that five young adults who mostly grew up on the island, and made full use of its abundant trails as kids, could still find themselves on unfamiliar ground.

Running, mountain biking, or just walking the family dog, all trails in their youth seemed to lead elsewhere. Then, Summer Trails Crew led them to Manzanita Park.

“I’ve never been to this park, but it’s nice,” Benjamin Logan mused, raking gravel across a dusty hollow deep within the 120-acre park off Day Road West. “Grand Forest is usually a lot more busy. If you need somewhere that’s not busy, come out here. You may see horse poo, but you can walk around that.”

Logan and colleagues Erin Thackray, Megan Boulware, Jack Harbour and Will Gleason – all, improbably, new to the park – spent much of the week […]

Summer Trails Crew blazing old trails, and a few new onesDouglas2021-07-16T14:37:23-07:00

Koura-Yukio Trail opens for safe, separated travel

Koura-Yukio Trail opens for safe, separated travel

For years, everyone took the path between Koura Road and Yukio Lane for granted as a public trail.

Trouble was, it wasn’t. It was a driveway to a neighboring home – popular perhaps, and once a farm road for the Koura strawberry farm and historic barn nearby, but still technically private.

Meadowmeer-area resident John Nilssen used the route pretty much every day to walk his dog, one among a regular procession of runners, walkers, bike riders and stroller-pushers, many using the path to reach Mandus Olson Road and Grand Forest East.

“I didn’t have a problem with it,” Nillsen said, as his dog tugged on the lead toward points north, “but if I was the homeowner, I might.”

Then private and public interests aligned.

Working with the Parks Foundation, new homeowners Mark and Catherine Anderson granted a 5-foot […]

Koura-Yukio Trail opens for safe, separated travelDouglas2021-06-28T09:19:34-07:00

Marking National Trails Day on Halls Hill

Marking National Trails Day on Halls Hill

Elias Gordon and family were among the many islanders who turned out Saturday to celebrate #nationaltrailsday with a walk on the new Blakely Hill Trails north of Blakely Harbor.

The mile and a half of public trail easements were donated last summer through the Bainbridge Island Parks Foundation. The trails are seeing ongoing work by Bainbridge Metro Parks, with graveling, a footbridge and other enhancements for safe, year-round use. Find the trailheads at points along Old Mill Road (east of the cemetery road) and Blakely Hill Road, with a great new path meeting the Cemetery Trail halfway up from Blakely Harbor.

[…]

Marking National Trails Day on Halls HillDouglas2021-06-11T19:41:30-07:00