NEW TRAIL NETWORK NORTH OF BLAKELY HARBOR
It’s not every day that a mile and a half of already-built trails fall into the public domain.
Alice and Dave Shorett have hiked local trails for years and years, wrote the book on them actually, and they can’t recall an instance.
“I don’t know that there’s ever been a more significant gift,” says Dave Shorett, co-author with his wife of the definitive “Thirty Walks on Bainbridge.”
“It’s unusual for someone who’s buying property to think of trails first,” adds Alice. “It’s pretty phenomenal.”
And yet: The 1.5-mile Blakely Hill Trails were donated to the Bainbridge Island Parks Foundation in summer 2020 for public use, gifted by islanders Ty Cramer and Steve Romein on 55 acres east of the historic Port Blakely Cemetery.
The trail easements were transferred to the Bainbridge Island Metro Park & Recreation District for management as part of the island’s public trail system.
The name is new, but the trails are already in place and will be familiar to some island hikers. Informal paths and one of the island’s oldest roads crisscross the property, bounded by Old Mill Road to the north, Blakely Hill Road to the east and Blakely Avenue to the south. The network also includes the popular Blakely Cemetery Trail.
The trails have been best-kept secrets among the trails radiating from Blakely Harbor Park. The trails meander through beautiful forests and pass the wetlands created by the historic Blakely Mill fire ponds.
Most of the 55 acres will be preserved as permanent open space, and the public trails allow hiking and other nonmotorized uses.
The trails feature varied terrain, from dense, second-growth evergreen forest to less heavily treed stretches beneath broadleaf canopies. Grades are generally uphill from south to north, with the hike up from Blakely Harbor Park particularly vigorous.
The Blakely Hill Trails addition brings Bainbridge Island’s public trail network to more than 42 miles under the stewardship of the Bainbridge Island Metropolitan Park & Recreation District.
GETTING HERE
Blakely Hill Trails can be accessed from various points and turnouts on the Blakely Cemetery road, Old Mill Road east of the cemetery, Blakely Hill Road. Or start at Blakely Harbor Park and hike up the Blakely Cemetery Trail.
