Celebrate the new Sound To Olympics Trail Sakai Connector at a dedication and “trail mixer” event at 12 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 3. The trailhead is at the northwest corner of the High School Road/SR-305 intersection near the Chevron station.
The event is hosted by the City of Bainbridge Island, the Bainbridge Island Parks Foundation and the Bainbridge Island Metro Park & Recreation District. Light snacks will be served, including the Parks Foundation’s homemade “Because We Love Trail Mix.”
The Sakai Connector is the second Bainbridge Island leg of the Sound To Olympics Trail, a regional non-motorized trail that will link the Winslow ferry terminal with the Kitsap and Olympic peninsulas.
The short paved connector runs from the intersection north to Sakai Park, where it links up with trails in the park’s wooded lower bowl. Those trails lead through the park, around scenic Sakai Pond and up to Madison Avenue and the school campus.
“This new section of the Sound to Olympics Trail is relatively short, but the link it creates from the existing STO and the school campuses and public pool on Madison Avenue is significant,” says Mark Epstein, City of Bainbridge Island Engineering Project Manager. “It provides a new connection to explore the trails and observe wildlife around the beautiful pond within Sakai Park.”
The project was funded by the City of Bainbridge Island, primarily by the developers of the Wintergreen Walk development on High School Road as a condition of that development.
Trail construction was by Liden Land Development and Excavation of Poulsbo. The Parks Foundation funded land clearing by weed-eating goats this past summer, through its Friends of the STO Trail Fund.
Preliminary planning is now underway on the STO’s next leg, from Sakai Park north to Madison Avenue. The STO is being built in segments, to run north along the highway and eventually reach the Agate Pass Bridge.
The City and Parks Foundation are collaborating on a landscaped plaza at the High School/305 trailhead, with a goal of construction in fall 2022.
Find out more: www.bainbridgewa.gov/1293.
