YOU’D BE EXCUSED for living on Bainbridge Island for years and never once seeing Sakai Pond, or even really knowing it’s there.
The satellites show a patch of blue in a larger swath of green just north of the High School Road Chevron. But until Sakai Park was created in 2015, the pond sat quietly out of reach on private land. Even then, you’d have to seriously bushwhack your way to the water’s edge.
That all changed over the summer, as the Bainbridge Island Metro Park & Recreation District’s Summer Trails Crew hacked, graveled, compacted and boardwalked new trails deep into the park’s lower bowl and around three sides of the pond.
While technically not quite ready for public use (more graveling is coming, and signage), islanders are already finding their way to the trails on their own. The pond as destination will surprise many local walkers and hikers, even those well familiar with an island trails network that now stretches some forty miles.
“I think this pond is a real highlight of the trails here at Sakai,” says Barb Trafton, Bainbridge Island Parks Foundation executive director. “To have an upper trail loop, and then this destination down below, will really enrich people’s experience here.”
The Sakai trails are the capstone of the six-year-old Summer Trails Crew program’s most ambitious and productive season, and certainly its longest. A program that normally runs eight weeks has stretched deep into autumn, thanks to new funding from the Parks Foundation’s dedicated Trails Fund and support from Bainbridge Community Foundation.
Even this week, the team was adding handrails to the Sakai Park boardwalks, while hopscotching back and forth to the new Blakely Hill Trails at the south end for construction work there. Work will continue through Thanksgiving.
Dan Hamlin, Park Services Director for the Bainbridge Island Metro Park & Recreation District, says
“Being able to keep the crew longer has made a huge difference,” Hamlin says. “We had these projects lined up already, so we weren’t focusing mainly on maintenance. We were able to get out and actually build trails.”
THE TRAILS CREW BLAZED THE FIRST TRAILS into Sakai’s lower bowl several years ago, roughing in routes that were fully developed over the summer. Trails are now widened and graveled, and some 120 linear feet of stout boardwalks ford wetlands for all-season access.
The trail’s north spur ends at a small knoll overlooking the quiet pond and passing waterfowl, with an overlook platform planned. A longer spur circles south around the pond to several clearings, petering out at a private parcel near the Chevron. The route will eventually link up with the Sound To Olympics Trail extension north from High School Road.
You never get too far from the highway, and the wash of traffic is ever present in the background. But it’s also a world away from Sakai Park’s upper plateau, where a range of recreation buildings, sports courts and other active uses are envisioned.
Mostly the trails suggest the vast potential for all users and interests at the 23-acre park, purchased five years ago with voter-approved bonds.
“I think there’s a lot of unknown about this property,” Hamlin says. “If you listen to the community conversation about wanting to keep it native and not develop it, most of this property will not be developed. It’s a wetland, and it will be preserved for nature trails and interpretation and passive use. Once these trails are done, I think there’ll be a lot of surprise about what we actually purchased.”
STO-JOHN NELSON LINK
Most islanders’ frame of reference for the Winslow Ravine is the gully you cross coming and going from town at the highway. In fact, the ravine crosses under SR305 and runs a good three-quarters of a mile up to the backyards of Ferncliff-area homes.
The ravine’s deep and primordial upper reaches can be seen from the John Nelson Loop Trail, built by the Park District and a private developer some years ago. But like Sakai Pond, the trail has been too far off the beaten path to see much traffic.
That too changed over the summer, when the Trails Crew linked the Nelson Loop with the Sound To Olympics Winslow Connector.
The small project dovetailed with work that was already going on along the STO, a summer-long restoration funded by the Parks Foundation in partnership with the City of Bainbridge Island.
Brian Copp, who walks the STO most days as part of a three-mile route, first noticed the trail work when a “hole” appeared in a massive wall of blackberries alongside the STO. Don Willott, island trails advocate and STO promoter, told Copp: “Just wait.”
The STO maintenance crew cleared the blackberries and barked the trailside. The Trails Crew bridged a culvert and built the new path into the woods and the Nelson Loop.
The path is now officially open and will be marked with a trailhead sign.
“I think it’s a fun connection to get people to the (Nelson trail), if they’ve never been there,” Copp says.
The loop trail winds three-tenths of a mile along the ravine, circling a commercial building before linking up with Vineyard Lane and a footpath back to the STO.
GETTING THERE: Find the new Sakai Park trails off Madison Avenue across from the schools campus. Note: Exercise caution – the trails are still under construction, with more graveling planned. Park near the road and find upper loops trails and also a graveled route down to the pond. The John Nelson Loop Trail can now be accessed from the Sound To Olympics Trail Winslow Connector. Walk or bike the path and look for a wooden footbridge on the east side of the trail, just north of Vineyard Lane.
