Trails Archives | Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation

Trillium Trail Run returns May 11

Trillium Trail Run returns May 11

Run for the trails! The Trillium Trail Run 10K/5K and Kids’ Fun Run returns to Bainbridge Island Saturday, May 11, a benefit to acquire, build and maintain new Bainbridge Island trails.

Runners and walkers will enjoy a scenic course from Battle Point Park, along the Forest to Sky Trail, looping among the great firs of the Grand Forest and over scenic Hilltop meadow. Kids can enjoy a FUN RUN as part of the morning activities.

The event is hosted by the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation.

Register at www.trilliumtrail.run.

Trillium Trail Run will launch the Foundation’s “Trails Connect Bainbridge Island” campaign, to acquire, build and maintain new trails around the island including: the Lost Valley Trail, nexus of the east-west, cross-island trail route from Winslow to Gazzam Lake; Dolphin Drive to W. Port Madison Trail; Sunny Hill to Nutes Pond Trail; and the […]

Trillium Trail Run returns May 11Douglas2024-04-03T14:10:08-07:00

Join us for Superpowers of Our Parks & Trails

Join us for Superpowers of Our Parks & Trails

Dr. Howard Frumkin shares the “Superpowers of Our Parks and Trails” April 25, for youth, family health and wellness

Our parks and trails deliver an astonishing range of physical and mental health benefits – and the science behind this nature-health connection has blossomed in recent years.

Join us as Dr. Howard Frumkin presents “Superpowers of Our Parks and Trails,” a dynamic presentation for families and parents at 7 p.m. April 25 at the Bainbridge High School Theater. The event is co-sponsored by the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation and Bainbridge Youth Services.

Learn about the link between parks and positive health outcomes for those who use and enjoy them regularly. Sample the latest research, consider what this means for family lifestyle choices and broader policies, and explore ideas to integrate parks and trails time into our busy lives.

The event is free, but […]

Join us for Superpowers of Our Parks & TrailsDouglas2024-04-01T16:47:32-07:00

Forest thinning underway at Strawberry Hill

Forest thinning underway at Strawberry Hill

Even a skinny tree makes quite a WHUMP when it hits the ground.

As we are there to hear it, an age-old philosophical question remains unsettled. In any case there are the echoes, reverberating through the misty morning and across the island to herald that forest thinning at Strawberry Hill Park has, in fact, begun.

WHUMP.

“It’s a shocking sound for such a small tree, isn’t it?,” reflects Lydia Roush, Parks Superintendent for Bainbridge Metro Parks. “But they’re so dense, and Douglas fir is heavy.”

It’s a first-of-its-kind project on the island: restoring an overdense, profoundly unhealthy forest through aggressive thinning and strategic replanting, while at the same time carving out chute-like paths for the new bike trails that soon will criss-cross down the hillside.

About 40 percent of the trees are coming out. In the shadow of those […]

Forest thinning underway at Strawberry HillDouglas2024-03-05T07:51:43-08:00

Find winter peace in parks and trails

Find winter peace in parks and trails

We are in the approach of the shortest day of the year, Dec. 20. The winter months can feel like a long dark tunnel through which we must pass endless hours in low light and shortened days. The moistness of the air is heavy, and the mists cling and linger in the fir and cedar branches shooting skyward.

The cloud layer is soddened and gray, and the distant memory of summer flowers feel at their very farthest. It is time to harvest the gifts hidden among the shadows in the woods and within our beautiful parks and beaches.

Drip-drip-drip go the rain droplets falling from wet branches as the breeze loosens them and they fall to the ground. The thirsty soil drinks them up and laughs a cheerful splash back to the ear. Mushrooms, rotted wood dissolving in the rains, laden covered branches with gray furry lichen, fallen leaves, evergreen huckleberry, salal, […]

Find winter peace in parks and trailsDouglas2024-01-25T16:17:10-08:00

Ferry walkways to be reused on Puget Sound to Pacific

Ferry walkways to be reused on Puget Sound to Pacific

An elevated walkway being removed from the Colman Dock ferry terminal starting this weekend is bound for re-use on the Puget Sound to Pacific trail corridor – a combination of the Olympic Discovery Trail and Sound to Olympics Trail in Kitsap, Jefferson and Clallam counties.

The temporary walkway comes down as a new, permanent pedestrian bridge has opened from the Washington State Ferries terminal to First Avenue at Marion Street.

Five of the eight segments from the old span, totaling over 350 feet, are being donated to Clallam County and facilitated by the Puget Sound to Pacific Collaborative. The bridge segments will be trucked away early Saturday morning and stored near Port Angeles.

The walkway segments will eventually be re-used as multi-use bridges along the Puget Sound to Pacific corridor, a planned 200-mile multi-use trail system from the ferry terminals on Puget Sound to the Pacific Ocean at LaPush.

The donation was initiated by […]

Ferry walkways to be reused on Puget Sound to PacificDouglas2023-11-06T09:51:57-08:00

Got a project? Get a Community Grant

Got a project? Get a Community Grant

Got a great project? Get a great grant for parks and trails.

The Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation’s 2023 Community Grants program is now open, with applications due by 5 p.m. Oct. 1.

Grants of up to $3,000 are available for qualifying park and trail projects.

Apply online, and find the grant guidelines with examples of past funded projects, at www.biparksfoundation.org/grants.

Community Grants are awarded to capital improvement projects that enhance our parks, trails and recreational opportunities. Since 1998, the Parks & Trails Foundation has awarded Community Grants totaling more than $879,000 supporting youth and adult park and recreation programs and facilities on Bainbridge Island.

Individuals or clubs that are not nonprofit organizations but want to apply must partner with Bainbridge Metro Parks on their project. Contact the Parks & Trails Foundation for assistance in […]

Got a project? Get a Community GrantDouglas2023-09-01T15:48:07-07:00

Sign up for a fall work party

Sign up for a fall work party

Conservation Work Party

Where: Strawberry Hill Park, 7666 Highschool Road NE

When: Saturday, Oct. 14 (2nd Saturday), 10:00a-12:00p

What: Join the Park District, Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance, Gear Grinders, and the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation this fall, preparing the site of the future mountain bike park for new trails and features. Projects will include removing invasive species, building habitats, and planting native plants.

Well-suited for children ages six and up who are comfortable using small hand tools and walking off trail on uneven surfaces.

REGISTER HERE

Trails Work Party

Where: Gazzam Lake Nature Preserve

When: Saturday, Oct. 21 (3rd Saturday), 10:00a-12:00p

What: Join the Park District’s trails team, the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation at Gazzam Lake Nature Preserve this fall, maintaining trail surfacing, improving trail drainage, and closing social trails in sensitive wildlife habitat.

These work parties are well suited for children ages eight and up who are comfortable using some small hand tools and […]

Sign up for a fall work partyDouglas2023-10-13T15:09:47-07:00

Kilmer celebrates federal RAISE grant, trail connections

Kilmer celebrates federal RAISE grant, trail connections

We were honored by a visit from Congressman Derek Kilmer in August, to celebrate the $16.13 million federal RAISE grant for local and regional trail design.

Kilmer walked the Sound to Olympics Sakai Pond Connector with the Parks & Trails Foundation, city and park officials, and local trail boosters to mark the amazing grant, which brings big-time dollars to Bainbridge Island to continue designing the STO north to the bridge.

Said the Congressman: “It has been said that roads segregate, and trails integrate. I like that notion, because what we’re really celebrating is connection. Connecting Clallam, Jefferson and Kitsap counties. Connecting cities and tribes and all those points along the way. Connect recreationists to nature, people to jobs, students to schools.”

A refresher: Earlier this year, the PS2P Collaborative – an initiative led by the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation with the North Kitsap Trails Association and Peninsula Trails Coalition, and […]

Kilmer celebrates federal RAISE grant, trail connectionsDouglas2023-08-28T13:56:44-07:00

$1.7M planning grant for Bainbridge Island STO

$1.7M planning grant for Bainbridge Island STO

The City of Bainbridge Island will receive $1.7 million in federal funding to plan the Sound to Olympics Trail from Winslow to the Agate Passage Bridge.

The award is part of a larger, $16.13 million Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant, administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The grant will plan and design 100 miles of new multi-use trails in the Puget Sound to Pacific (PS2P) corridor, from Bainbridge Island to LaPush on the Pacific Ocean.

The RAISE grant was awarded to the City of Port Angeles. Co-applicants included the City of Bainbridge Island; the Washington State Department of Transportation; the Quileute and Suquamish tribes; Clallam, Jefferson and Kitsap counties; the cities of Forks, Port Townsend, Poulsbo, and Sequim; and the Port of Port Townsend.

The grant application was coordinated by the Puget Sound to Pacific Collaborative, an initiative of the […]

$1.7M planning grant for Bainbridge Island STODouglas2023-08-30T16:08:54-07:00

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