Trails Archives | Page 2 of 6 | Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation

In the news: Inslee presented award for trails advocacy

In the news: Inslee presented award for trails advocacy

From the Peninsula Daily News:

BLYN — Gov. Jay Inslee was presented an award for his continued support of biking trails by an advocacy group working to build connected bike trails across the continental United States.

In a ceremony at the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe headquarters in Blyn on Wednesday, the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy named Inslee the 2023 Doppelt Family Rail-Trail Champion for his support of biking trails throughout his political career.

Before attending the ceremony, Inslee biked along the Olympic Discovery Trail from Port Angeles to the campus in Blyn, a trip he made is roughly two hours.

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In the news: Inslee presented award for trails advocacyDouglas2023-06-13T16:53:54-07:00

In the news: Inslee honored by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy

In the news: Inslee honored by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy

From The Urbanist:

A shared enthusiasm for trail networks and the unique recreational opportunities the Olympic Peninsula offers set the tone for this year’s in-person board convening of the national Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) in Sequim. RTC is based in the other Washington, Washington DC, and the 135-mile Olympic Discovery Trail is what lured them here.

The Olympic Discovery Trail (ODT) stretches from Port Townsend to La Push across lush forests, alongside mountains, farms, and shorelines, and in 2019 it was designated by RTC as the official western end of their 3,700-mile, 12-state, multi-use trail corridor, called the Great American Rail-Trail.

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In the news: Inslee honored by Rails-to-Trails ConservancyDouglas2023-06-14T11:49:13-07:00

In the news: Seattle to the Pacific: A Dream Bike Route Gains Momentum

In the news: Seattle to the Pacific: A Dream Bike Route Gains Momentum

From the Cascade Bicycle Club newsletter:

Within a few minutes of beginning a group ride on the Olympic Discovery Trail it became apparent that Gov. Jay Inslee loves to bike.

We pedaled hard to catch up as he sped off down the trail on a sunny weekday morning.

But Inslee was in a rush for good reason. He was scheduled to speak and receive a national trails award in two hours in Sequim, 30 miles away from our starting point in Port Angeles.

I was among a lucky group of a dozen trail advocates offered the fun task of riding to the event with Inslee. How often do you get to draft the governor on a long bike ride?

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In the news: Seattle to the Pacific: A Dream Bike Route Gains MomentumDouglas2023-06-14T11:50:12-07:00

Lost Valley Trail takes a long stride forward

Lost Valley Trail takes a long stride forward

Twenty-plus years in the planning, the Lost Valley Trail is going to be on the map.

The Bainbridge Island City Council has unanimously OK’d the Lost Valley Trail project, a partnership between the City, the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation and Bainbridge Metro Parks.

When completed, the mile-long trail will connect the Head of the Bay area with Fletcher Bay Road, through the Cooper Creek Watershed and woodland. It’s the approximate midpoint of the long-planned Cross-Island Trail route from Winslow to Gazzam Lake and Crystal Springs.

“There’s two decades of stories behind this, and we should celebrate as a community and as the City of Bainbridge Island,” said Andy Maron, Parks & Trails Foundation board member, who has worked on the project since inception. “Things get done – they take a while – but things get done when lots of organizations and people and governments work together.”

The project dates to the 1990s, […]

Lost Valley Trail takes a long stride forwardDouglas2023-06-23T11:38:07-07:00

Be part of the mix on National Trails Day, June 3

Be part of the mix on National Trails Day, June 3

Be part of the mix – the trail mix! Celebrate Bainbridge Island trails with a fun and healthy hike on National Trails Day, Saturday, June 3.

While you’re out, pick up the newly updated Trails on Bainbridge Island map at Hilltop (Grand Forest) and lower Fort Ward Park from 10 a.m. to noon, hosted by the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation. The large-format color map includes Bainbridge Island’s 48 miles of public trails, as well as nearby dining, services and other amenities for park and trail users.

Learn more about the Parks & Trails Foundation’s work to expand and enhance the island trail network, including the cross-island Lost Valley trail. The Foundation will also hand out its trail mix.

The Trails on Bainbridge Island map is produced by the Bainbridge Island Metro Park & Recreation District, with support from the Bainbridge Island Parks & […]

Be part of the mix on National Trails Day, June 3Douglas2023-05-17T12:28:47-07:00

In the news: Funding Request Would Plan 200-Mile Trail Connection

In the news: Funding Request Would Plan 200-Mile Trail Connection

From The Urbanist, 3.10.2023

An impressively long list of governments on the Kitsap and Olympic peninsulas have joined together to jointly request funding to finish a 200-mile biking and walking trail that will connect the Pacific Ocean to Puget Sound. The request for funds from the U.S. Department of Transportation will close around 100 miles of gaps in regional trails that, if completed, would allow uninterrupted cycling and hiking from the Bainbridge Island ferry terminal all the way to the beach in La Push.

The request, submitted as part of the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant program, has the city of Port Angeles as its lead applicant, with five other cities, three counties, the Port of Port Townsend, the Quileute and Suquamish tribes, and the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) joining in the request to receive funding.

Filling the gaps would unite […]

In the news: Funding Request Would Plan 200-Mile Trail ConnectionDouglas2023-06-13T16:38:46-07:00

New Puget Sound to Pacific Collaborative plans for 200-mile trail corridor

New Puget Sound to Pacific Collaborative plans for 200-mile trail corridor

The Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation is one of three organizations in the new Puget Sound to Pacific Collaborative, bringing communities together to plan and build a 200-mile multi-use trail from the ferry docks on Bainbridge Island, Kingston and Port Townsend to the Pacific Coast at La Push.

The PS2P Collaborative also includes the North Kitsap Trails Association, and the Peninsula Trails Coalition.

The Puget Sound to Pacific (PS2P) trail network would be bookended by the Olympic Discovery Trail and the Sound to Olympics Trail, linking communities and local connecting trails along the route.

Far more than a recreational trail, PS2P would be the spine of an “active transportation” corridor and greenway that shifts short commutes away from automobiles to human-scaled and people-powered travel modes like walking and bicycling. It aligns with transportation and climate goals and policies at every level of state and local government.

“One hundred miles are already complete, after 35 years of hard work by […]

New Puget Sound to Pacific Collaborative plans for 200-mile trail corridorDouglas2023-06-13T16:55:55-07:00

New Kubota builds its first trail at Shel Chelb

New Kubota builds its first trail at Shel Chelb

The Park District’s new Kubota tractor made its trail-building debut this week, rolled out to construct a 100-foot path at Shel Chelb Park.

The Kubota was funded in part by a $25,000 grant from the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation, to both speed and ease trail construction projects that have largely relied on big crews and hand labor. The early reports: a grant well spent.

“You could just have one person basically build the whole trail,” says Sean Smith Sell, Trails Program manager for the Park District, between stints at the Kubota controls. “You can do anything – clear brush, grade the trail, dig out whatever you need to out of the trail, fill in the low spots, take down the high spots. You might need someone to bring gravel.”

The new trail followed this script, the two-person Park District crew clearing the way through a […]

New Kubota builds its first trail at Shel ChelbDouglas2023-02-16T12:42:48-08:00

New Kubota will speed park trail building

New Kubota will speed park trail building

Here’s a gift with a bow for trail users – a new Kubota mini-excavator for trail building and maintenance.

The equipment purchase by Bainbridge Metro Parks was supported by a $25,000 grant from the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation.

The mini-excavator is the second piece of trail-building machinery funded by the Parks & Trails Foundation for the Park District.

A 2018 grant supported purchase of a PierTech “anchor-auger” system, used to safely sink steel pilings for boardwalk construction in environmentally sensitive areas. The PierTech system has been used to build boardwalks at Sakai Park and Hawley Cove Park, and a small footbridge on the Old Mill Trail near IslandWood.

“Trail building can be pretty labor intensive, requiring whole crews of summer park staff and volunteers,” says Mary Meier, Parks & Trails Foundation executive director. “Supporting the Park District with new equipment like this […]

New Kubota will speed park trail buildingDouglas2022-12-15T14:50:15-08:00

Designing a bike park for every rider at Strawberry Hill

Designing a bike park for every rider at Strawberry Hill

Matt Blossom grew up on a simpler island, in a simpler time.

It was the 1980s, and on Bainbridge Island the people were fewer, the houses farther apart, the property lines less distinct. Blossom could ride his Yamaha dirt bike from his parents’ house in Eagledale to Walt’s Market in Lynwood Center, or wherever else, and nobody really seemed to mind.

“Bainbridge was a great place to grow up,” says Blossom, a fifth generation islander on both sides. “As a kid you feel isolated, but once you leave and come back, you realize what a special community it is.”

Knowing island back roads and byways as well as anyone and better than most, even Blossom was surprised when, last year, he first set foot on the former Hayashida property northwest of Strawberry Hill Park.

The historic strawberry farm was now a rolling hillside of […]

Designing a bike park for every rider at Strawberry HillDouglas2023-02-17T16:36:10-08:00