Waterfront Trail Archives | Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation

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

City staff, BI Rowing team up for Waterfront Park restoration

City staff, BI Rowing team up for Waterfront Park restoration

Thanks to staffers from Bainbridge Island City Hall for giving their time at a Waterfront Park environmental restoration event last week.

COBI staffers volunteered under their Wellness program alongside volunteers from Bainbridge Island Rowing. The group planted new Western red cedars, sword ferns and native strawberry along the sidewalk at the park’s east end.

It was the second in a series of Waterfront Park restoration events co-sponsored by the City and the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation.

The ongoing project targets an area of the park blighted by invasive ivy and holly. An April event saw City staffers and other volunteers clear trees of vines, uproot invasive groundcover, and grub out several truckloads of holly and blackberry.

The native replanting fulfills new requirements for restoration in shoreline zones. New plants were funded by the City.

The restoration area is bounded to the […]

City staff, BI Rowing team up for Waterfront Park restorationDouglas2022-12-16T11:07:48-08:00

Finding the way to a new park at Waypoint Woods

Finding the way to a new park at Waypoint Woods

The Winslow ferry zone is the last place you might go looking for it, but Karl Petersen sure finds it in nearby Waypoint Woods: peace and quiet.

Maybe it’s the depth of the shadows, the twisting path that always keeps you a little off kilter, that keep the tiny woods off Olympic Drive a place apart even as the great and busy world thrums past.

“The path is crooked, and you never see very far ahead. Unless the sun is out and bright, which it normally is not, you don’t know which direction you’re going,” said Petersen, a neighbor who’s been tramping Waypoint Woods for a decade and still finds it fresh for discovery. “You keep making turn after turn after turn, and a lot of the turns are pretty dramatic. You never know where you are in that place. I find that enchanting.”

The […]

Finding the way to a new park at Waypoint WoodsDouglas2022-03-11T11:14:23-08:00

SAVE THE DATE: Waypoint Woods Community Conversation, March 6

SAVE THE DATE: Waypoint Woods Community Conversation, March 6

Explore Waypoint Woods and share your ideas for Winslow’s next gateway park, at a Community Conversation and park tour, 2-4 p.m. Sunday, March 6.

The event begins with a presentation of preliminary park designs at the Bainbridge Island Rowing Stan Pocock Legacy Boathouse, 301 Shannon Drive in Waterfront Park. A walking tour of nearby Waypoint Woods follows.

Waypoint Woods is located at the corner of Olympic and Harborview drives, bounded by the Winslow Waterfront Trail and Waypoint plaza near the ferry terminal.

The Parks Foundation is leading a planning process, with Seattle-based AHBL land use and design firm, to improve the 3-acre park for neighborhood and visitor use.