Ridge Trail will link them up
11/10/12
The city of Arcata has broken ground on two major new sections of trails in the Arcata Community Forest, which will eventually be used by hikers, mountain bikers and equestrians.
“(The community forest) is not new for us, but it’s expanding in an exciting way,” said Mark Andre, Arcata’s Environmental Services director. In 1979, Arcata approved a “Multiple Use Management Plan” initiative, which led the forest to look much like it does currently — a series of multi-use trails over an area of approximately 800 acres.
Andre said the process of adding trails to the forest involves doing some “low intensity” sustainable timber harvesting in some areas, and doing road decommissioning, which often means preventing erosion on old logging roads while turning them into single-track trails.
What used to be a small, overgrown trail along a crumbling logging road in the Sunny Brae Forest was recently built into a widened, well-draining gravel road to help with the logging and trail building process.
Andre said the community forest, as it currently stands, wasn’t enough for Arcata’s recreationalists.
“It’s a reflection of the demand. It’s what people want,” Andre said.
He said the community forest additions are also a significant part of the city’s economic development strategy. Businesses may be more persuaded to relocate to a city like Arcata that has an extensive trail system for its employees, Andre said.
With the addition of a trail on the northern end — running to West End Road — and a trail on the southern end — running through the Sunny Brae Forest — the four-mile Ridge Trail will run without break from West End Road to Buttermilk Lane in Sunny Brae.
On the northern West End Road side of the forest, there will also be a trail built called Samuels Loop, Andre said. In the new Sunny Brae section of trails, work is being done to build a section of trail specifically made for mountain bikers called Beith Creek Trail. That section is designed to mimic mountain bike trails in places like Tahoe and Bend, Ore., he said.
As funding trickles in — from outside grants and local fundraisers — Andre said work groups have continually chipped away at the projects. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence raised $6,500 for the project from a recent softball game. A group of workers was laying down gravel in the soon-to-be Sunny Brae system recently. He said there will also be a number of workdays for local volunteers to help out.
Part of the challenge to link up the various new sections has been purchasing the numerous, and sometimes small parcels of land to make it work. A 114-acre parcel was bought from Bob and Carol Morris to expand the Sunny Brae Forest. The city purchased a 16-acre property from Green Diamond on the northern end of the forest last December for $262,000.
“It only works when private landowners sell or grant us land,” Andre said.
Another more recent challenge for Andre has been securing easements with landowners in the new sections, to improve access to the trails.
Uri Driscoll, a 30-year resident of Arcata and the Northern California Horseman’s Association vice president, said he’s been working with the city to improve access points for his fellow equestrians.
He said there are neighborhoods with lots of horse owners — both in Sunny Brae and on Fickle Hill — and the new trail system will help them reach the trail without putting the horse in a trailer. For horse owners farther away, he’s been working with the city on a better access point off West End Road, where equestrians would have plenty of room to park.
“That would be a great spot, a good trail hub,” Driscoll said of the proposed parking lot location. He said it would be easy access for hikers and bikers, too.
As for the community forest trails themselves, Driscoll said he is impressed.
“The trails are excellent,” he said. “They’re state of the art with their trail building. I wish other municipalities paid this close attention.” Kirk Cohune, an environmental planner at Greenway Partners and avid mountain biker, volunteered time in the past three years to get the new forest additions kick-started.
As a mountain biker, he said he’s particularly excited about the potential of the Sunny Brae tract of trails, which will feature mountain bike trails for beginners to advanced riders, and a downhill-specific mountain bike trail.
“There’s a lot of kids that just want to go downhill fast,” Cohune said. Those trails will be mountain bikers only, “so you don’t have to freak out when you come around a corner, and there’s a horse there.”
Cohune said he’s been consulting with Andre on how to add banked turns and flow into some of the new trails for mountain biker’s enjoyment. He praised Andre’s openness to designing the forest with multiple recreational uses in mind. Cohune said the original plan for the community forest was hiker-specific — a mix of trails with stairs and logging roads, neither of which are especially horse or bike friendly.
Cohune said he hopes he’ll be riding the new trails sometime next summer.
“They’re pretty far along on it already,” he said.
Andre encourage people to volunteer, or give money to the Arcata Forest Fund, part of the Humboldt Area Foundation, if they want to help keep the building process moving.
“Every $300 gives us a couple more feet of rock,” he said.
