— by Lin McNulty —
Proposed Location and General Conditions: The figure above shows the approximate location of the existing trail.
The idea to build a mountain bike trail on the existing utilities easement in Moran State Park is in the early stages. There is currently no target date and it’s not really a plan as yet.
Washington State Parks’ Andrew Fielding hosted a community gathering at Eastsound Fire Station on Monday night to brief the public about what is being considered.
Although the right-of-way has been unofficially used for years by bikers, the original idea to create a real mountain bike trail in Moran came from the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance, Washington States largest mountain bike advocacy and trail building group. Created in 1989 as a grassroots solution to local trail networks closing to riders, Evergreen became a viable force in the trail building and advocacy community. They were represented at the meeting by Glenn Glover.
The targeted utility corridor to the top of Mt. Constitution leads to the “antenna farm” currently utilized by OPALCO, Mount Baker Cable, and CenturyLink. This is considered a good time to explore options with OPALCO moving to Buck Mountain in the next few years.
Attendees voiced concerns about the following:
- Make sure trail properly marked to prevent infringement on private property.
- Clear signage for safety, and clarification of trail boundaries. Make sure the trail is specifically marked for no motorized vehicles.
- All trails should remain open to hiking.
- Need to monitor trail to ensure boundaries are marked and that mountain bikers don’t create their own jumps.
- Assess and develop trail standards with local environment, including ongoing erosion issues.
- This will be THE trail and no other trails can be developed by mountain bikers. Specifically, closing Cold Springs Trail to mountain bikers.
- Learning kids need easier trail than master riders.
- Option to keep trail open year-round.
- Eliminate hiker/biker conflict.
- Needs to include maintenance from users.
“Mountain bikers,” indicated Evergreen’s Glover, “have a strong sense of stewardship,” and are more than willing to participate in building and maintenance of the trail, including the biggest issue of trail maintenance, erosion.
Evergreen’s well-developed, detailed proposal may be DOWNLOADED HERE for viewing.
Funding from Evergreen and State Parks has already been set aside within the State Parks budget. And the project is subject to permitting, archeological studies, and an Environmental Impact Study.
Evergreen is eager to jump in when the time comes with volunteer time for actual construction and maintenance.
Meanwhile this proposal/idea/plan is open to public comment for the next next 2-4 weeks ONLINE at the Washington State Parks website.
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If you feel as I do — that mountain biking belongs in a warehouse not in a State Park!!!! please go to the Washington State Parks website, mentioned in the last paragraph, and leave a comment. The State may be feeling broke but that isn’t a good enough reason to ruin our parks! Merry
Biker and hikers have about the same footprint for trail damage. Horses, on the other hand, do far more damage: https://www.americantrails.org/resources/ManageMaintain/WKeenImpacts.html The proposed trail will run in an already clear-cut swath that is maintained for the overhead power lines. This trail opens more of the Park to multiuse, in keeping with the Washington State Parks Mission.
The proposal from State Parks is to enhance an already existing legal multiuse trail for year round use for cyclists as well as hikers. This “trail” is a utility road used by Opalco, Century Link etc. and has been utilized mostly by bikers for decades.