By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
With a host of proposals ranging from backpacking routes to in-town connectors, Sitkans discussed options for the future of the town’s trail network at a Sitka Trail Works planning meeting Thursday evening.
Following up on a public survey in the spring, the meeting was another step in crafting a new trail plan for Sitka, Trail Works Executive Director Ben Hughey told the three dozen or so outdoors-minded Sitkans attending the meeting at Centennial Hall.
“This is just the launch of a longer public engagement process,” Hughey said. He said the trails nonprofit had received nearly 800 responses to its online survey in the spring.
Phyllis Hackett points to one of the proposed trail projects on display for public input at Harrigan Centennial Hall Thursday night during a Sitka Trail Works planning meeting. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
“You, as members and supporters, are previewing some of these ideas, but we’re going to go out in a more quantitative fashion to the public with an online survey and paper copies as well,” he told the group. “And I would love any other qualitative comments on these (proposals),” he added.
Plans for various trail projects were displayed on paper sheets on the walls, and the audience members were invited to place stickers on the ones they liked. The most popular by far was the proposal to refine the hiking trail network in and above the Starrigavan Valley. Suggestions for rerouting the Gavan Hill and Mt. Verstovia trailheads also received significant support.
A map on display for Starrigavan showed a formalized route from the Nelson Logging Road northward up to the ridgeline. The eastbound trail to Eagle Dip Lake was also shown as an option for formalization, as was a southbound route from the valley floor to Gavan Hill.
The strong showing of support for projects at Starrigavan didn’t surprise Hughey.
“In our spring survey, the open-ended comments showed that Starrigavan as an idea was far and away the most desired new trail construction,” he said. “We’re really fortunate that the Forest Service has already taken the first steps and has gone through some permitting.”
“It’ll be a long haul to get through design, find the actual route, and determine a sustainable way to get up the slopes,” he said. “And then seeking funding is going to (take) years and it’s going to take this kind of community support to see it through to reality.”
For the time being, hiking to the north ridge above the valley is on steep and muddy “informal” trails.
Looking over the audience, Hughey said he was glad to see so many Sitkans active in the trail planning process.
“The attendance and the engagement today shows a high level of enthusiasm for more trail development in Sitka,” he said. “People are really excited about the next twenty years of trail development. And we have the good fortune of being surrounded by so much public land, that we have so many opportunities. Most communities have fairly limited and distant public parks and national forests and we’re surrounded by this abundance of land and we all get to have a say in its future,” he said.
Another popular proposal was the South Sound Coastal Trail, a backpacking loop that would connect Goddard Hot Springs with Kanga Bay and Redoubt Lake.
While some options displayed on Thursday involved larger projects and somewhat challenging hikes, others were shorter and aimed to offer increased outdoors accessibility near downtown. Options included a connector trail through the old Russian cemetery, improvements to walking and cycling access on Halibut Point Road, a boardwalk along Swan Lake, and a pathway on Japonski Island.
“Some of the ideas that I’m most excited about are these really short trails in downtown that can improve the ability for Sitkans to walk and bike when they go to school, go to work or go to the grocery store,” Hughey said. “Because ultimately how we impact the health of our community will be these shorter and more local trails versus the big epic backpacking trail.”
Speaking to the Sentinel at Thursday’s meeting, Trail Works Board President Don MacKinnon summarized the work ahead for the trail nonprofit.
“Maintenance and construction and enhancing the trails we have are probably the three things that we need to do,” he said. “We’ll be flexible. Somebody comes up here with some sort of transportation money and they need to spend that money. So we’ll spend this, this would be appropriate for this trail, and we can actually start taking that and we can bring in matching funds from our members and other grants from nonprofits,” he said.
U.S. Forest Service Sitka District Ranger Eric Garner attended the meeting, and he and other Forest Service staff discussed the possibilities for new cabins on public land around town.
Options include a cabin at the top end of Harbor Mountain Road, a second cabin at Starrigavan and a cabin at the Sawmill Creek Campground, a Forest Service leaflet says. Other possibilities are locations off the road system on Kruzof Island or at Promisla Bay or Leesofskaia Bay. The public comment period for cabin projects closes Monday, and comments can be submitted until then at sm.fs.outdoorproj@usda.gov.
Garner is encouraging people to speak up on their preferences for cabin projects.
“We want to hear from folks, whatever their ideas are for where they think there should be cabins or improvements to do to any pre-existing cabins,” he said.
As a trail plan for Sitka comes into focus, Hughey said Sitka Trail Works intends to launch another online survey in the coming weeks.
