By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
After well over a decade without major maintenance, the Sea Lion Cove hiking trail on Kruzof Island has received some long overdue repairs thanks to a crew from the nonprofit Sitka Trail Works.
Working from a sailboat anchored in Kalinin Bay, the five-member crew worked on the 2.5 mile route for a week before returning to Sitka last Wednesday, said Trail Works executive director Ben Hughey.
The trail connects the sheltered Kalinin Bay anchorage with a spectacular ocean beach at Sea Lion Cove.
A Sitka Trail Works crew works on a cedar handrail replacement on the Sea Lion Cove hiking trail. (Photo by Ben Hughey)
The trail received significant repairs, also by Sitka Trail Works, in 2003 and 2006. Hughey, then in high school, was a worker on the last crew.
“In the 16 years since that last major maintenance effort, wind, rain, and decay have taken their toll on the trail tread,” he told the Sentinel. “There were spots with three foot drops onto slippery logs and steps that were entirely washed in clay mudslides. While we couldn’t restore every foot of the trail with limited time and resources, we were able to address many of the most hazardous sections.”
Restoration work includes rebuilding segments of boardwalk, trimming alders away from the route where it follows the shoreline, and repairing hazardous stairs.
“The trail goes up to a lake in the middle and drops down a couple hundred feet of elevation over this old rock slide, and some of that was just crazy treacherous,” Hughey said. “It’s all wet and mossy, and people have fallen regularly.”
He said some small tour operators “just won’t go anymore because it’s too dangerous for their clients.”
The trail begins at the southern end of Kalinin Bay on the northwest corner of Kruzof Island and climbs to a lake before descending to the broad, sandy beach on the Pacific Ocean. While the area is surrounded by federal lands administered by the U.S. Forest Service, the Sea Lion Cove trail itself is a state park, and has far less maintenance funding than the federal agency.
“Sealion Cove is a State Park. So just like Mosquito Cove or Halibut Point Rec, it’s managed by Alaska Department of Natural Resources. However, since they don’t have a boat in town, State Parks doesn’t have any ability to maintain this beautiful trail... It’s a popular trail with locals and small guide operators, but in recent years has been practically unusable as the trail has deteriorated and become dangerous,” Hughey said.
Hughey summarized the condition of the trail as “extremely poor” when his crew arrived.
While trail work itself is a challenge, Hughey said the biggest hurdle was logistical. Access is by water, and the trailhead at Kalinin Bay is about 25 northwest of Starrigavan, the closest boat launch site in Sitka.
“Logistics and remoteness are the most challenging aspects of this kind of work,” Hughey said. “We likely spent more than 30 percent of our time just moving crew or material into place. Huffing up chainsaws, gas, power tools, axes, lag bolts, rebar, and all other necessities takes a lot of trips over the rough trail. Then the logistics of transporting lumber and gravel is similarly time and labor intensive.”
Luckily, they received aerial assistance from Coast Guard Air Station Sitka.
“The Coast Guard came through in a huge way, helicoptering lumber and gravel closer to project sites, saving us days of work and allowing us to tackle far more than we could have if we were limited to hand carrying. Their flight crews were able to use the project as training, so it was a win-win. Local volunteers also contributed over a hundred hours of labor to the project; brushing, hauling gravel, transporting materials to the site. In particular, we owe a huge thanks to Mark Guillory and Laura Schmidt, who helped coordinate and support throughout the duration of the project,” Hughey said.
Without the chopper, it’s unlikely his crew could have done any work with gravel, and it would have been a struggle to move the 12-foot planks used in reconstruction of the boardwalk, Hughey indicated.
Some of the old planks, he said, show signs of being hand-hewn and put in place more than 80 years ago, before World War II.
Rather than living in tents, the trail works crew was based on Erik de Jong’s sailboat, the Bagheera, during the Sept. 27-Oct. 5 project. Along with Hughey and de Jong, the work crew members were Jack Arpert, Paddy Keith-Hardy and Bhargavi Pochi.
The project was funded by a $38,000 grant under the state’s Recreational Trails Program.
The restoration work was long overdue, Hughey said.
“We’ve been hearing from a lot of community members that this is a major priority… It has just gotten into the state of being unusable, and it’s the only trail in the region that starts on inside waters and goes to an outer coast beach. And the beach itself is spectacular.”
Closer to town Sitka Trail Works is working on the extension of the Cross Trail from Harbor Mountain Road to the Starrigavan boat launch. While most of the work on the new section of trail is finished – the route is passable now – the final layer of fine surface gravel isn’t yet finished.
“Now that we’ve secured funding for the remainder of the trail, we’ll be laying a top cap of D-1 (fine) gravel on the main line of the new Cross Trail extension this fall before it freezes. And we’ll be focused on finishing the Connector Trail down to HPR near the Cruise Terminal,” he said.
