Bainbridge Island, WA: Exploring Northwest Island Trails

The Subaru/IMBA Trail Care Crew visits Bainbridge, Washington.

CaptiVolunteer trailbuilders in the northwest are hard-core; rain didn't stop this crew from working through it and completing the trail reroute.on
Reclaiming this wet trail wasn't too difficult, due to the abundance of ferns available for transplanting. The rerouted trail was placed higher up on the hillside to avoid the pooling of water that occurred on this trail.
The old trail has become indistinguishable to the trail user. After scarifying the soil, the transplanted ferns and other plant seeds have a high likelihood of taking hold and maturing.
Dave, a local volunteer, showed the group how to use a winless tie to move a large rock, which was then used to armor part of the new trail.
A webbing tow strap was wrapped around a tree and the rock. Then, a tool handle was twisted around the center of the rope to gain leverage on the rock. This technique was fast, effective and easier on the volunteers' bodies than other techniques.

Subaru/IMBA Trail Care Crew leaders, Nat and Rachael Lopes, spent four days on Bainbridge Island, located a half hour ferry ride west from Seattle, WA. The island is roughly 26 square miles and has a population of 20,000. It has many small parks scattered throughout the island with multiuse trails. The long-term plan for the island is to connect the trails in these individual parks to each other to form a trail system and longer trail rides for mountain bikers. The Bainbridge Island Park Districts Trails Advisory Committee and the Bainbridge Island Land Trust are working together to acquire properties between parks and then constructing trails on them. With these big plans in mind, twenty enthusiastic volunteers came out for Nat and Rachael's Trailbuilding school to learn and gain experience on constructing sustainable trails.

After a morning classroom session, the volunteers headed out to Blakely Harbor Park to get hands-on experience. Despite a quite large thundering rainstorm, the group worked on reclaiming a fall line section of trail and constructing a 450-foot long sustainable reroute. The weekend's work totaled over 150 hours of volunteer labor.

Special thanks to John and Pamela Grinter for their hospitality and to Kirk Pathera for donating his chiropractic expertise to the crew.