PORT TOWNSEND — Peninsula Trails Coalition leaders in Jefferson County said they will soon release their recommendations for trail links between Four Corners Road and the tip of Discovery Bay at U.S. Highway 101.
Addressing the Jefferson County commissioners Monday, advocates for Larry Scott Memorial Trail — the Jefferson County link in the Port Townsend-to-LaPush Olympic Discovery Trail — said the winding Jefferson County stretch is about a third of the way to the Jefferson-Clallam counties’ line, about $15 million into a $35 million project.
Six miles of trail have been cut through in Jefferson County to just north of Discovery Bay Golf Course.
“The pace is picking up a bit but it is limited by funding,” said Chuck Preble, a Blyn resident and Peninsula Trails Coalition vice president.
Preble informed the commissions that Clallam County “is close to linking up on their side” with a stretch from Blyn to the county line crossing the Diamond Point-Gardiner area.
Preble said Jefferson County has a difficult challenge ahead to acquire rights of way and cut the trail from Four Corners Road south over Eagle mount to Discovery Bay.
The stretch from Discovery Bay to the county line would be less difficult, he said.
Routes to bay
Jeff Selby, a volunteer trail-building leader with the Jefferson County Trails Coalition, said the group would soon release a study of routes the county could take south to Discovery Bay.
He said it would include tie-in trails branching off of the main Olympic Discovery Trail to link to Anderson Lake State Park and the Tri-Area trail system the county is proposing.
That system would link the Port Hadlock commercial center with Chimacum schools, H.J. Carroll Park and the ballfields on Chimacum Road.
That trail would be known in the Tri-Area as the Rick Tollefson Trail.
“There are many potential routes, but there is not much we can do until the route is acquired and we can design it,” Preble said.
Eaglemount route
Bob Hoyle, Back Country Horsemen Buckhorn Range Chapter president, said the steep feature over Eaglemount would pose a tough route above the winding climb and descent of state Highway 20.
He said it was important for the route to head east to the Tri-Area, allowing for alternative transportation routes.
The trails coalition leaders asked the county commissioners to contact U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks and U.S. Sen. Patty Murray before March 1, asking for funding to extend the trail east and to include Jamestown S’Klallam land near Anderson Lake State Park that the county partly funded to preserve.
That would allow access from the main trail artery to the Tri-Area.
County Administrator Philip Morley told the trails coalition representatives that the trail’s growth would be funded as part of the county’s six-year transportation plan.
County Engineer Monte Reinders said the county was making progress.
“We’re pushing ahead with finalization of right of way acquisitions,” he said, adding that the county was also working with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife about the best route for the trail at the tip of Discovery Bay at U.S. Highway 101.
Reinders said it was hoped that the Jefferson County Olympic Discovery Trail segment would be completed in two years, but financing it was an issue.
On the Clallam County side, Olympic Discovery Trail now connects Blyn with Sequim and Port Angeles. It is 10 feet wide and is paved with a dirt horse trail on one side for much of the way.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
