Happy Trails

This morning Carol Vander Meer and I spoke with Ben Moorehead, Executive Director of the Trinidad Coastal Land Trust about all the trails that hey have helped implement, the land they maintain in the public's interest, and their big plans to extend a tail across Little River and connect with the Hammond Trail.

This morning Michael Kauffmann and I spoke with Ken DeCamp who literally wrote the book about Wildflowers in the Trinity Alps. He will be in Arcata next Wednesday at the Masonic Lodge to speak. Ken has been hiking this area since the 50s and has chronicled and photographed many of the wildflowers many people have not seen before in his new book.

This morning I spoke with Michael Kauffmann about places to hike this spring and even now to check out some of the spectacular wildflowers that Humboldt County has to offer.

This morning Carol Vander Meer and I spoke with Hank Seemann about the Humboldt Bay Trail. With the recent completion of the Eureka Waterfront Trail, momentum is building to get the Bay Trail complete. The "Final Four," referring to the final 4 miles of trail to be completed will be the most expensive part of the trail as it will require modification of the old railroad bridge over the Eureka Slough and routing around the mill, utilizing the levy. This section also is going through several privately held pieces of land. The funding and land issues will need to be figured out. But for now, there is a public planing meeting set for Tuesday, February 27th at 5:30pm at the Wharfinger Building in Eureka. You can see what the trail will look like and give input for the next phase.

This morning Carol Vander Meer and I spoke with Miles Slattery, Parks and Recreation Director for the city of Eureka. Today at noon will be the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Eureka Waterfront Trail. The Grand Opening Celebration will be on Saturday at the Wharfinger Building. The trail now goes from the Herrick Park and Ride to Tidd Street near Target. Eventually it will connect with the Bay Trail and continue north to Arcata.

This morning Emily Sinkhorn was in studio along with Sean Robertson and Students Sawyer and Meigan from The Humboldt Composite Mountain Bike Club. They talked about how it got started and the bigger nationwide group with which they are associated. Locally, kids from about 5 different High Schools work together to represent Humboldt.

This morning we met our latest co-host of Happy Trails, Roger James. Together we talked with Julie Neander, ES Deputy Director of Community Services for the City of Arcata. We talked about the Arcata portion of the Bay Trail and the Eureka Waterfront Trail coming to completion soon. Additionally we talked about the Ridge Trail including the safe crossing of Fickle Hill Road, conditional grant for the Annie and Mary Trail, and a Mountain Bike training track in Redwood park, among other things.

This morning Carol Vander Mer and I spoke with Greg Wolfgang, the King Range National Conservation Area Manger for the BLM. We spoke in depth on the beauty of the long standing Lost Coast Trail. We also spoke about an update to the permitting process.

About a year and a half ago I spoke with Anne Thomas, the founder and Executive Director of Shasta Living Streets. This morning, Emily Sinkhorn and I spoke with Anne about the new goings on there as they are working on connecting downtown Redding to their extensive trail system. Emily and I also outlined what we can look forward to with regard to trails here in Humboldt County in 2018.

This morning Emily Sinkhorn and I spoke with Hank Seemann from the County and Mike Foget from Blue Lake about movement and challenges on the long anticipated Annie and Mary Trail that will eventually be part of Humboldt Counties regional trail system, linking Arcata and Blue Lake.

This morning Michael Kauffmann and I spoke with Ken DeCamp, author of the new book "Wildflowers of the Trinity Alps." DeCamp has been exploring the Trinity Alps for over 60 years. This Friday at 7pm he will be at Northtown Books in Arcata to talk about the book and sign it for customers. Unfortunately Ken was having some trouble with his phone and we kept getting cut off. Kudos to Michael for filling in the blanks.

This morning Emily Sinkhorn and I spoke with Ben Kageyama of theCity of Ukiah regarding Phase 3 of their Trail Project that was recently awarded funding. NOTE: the first minute of the conversation is cut off.

This morning Carol Vander Meer and I spoke with Arcata Assistant City Engineer Netra Khatri about the grand opening of the first leg of the Humboldt Bay Trail. The ribbon cutting ceremony will be this Sunday at 10am, rain or shine at the I street part of the trail.

This morning Emily Sinkhorn and I spoke with Colin Fiske of the Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities about something they call their "Living Plaza" idea. In this concept 8th and 9th streets would be closed to automotive traffic allowing room for outdoor dining, play structures and other ongoing activities. Response thus far has been mostly positive. However, there is a concern over parking. The group plans on bringing the concept to the Arcata City Council soon.

This morning Carol Vander Meer and I spoke with Hank Seemann, Deputy Director of Environmental Services for Humboldt County Public Works. In what is being considered a great first step, a 10 foot wide multi-use trail will be going in alongside State Route 255 in Manila. This 1/2 mile stretch will begin in 2019 between Pacific and Carlson avenues. This will be a joint effort with Caltrans and is funded with a 1.7 million dollar grant from the California Active Transportation Program.