Happy Trails

This morning Emily Sinkhorn and I spoke with Scott Greacen, Executive Director of Friends of the Eel River about the recent CA Supreme Court Decision Against the NCRA for not following CEQA guidelines regarding the northern portion of the railroad right of way.

Humboldt County is becoming a recreational mecca. This morning Emily Sinkhorn and I spoke with Steven Pearl about the upcoming Storm Saddle Enduro. This will be the 2nd annual of this mountain bike race out in Lacks Creek and will be taking place Next Saturday. We also spoke with Rich Baker about the upcoming Humboldt Bay Marathon. This will be the 3rd annual and will be happening in 2 weeks. The Humboldt Bay Marathon is a qualifying event for the Boston Marathon. About 300 are expected to participate.

This morning Emily Sinkhorn and I spoke with Melanie Williams of Bikes There about Fortuna Safe Routes To School. This project is constructing sidewalks/crosswalk/bike lane improvements around Toddy Thomas Middle School including improvements on Ross Hill Road.

On the morning July 10th 2007, I interviewed Hank Sims who at the time was working at the Northcoast Journal. He had just published an article about the NCRA's efforts to revitalize the rail line between Humboldt and the Bay Area and that those efforts could kill the dream of a Bay Trail. Much has changed in those 10 years. NCRA has given up the efforts to go through the Eel River Canyon, and the Bay Trail is moving forward. In fact NCRA is supportive of the project.

Ironically, the day of this interview, I was struck and nearly killed by a Fat Boy Harley Davidson on my bike commute home along the 101. My injuries included 5 broken ribs, a broken clavicle, punctured lung, torn rotator cuff, a deep gash in my leg and road rash down my entire left side. While recovering the accident, I came up with the concept of the weekly trails advocacy program "Happy Trails."

This is a rebroadcast of that original intervew with Hank Sims, now with the Lost Coast Outpost.

This morning Carol Vander Meer and I spoke with Aldaron Laird about a taking the Hikshari trail south about another mile. This will be part of the wetlands restoration project that will also add beauty and new habitat for fish, birds and other wildlife.

Michael Kauffman talks about his efforts to restore the South Kelsey Trail in Del Norte County. This is on the south fork of the Smith River. This is an historic rout developed in the 1850, but long before that it was historically used by Native Americans and it went from the Scott Valley all the way to Crescent City.

This morning Emily Sinkhorn recapped this weekend's Humboldt Trails Summit. The Wharfinger Building in Eureka was packed with people wanting know the latest about trails in Humboldt. They were not disappointed. People got to see the latest about the Eureka Waterfront Trail including the proposed extension of the Hikshari South. We got to see the progress of the Bay Trail from Arcata to Bracut but even more exciting was proposals for the "Final Four" miles of the trail. They also looked at the most troublesome part of the trail, the Eureka Slough crossing. Some very interesting proposals were floated.

Tuesday I talked with Carol Vander Meer about the upcoming Trails Summit this Saturday from 10am - 11:30am with a walking tour afterwards. It takes place at the Wharfinger Building in Eureka.

This morning Emily Sinkhorn and I spoke with Kathryn Lobato about the Southern Humboldt Community Park. Kathryn has been part of this project for the past 17 years. The park is more than 400 acres with trails for hikers, bikers, strollers and the like. The future will bring sports fields and expansion of trails into the hills for mountain bikers.

We are in the midst of Bike Month. Today Emily Sinkhorn came down to the KHUM studios to talk about many of the Bike Month activities. Joining her in the studio were Conrad and Jessy, both of whom are part of the Bike Club at Zane Middle School in Eureka.