There's a more than 100-mile-long abandoned railway corridor on Washington's Olympic Peninsula that is being transformed into a first-rate bicycling trail named the Olympic Discovery Trail.
When completed it will stretch all the way from La Push on the Pacific Ocean, across the base of the northern slope of the Olympic Mountains, to bustling Port Townsend on Puget Sound.
More than a third of the trail is routed and paved (primarily the central portion connecting Port Angeles and Sequim on the Strait of Juan del Fuca), and volunteers are beginning work on another section east of Sequim that brings the trail closer to Port Townsend.
Short history
The Olympic Discovery Trail is a rail-trail. Tracks were originally laid along parts of the corridor in the 1880s; the last railroad owner began tearing them up in the 1980s. The Peninsula Trails Coalition was formed in 1988 as the railroad was selling off the land and immediately began efforts to preserve the land for a future trail.
Touring the Olympic Peninsula last year, I bicycled a short section of trail in Port Townsend and a longer section through Sequim and Port Angeles. Some of the route follows streets, but most is off-road, paved, and well tended. One section passes right along the Strait of Juan del Fuca.
I found the number of trestles particularly striking, especially as I bicycled across canyons on narrow wooden bridges at the height of treetops.
Latest project
Volunteers with the Peninsula Trails Coalition are set to begin work in January on a 144-foot trestle over an unnamed creek east of Sequim. The workers will lay concrete slabs on the 90-year-old trestle, helping to complete the link between Sequim and Blyn at the base of Sequim Bay.
Because of volunteer labor, the project will cost only $13,000, reports the Peninsula Daily News.
The trails coalition is working with Clallam County officials to extend the right-of-way eastward to the county line, where it will meet a right-of-way being acquired by Jefferson County for the segment to Port Townsend.
Western segments
Work is continuing on the other end of the Olympic Discovery Trail. This section, dubbed the Adventure Trail, isn't like the flat, paved eastern half. This is definitely mountain bike habitat:
“The Adventure Trail setting is quite different — an unpaved trail wandering through forest, sometimes a mile or more from the nearest highway. A mix of unpaved single-track trail and unpaved roads, grades are seven percent or less to make it accesssible for mountain bicyclists, hikers, and horsemen.”
A 6-mile segment on this route is due for construction this summer, reports the Sequim Gazette. Together with the eastern parts of the trail, the Olympic Peninsula Trail should be 60 miles long by the end of next year.
Volunteers
Of course, none of this would have been possible without the efforts to the Peninsula Trails Coalition. Special work parties are scheduled along sections of trails the second Saturday of every month. In addition, trail maintenance is scheduled every Thursday. Volunteers also are able to adopt sections of trail.
Check the volunteers page at the Peninsula Trail Coalition website.
And a thank you to Russell for alerting me to the update…
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