Happy Trails

This morning Emily Sinkhorn and I spoke with Miles Slattery, Eureka Parks and Recreation Director and Denise Newman, RCAA Projects Coordinator. The main topic, the Eureka Waterfront Trail and it's progress. The Hikshari and Phase A are complete. Phase B is nearly complete and Phase C is coming along. The full trail is expected to be open from end to end by sometime this December. The official Grand Opening ceremony will be in the Spring of 2018.

This morning Emily Sinkhorn and I spoke with Melanie Williams of Bikes There and Catrina Scheffler of Lafayette Elementary about several things going on. The Moms on Bikes Event and Math Night at Alice Birney among other things.

This morning Emily Sinkhorn and I spoke with Misty Rickwalt, Karuk Tribe Project Manager about the recent Orleans Streetscape Design Fair. This design fair took place in september with a very large community percents. Over 100 community members (from a town of just over 600) showed up to take part. There seems to be a lot consensus with regard to how to make Orleans a more livable and walkable community. The Panamnik Orleans Community Center Connectivity Project will get underway next year sometime.

This morning Carol Vander Meer and I spoke with Dr. Chere Edgar who will be participating in the upcoming California Dream Ride. This will be a fundraiser for the California Bicycle Coalition. This 5 day, 280 mile ride will go from Folsom to San Francisco beginning this weekend.

This Morning Emily and I spoke with Scott Ellsmore, Traffic Project Manager for the City of Eureka. We talked about Eureka's North South Multimodal Corridor Plan project and upcoming community workshops

This morning Emily and I spoke with Merritt Perry, Engineer for the City of Fortuna about their recent successful Safe Routes To School projects. We also talked about other upcoming projects the city is working on.

This morning Michael Kauffmann and I spoke with Rosie Slentz here in the studio about getting school kids out of the classroom for a variety of activities. Rosie is with the humboldt County Office of Education and previously a 5th grade teacher.

This morning Emily Sinkhorn updates us on ongoing progress on the Humboldt Bay Trail. The first phase is expected to be complete by this October! Also We looked at rapid ongoing progress on the Eureka Waterfront trail which is expected to be complete late this year or early next year. We also discussed ongoing safe routes to school projects, the Annie and Mary Rail Trail and more.

This morning Carol Vander Meer and I spoke with Tara Strikwerda, the race coordinator for the Kevin Ebbert Run taking place this Sunday in Arcata. This is the 4th annual run and this year will help raise money for the Humboldt Bay Trail Fund, managed by the Humboldt Area Foundation.

This morning Michael Kauffmann and I spoke with Ryan Henderson of the California Wilderness Coalition about many things regarding the wilderness in our area including new draft legislation for our region that Congressman Jared Huffman is working on.

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.