Where ever you want to go on Bainbridge Island, there’s a trail that will take you there. By foot. By bicycle. Or on horseback.
That’s the goal of the Bainbridge Island Metropolitan Park & Recreation District, and it has been since the formation of the first trails advisory committee in 1978.
“There was beginning to be so much interest in walking trails and the park department at the time didn’t have the staff to keep up with the demand,” said Dan Hamlin, park services director for the Bainbridge Island Metro Park & Rec District.
“Folks on the island were going out and creating trails kind of willy nilly,” he recalled. “So the park board appointed a committee to advise the board about what trails were needed.”
At first the committee was looking mostly at trails that had already been placed and spent time trying to keep them maintained, he said. But in 1985 the advisory committee took on a larger role, not only maintaining existing trails, but planning for new ones.
While there was some money in the park department budget for construction of new trails and to purchase property for future expansion, it wasn’t until about 2004 that the advisory committee and the board adopted a visionary plan that looked at a linking trail system that could take walkers and others all around the island.
At that same time, the park district hired staff to oversee construction of the trails. Hamlin joined the district in 2006.
“With a new director, we were able to have a budget that started to fund the priority work on trails, and we had staff to be involved with the citizens who were volunteering their time,” Hamlin said.
Since that time the advisory board has worked with the park district staff and have a great relationship, he said.
Currently the district has a thriving trails committee, Hamlin said.
“There’s 10 to 12 core (advisory) people that give hours of their time,” he said. “With the help of the staff using the equipment that we have and some labor, we’ve been able to keep up with our trails.”
In addition to that, Hamlin said from 200 to 250 islanders volunteer to keep up the trail system. Park Board Member Ken DeWitt, who has served since February 2000, said volunteers range from Cub Scouts to seniors, “from every walk of life.”
DeWitt became interested in parks and trails when he moved to the island in 1979; he lives near where the Grand Forest stands today. It was in 1985 that the state declared the 280 acres as surplus property and residents went to work to keep the land preserved as forest land.
“The school district bought 40 acres and the remaining 240 acres was being looked at for development,” DeWitt said. “There were three offers floating around and two of them were from companies out of the country that wanted to develop golf resorts.”
Advocates of parks and trails began working to pass a $5 million bond measure to purchase the property.
“One complication we had was that the land was state school trust fund land, so we had to pay for the value of the land and the value of the timber that was on it at the time, DeWitt said.
But voters on Bainbridge realized that they didn’t want to see the forest developed — and passed the measure by 80 percent. Soon trails were built in the Grand Forest, many of them were actually designed by DeWitt.
“I scouted most of those routes,” he said. “And I did the design for the bridge across the East Side Creek.”
Because he lives close by, DeWitt walks the trails in the west portion of the forest one or two times a week.
“I love the out-of-doors and I love that piece of property,” he said.
The trails in the Grand Forest are part of more than 32 miles of trails that are in use today on the island.
While the district hasn’t yet kept track of how many visitors each trail has annually, they plan to do that with a system that counts individuals as they enter.
“We’ll move it from trailhead to trailhead,” Hamlin said. “We want to have those numbers. But I can tell you our trails are heavily used. Just drive by the Grand Forest parking lot any day and see the number of cars parked there.”
The completion of the Fairy Dell Trail was a highlight for Hamlin.
The Grand Forest-Fairy Dell Trail links routes in several Bainbridge Island parks to provide a pleasant, primarily forested walk from one of Bainbridge Island’s higher points (about 340 feet) down to a secluded waterfront beach on the island’s western shore. The hike starts at the southern trailhead for East Grand Forest and winds through dense forest until reaching the newly constructed Hilltop Trail, connecting East and West Grand Forest.
Acquisition of the property in 2010 that allowed for the creation of Hilltop Trail was another highlight. Through the work of the Bainbridge Island Land Trust, that trail completed the missing link to the east-west connection in the Grand Forest.
“Putting in that trail took about three to four months,” Hamlin said. “But it took some 30 years to secure the property. It was a crucial piece in our trail system.”
The Gazzam Lake Trail is one that Hamlin suggests for beginners. It’s a mile and a half of an easy walk around the lake, he said.
Without the work of volunteers, the trail system on Bainbridge Island would never have happened, Hamlin said.
The current trails budget is about $7,000 a year and Hamlin said donations double that amount almost every year. Volunteer labor also is crucial to keeping the trails in their proper shape.
“It’s amazing what we’re able to deliver with such a small budget,” he said. “It takes all of the user groups — hikers, joggers, mountain bikers and equestrians — giving and helping to make this happen.”
In all, there are 22 trails on the island. A description and map of each is available at www.biparks.org.
Leslie Kelly can be reached at lkelly@soundpublishing.com.
Editor’s note
The Bainbridge Island Metropolitan Park & Recreation District is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Each month, we will share a different story about the parks district with our readers.
