Last month we shared the Evergreen and Orogenesis trail restoration work happening in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, this month we’re looking into the future at our trail building plans for the region. 

This partnership began as part of the Packwood Trail Project—a proposal to build a trail system near the town of Packwood so residents didn’t have to drive an hour to trails and could use it through the winter months as well. That was in 2019 and we’ve been slowly building momentum ever since. We’ve formed the Upper Cowlitz Valley Trails Coalition (UCVTC)—a multi-user group that discovered we all have the similar desire of increasing trail access and connectivity. 

This coalition’s first goal was to focus on maintenance as a means to build trust with the Cowlitz Valley Ranger District. This led to the realization that more trained chainsaw operators were needed in the region, and this year we hosted the 4th Annual Cispus Collaborative Chainsaw Training. Over the past 4 years we’ve trained over 100 chainsaw operators and deepened relationships not just with the Ranger District but also between organizations. Where else do you have the state’s hiking, biking, and horseback riding organizations all working together like this? 

“Working collaboratively as a group of hikers, horsemen and mt bikers has been rewarding and inspiring. By supporting each other’s goals and celebrating successes, both shared and individual, we have been able to accomplish more than any of us could on our own.” – Tyler Forman, Cowlitz-Naches Chapter President & State VP, Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance

Training more sawyers has been incredibly useful for our work restoring the Klickitat Sisters Trail #7, but our ultimate goal is not just maintenance—it’s more trails and trail connectivity close to where people live. Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance and Trans-Cascadia want bike-legal trails in the Cowlitz Valley—where next to none currently exist. Washington Trails Association and Backcountry Horsemen want to address the high-use areas of the Goat Rocks Wilderness and create more trailheads closer to town and connectivity between them to disperse the impact of summer crowds. And Orogenesis wants trail connectivity between Packwood and White Pass. Currently bikepackers are forced to take the busy and narrow Highway 12 for 20 miles—the most dangerous section of the whole 5,000 mile route. 

“WTA was drawn to the Klickitat Trail as part of our Lost Trails Found campaign; we first sent trail crews there in 2014. It is a rugged, remote route that delivers the views and the solitude that draws hikers to wild places, but that also means the trailwork is that much more challenging too." - Ryan Ojerio, Washington Trails Association

Collectively, we’re proposing adding an ambitious 30 miles of trails in the Cowlitz Valley, most of which are historic or abandoned trails that are relatively easy to restore. We’ve raised money to begin building them, conducted community surveys that reinforce the need, contracted a preliminary environmental sensing document, and meticulously verified the alignments on the ground. We even found a National Forest plan from 1990 that acknowledges ‘new’ uses like mountain bikes, and increased recreational use overall—leading to a recommendation of adding trails to the system. Not surprisingly this 35 year-old proposal suggests many of the same trails we’re proposing today. None were built. These connections made sense then and they make sense now.

“Intensive logging and road construction on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest have severely diminished the forest trail system. A proportionately high amount of the remaining trail miles are located inside wilderness, focusing demand for trail recreation in those areas. There is a distinct lack of loop trails, long distance trails and connections between trails to create networks.” - GPNF Proposed Trail System Additions, 1990

More recently in 2018 the US Forest Service announced the National Strategy for a Sustainable Trail System which continues to advocate for a similar approach: 

“Collaboratively identify socially, ecologically, and economically sustainable trail systems across unit and jurisdictional boundaries, incorporating contemporary design principles and including potential new trails and ways of repurposing, realigning, or decommissioning existing trails.”

Yet without enough staff in the Cowlitz Ranger District, the official environmental review process (NEPA) can’t be completed. The recent federal staffing and budget cuts have pushed this project even farther out of reach despite strong support from stakeholders of all types.

Before we throw our arms up though, let’s look at some of the proposed projects.

Packwood Trail Project

New trail: 8mi

Where: Packwood to La Wis Wis Campground

Usable all year, near where people live, provides an off-highway route, provides opportunity for indigenous and forest ecology interpretive components, and funnels trail users to downtown Packwood businesses.

Yellowjacket Trail

New Trail: 14mi

Where: White Pass to La Wis Wis Campground

Provides an off-highway route and a 3,500’ descent. Potential for a shuttle operator to offer “Pass to Packwood” MTB tours. 

Jackpot Lake and Lone Tree Trails

New Trail: 17mi

Where: Packwood to Jackpot Lake & Cispus River

Utilizes two trails abandoned in the 70’s that provide stunning views of Ti'Swaq/Tahoma (Mount Rainier) and descends 4,500’ from the recently restored Klickitat Sisters Trail #7 to the valley floor. 

All together these trail system enhancements provide a safer and far superior experience for long-distance riders. From the standpoint of trail connectivity, these concepts are a slam dunk. We’d be replacing 29 miles of roads along the Orogenesis route—many of them dangerous—with 38 miles of singletrack. Doubling this section of Orogenesis from 35% trail to 70% trail. 

In other parts of Washington, and elsewhere along the Orogenesis route in Oregon and California, our proposed new trail connections are stalling too—without a well-oiled chain of land managers to facilitate construction, new trails just don’t happen. 

So what can you do? The Outdoor Alliance has been tirelessly advocating on all our behalves and have made it super easy to ask your legislator to reverse these staffing cuts. It takes just 3 minutes.