Hello!  Here is a quick announcement.  Mark your calendars for this coming Saturday, November 13.  You may want to head to Grass Valley as Derek Hitchcock will have a table at the Downtown Grass Valley Holiday Market. You may recall that Derek - and his outfit Surf 2 Snow - have contracted with the city to come up with a preferred alignment for the Wolf Creek Trail Phase II.  This will be the initial rollout of the public engagement process for what they have so far.  Nothing is yet set in stone, and keep in mind at this point there is no funding mechanism to begin construction.

Yet this is truly an exciting development.  Phase II consists of the same stretch of trail as the original Conceptual Plan from 2006.  So come on down and see what Derek and his team have been up to.  He’ll be somewhere on Mill Street from 11-3.

 8 March 2021

I’m back with good news to report!  Jonathan Keehn, Josie Crawford and I recently met with other members of the Wolf Creek Trail Phase II Project Development Team.  The purpose of the Zoom gathering was to view and discuss options regarding a draft preliminary alignment for the continuation of the Wolf Creek Trail.  Project manager Derek Hitchcock, other members of his team from Surf 2 Snow, Grass Valley city engineer Bjorn Jones, Bill Haire from the land trust, and several CalTrans representatives filled out the team.

Using the 2006 Conceptual Plan as a starting point, we acknowledged from the get go that much of it is unrealistic and problematic due to engineering, right-of-way, and COST obstacles.  Our agreed upon goal is to come up with a preferred alignment that is realistic, buildable, and affordable.  Having CalTrans actively at the table helps greatly in that regard.

As part of the process we submitted written comments detailing our preferences, which were echoed by the BYLT.   The Project Development Team will meet again in June to finalize the draft, then embark upon a series of public outreach meetings and presentations, with the final product hopefully wrapped up by January or February.  

In the meantime an active volunteer effort in trail building continues on the Daspah Seyo Trail.  This is the lower dirt extension of the Wolf Creek Trail that runs closer to the creek below the existing paved trail.  We recently met with Bjorn Jones to design a bridge over Little Wolf Creek at the confluence with the main stem.  This section will be completed this year for sure! And behind the scenes we are moving forward on both the Berriman Ranch and Newmont connections to the Trail.  We can expect positive developments soon in regards to both of those additions to our system.