Pend d'Oreille Bay Trail maps future

SANDPOINT — Bike trails from Dover to Sagle are beginning to intersect with new sections about to pioneer their ways into Ponderay and, potentially, Kootenai.

All told, those trails will roll up to more than 25 miles of contiguous paved walking and bicycling options for area residents.

A coalition called the Friends of the Pend d’Oreille Bay Trail currently is working to ensure that the crowning achievement in this public access trail system will be a stretch that runs right along the shore of Lake Pend Oreille.

The coalition, which includes North Idaho Bikeways, Idaho Conservation League, Avista Corporation, the Greater Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce, Ponderay Economic Development Corporation, Bonner General Hospital, the Kinnickinnick Chapter of the Idaho Native Plant Society and other organizations, was formed in 2008 to create a community partnership of private organizations and businesses, as well as adjoining cities, Bonner County and state agencies.

The Pend d’Oreille Bay Trail would connect at its westernmost point with a trail along Sand Creek now being constructed as part of the Idaho Transportation Department’s Sand Creek Byway project. To the east, plans call for it to run as far as the Kootenai city limits near a former mill site along Hwy. 200.

About two miles of lakeshore property fall within the city of Ponderay, with the Pend d’Oreille Bay Trail itself encompassing what proponents refer to as “the middle mile.” 

Susan Drumheller, Sandpoint associate for the Idaho Conservation League, has been directly involved in the group’s ongoing work to set the waterfront trail aside for public use, before real estate prices escalate and the chance to act slips away.

“The stars are aligning for this kind of bike path project and we have an opportunity to create a mile or more of safe, community waterfront access,” she said. “Other communities would kill for a gem like this. We can’t blow it.”

The unpaved trail that today snakes along the lakeshore from the Sandpoint Water Treatment Plant to Black Rock in Ponderay city limits has been a favorite “secret walk” for years, but has also been a source of confusion. The people who stroll that trail do so only by the generosity and good graces of the property owners.

In other words, they have been trespassing with permission.

Lately, however, the growing popularity of the waterfront path has created problems as some users wrongly assume it sits on public property. In a few cases, individuals have tromped through an owner’s land and then verbally abused them after being told politely that they were on private property.

One key aspect of building the Pend d’Oreille Bay Trail includes acquiring the property and then appealing to an even higher authority — the railroad — for access points to the lakeshore. Except for a de facto trailhead just east of The Seasons development, the only way to get to the water requires scrambling over railroad right-of-way and down the embankment.

“The railroad knows they’ve got a big trespassing problem,” Drumheller said. “People have seen kids dragging their bikes under trains to get to the water. Having safe, controlled access to the waterfront trail would be the solution to all that.”

Currently, the Pend d’Oreille Bay Trail map shows two proposed underpasses that would link the trail to routes along Sand Creek and to future pathways in Ponderay.

That community’s city planner, Erik Brubaker, a member of the Friends of the Pend d’Oreille Bay Trail coalition, sees it as the link that will tie a regional trail system together and become the catalyst for things like widespread public access to the waterfront and an adjoining city park that looks out over the lake.

“Ponderay owns two miles of lakeshore frontage within its city limits, but we’re cut off from it — the railroad is a barrier,” Brubaker said. “If we had an underpass, we’d have immediate access.

“The Pend d’Oreille Bay Trail is one of the most important things this city could have going for it,” the planner added. “It would become a smoothly flowing corridor that could offer a 10-minute commute from downtown Sandpoint to a big employer like Coldwater Creek — and it would be the most beautiful commute on Earth.”

According to Drumheller, the underpasses could cost $1 million or more to construct. Add that to the price of purchasing waterfront property — even from landowners who support the project and even in a down real estate market — and the dollar signs add up quickly.

“It’s safe to say it’s going to be in the seven figures,” The ICL associate said.

The Friends of the Pend d’Oreille Bay Trail have been refining the trail map and what they call “an explanation of the idea” in an ongoing series of open house presentations. A rough draft of the map and concept were introduced at community meetings on March 10, and the group is continuing to tweak its proposal for future sessions.

“Once we have a well-articulated plan that has widespread community support, the next step will be to figure out how to pay for it,” Drumheller said.

One large chunk of the cost — the part required to perform environmental assessment work on portions of the trail where industrial activity has taken place in the past — is being covered by $650,000 in stimulus funding made available through the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality.

According to IDEQ brownfields specialist Steve Gill — a Sandpoint native who has been working on the trail project since 2006 — the lakeshore trail site includes areas of environmental contamination from former smelters and timber mills that will require environmental assessments and clean-up.

About $480,000 of the money will be used to deal with hazardous substances, with the balance set aside for petroleum clean up, the department reported. To help reach the job creation goals associated with stimulus projects, local consultants and contractors will be employed to do the work, Gill noted.

The Pend d’Oreille Bay Trail may prove expensive at the onset, Drumheller pointed out, but it has strong potential to act as a regional tourism and recreation magnet once everything is in place.

Along with connectivity and unmatched scenery, the pathway could include historical markers and educational kiosks citing things such as the former location of the Humbird Mill. In addition, the National Park Service might include the trail on its map of the newly created Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail, since Lake Pend Oreille is one of the more spectacular results of that ancient natural activity.

“The Pend d’Oreille Bay Trail could be one of the stops along that route,” Drumheller said. “There are so many benefits, not just for the people who live here, but also for the people who visit.”

The trail also suits the ICL’s mission of protecting quality of life “by protecting natural resources and the great outdoors,” the Sandpoint associate explained.

“And the trail is convenient,” she added. “Unlike a lot of our wilderness work at the ICL, this project is right in our own backyard.”

For more information about the Pend d’Oreille Bay Trail project and upcoming public meetings, visit: www.pobtrail.org or call (208) 265-9565.