Trail aims to connect two sides of county

(Editors note: This is the second in a series of articles about how local communities have embraced the concept of a connected system of bike and walking paths for both alternative transportation and recreation.)

PRIEST RIVER — The bike and walking trail matrix continues to grow on the east side of Bonner County. Sandpoint, Sagle, Dover, Ponderay and Kootenai have begun to interconnect through paths that run along the lakeshore, up Sand Creek and through neighborhoods and business districts in a system that now totals more than 25 miles of trail.

Priest River has plans of its own — a trail that could double both the mileage count and connectivity by linking Dover to Priest River and, from there, on to Oldtown.

The grant monies are in place, the maps are drawn and the end result would promise a stretch of shoreline terrain that matches any in the nation.

“The section of trail from Dover to Priest River runs along the shore of the Pend Oreille River for about 20 miles,” said Liz Johnson-Gebhardt, who is spearheading the plan as executive director for the Priest Community Forest Connection. “I really do believe it will be stunning.”

Inspired by the success of the Pend d’Oreille Bay Trail project — a 1.5-mile span that will link Sandpoint and Ponderay along the shore of Lake Pend Oreille — Priest Community Forest Connection applied for and received the same National Parks Service technical assistance grant that funded the concept plan for the bay trail.

From there, the group set about bringing the involved parties to the table, including local municipalities and the Idaho Transportation Department.

“We’re starting to rev things up here,” Johnson-Gebhardt said. “If we can keep all of these entities on board and get them to stay there, I think we can make this happen.”

In the past, the organization as used a similar collaborative process to work with local government, state and federal agencies to produce what it calls, “community based solutions” for projects as diverse as fish habitat restoration and balancing the care of forest ecosystems with the demand for recreational access to the woods.

This latest project — known in the planning stages as the Pend Oreille River Passage Trail — stands to lift up the west side of the county on several levels, according to the executive director.

“This is something that’s going the benefit us in so many ways — economically, recreationally and in the health of our community,” she said.

The price tag, however, could be steep.

“We are talking millions,” Johnson-Gebhardt said. “Just the section going through the historic district of Priest River could be upwards of $500,000. It’s a lot of money.”

But with that investment comes an opportunity to raise the profile of Priest River and Oldtown, while creating a riverfront passage that could well become an arterial for positive attention and income alike.

“On the tourism side, we have a number of bike tours that come through in the summer,” said the director. “Right now, they’re traveling on the shoulder of the road. I see this as a chance for them to come here and ride along the shore of the Pend Oreille River.”

The National Parks Service will assist in the conceptual design for the Pend Oreille River Passage Trail, aided by architecture students from the West Bonner County School District.

The first age of trail development probably will involve building a six-mile link from Priest River to Oldtown — a chunk of the project which already has been grated right-of-way by the ITD.

Johnson-Gebhardt said that the first section would require grading to make the path easy to use for riders and walkers. Also planned are aesthetic upgrades such as trees and landscaping to differentiate the actual trail from the highway it will run alongside.

A second phase would extend the trail eastward toward Laclede, according to the director.

“But building the Pend Oreille River Passage Trail in pieces is not the point,” she said. “We’re trying to connect the whole deal.

“I wouldn’t say it’s going to be easy, but, yes, it is doable,” she added. “The Pend d’Oreille Bay Trail gives me a lot of inspiration. When you look at the big picture of connecting this project to Dover, this could be an amazing trail network.”

The city of Ponderay, too, has been inspired by the Pend d’Oreille Bay Trail, but in a fundamentally different way. Plugging into that section of shoreline gives the community public access to about 4,0000 feet of Lake Pend Oreille shoreline owned by the city, while, at the same time, turns Ponderay into the logical waterfront core of the burgeoning trail system.

Meanwhile, Erik Brubaker, city planner for the small community, is working on a new pathways and greenbelts plan that could redefine Ponderay as a recreational center for biking, walking and alternative transportation by leveraging what is now an untapped natural resource.

“It’s a no-brainer that it should be a corridor,” the planner said. “And we’re going to be studying that this winter and next summer.”

• In next Sunday’s Daily Bee: How Ponderay might join forces with other municipalities to add commuting power and large sections of additional nature trail to the overall bike and walking path network.