Happy Trails

This morning Emily Sinkhorn was in studio along with Sean Robertson and Students Sawyer and Meigan from The Humboldt Composite Mountain Bike Club. They talked about how it got started and the bigger nationwide group with which they are associated. Locally, kids from about 5 different High Schools work together to represent Humboldt.

This morning we met our latest co-host of Happy Trails, Roger James. Together we talked with Julie Neander, ES Deputy Director of Community Services for the City of Arcata. We talked about the Arcata portion of the Bay Trail and the Eureka Waterfront Trail coming to completion soon. Additionally we talked about the Ridge Trail including the safe crossing of Fickle Hill Road, conditional grant for the Annie and Mary Trail, and a Mountain Bike training track in Redwood park, among other things.

This morning Carol Vander Mer and I spoke with Greg Wolfgang, the King Range National Conservation Area Manger for the BLM. We spoke in depth on the beauty of the long standing Lost Coast Trail. We also spoke about an update to the permitting process.

About a year and a half ago I spoke with Anne Thomas, the founder and Executive Director of Shasta Living Streets. This morning, Emily Sinkhorn and I spoke with Anne about the new goings on there as they are working on connecting downtown Redding to their extensive trail system. Emily and I also outlined what we can look forward to with regard to trails here in Humboldt County in 2018.

This morning Emily Sinkhorn and I spoke with Hank Seemann from the County and Mike Foget from Blue Lake about movement and challenges on the long anticipated Annie and Mary Trail that will eventually be part of Humboldt Counties regional trail system, linking Arcata and Blue Lake.

This morning Michael Kauffmann and I spoke with Ken DeCamp, author of the new book "Wildflowers of the Trinity Alps." DeCamp has been exploring the Trinity Alps for over 60 years. This Friday at 7pm he will be at Northtown Books in Arcata to talk about the book and sign it for customers. Unfortunately Ken was having some trouble with his phone and we kept getting cut off. Kudos to Michael for filling in the blanks.

This morning Emily Sinkhorn and I spoke with Ben Kageyama of theCity of Ukiah regarding Phase 3 of their Trail Project that was recently awarded funding. NOTE: the first minute of the conversation is cut off.

This morning Carol Vander Meer and I spoke with Arcata Assistant City Engineer Netra Khatri about the grand opening of the first leg of the Humboldt Bay Trail. The ribbon cutting ceremony will be this Sunday at 10am, rain or shine at the I street part of the trail.

This morning Emily Sinkhorn and I spoke with Colin Fiske of the Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities about something they call their "Living Plaza" idea. In this concept 8th and 9th streets would be closed to automotive traffic allowing room for outdoor dining, play structures and other ongoing activities. Response thus far has been mostly positive. However, there is a concern over parking. The group plans on bringing the concept to the Arcata City Council soon.

This morning Carol Vander Meer and I spoke with Hank Seemann, Deputy Director of Environmental Services for Humboldt County Public Works. In what is being considered a great first step, a 10 foot wide multi-use trail will be going in alongside State Route 255 in Manila. This 1/2 mile stretch will begin in 2019 between Pacific and Carlson avenues. This will be a joint effort with Caltrans and is funded with a 1.7 million dollar grant from the California Active Transportation Program.

This morning Emily Sinkhorn and I spoke with Miles Slattery, Eureka Parks and Recreation Director and Denise Newman, RCAA Projects Coordinator. The main topic, the Eureka Waterfront Trail and it's progress. The Hikshari and Phase A are complete. Phase B is nearly complete and Phase C is coming along. The full trail is expected to be open from end to end by sometime this December. The official Grand Opening ceremony will be in the Spring of 2018.

This morning Emily Sinkhorn and I spoke with Melanie Williams of Bikes There and Catrina Scheffler of Lafayette Elementary about several things going on. The Moms on Bikes Event and Math Night at Alice Birney among other things.

This morning Emily Sinkhorn and I spoke with Misty Rickwalt, Karuk Tribe Project Manager about the recent Orleans Streetscape Design Fair. This design fair took place in september with a very large community percents. Over 100 community members (from a town of just over 600) showed up to take part. There seems to be a lot consensus with regard to how to make Orleans a more livable and walkable community. The Panamnik Orleans Community Center Connectivity Project will get underway next year sometime.

This morning Carol Vander Meer and I spoke with Dr. Chere Edgar who will be participating in the upcoming California Dream Ride. This will be a fundraiser for the California Bicycle Coalition. This 5 day, 280 mile ride will go from Folsom to San Francisco beginning this weekend.

This Morning Emily and I spoke with Scott Ellsmore, Traffic Project Manager for the City of Eureka. We talked about Eureka's North South Multimodal Corridor Plan project and upcoming community workshops

This morning Emily and I spoke with Merritt Perry, Engineer for the City of Fortuna about their recent successful Safe Routes To School projects. We also talked about other upcoming projects the city is working on.

This morning Michael Kauffmann and I spoke with Rosie Slentz here in the studio about getting school kids out of the classroom for a variety of activities. Rosie is with the humboldt County Office of Education and previously a 5th grade teacher.

This morning Emily Sinkhorn updates us on ongoing progress on the Humboldt Bay Trail. The first phase is expected to be complete by this October! Also We looked at rapid ongoing progress on the Eureka Waterfront trail which is expected to be complete late this year or early next year. We also discussed ongoing safe routes to school projects, the Annie and Mary Rail Trail and more.

This morning Carol Vander Meer and I spoke with Tara Strikwerda, the race coordinator for the Kevin Ebbert Run taking place this Sunday in Arcata. This is the 4th annual run and this year will help raise money for the Humboldt Bay Trail Fund, managed by the Humboldt Area Foundation.

This morning Michael Kauffmann and I spoke with Ryan Henderson of the California Wilderness Coalition about many things regarding the wilderness in our area including new draft legislation for our region that Congressman Jared Huffman is working on.