Access to a popular outdoor recreation area near Sitka just got a bit easier thanks to a grant-funded trail rehabilitation project that wrapped this summer.
Kruzof Island, about 13 miles west of Sitka, is home to miles of multi-use trails that were once logging roads. Two U.S. Forest Service cabins, Shelikof and North Beach, are popular destinations, but people hunt, hike and bike, ride ATVs and recreate across the area – all national forest land.
Ben Hughey is the executive director of Sitka Trail Works. He says in recent years, accessing the Twin Lakes area of the island has become more challenging.
“These two really beautiful low elevation lake, so, in trees and somewhat close to the coast, surrounded by some interesting terrain…were getting to be almost inaccessible because of brush overgrowth,” Hughey said. “We know we live in a rainforest; stuff grows pretty well here, and alders love to take over gravel roads, and basically they had grown to the point where they were closing off branches from both sides, had met each other in the middle, and to ride or hike or bike, you were just pushing through branches.”
Hughey said a few years ago, the Sitka Ranger District reached out to the nonprofit, and asked them to help with trail maintenance on Kruzof by applying for an Alaska Department of Fish and Game grant that the federal government isn’t eligible for.
“In an ideal world, this would be a part of the Forest Service’s annual maintenance funding, and they would be able to take care of this work and keep these public access points open all the time for us, without having to go through a competitive grant process and scramble and find money,” Hughey said. “But they are so reduced in capacity, reduced in funding that we had to step in, and we’re grateful to be able to do that.”
Trail Works scored the grant and began the project with contractor Island Enterprises this summer. In addition to the brushing, they replaced decking on bridges that were beginning to rot, and repaired an eroding section of the Twin Lakes road.
Hughey says Trail Works’ mission is to provide public access to public lands, and he’s excited to help make more of that land accessible.
“We have so much land in the Tongass, and it’s hard to get around and bushwhacking in the rainforest. And so, being able to get out on a road, get some distance from town, and explore new terrain is really essential,” Hughey said. “So I think that’s the biggest impact, is right now people can spend the fall and get out into a lot more terrain.”
Hughey says the project, which wrapped just in time for fall hunting season, cost $150,000. 75% of the funding was covered by the state’s hunter access program.
