Scout targets Minnehaha
Cleanup of popular rock climbing, biking area of Beacon Hill his Eagle project
A Lakeside High School freshman will lead a Saturday cleanup of the Minnehaha Rocks as his Eagle Scout project, organizing volunteers to pick up trash and clean graffiti at the popular rock climbing and mountain biking area.
The project coincides with another group’s efforts to plan for an improved trail system on Beacon Hill by soliciting conceptual designs from landscape architects.
Connor Coates said he was inspired to take on the project after spending time on Beacon Hill.
“I was rock climbing, and I needed an Eagle project. I thought, ‘This place is really messy. Why not do a project here?’ ” Coates said.
The 14-year-old solicited donations of bags and gloves and other cleanup supplies as well as the services of a sandblasting company to remove the graffiti in the park just east of Spokane and north of the Spokane River.
He also will coordinate other Boy Scouts’ work on the cleanup.
“It’s a pretty nice park – well it could be,” Coates said. “It has a lot of potential.”
Members of the Fat Tire Trail Riders Club agree.
They have organized a design workshop this week to look at ways to improve trails on Beacon Hill and increase access to those trails with new trailheads and parking areas.
The public is invited to check out the conceptual designs from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday at Mountain Gear’s corporate headquarters, 6021 E. Mansfield Ave., which is near Felts Field.
Angie Feser belongs to the Fat Tire mountain biking club and is a landscape architect.
Feser describes Beacon Hill and Minnehaha as a quilt of trail opportunities.
“Beacon Hill itself is a large piece of land including private lands, public park lands, and Avista has land there, too,” she said. “We’re trying to pull together people who use the trails and see how they want them improved.”