Volunteers clean up, widen area trails

About 100 volunteers turned out last Sunday to brave the heat and dust as they put their muscle into upgrading Trail 100 in Riverside State Park.

The National Trails Day local service event was sponsored by REI, which also announced a 2015 grant of $20,000 to support the park’s volunteer coordinator, who plans other park projects.

Temporary trail etiquette signs have been installed at either end of the rehabbed section near the Fort Wright Cemetery. Permanent signs are ordered.

“The tread has been widened to 3-4 feet and many of the problematic rocks were removed,” said Carol Christensen, outreach coordinator for REI Spokane.

Volunteers also brushed back a fair bit of poison ivy and other undergrowth.

“As we were packing up Sunday afternoon, we saw hikers, mountain bikers and horseback riders headed out, from either end, to enjoy the new section.”

Trail 100 is a nifty river-hugging route accessed from state park and Centennial Trail parking areas near T.J. Meenach Bridge, Fort Wright Cemetery and the Bowl and Pitcher. 

The trail is detailed in the guidebook, Day Hiking Eastern Washington, Trips 79-81.

Washington Trails Association is organizing other trail projects in the area, including some at Mount Spokane State Park.

Spokane Mountaineers, celebrating their centennial year, have challenged members to devote 100 hours to trail maintenance projects this season.

Going into this weekend, club volunteers had worked on trails at Marie Creek, Mount Coeur d’Alene and Lone Lake in the Idaho Panhandle National Forests. The club had organized another trail crew to work on the popular Stevens Lake Trail near Lookout Pass on Saturday.

These club projects have been led by Lynn Smith, who already had well over 100 hours of volunteer trail maintenance under his hip belt by the end of May.