Clark County trail plan renews a scenic 1880s dream
By Bill Stewart, The Oregonian
Monday, Feburary 27, 2006
VANCOUVER --Some of Clark County's most spectacular scenery, enjoyed in the past by passengers on rare journeys on the county-owned railroad and by fishermen, could be opened to walkers and cyclists as soon as 2008.
A state committee has awarded the county $450,000 in federal transportation enhancement money to start a nine-mile trail from Battle Ground to Battle Ground Lake to Lucia Falls Park to Moulton Falls Park south of Yacolt. The county's match is $150,000.
Eventually, the trail could be as long as 110 miles, according to Kelly Punteney, trails and greenway park developer for Vancouver-Clark Parks and Recreation Department.
"We are talking about some incredible scenery, with great views of Mount St. Helens and a fairly good section of the East Fork of the Lewis River," he said. Punteney said the typical section will include a paved trail 12 feet wide as well as a 3-foot-wide "soft trail" for joggers.
Although there are only a few trains being operated on the railroad by a volunteer group now, he expects excursions to increase as volunteers rebuild more track on the 119-year-old route. The tracks cross the river in a canyon and go through a horseshoe-shaped tunnel.
The railroad was incorporated as the Vancouver, Klickitat and Yakima Railroad in 1887, with the goal of connecting Vancouver and Yakima. But economic busts, a massive forest fire and flux within the forest industry kept the route from crossing the Cascade Mountains. Punteney's dream is to achieve what the trains never did --a trail from downtown Vancouver through the mountains to Yakima.
"That dream will take 20 to 40 years," he said, "but I predict that in a couple of years, we will wonder why we didn't do this sooner."
He said the first construction will be the trail segment north from Battle Ground. "That will be easiest place to start. And as we build, we will try to parlay the first phase into more grants," he said, estimating that the trail in the county could cost $10 million.
As the rails and trail cut a swath from Hazel Dell on the southwest to near Yale Lake in the northeast, the route will link to other routes such as the Lewis River Greenway, the Padden Parkway Trail, Curtin Creek and the environmental center at Brush Prairie.