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• It’s Paved! Another Segment of The Annie and Mary Trail Will Officially Open Next Month

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Over a hundred people braved the rain Friday. Under umbrellas and canopies, bike lovers, government officials and community members gathered to celebrate the opening of a mighty segment of the Annie & Mary Trail.

A section that stretches from the skate park on Sunset Avenue all the way to green space on the Mad River was recently completed — a realization of an idea envisioned for decades.

“Now community members can walk, ride, or roll 18.5 continuous miles of trail between South Eureka and the Mad River, a major milestone for the trail connectivity in Humboldt County and along the Great Redwood Trail,” said Arcata Mayor Kimberley White during her remarks.

People there saw the new 3.5 miles of paved trail as a key piece of the broader network that will allow for people to safely bike and walk across the Humboldt Bay area.

This recently completed section is already seeing heavy use. Emily Sinkhorn, Arcata’s director of Environmental Services, said between 375 to 400 people a day use the section between Cal Poly Humboldt’s Hinarr Hu Moulik dorms and Sunset Avenue.

Officials said it’s important to have a safe path for people to walk, a place to enjoy the natural world, or a way to get to work without needing to use a car. The trail takes you beside parks, through wooded and riparian areas, along industrial businesses and under highway overpasses.

“I really believe in trails and I believe in getting people out either walking or biking,” said Julie Neander, who rode her bike in the rain to the celebration. She pointed to the importance of reducing transportation emissions and staying active.

She thinks the trail is “fabulous.”

The path allows people to bike to the river at Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District Park One, to businesses in the west Arcata area, or to a trailhead for the Arcata Ridge Trail. The project came with serious pedestrian and bike improvements for people to cross Highway 299 into the Valley West neighborhood.

Thirty years ago, community members formed the Friends of Annie & Mary Trail with the idea to use the derelict rail line to connect Arcata to Blue Lake.

“In 2005, talking about this was controversial, right?” said Third District Supervisor Mike Wilson. “The momentum that we’re seeing today came from a lot of work and a lot of blood, sweat and tears from community members that sought a different vision than what was existing at the time, which was the desire by some to rebuild a railroad system that really looked to many people to be infeasible from an economic perspective and a geologic perspective.”

“It took people saying out loud that they wanted it,” he said.

He noted the concept of railbanking, a legal mechanism that preserves a trail corridor for future train use, was key in the establishment of multiple trails in Humboldt County that were built on existing rail lines.

“That vision really started decades ago when this was a dilapidated railroad corridor running through the middle of our towns, and people started thinking, what can we do with this?” said Elaine Hogan, executive director of the Great Redwood Trail Agency during her remarks.

“What could this be that might be something better? That might be something that we could use, something that could be a great public asset and make our communities more livable and walkable and bikeable and rideable?”

A big part of what took the trail so long to come to fruition was there was no contiguous ownership of rail segments, said Sinkhorn. But she said the formation of the Great Redwood Trail Agency was helpful to work with city officials on right of way needs around the river.

Sinkhorn said the trail is open, but asked the public to respect any additional construction. The city is preparing interpretive signage and benches made from salvaged rail parts.

Kelsee Holland, a project engineer for Granite Construction, estimated by next Friday, any final odds and ends will be wrapped up.

“I just hope everybody enjoys it,” she said. “It was a lot of effort and a lot of love put into all of it. So I’m excited to see people getting to use it.”

 It’s not the final chapter to a vision of a network of trails on former rail lines. The next segment of the Annie & Mary Trail, planned by Caltrans, aims to link Blue Lake to Glendale.

Officials are also working on a connection between Arcata to the Samoa Peninsula, which will be presented to the GRTA board next week. And with a future planned section to King Salmon, people could eventually ride from the beach there to the Mad River.