News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Over the past decade, the Sisters Country has become a mecca for runners, hikers horsemen and mountain bikers who love to get out on the region's network of trails. Those trails also connect the community like a web, allowing more people to cycle and walk from home to school or to work.
All that didn't just happen - those trails had to be funded, built and maintained.
That's the work of a dedicated group of passionate volunteers, who are now the Sisters Trails Alliance (STA), an organization that is now celebrating 10 years on the trail in Sisters.
Jeff Sims, of the Sisters Ranger District, is one of the key figures in the Sisters Trails Alliance, helping shepherd projects through the requirements of the Forest Service. He recalls a couple of key events in the evolution of STA.
The trails alliance grew out of the Sisters Community Action Team (CATS) and moved under the umbrella of the Sisters Park & Recreation District. Early in its tenure, Sims said, "I stumbled on a group called Rivers & Trails, I think, from the National Parks Service. They offer a planner to plan your trails. A woman came down and she was the out-of-town expert, so everyone listened to her."
Getting a trails plan together moved the group out of the talk, talk, talk phase and into real action. The group started putting up signage on existing trails and, with lots of volunteer contributions, built a trail from Tollgate to Sisters High School.
Another key event was stumbling upon Sisters mountain biker John Rahm on the Peterson Ridge Trail, using a wheelbarrow to add bentonite clay to stabilize the trail.
Rahm will readily tell you that his interest in trails was a "selfish" one: he wanted good trails for his personal playground.
"I'm a passionate mountain biker, so that's where my excitement about trails came from," he said.
That may be true, but it led him into hundreds of hours of public service leadership in one of the most significant volunteer projects undertaken in Sisters.
Volunteers built the Peterson Ridge Trail System, which now contains 80 miles of trails and attracts users from across the Pacific Northwest.
The project was not without its dramas. The whole thing threatened to blow up into a Hatfield-McCoy feud between mountain bikers and horseback riders, who felt like they were going to be kicked off a traditional equestrian route.
But groups all got together and worked things out so that both styles of riding could be accommodated.
"Instead of ending up with a big conflict, we ended up bringing those people into the group," Sims said.
Now, equestrians make up a significant portion of the leadership of the group and cyclists and horseback riders are working together to promote their common interests.
And the Peterson Ridge Trail System has become one of Sisters' crown jewels, honored (and well-used) in the Sisters Stampede Mountain Bike Race, which appears poised to become one of Sisters' signature events.
Far from resting on their laurels, trail advocates are working toward perhaps even more ambitious goals - a paved path from Sisters to Camp Sherman.
Why paved? STA says that paving makes trails accessible and attractive to a broader range of people, including folks with kids who may have just learned to ride a bike.
However, paving is not cheap. STA estimates an eight-foot-wide paved path at about $64,000 per mile (single-track dirt trails run at about $1,600 per mile).
"It looks daunting... but we'd like to think this is a 10-year horizon and you won't get there if you don't start," said STA member Chuck Humphreys.
He also noted that STA is "not looking for tax revenues to do it."
"Once we get the green light from the Forest Service, we can start going out and finding money," Sims said.
The group is also working on enhancing the connectivity of trails within the immediate Sisters area and creating a new trailhead with more parking for the Peterson Ridge Trail System.
Trails are a passion project for STA members, but they also recognize a broad community benefit. Communities like Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and Summit Springs, Colorado, have become famous for their trail systems, which serve as a draw for recreation-based tourism. That's an important goal for STA.
And Humphreys says that studies show that trails in the neighborhood enhance individual property values.
"There's a lot of economic value to this that goes beyond bringing people to town," he said.
Whether its about driving the local economy or the pure thrill of bombing well-designed mountain bike trails, STA is proud of its decade of accomplishments. But the members aren't spending too much time studying their back trail. They've got miles more to go.
For more information visit http://www.sisterstrails.com.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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