Proposed trail would link community

More often than not, my preferred hiking turf is in the thousands of acres of wilderness that surround our area. I haven't really devoted much time or thought to the Sisters-to-Tollgate trail proposed by the Sisters Trail Alliance (STA), simply because I considered it to be pretty much an urban trail.

I will admit to being a bit curious about all the fuss, though, so I recently accepted an invitation from the STA to take a look at the proposed project. As currently planned, the proposed trail would link the Tollgate community with the Ray's and Three Wind shopping centers at the west end of Sisters.

Last week, in order to check out the proposed trail, I met STA chairperson, Gary Guttormsen, and STA member Phyllis Lewis at Ray's and they led me out along the forest route. The portion of the project in question, between Ray's and Tollgate, is scarcely more than a mile long and wholly on a narrow strip of U.S. Forest Service land that lies to the southwest of Highway 20.

Because the highway entrance to Tollgate is farther out of town, I hadn't realized how close the subdivision is to the shopping areas; although it's quite a bit farther by road. As we walked among the second-growth ponderosa pines, we saw walkers, joggers, and bicyclists on multiple user trails throughout the area.

The first thing that occurred to me was that a single, "official" trail would certainly benefit the area. I'd heard of one complaint about "paving the forest," but my impression was that a single trail would consolidate the traffic from a maze of trails and roads through this strip of forest, thereby limiting human impact.

"We're planning to make this a multi-modal path," said Guttormsen. "As it is now, you can't ride a skinny-tire bike out here; and the current route dumps users out onto Highway 20. Families and kids don't want to be on the highway. It's not safe."

The recent death of anti-bullying activist Joe Bell came to mind. Bell, an Oregonian, was killed while walking on a highway in Colorado. In an effort to draw attention to the problem of bullying, Bell was walking across the country in memory of his son, who committed suicide as a result of bullying.

Guttormsen has a personal cause of his own in supporting multi-use forest trails. "My brother was in a wheelchair for the 22 years of his life. He loved to go out in the forest, but there just aren't many places to do that."

Lewis added, "And older people like me certainly don't want to be out on the roads. We're going to be able to go through this area without ever having to go on a road. That's the idea.

"It's all about connecting the community and health and wellness," said Guttormsen. "That's why we decided to go to this paved trail system."

Historically, people have traveled this forest corridor for well over a hundred years. The route crosses and closely parallels portions of the historic Santiam Wagon Road.

"People now using the Santiam Wagon Road are going to love this new trail," he said.

"Some people wanted the path much closer to their homes but others didn't, so we moved it out to about 500 feet. The closest it comes to a property line in the (Tollgate) subdivision, now, is 288 feet," Guttormsen said.

He went on to say, "Phase 1 of our project is the one we are working on right now and it would ... continue to the Tollgate entrance road. It would also build the half-mile paved path from Crossroads to the high school where it would connect to the city's paths and the existing Tollgate-to-high-school path."

All the proposed routes wind among the trees and are laid out so that tree removal is not planned.

On Tuesday, November 5, SPRD is hosting a public meeting at the Sisters-Camp Sherman fire hall at 6 p.m. to discuss the proposed trail. The fire hall is located at 310 S. Elm St. in Sisters. The public is invited to attend.