by Tina Wynecoop
The county’s Wandermere Road Pathway project will connect with another new trail in the Little Spokane River Valley: The WSDOT Children of the Sun Pathway.
This soon-to-be-open pedestrian trail masterfully increases the established Friends of the Little Spokane River non-motorized trails and pathways system. Throughout all the planning done to enhance motor vehicle traffic north of I-90, engineers have not over-looked the growing need and desire for safer pedestrian routes connecting the community in ways that simple highway construction cannot do. Just imagine, in the near future someone could hike/bike all the way from the Northside Aquatic Center on Hatch Road to The Centennial Trail near I-90!
The new WSDOT pedestrian path can be accessed just north of Ace Hardware, on the east side of Wandermere Road. A short paved incline leads to the pedestrian trail which heads east all the way to U.S. 2 near Farwell and Shady Slope Roads. Travelers will get views of the artwork installed in the Perry Street bridge/overpass–the Walking Heron–logo has been detailed into the concrete bridge abutments; while the flying Great blue heron design has been artfully incorporated into the bridge guardrails.
At a recent board meeting WSDOT engineers, Larry Larson and Bob Westby invited our FLSRV organization to adopt that portion of the trail between U.S. 395 and U.S. 2. The board accepted the offer and in turn it asks for our community’s help with simple maintenance along the trail; WSDOT will install signage, kiosks (with FLSRV trail maps), and benches, and do other maintenance. Please contact Tina at WYNECOOP@hotmail.com to volunteer your help with this project.
It is amazing to think that a few community-minded visionaries started a trail movement in the 1990’s in our valley that has resulted in such grand projects. If you dream it, it will happen! We might just refer to this huge trail network, woven around the Little Spokane River, as The Dream Trail.
You can access this web site for a map of the trail: http://spokane.golfnation.org/map179/wandermere-golf-course
Comments