Teri’s Notebook: Public input sought on Carson City trails

John Muir said climbing a mountain or spending time in the woods could, “wash your spirit clean.”

I agree.

When you get away from the buildings and sounds of traffic, your chest opens up as big as the sky around you. There’s a settling of the soul.

That’s why the work the volunteer organization, Eagle Valley Trails Association is doing to build and maintain trails is so important. But it cannot do it alone.

Organizers of the trails association are hosting a series of public workshops to collect comments and concerns from local trail users. “We’re taking a very big approach,” said volunteer Lynn Zonge. “Taking a look at all the trails.”

Two of the three workshops were held last week, with maps displayed of trails in and around Carson City. The trails were divided into sections around the room.

For each section, a comment sheet was set up to collect feedback on each trail.

Comments ranged from observations such as, “trail washed out,” on Prison Hill and “I’d like to see the Ash Canyon trails as system trails” to “safe trail connection for pedestrians and bikes along Curry Street off of the freeway path.”

A third workshop will be 5:30-7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Bonanza Room of the Carson City Community Center, 851 E. William St.

Mark Kimbrough, project coordinator. said members have already conducted sustainability studies on each of the trails. Combining those studies with feedback from the community, will determine which trails will receive priority.

“We have done a mapping exercise for all the existing trails in the Carson City area and are going to develop a plan that works with the land management agencies to develop priorities for trails in the valley,” Kimbrough said. “The goal is to develop and map a community trail system that is sustainable, legal, multi-use, single track and agency system trails.”

The goal, said volunteer Donna Inversin, is to create a system of trails that have all received the appropriate permissions from private land owners as well from state and federal land-management agencies.

“We want to get them mapped and marked so Joel (Dunn, director of the Carson City Visitors Bureau) can market them,” she said. “We already know there’s a need for it, a desire for it. We’re hoping this will bring out even more users.”

One station at the workshop is dedicated to OHV users. “We’re reaching out to as many user groups as we can,” said Toby Welborn, volunteer. “There’s access for everybody. We benefit from comments from everyone.”

Those interested are also encouraged to fill out a survey at carsoncitytrails.org.