Route Scouting

This isn't quite yet the map that will be ready for the brochure, but I have done some intial route scouting for the trail. I am working on narrowing down exact pathways next.

These are the potential routes that I drove today. I was scouting along as I drove for the general terrain, the existing usage of the land around the routes (is it forested, meaning lots of cost to cut a trail, or is it just a bunch of fields that won’t require much teardown cost?), the types of properties along the way (and therefore the likelihood of the property owners to donate some land if the trail is off the road), any important facilities that might be nice to link the trail to, and also the number and potential length of any water crossings. I also tried to notice the traffic in case the bike path has to be built close to the road.

After scouting these routes, I can pretty much say that anything except Route B is far too cumbersome to work with. Both Routes A and C get extremely hilly around their water crossings, to the point that it would discourage casual bikers if left alone or involve great expense to make them more friendly to casual bikers. The route highlighted in orange is kind of a “northern limit” on the relative unfriendliness to casual bikers. Above this line, the road and land is relatively flat, and there is a power line close to the orange line that could potentially serve as a low-cost pathway to go between the upper parts of A and C and the rest of B. However, the land traversed by the orange route is also very hilly, and so crossing over from route to route is not advisable in terms of biker friendliness.

So, the final conclusion is something along Route B is the best option. If we stray too far away from Route B, we will quickly get into very hilly terrain, and even staying directly next to the road involves negotiating a few long, low-graded hills. Additionally, Route B passes very closely to Daniel High School, Twelve Mile Recreation Area, and the main entrance to the Issaqueena Lake area of the experimental forest, so it can serve as an easy route for someone to get to these important places.

Next up, I am going to attempt to see if there is a GIS online map of the area, so I can get an idea of who owns the property adjacent to this route. At the most basic, we can throw a bike lane on Hwy 133 (which is looking like the most cost-effective option), but having an idea of what the property ownership is could give some guidance if we have to deviate from the bike lane.

-Cailen