Covering New Ground Mount Spokane State Park Closes In On Plan That Allows Access For A Wide Variety Of Trail Users

`Happy Trails’ appears to be the theme song at Mount Spokane State Park this summer.

Volunteers and prison work crews have cleared and maintained most of the park’s existing trails to the best conditions in memory.

And the landslide that has closed the road at the park entrance for the season has left trail users with uncommon solitude.

In the bigger picture, nine-months of research, debate and compromise among a committee of trail user groups has culminated in a trail plan that could settle decades-old conflicts involving resource damage, safety issues and even the fundamental shortcomings of effective trail signs.

The interim trail plan negotiated by 20 volunteers was presented to the public on Wednesday. After incorporating public comments, the plan will be presented to the State Parks and Recreation Department director this fall, said Pete Herzog, department environmental planner in Olympia.

Snowmobiling provided one of the more contentious issues.

“Snowmobiling is allowed only in designated areas of the park, but we have not done a good job of identifying those areas and enforcing our own rules,” Herzog said. Under the recommendations, snowmobilers will not be allowed to get off groomed trails in many areas to which they have been accustomed to roaming.

Inland Empire Paper Co., which has land adjoining the state park, is working with park officials to curb off-trail use because of damage snowmobiles have been doing to the tops of young trees.

But in the negotiations, snowmobilers appear to have won agreement for new freedoms, such as a corridor that will allow them to legally ride up the south face of the mountain to the top of Mount Spokane.

Mountain bikers are losing a few routes they have favored in recent years because the trails are steep, dangerous and prone to erosion, Herzog said.

“But we’re working with biking groups to design new trails and connections that will be more environmentally friendly,” he said.

While insiders are relieved that progress is finally being made in the parks trail management, some not-so-happy trails are apparent within the park boundaries.

Mount Spokane State Park, at 13,821 acres, is but a speck on most maps, yet it’s virtually impossible for a few park rangers to effectively patrol.

This becomes obvious as Kary Peterson, park assistant manager, bounces his four-wheel-drive over water bars on park roads and private timber company roads, averaging about 10 mph for 90 minutes in order to reach a treasure of real estate at the park’s southeast corner.

Ragged Ridge is a 550-acre natural area preserve that has never been open to motor vehicles. For years, however, motorcyclists, snowmobilers and all-terrain vehicle riders have worn a serious gash of a trail up the spine of this rugged and scenic terrain.

Even though the main park road is closed to vehicles for road construction this summer and Inland Empire Paper Company has banned off-road vehicles from its roads in the Thompson Creek drainage north of Newman Lake, the renegades keep finding their way in.

Hiking up the ridge, Friends of Mount Spokane State Park president Cris Currie shows where a fence on the park boundary has been torn apart and signs have been taken down.

“I’ve talked to motorcyclists up here, and they always say they didn’t know it was closed to motor vehicles,” he said. “But they rip out the gates and tear down the signs as fast as you can put them up.

Currie said two motorcyclists told him they had rented dirt bikes from a Spokane motorcycle shop. “They said the shop suggested that they ride up here on Ragged Ridge,” Currie said. “Apparently the education needs to start right at the top.”

Ragged Ridge holds rare plant communities that deserve protection, said Bill Birk, retired Spokane Community College forestry instructor. “This is a state park where no off-road vehicle use is permitted and look at that,” he said, pointing to four-wheeler tracks fanning out across the ridge’s grassy meadows.

In some open portions of the ridge, more than six parallel trails are gouged up steep stretches. Erosion combined with churning tires has excavated one trail section more than 40 inches deep.

“Some of this damage may be too bad to repair,” Currie said. “But we’re going to do our best to restore it.”

Birk has been involved in a group studying the expensive prospect of using heavy equipment to pile boulders and block ATV access to Ragged Ridge.

The park also has given new emphasis to clearing the hiking trail that leads off of Quartz Mountain to a saddle and then up to Ragged Ridge.

“The idea is to get a little more foot traffic into the area on a conditional basis so we can start monitoring the ridge and put a stop to the illegal motorized use,” Currie said.

The Friends of Mount Spokane group also is helping park managers in organizing volunteer groups to do trail work throughout the park. “Mountain bikers have said they will help redesign portions of trails to avoid having them be closed for safety issues or whatever,” Currie said.

Birk and other volunteers have hiked to Ragged Ridge to hand-pull spotted knapweed, a noxious weed that’s sprouting in the washout areas of the eroded trails.

“This is not just another place to waste,” Birk said.

Herzog is perhaps the happiest man involved with the park’s trail plans.

“It’s a highlight of my professional career to get consensus on this plan from 20 people representing various trail user groups,” he said. “That’s no small accomplishment.”

Comments on trail use at Mount Spokane State Park is still being accepted. Write Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission, Attention Wendy Woodard, 7150 Cleanwater Lane, P.O. Box 42668, Olympia, WA 98504 or email to wendy.woodard@parks.wa.gov.

To join volunteer groups working on trals at Mount Spokane, contact Cris Currie, Friends of Mount Spokane State Park, 466-9540 or check the group’s Web site at www.mtspokane.org.

This sidebar appeared with the story: TAKE A HIKE Quiet opportunity

With the Mount Spokane State Park road closed at the park entrance for repairs, summer visitors have an unusual chance to bike or walk into the park with little disturbance from motor vehicles. See details for a challenging and rewarding hike to the park’s three best vistas by turning to Routes: Classic Trips In the Inland Northwest, page H2.