March 10, 2010
News Archives
| IMPORTANT |
March 10, 2010
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***** *****
A major milestone has been undertaken
and captured this winter west of Big Lake with
the successful planning, execution, and
completion of the Iron Dog Trail Restoration
Project - a multi stakeholder venture permitted
and sponsored (ORTAB DNR State Parks, MSB,
ConocoPhillips, and numerous community
volunteers and community entities) over the past
two years under the management and guidance of
Big Lake Trails and the Mat-Su Trails Council.
As a result, a restored legal trail equaling Big
Lake Trail standards has been installed on
schedule and under budget as an integral part of
the famous Iron Dog Trail that heads west out of
Big Lake on our familiar Trail #6 - a dream come
true that was initially envisioned and kick
started nearly a decade ago as a result of
private property conflicts in the local
region south of Cow Lake.
Greatland Tree Service, LLC expertly,
efficiently, and environmentally mobilized
and completed the enormous logistical contracted
tasks that involved the safe transport of brush
clearing equipment and crews nine miles into and
out of the wilderness west of Flat Lake on
pre-pack trails and lakes over the past
two weeks, including safe crossings of the
Little Susitna River. The new trail section is
of outstanding beauty, rising into uplands
spanning over 1+ mile of heavily forested
terrain and abundant large wildlife (four moose
observed just today browsing along the new trail
section). Trail #6 and the new trail section
were immediately groomed and re-signed by Big
Lake Trails given the recent heavy snowfall and
Trail #6 (and the SVWT) is now officially fully
re-opened for your safe and enjoyable wintertime
recreational use.
Photos taken of the project
final closeout taken by Cathy Mayfield, Dan
Mayfield, and Dan Kruse of Big Lake Trails.
click to view and enlarge pictures
Dan Kruse
Iron Dog Trail Project Manager
Big Lake Trails and Mat-Su Trails
Council
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***** Fund Tracker *****
February 10, 2009
Iron Dog Restoration Trail
Begins!
Tuesday August 4, 2009
Huge Milestone on May 5, 2009
On May 5th 2009, the Mat-Su Borough Assembly unanimously adopted an ordinance incorporating all of our nominated Big Lake Trails into the MSB Trails Plan! Big Lake now has 15 regionally significant historic recreational trails on record in the MSB Trails Plan. These trails comprise nearly 130 miles in and around the greater Big Lake Area. The Assembly congratulated Big Lake Trails for their efforts in “re-energizing” recreational activity for local citizens and visitors to enjoy. With the adoption of this ordinance Big Lake should receive more focus, attention, and support from the MSB in helping our community secure and preserve these trails with legal standing, maintenance, and upgrades. We now have a solid documented foundation in support of our historic trails. It will be a primary goal of Big Lake Trails and its 80+ (and growing) members in the years ahead to leverage this outstanding outcome in pursuing and obtaining the necessary legal easements, trailhead access points, signage, and maintenance in support of this entire trail system.
Wednesday May 5, 2009
LAKE TRAIL NOMINATIONS
| WHERE: |
MSB Assembly meeting for public hearing Assembly Chambers, Palmer, Alaska. |
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| WHEN: | May 5, 2009 at 7:00 pm | |
This is the final review prior to final consideration and endorsement by the Assembly of our recommended regionally significant trails in Big Lake for formal inclusion into the all important Mat-Su Trails Plan.
Friday March 27, 2009
Saturday March 14, 2009
Susitna Valley Winter Trail (SVWT)
Inauguration
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A HUGE
SUCCESS! |
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$20.00 |
COMMEMORATIVE CAPS |
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Monday March 16, 2009
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Bruce Paulsen and myself presented
testimony on behalf of our nominated Big Lake Trails tonight at the
Mat-Su Borough Planning Commission meeting in Palmer. We also
got an unexpected and
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delighted endorsement from Friends of
the Mat-Su. After 15 minutes of discussion and Q&A by the
Commission, they immediately went ahead and tabled a motion for
adoption of the resolution for endorsement, which they UNANIMOUSLY
approved! Next our work goes to the Borough Assembly for review and
final approval. Getting closer to the victory we have been
seeking. By the way, the Commission had nothing but accolades
and appreciation for the work our group has done to date and
is undertaking in engaging our community and knows we have much work
ahead of us in securing these trail easements over the coming years
with the private land owners. Enclosed are my prepared
remarks.
Cheers,
Dan K
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Trial Run of the SVWT from
Big Lake to Susitna Landing
This past Saturday (March 7th) Big Lake Trails ran a "test drive" of the new "soon to be opened" SVWT trail from Big Lake North Shore Recreation Area to Susitna Landing (Ron's) and then back - a successful and gorgeous blue sky ride! We also gathered detailed GPS coordinates (two passes for error correction) for the entire SVWT trail south of Susitna Landing., and these can be used with (Garmin gpb track file and GPX file - high resolution 1000 point data file for Andre's (and Joe's) use and review and display, and a Garmin mps file and GPX file- a 300 simplified data point file for those of you with GPS units having limited memory). Also included in this email is an areal JPEG picture of the route from these files using GoogleEarth viewer. The route is 55 miles or 110 miles round trip for the southern section participants of the SVWT. Once bolted to the northern section gps data points, we should have a complete and fairly accurate SVWT gps database for all of us and our trail riders. It takes on average 3 hours (one-way) to do this new route of the southern section of the SVWT, with a moderate cruising speed (20 mph) and three rest stops for riders to stretch and rest their throttle hands for 10 minutes.
Signage will be key to keep riders on the trail - so we all need to make get this done before Saturday for our sections. Some other observations. The new snowfall (foot and a half) the past 10 days means that we need a bit more grooming, if possible, especially the North Shore Campground across Big Lake/MudLake/Flat Lake and down Trail #6 to the newly installed Iron Dog bypass trail just prior to Little Calf Lake as lots of riders this past week have made it quite rutted/mounded. The new Big Swamp bypass needs to be re-groomed as high winds on Friday filled it in a bit with the blowing snow. One large tree fell and landed across the Iron Dog trail north of the Tractor Trail intersection, and Big Lake Trails will remove it when signage gets underway early this week. I plan to lead the bulk of the riders out of Big Lake, and we'll keep them fairly close as much as we can and we plan to do a stop to gather up the riders before making the first river crossing across the Big Su to the west side as this is an area where rider could get easily off track. One other key observation, we need to inform riders that their is some fairly deep (4 feet +) snow along side the groomed SVWT trail and that it's advisable to stay on the groomed trail on this maiden voyage to avoid getting stuck as we won't be stopping or waiting for those riders that have strayed and stuck their machines given the tight agenda for the day. Return trip (north or south) gasoline will be available from Ron's Riverboat for purchase (max 500 gallons) - make sure you tell riders to show proper trail etiquette at the Susitna Landing by keeping machines offshore at the boat launch area (the area where the ribbon will be cut) as there are buried items beneath the mounds of snow on the shoreline premises. The Willow and Mid-Valley trail sections of the SVWT were awesome!
Hopefully no new large
snowfalls this coming week.
Dan Kruse
Vice President
Big Lake Trails
Big Lake Trails working with MATSU Trails Council
Tentatively Secures a major trails grant
from State/Feds
Letter of Award
DNR Press Release Announcement
On January 26, 2009, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Parks, Recreation and Trails Advisory Board approved Big Lake Trails #1-#3, #5, #7-#10, #12-#15 for amendment into the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Recreational Trails Plan through adoption of Resolution No. 09-02. The trails will be introduced for public hearing by the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Planning Commission as Resolution No. 09-11 on March 2, 2009. The Planning Commission public hearing will be held on March 16, 2009.
Big Lake Trails #4, #6 and #11 are already identified and documented in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Recreational Trails Plan.
Gathering
volunteers to assist in blazing the
Cow Lake By-pass Trail. This By-Pass will assist in
fulfilling the dream of a Big Lake to Denali State Park Trail. This 126 mile
trail will open up additional recreational opportunities to the public and
assist the community with new business opportunities.
January 24, 2009
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February 7, 2009 - Be sure to visit our Photo link to view pictures of this event
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Expansion of our membership to include all trail user groups (motorized and
non-motorized and the establishment of fees to support our public service
effort.
Submit documents in support of 501c3 status.
Follow up with MSB on 15 trails nominated for inclusion in the MSB
recreational Trails Plan
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