But as Lori Schanche outlined plans for the Fish Creek Trail extension at an Anchorage Trails and Greenways Coalition meeting this spring, several people in the audience nodded their heads enthusiastically.
Why?
Because that tiny segment, long sought by the Spenard Community Council, will connect Spenard Road to Northwood Park, filling a much-needed gap in Anchorage's disjointed bike trail system.
Other vital links -- such as a much-anticipated connector trail between Mountain View and the Alaska Railroad Depot -- will eventually allow cyclists to pedal all the way from Eagle River to Kincaid Park without hitting busy streets.
Schanche is the nonmotorized trails coordinator for the city's project management and engineering department. Several trail projects planned for Anchorage this year should combine to make bike commuting and city cycling easier, safer and more enjoyable.
Ground will be broken for some this summer. Others are being planned. Most remain ideas awaiting funds.
At the annual meeting of the Greenways Coalition in March, various links planned for Anchorage's paved trail system got many people excited. Across the country, green spaces are being touted as a prime reason for living in a given city. According to the nonprofit Greenways Inc., trails and greenways increase property values and create a sense of community.
In Oakland, Calif., the company noted, a three-mile greenbelt around Lake Merritt, near the city center, added $41 million to surrounding property values.
Anchorage Parks and Recreation sought $1.8 million in state funding for trails projects, including:
• $500,000 to rehabilitate paved trails citywide.
• $1 million for the Fish Creek Trail
• $150,000 for a connecting trail between the Fish Creek and Coastal Trail
• $150,000 for a crossing at the Campbell Creek Trail and Lake Otis.
It got none of this.
What made it into the state budget, but could still be vetoed by Gov. Sarah Palin next week, is:
• $100,000 for Taku Lake Park and trail upgrades
• $120,000 for rerouting of a connector trail to the Coastal Trail at Marston Drive.
Beth Nordlund, development director of the Anchorage Park Foundation, said user groups need to lobby the Legislature harder.
"They haven't applied themselves to trying to get money," she said.
Other projects, such as the Ship Creek Trail, Chester Creek Trail extension and 48th Avenue extension, are progressing, Nordlund said, and that's a plus for Anchorage's greenbelt system.
"If you ask any citizen of Anchorage, they would tell you that the greenbelt trails are the jewel of Anchorage," said Monique Anderson, Anchorage parks superintendent. "Chester Creek Trail is a major corridor for a lot of people who commute or walk to work. Making the links is vital."
Nordlund said her nonprofit aims to help maintain current trails while pecking away at building links.
"We have a gorgeous trail system ... but also we need those last few gaps that make those trails even more sexy," Nordlund said.
But first, Nordlund said, the city needs to maintain its trails, starting with the Coastal Trail, perhaps the most popular pathway in Anchorage. Big potholes, longitudinal cracks created by roving root systems and steep drop-offs in which entire segments of pavement have sloughed off cry out for maintenance, she said. Bright warning paint is needed in some areas to warn users of problems.
"We're putting together a team of maintenance workers who can address those Coastal Trail crevasses," Nordlund said.
Parks superintendent Anderson said a recent private donation of $25,000 for the next three years will help.
The first purchase?
An asphalt repair machine that a two-person crew, working southwest from Westchester Lagoon, will use to repair Coastal Trail cracks.
By the end of last summer, Anderson said, connectors to the Chester Creek Trail were paved at Juneau Street, near the Davenport Ballfields and from A Street, improving access to the trail.
"They were redone with root barriers and some additional re-enforcement so hopefully we can prolong their longevity," Anderson said. "
Those connections, said bicycle commuter Tomas Jensen, are key. Jensen belongs to the newly formed Bicycle Commuters Alliance of Anchorage, a group of citizens interested in spreading the word about the environmental, health and economic benefits of commuting by bike.
"We're trying to reach out to people who have never commuted before, and those (connector) trails offer an easy entry into the commuting world. People don't have to be intimidated ... about riding on the roads."
Jensen lives in Airport Heights and commutes year-round to his workplace downtown. Nearby Chester Creek Trail is a big reason why he decided to live in Airport Heights.
"I've lived in Portland (Ore.) and Madison, (Wis.), which I think are pretty well-known as bike-friendly cities," he said. "I think Anchorage's trail system is definitely up there. But as far as ease of commuting on the road, it's certainly on the not-as-good end."
At the Greenways meeting, Schanche talked about the soon-to-open Ship Creek Trail, which includes a tunnel under Post Road in a downtown industrial area.
Eventually, that trail segment will cross Ship Creek on one end and link to Tyson Elementary in Mountain View on the other.
"It's going to be really nice," she said, "and give people an alternative route away from all those trucks."
Other than a short segment of residential streets in Mountain View and a quarter-mile segment near the Railroad Depot, the Ship Creek Trail project will eventually allow cyclists to commute all the way from Eagle River to Kincaid Park on bike paths.
Find Melissa DeVaughn online at adn.com/contact/mdevaughn or call 257-4482.
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