Ever wonder what a five day road trip with your boss is like? Check out our Policy Associate’s account of her journey across the state with WWRC Executive Director Andrea McNamara Doyle.
During the last week of August, our Executive Director and I spent some time traveling across the state to visit a few WWRP sites and meet with some inspiring advocates along the way. Luckily, we share a love for the outdoors and took the scenic route.
Among the many sites we passed on our 700 mile journey, we stopped by Osprey Park in Sultan, the Peshatin Pinnacles State Park outside of Leavenworth, and the Eniat Waterfront Trail – all of which have been successful beneficiaries of the WWRP program.
We also spent a night at the Steamboat Rock State Park campground. Three WWRP grants and one LWCF grant were used to expand the full service camping areas in addition to constructing a trail, boat launch, and swim area. Dominating the 3,522-acre park and surrounding landscape is an iconic columnar, basaltic rock – or in other words, a really fun thing to climb.
Our farthest destination was in Ferry County for a ribbon cutting celebrating their expanding rail trail. Over 100 people attended the ribbon cutting for the Ferry County Rail Trail project. A recipient of two grants from the WWRP Trails Category and a current applicant for a third, this rail-trail project is the culmination of 10 years of hard work by a local non-profit, Ferry County Rail-Trail Partners (FCRTP) and the Ferry County Rail Corridor Committee.
The ribbon cutting signified the grand opening for the Phase III of this project, which completes 7.4 miles of gravel surface trail that complies with ADA and is a great surface for all types of non-motorized use. The trail runs along the west shore of scenic Curlew Lake and heads north along the Kettle River. When completed, the trail will extend 28 miles from just north of Republic up to the Canadian border at Danville.
Speakers at the event included Bob Whittaker, Keith Bell, and Bobbi Weller from the Ferry County Rail-Trail Partners, our WWRC board member Fred Wert, and Kaleen Cottingham, the Director of the Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO).
Many of the guests, including ourselves, took advantage of the opportunity to celebrate by bringing ours bicycles and touring the new section. What a treat!