Support Valley County Pathways in its quest to build a valley-wide trail system from Cascade to McCall

New "singletrack sidewalk" trail along Heinrich Lane, south of McCall 

Hi all,

On the fourth and final day of Idaho Gives, I'd like to encourage you to support Valley County Pathways, a nonprofit group I've been leading for almost 20 years.  

Our vision is to build a 70-mile, valley-wide trail system from Cascade to McCall and New Meadows, where we could connect to the Weiser River Trail. 

Put another way, our quest is to build a trail system that matches the grandeur of Long Valley.

For this year's Idaho Gives campaign, our goal is $15,000. We've received a pledge from a trail supporter who will match all of our contributions up to $15,000, for a total potential of $30,000. 

Our new video tells our story. 

We are inspired by the Boise River Greenbelt, the Wood River Trail and the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes. Those long-distance trails are the pride of their communities, and anyone and everyone can enjoy them. 

My feeling is we have 10 years to get a valley-wide trail system in place in Valley County, or we may never get it done. We need to act now! And that takes money! 

I got started with Valley County Pathways in 2004, not long after the first $10M open space measure passed for the Boise Foothills. I was heavily involved in that open space campaign, and I still feel like it's one of the most important things I've done in my life. It was so cool to be part of a broad grass-roots effort that got embraced by the whole Boise community. 

From that experience, I learned that we can shape and enhance our communities and landscapes with new trails, open spaces and wildlife habitat with a LOT of DEDICATION and HARD WORK! 

I've been trying to walk the talk for 30 years. In 1992, I was the founding president of the SW Idaho Mountain Biking Association (SWIMBA), when Ridge to Rivers was just getting started. We all wanted to improve our trail systems. SWIMBA partnered with Boise REI and R2R to build Shane's Trail, Sidewinder, Trail #1 over to Bob's, Redtail Ridge, and Seaman's Gulch trails in the 1990s. 

Erin and Ed Roper ride in the grand opening of trails in McCall, a VCP event. 

At the same time, I was producing new trail guides like Mountain Biking in Boise, Mountain Biking in McCall, and Mountain Biking in Idaho (80 rides statewide).  

So I was a pretty well-traveled trail guy when I started working full-time for Tamarack Resort in government affairs in 2003. I knew there was an abandoned railroad line that ran through the middle of the valley, and I saw the abundance of public land along the western shoreline of Lake Cascade. I read that the Bureau of Reclamation recommended a walking/biking trail around Lake Cascade in a resource management plan, and my eyes just about popped out of my head! 

We started Valley County Pathways at a time when the Rails to Trails movement was taking off big-time nationwide. 

Eleanor Putman speaks at the trail dedication in 2006
on the north end of the Crown Point Trail.  

But it turned out that the old rail line from McCall to Cascade had been abandoned in 1979, pre-dating national legislation that gave railroad companies tax incentives to gift rail lines to nonprofit groups for conversion to recreation trails. The old railroad line in Valley reverted to private ownership in many locations, so that has made our work much more difficult. 

A few landowners, including the Putman Family and the Whiteman Family, have gifted old RR line property to Valley County Pathways, for which we're eternally grateful.

Long story short, since 2004, we have built the bookends of a trail system in Cascade and McCall. Now we're working on bridging the gaps in the middle of the valley. 

Hugh Fulton, right, and Damon Yerkes on the Boulder Creek Trail. 

Currently, we are partnering with Valley County Parks and Recreation to craft a 5-year and 10-year build-out plan for the valley-wide trail system. We know the price tag will exceed $5M.      

I'm super excited about the whole thing. 

There's a ton of state and federal money available right now for trail projects. We need private funds to provide match for projects, provide steady upkeep on our trails, and to assist with trail construction. We also partner with our friends with the Central Idaho Mountain Biking Association, the West Central Mountains Economic Development Council, the McCall Chamber of Commerce, the City of McCall Parks and Recreation Department, the City of Donnelly, and the community of Cascade to stretch our trail dollars as far as possible. 

I don't usually ask people to donate to any particular cause in my blog, but this is a case that's dear to my heart. Please do what you can for Valley County Pathways! 

Thank you! 
- SS 

The North Valley Rail-Trail doubles as a xc ski, snowshoe and snow bike trail.