Trail-builders make headway on final link

The 34-mile Foys-to-Blacktail trail network crept a little closer to completion last weekend, with the final link connecting Herron Park to Blacktail Mountain expected to be finalized by the end of August.

Last weekend, volunteers with the nonprofit organization put the finishing touches on a roughly one-mile connector between the Boundary and Chase trails on the southwest side of Herron Park.

And in April, the 16-year-old project received a major financial boost from Montana State Parks in the form of a $90,000 grant to build the last leg of trail — the namesake connector that will run about 9 miles from Herron Park to the Forest Service boundary at Blacktail.

Kelly O’Brien, a Kalispell attorney who serves as the president of Foys-to-Blacktail Trails’ all-volunteer board of directors, said the group is still working to raise funds for the estimated $130,000 price tag for the project.

“That allowed us to have some of the funding to start building the trail, and then we’re relying on individual donations to get us the rest of the way there,” O’Brien said Thursday.

Most of the existing 15 miles of trail already lacing the hills of Herron Park was built by volunteers and crews from Montana Conservation Corps, but the group opted to hire Whitefish-based Terraflow Trail Systems to punch through the final stretch this summer.

Pete Costain, the owner of Terraflow, said Friday that one of his trail crews started on the project during the last month. He said they’ve built about a mile of the new trail so far, and will be able to use some segments of an existing social trail used for years by hikers and mountain bikers to traverse the thickly wooded mountains between the two existing trail networks.

“People have been doing that ride for decades. It contains a lot of hike-a-bike sections,” Costain said, but added, “It was more the concept of riding Foys-to-Blacktail than the experience.”

Once complete, part of that experience will include a higher-elevation trek that includes more ridge-top views of the surrounding Salish and Swan mountain ranges and the Flathead Valley below.

“A lot of it stayed along the flank of that ridge, a lot of the trail [will be] up where the views are just insane. And there’s quite a bit of rock, in a good way, like hikable slab rock,” he said. “It’s definitely a different character than in Herron Park, it’s more rugged I guess you could say.”

In total, Costain estimates his crew will construct about 6 miles of new trail to tie into the existing single-track between the two existing trail networks. Blacktail Mountain already includes 11 miles of trails maintained by the U.S. Forest Service.

Since the project began as a series of conversations between a group of Kalispell-based outdoor enthusiasts, nailing down the crucial leg of connector trail has been a challenge. The route comprises a private patchwork of forested lands owned by Weyerhaeuser and several individual landowners — many of whom don’t live in the area and aren’t easily reached to haggle over public-recreation easements.

“It was a lot of coordinating,” O’Brien said. “The landowners that granted the easements, everyone was very supportive, but there were a few people that we simply couldn’t get a hold of.”

Ultimately, the route was determined by which landowners were reachable, and last year Flathead County officially took ownership of the winding easement, much of which was granted by Weyerhaeuser.

For O’Brien, who took over as the nonprofit’s leader after former board president Cliff Kipp’s departure left to focus on his role with Montana Conservation Corps last year, the finished trail network will offer a major outdoor destination at the doorstep of Kalispell.

“Part of the reason that makes this place so great is access to the outdoors. I’m a runner and a biker and a hiker, and I got involved because I think it’s a special place,” she said. “It’s amazing. I got to come in and to be involved in the end part of it, but it’s been such a team and community effort for so many years. To be able to participate in the namesake trail, I’m proud to be a part of it.”

For more information on Foys-to-Blacktail Trails or to download trail maps, visit www.foystoblacktailtrails.org.

Reporter Sam Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.