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Headwaters Trails Alliance: Linking Grand County one mile at a time

Autumn Phillips
Sky-Hi Daily News
Grand County, Colorado

With the ground drying from winter, the members of Headwaters Trails Alliance are ready to continue work on their biggest project. The group has been working for years to connect all the towns in Grand County through a network of trails. Their hope is that someday a cyclist or hiker could make it across the entire county without ever getting in a car.

“It’s our biggest project,” said HTA Executive Director Lucinda Elicker. “We’ve been working on it for 10 to 12 years.”

The trail is a wide, commuter style path designed for family enjoyment.



“It’s not a single track,” Elicker said.

Work is almost complete on the Fraser to Granby section of the trail.



“We’re very close (to completion),” Elicker said.

The group is waiting for the stoplight to be installed in front of City Market before finishing the trail.

Now, the trail ends at the ponds near the Inn at SilverCreek in Granby. The trail will continue behind the Inn, cross U.S. Highway 40 at the stoplight and connect with an existing recycled asphalt trail installed by Grand Elk. That trail continues to Kaibab Park.

With the Fraser to Granby trail almost complete, HTA is already starting work on the Granby to Grand Lake section.

The 13-mile section of trail will stretch from Monarch Lake to Grand Lake.

Over the summer, trail designer Dawn Packard of Blue Sky Trails will be delineating the line for that section of the trail. Packard, previous executive director of HTA, is donating her time.

“The Granby to Fraser trail follows Highway 40,” Elicker said. “We’re hoping to take the Grand Lake to Granby trail on the back side of the lakes. It’s so beautiful and scenic.”

Once the line is drawn for six new miles of trail toward Grand Lake, HTA members will know what property owners and governmental entities need to be approached to make it work.

“We’ll invite them to see if the line is appropriate,” Elicker said. “Next summer, we’re hoping to build it.”

On Monday, May 25, (Memorial Day) the group will host a volunteer trail day. A bulldozer will be clearing a 4-foot wide trail off County Road 88, in the Val Moritz area on the back side of SolVista. Volunteers will be needed to follow the bulldozer and clean up the debris.

Other projects planned for this summer include restructuring of the maze gates on the trail near Fraser and Tabernash.

“We’re getting rid of the mazes,” Elicker said. Right now, I have to walk my bike through.”

Dave Zink, owner of Pole Creek Machine, is donating the staff time and HTA is buying materials to build gates that will be wide enough for a bike and a child trailer.


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