Trails – Page 13 – Sequim Daily Photo

The broken bridge

Early this month flood debris damaged the western part of the Railroad Bridge, a popular link in the Olympic Discovery Trail. For a couple of weeks the entire bridge was closed, although the landmark railroad trestle portion of the bridge is intact. Then fencing was constructed at either end of the damaged span to allow viewing and walking on the eastern trestle. Vandals promptly destroyed the fencing, which was quickly replaced. Yesterday I peered through the new fencing (which now has video monitoring) to catch this shot of the broken portion of the bridge.

Here’s the debris field just upstream of the bridge. It’s not hard to see how the bridge was undermined. This portion of the river, also, had been a secondary flow. In the course of the flooding the river channel shifted to flow more vigorously under this western side of the bridge.

The Jamestown S’Klallam tribe, which owns the bridge, plans to redesign, repair and reopen it. As you can see, they have their work cut out for them and there’s no estimate yet on how long this will take. In the meantime, trail users are detoured around this stretch of the Olympic Discovery Trail.

Tomorrow I’ll show you the undamaged portion of the bridge.

Winter transformation

I walk along this trail regularly. Most of the time it seems as colorless as the overcast sky. All it took was some bright daylight the other day to bring it to life.

Open!

The new trail at the Dungeness Recreation Area is open. This trail reroutes walkers further inland of the south end of the bluffs.

We found the trail open last Wednesday, earlier than expected. I took this photo and the one above it as we walked south from the first parking lot at the bluffs.

This is a shot looking back to the north. It’s not a long trail but I think it’s very nicely done. It’s not much to look at this time of year but it will be gorgeous in the spring and summer when there’s more foliage.

Walk this way

Ten days ago I posted photos of the closed southern portion of the bluff trail at Dungeness Recreation Area and an adjacent new trail under construction further inland. The other day we came upon the ranger-manager as he worked on the new trail which routes walkers inland from the bluff.

The old bluff trail, refurbished only three years ago, is permanently closed due to steady erosion and to prevent ~~idiots~~ misguided walkers from scaling adjacent unprotected bluff areas. Posts and wires are being installed along the new route which should be open (weather permitting work completion) within a couple of weeks. You will, no doubt, see this new trail once my feet get authorization to enter. Can’t wait!

Closed!

I’ve posted a number of shots of the eroding bluffs at the Dungeness Recreation Area. But I didn’t expect the south end to be completely closed like this. I don’t know if it’s a proactive effort to avoid further erosion or an attempt to keep people from climbing up a steep and particularly dangerous off limits area.

Another parallel trail further inland is under construction but apparently it’s not ready yet. Walkers are diverted to another trail, along the edge of a marshy area. It was pictured in my post yesterday.

Oops

Here’s another chunk of the Dungeness Recreation Area bluff that’s headed seaward. Most of the land here is just compacted sand, really. Give it enough rain, throw in a little wind, and voila! A new jog in the trail.

Anticipating Mother Nature

I’ve mentioned before that erosion is a problem along the bluffs of Dungeness Recreation Area. Two or three stretches of bluff trail have been rerouted in the past four years that we’ve lived here.

A new trail has been started near the southern edge of the bluff trail. It will route walkers well back from the edge, which has given way once already just in the time we’ve walked there.

This is the existing trail. The fence at the right is only a year or two old but is losing ground. And the orange cone? An attempt to stop walkers from scaling the hill ahead, a piece of which recently collapsed.