In 1990, Alan Boraas, a professor of anthropology at Kenai Peninsula College, envisioned a trail system behind Skyview High School that would travel from the school all the way down to Kalifornsky Beach Road.
This week, that vision became reality upon completion of four additional kilometers of trail at Tsalteshi Trails that, for the first time, will make it possible to access the trails from K-Beach Road. This winter, that access will come from a parking area right across from the Soldotna Sports Center.
The new trails twist back and forth on the land between K-Beach Road and the bottom of the giant ridge that southbound cars hit immediately upon leaving Soldotna on the Sterling Highway.
Before the addition of the new trails, a trip around the outer loops at Tsalteshi was 7.6 kilometers.
Without doing official measurements, designers say this latest renovation, which also includes a redesign of a loop that travels all the way down the ridge, increases a trip around the outer loops to about 12 kilometers.
The four kilometers of new trails are the flattest trails at Tsalteshi. While the trails on top of the ridge are set on rolling terrain that rarely fails to put a significant hill in front of the runner, skier or bicyclist, the new trails at the bottom of the ridge feature periodic humps and long, gradual ups and downs.
Like the rest of the trails at Tsalteshi, the new trails are set in forest that makes it easy to forget the trails are surrounded by the Sterling Highway, K-Beach Road, Skyview High School and the residential area sprouting off of Skyline Drive.
"It'll provide a nice area for beginning-type skiers," Boraas said of the new trails. "We'd hope the beginning skier would use it to take steps to improve, then go up and enjoy the rest of the trails.
"There isn't anything in the trail system an intermediate skier can't do and enjoy."
The new trails can be accessed from Skyview High School via the Bear Loop. The Bear Loop used to be known for a wicked downhill that careened from the top to the bottom of the ridge and (huff, puff) back up again. As part of the new look at Tsalteshi, a half-kilometer of trail has been added to that downhill. It is now long, winding and suited for intermediate skiers.
Bill Holt, the chair of the Tsalteshi Trails Association, helped Boraas with the design of the new trails. He said the new trails also add a new dimension to Tsalteshi because they are suited to classical skiing. The ups and downs on top of the ridge are more suited to skate skiing.
"We thought about classical skiers when we were designing the new loops," Holt said. "The trails have a lot of broad, gentle turns and gradual hills.
"But the new trails also will give good skiers a challenge if they ski them hard."
Holt said another advantage to the new trails will come when three or four ski teams from area schools hit the trails to practice, putting as many as 150 skiers on the trail system.
"It's not like before the trails were crowded, but now there could be 150 skiers on the trail and you might not even know it," Holt said. "Coaches will be able to spread out and use different parts of the trail for workouts."
Holt said that space advantage will hold during middle school and high school races. In the past, it was hard for many community members to find places to ski during races. Now, if there are races on the loops on top of the ridge, community members will still be able to ski on the bottom of the ridge.
The new trails do cause some problems, Holt said. Trail signs must be updated. Grooming will now take more time. Finally, by bringing the trails so close to the snowmachine thoroughfare next to K-Beach Road, the trails will be more susceptible to vandalism by snowmachines.
Holt said the potential for snowmachine vandalism has complicated the issue of accessing the trails from K-Beach Road. He did not want to cut the trail all the way to the new parking area on K-Beach because that would give snowmachines an easy access point.
Thus, Holt said skiers may have to park and take a short walk through the forest before putting on skis.
The money for the new trails came from a federal government grant. Two years ago, Holt and Pete Sprague, a past chair of the Tsalteshi Trails Association, were able to secure a $10,000 grant because the new trails lie near wetlands.
Boraas spent over 80 hours designing the Bear Loop alteration and the new trails in August. Holt helped Boraas put the finishing touches on the design, and in mid-October Lee Wiley of Captain Cook Construction started carving the new trails out of the forest.
Wiley cleared the 820-meter Coyote Loop for the Tsalteshi Trails Association in 2001 as a volunteer, but thanks to the grant he will be paid for his efforts on the new trails.
"It's the first time we've been able to pay the CAT guy," Boraas said, noting that nearly all the work done on the trails over the past 14 years has come on a volunteer basis. "Without costing very much, these trails have been a great benefit to the community."
