It’s time to vote for a new local trail in Hoonah!

Use the form below to vote on your preferred trail option!

Hoonah Indian Association has significant funding through the USFS Southeast Alaska Sustainability Strategy (SASSi) funding pool to complete work on a “Legacy Roads to Trails” project. The intent of legacy roads is to utilize old roads or close existing roads and convert them into trails. This can benefit the land manager by reducing the maintenance cost in that location by closing the road and converting it to trail. However, since the road is closed with a trail in mind, it still maintains access for a variety of activities including recreation or food gathering.

This funding must be spent by the end of 2027 and for the last couple of years HIA has been laying the groundwork through the community to complete this work. In the winter of 2023, HIA completed a community survey to gather their priorities on trail creation. The results of the survey are visible here : https://www.hia-env.org/2024/03/12/community-survey-results-on-trails-and-community-projects/

The survey had 41 respondents from Hoonah. Some key findings of that survey include:

1. 69% of respondents said they would be likely to use new trails in Hoonah,
2. Hiking and Handicap accessible trails ranked the most highly,
3. Trails with loops or complexity were voted for at 75%,
4. 57% of respondents wanted a trail between 1-3 miles and 35% wanted one >3 miles,
5. Berries, alpine, and beach were key resource access requests from respondents,
6. 69% of respondents requested a Class 2 or Class 3 Trail. Family groups to moderate fitness, and
7. 70% were willing to help maintain a trail system.

Based on the results of this survey we identified three trail and road opportunities that meet the community directive.  The trail options are in Spasski, Game Creek, and Seagull Mountain. Each of the opportunities will be fleshed out below.

Comparison of Trail Attributes to Community Priorities

For each of the trails we made a final determination if the trail meets the priority of the community from the statements in the introduction. A “Yes” means that the attribute would be easy to achieve at this location, a “Maybe” means it could be achieved on certain portions of the trails, and a “No” means it is highly unlikely this attribute could be achieved on this trail.

Reading the Map Legend:

1. Federal Lands – Shows where USFS Ownership
2. Roads – Corporation and USFS roads in the Hoonah Native Forest Partnership area
3. Trail Options – Mapped trail options
4. Elevation – Based on LiDAR. The values are in meters
5. Blueberries Likely – This is from a model to predict where the blueberries are in Hoonah. It has >90% accuracy in predicting blueberry likelihood.
6. Miles from Y – GIS analysis of the road system to determine how far a specific point in the road system is away from the town “Y” where the road splits to Game Creek/Freshwater Bay and Whitestone Harbor/ False Bay. The points are in road-distance, not straight-line distance from the Y.

Option # 1 – Spasski Trail

The map above has three sections:

1. Option #1 Spasski Bay – This section of closed road goes around the eastern edge of “Gobblers Knob” and on the west side of Spasski Bay.  Historically this section of road was used to easily access Gobblers Knob and Spasski Bay. The closed road currently has steep crossings where bridges and culverts were pulled out, so some design as a hiking trail may be required to make bridges and durable crossings. The section of road is 1.5 miles long.

Trail Analysis:

This opportunity creates a long trail with the potential to loop or stash a car at each end. It builds on currently ongoing work – the City of Hoonah is developing the trail between the Airport and the bottom of Craig’s Hill.  This trail is truly “local” where you could walk to it from town. It provides opportunities for many things – beach, berries, deer, and other subsistence. The trail would be open to shareholders and non-shareholders. This trail would not be open to tourism.

Option 2 – Game Creek

The map above has three sections:

1. USFS Road to Trail – This section of road is on USFS lands. It is currently open, and the design could be done to determine what trail type (ATV, walking) this would be maintained as. This section of road has some blueberry access and also access to hunting areas.  This section is about 0.75 miles long.
2. Trail Development to connect Sealaska and USFS road – This connector trail could be developed between the USFS and Sealaska Roads. This area may be harder to cross due to a river bottom, but a structure could be designed there. This section is about 0.4 miles long.
3. Option # 2 Game Creek – This road is currently closed and could be connected to the USFS section. The section is 0.6 miles long but could be extended to more Sealaska road system.

Trail Analysis:

This trail combines USFS and Sealaska Ownership. The connector trail could be fairly steep and hasn’t been scouted. This trail could provide access points for the alpine in future trail expansion/development. The trail has significant opportunities to blueberries. The total trail length is at least 1.75 miles and could be longer if more Sealaska road to the north was included.

Option 3 – Seagull Mountain

This map above has 1 section:

1. Option #  Seagull Mountain : This trail could come off the end of the Sealaska Road. The road is currently open, but if Sealaska were to close that road funding could be invested into it to maintain it as a trail.  The trail would climb 1300 feet and provided access to berries and deer.  Trail length is 1.5 miles.

Trail Analysis:

This trail is the only direct alpine access of the proposed opportunities. This trail has blueberries along the way and would provide moderate recreation levels. The trail is an out-and-back which was not voted for highly by the community.

Total Trail Length is 1.5 miles.

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