Juneau’s off-road vehicle park could partially open this September
Juneau’s new off-road vehicle park could open its first trail as soon as this September. That’s according to Marc Wheeler, director of Parks and Recreation for the City and Borough of Juneau.
At a community meeting in the Mendenhall Valley Public Library on Thursday [July 9], he presented an update on the ORV park going in at mile 35 of Glacier Highway, near Bridget Cove.
“At this point, we have about three-quarters of mile, maybe a little more, maybe 0.8 miles of finished trail,” Wheeler said.
According to the proposed map, the park could have around 9 miles of trails when it’s completed.
The city and collaborating nonprofits have secured more than $1.5 million for the park, including nearly $900,000 from state grants through Alaska’s Recreational Trails Program and around $650,000 from city funds allocated in prior years.
Noah Lager is president of Juneau Off-Road Association, a nonprofit coordinating volunteers to build the park. He said people who want to ride off-road vehicles like Jeeps, four-wheelers or dirt bikes don’t have many legal options in Juneau right now.
“There’s a spot at 25 Mile that is part of fed[eral] land, but it’s just a little dirt strip,” Lager said.
He said building the park was slow going at first. He didn’t want unpaid trail workers to burn out, and it took a long time to bushwhack through the rainforest and line future trail paths with flags.
“We have an area we can work in and make trail in, so we’re making executive decisions as we go, to go around this stump or go through it,” Lager said. “Now that a lot of that’s done, it’s much easier to turn volunteer labor loose.”
So far, around 30 volunteers have spent 1,500 hours helping Trail Mix Inc. and Southeast Trucking build the new ORV park.
Lager said the group is hitting its groove now, but they’re looking for more volunteers with experience operating heavy machinery.
Juneau Off-Road Association plans to manage the park through an agreement with the city.