Last week, DAHTA President Anne Gullion and Member Jackie Willis met with City of Duluth Trail Coordinator Judy Gibbs and Parks & Rec’s Luke Sydow to assess the Magney-Snively trail. They went through every change being proposed to the trail. (NOTE: This is the 3.7 mile loop that is Phase One to connecting with XC Ski trails and eventually a horse camp area and Jay Cooke trails!)

Rerouted trails, flagging, clearing

There are a number of areas that will be rerouted for the horses and they will be single track. A couple of them will make the trail much more interesting because they follow a rock wall. In several instances Luke will get a bid on whether it’s cheaper to reroute or redo the trail. It appears the whole trail will be covered with an aggregate soil with fines so that it binds. It is a small mixed size rock suitable for horses.

Luke will try to get all the rerouted trails flagged this week. These are areas that the volunteers can get out and start clearing. He is going to try to break the project into sections so that we can get going on the construction at $20,000 increments.

They discussed starting with the Ely’s Peak section because it would be visible from the Skyline Parkway and people can park horse trailers on the road.

Friends of Magney/Snively have donated 17 yards of material. Judy Gibbs is checking it to see if it is appropriate.

Time to get started

This trail development is daunting, but also exciting. Major funding is needed. Once we start working it will be easier to get press coverage and more donations, so we have to just get started. Note that DAHTA cannot use volunteer equipment while the contracted company is working, but if there is a load of fill deposited by the road and it needs to be moved to site, we can move it after hours, weekends, or whenever it doesn’t interfere with scheduled hours.

What’s the safest way to approach horses on the trail? Watch this 3 minute video developed by DAHTA. It’s really very simple!