SEQUIM – The trail’s tale is a drama of raised hopes, railroad bridges – and gaps.
The Olympic Discovery Trail, a bicycle-pedestrian-equestrian path that draws people out even on the wintriest days, is about to add another leg, thanks to a team of Peninsula Trail Coalition volunteers.
In January, coalition leader Chuck Preble will assemble about 12 unpaid workers – mostly retired from careers in construction – and lay a slab of concrete on a 90-plus-year-old wooden railroad trestle.
That 144-foot bridge, off Bugge Road east of Sequim, was probably built about 1914, said Rich James, Clallam County’s transportation program manager.
It crosses a nameless creek near U.S. Highway 101.
Since volunteers will do the rehabilitation, it’ll cost only about $13,000, James added.
Once the trestle is slabbed – Preble estimates it’ll be done by spring – it will form another segment of Discovery Trail, bringing it a step closer to its eventual 100-mile reach from Port Townsend to the West End.
