PORT TOWNSEND — Nine-year-old Madeline Holland-Jackson loves riding her miniature horse, Willy, on the new section of Larry Scott Memorial Trail near her home south of Port Townsend.
“Horses for alternative transportation,” she smiled, chanting the words like a mantra near the trail head south of Cape George Road and Harrison Street and saying that she often rides Willy to visit friends in her neighborhood.
Work to expand the trail has begun.
Just to the south is a newly cut, unimproved section of the Jefferson County project that gently winds into the woods off Harrison Street.
Right of way already acquired for the trail segment will expand it south to the north end of Discovery Bay Golf Club, said Bruce Laurie, Jefferson County Public Works engineering services manager.
Jefferson County commissioners on Monday accepted a $271,175.85 Federal Highway Surface Transportation Enhancement grant.
Laurie said that will go toward about $200,000 already secured to acquire rights of way from the golf course to Four Corners Road, where it crosses state Highway 20, southwest of Jefferson County International Airport.
In October, the county completed a mile of the trail from Highway 20 east near Nelson’s Landing Road, connecting to a trail head parking lot off Cape George Road.