Since You Asked: ATA plugging along on new East ART Trail - News - MailTribune.com - Medford, OR

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Since You Asked: ATA plugging along on new East ART Trail Saturday Apr 29, 2017 at 12:01 AM Mark Freeman Mail Tribune @MTwriterFreeman I am an avid hiker, which means this past winter has not been kind to me with all this rain. I hope to get out to the Applegate later this spring to hike that new East ART trail that you wrote about a couple months ago. I am looking for an update on how trail construction is going? — Ann A., Jacksonville The good folks at the Applegate Trails Association have been quite busy this past month carving in the first part of the 5.6-mile East ART trail. ATA Chair David Calahan says a mix of contract crews, Northwest Youth Corps and volunteers have been able to hand-dig the first four miles of the trail so far. They are now digging the final stretch above Forest Creek and Highway 238, Calahan says. And all of it has been done one swing at a time. The trail is all hand-dug, with no trail-cutting machinery like what was used last year to cut a new trail for downhill mountain bikers at Prescott Park on Roxy Ann Peak. East ART is a hiking, biking and equestrian trail that is costing about $2 a foot to dig, Calahan says. The ATA will hold its second volunteer work-party Sunday. The association provides tools and food while volunteers bring the muscle. Volunteers plan to meet at 8:30 a.m. at the end of the Bureau of Land Management Road 38-2-29.1, which is off Sterling Creek Road. Signs will denote the new trailhead just past milepost 4. Volunteers are encouraged to RSVP to [email protected], but just showing up works, too. The ATA plans a similar volunteer work party May 21. — Reach Mail Tribune reporter Mark Freeman at 541-776-4470 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MTwriterFreeman.