Seward and Glacier Ranger Districts Recreation Improvements

This project included design narratives for three Forest Service projects located within the Chugach National Forest; the Center Ridge Day-Use Recreation Area, Lost Lake Trail Winter Trail, and Primrose Trail.
Center Ridge Day-Use Area is a popular recreation area along the Seward that no longer meets users' needs due to failing and deteriorating facilities. We inventoried, made design recommendations, and developed estimates for replacing the vault toilets, new picnic shelters, paved accessible trails, and general improvements to the recreation area to improve the user experience. The recreation area serves as the trailhead for numerous trails in the Turnagain Pass area that makes up the part of the Iditarod Historic Trail.
Lost Lake Trail is located outside of Seward and includes both a winter motorized route and a summer non-motorized route accessing the Dale Clemens public use cabin. The 2.0-mile winter route had severely deteriorated due to erosion, failing structures, and impacts from motorized use. The trail was also impacting sensitive environments. Work includes an inventory of existing trail conditions, recommendations for trail improvements, reroutes around sensitive landscapes, and drainage improvements. These enhancements will result in an extended winter use season and greatly improved safety and user experience.
Primrose Trail, also located outside Seward, is a popular 5.5-mile hiking trail and part of the more extensive Iditarod Historic Trail network. The trail was recently recognized as one of the best mountain biking trails in Alaska, adding a new user to a trail that was already declining in its alpine and wetlands environments. In winter, the trail also allows motorized use. Work included an inventory of the trail and making recommendations for trail modifications to enable use by mountain bikes and make improvements for hikers, including a variety of trail surfacing, bridges, and several reroutes to accommodate the type of users while minimizing impacts on the environment. Work included design recommendations and estimates.