Prairie Spirit Trail News
The area around the Pottawatomie Creek bridge is a construction site and visitors are not to travel down the access road or into the construction area to view progress due to the numerous hazards of cranes and heavy equipment working within a narrow corridor. We will be strictly enforcing this. Visitors traveling into the area that is closed will result in an arrest for criminal trespass. We will issue NO warnings.
Trail Talk
The Pottawatomie Bridge Project is nearing completion, but the closed section of trail is still not ready to be opened. A majority of the work has been completed, but there are still several items to be finished up before we open the area again for travel.
All restrooms are currently open, but they will be closed by November 16, 2009. Normally we close the restrooms for Halloween and start winterizing the first week of November, but we are keeping facilities open just a little longer this year due to weather projections.
This year we will start shutting all water off and closing restrooms on November 9, 2009. Richmond will be the first restroom closed due to it having water lines that must be drained and winterized. We will then shut off water to all fountains and will lastly close the other toilet buildings. Restrooms will reopen in April.
The Kansas Department of Transportation will begin a highway project this spring that will create a trail detour through at least the entire summer of 2010. This will occur south of Welda in Anderson County. A bridge on 169 Highway will be removed and the highway will be lowered. The trail travels under the highway at this point and plans have been made to place a tunnel under the highway, as we have done south of Richmond and South of Colony, to allow trail traffic to pass under the highway. Trail traffic will be routed onto adjacent roads for the duration of the project and detour maps will be placed on the self-pay stations located at trail rest areas.
The trail staff has spent a lot of time on chainsaws this last summer keeping storm-damaged limbs and trees off the trail. Plans for this winter will include a lot more chainsaw work as we have primarily been just cutting the limbs back to allow trail travel and removing branches that pose an immediate hazard. We still have a lot of damaged trees and limbs off the side of the trail that have to be taken care of. Visitors should be aware that strong winds could blow broken limbs onto the trail. We are currently identifying limbs that have been damaged by the storms and removing them
There are still some very nice days left to get outside, but you had better do it soon. If the winter stays cold and wet, winter travel on the trail may have to be by snowshoe.
Trent McCown
Manager, Prairie Spirit Trail
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