Lakeside group seeks to extend Foys to Blacktail trails

Recent months have yielded much hype about the Foys to Blacktail Trails project, and many Lakeside residents have discussed creating an extension of the trail system that would reach the town itself. However, one Lakeside group plans to do more than discuss the subject.

With talk of expanding the motorized vehicle trail system in the Swan Ranger District's Island Unit gaining recent media attention and the Foys to Blacktail Trails group focusing primarily on the northern side of Blacktail Mountain, Lakeside residents who favor foot trails have begun actively seeking a way to connect lower trails on the lake side of Blacktail with the Foys to Blacktail network.

Led by part-time Lakeside resident Bob Hermes, the group's initial goal is to bring the trail system closer to Lakeside by utilizing an old pack trail that once serviced the lookout on Blacktail Moutain.

"We organized a group of people on the West Shore," Hermes said. "About eight different families or individuals got together and had a meeting about it. What we needed to do was to drum up some community support, so we got the community club to support a resolution to submit to the forest service. It takes some pretty strong players supporting it to make it happen."

The original trail, which Hermes discovered on an old map, began at a homestead in a meadow near Lost Lake.

"The old packtrail actually started at this old homestead area," Hermes said. "I thought it would be good if we could find that old trail and reopen it, but the access is now private land. Once I located the trail, I realized that it wasn't practical to try to start a trail there, so we had to find an alternative."

The old trail ascended a ridge, which Hermes felt would be too steep for many to climb. However, as he further investigated the trails on the old map, he found a suitable starting place a little further up Blacktail Road, where an old logging road goes up to a parking area, where the remainder of the road is currently gated off.

Hermes believed this to be the perfect location for starting the trail, since a parking area is already provided for people to leave their vehicles. Upon hiking the road, which ends at the top of the ridge, Hermes found that the road comes comfortably close to the old trail, which lies on the southern end of the ridge. And, given a bit of trailblazing, the old trail could eventually be accessed via a connector trail.

"I think the Forest Service is open to the idea," Hermes said. "They just need the time to do it and the money to pay for it. I thought we had it pretty well ready to work out, but you do have to go through the right channels and take a look at what the impacts would be. A hiking trail doesn't leave that big of a foot print, so I would think that the impacts to wildlife would be minimal. It should be pretty straightforward to get it approved.

"Of course there's also a big push to expand the motorized trails in that area, but I think there is a place for this, too. There are some places on the trail where we will have to cross old roads that the ATV's will use, but I think we can work that out."

In all, Hermes said the trail will climb for 3.4 miles from the parking lot to where it connects with the Foys to Blacktail Trail. From the intersection with Blacktail, the remaining distance to the summit would be approximately 1.7 miles.

Hermes and other members of the Lakeside group had hoped to restore the trail and build the remaining sections over this coming summer. However, their plans hit a snag when they learned that a new ruling in the U.S. Forest Service transportation plan mandates a review of all uses in the island unit, which will likely push the project back until the summer of 2010.

"I'm still hoping to get up and do some work," Hermes said. "There are a lot of small timbers that have fallen across the old trail, and I might try to clear them those this summer. It's generally open forest and not real thick, so it will be easy to flag and mark the trail. One way to build a trail without equipment is to use it. Once people start using it, it becomes a trail fairly quickly."

Hermes said he is encouraged by the amount of input and support the group has received.

"It caught on even more than I expected it to. I think it will be a real asset to the Lakeside Community, because it will give people a real nice hiking trail they can use locally. It's such an expedition to go from Lakeside to Glacier or even to the Swan Range. Honestly, there are some really nice views from the trail, along the ridge tops, where it looks out over Flathead Lake and the Swan Mountains. It's a real nice spot to see Lakeside from above."