Dear editor,
Let’s hear it for the local volunteers looking to create an exceptional outdoor recreational project for its citizens and the outside world.
I’m talking about Hinton’s Pathway to the Park.
Imagine a comfortable three metre wide, multi-use asphalt trail with a painted yellow line on which you could bike all the way from Hinton to Jasper.
As you rode you’d pass fantastic mountain views.
There could be strategically placed picnic tables and rest benches and, probably, lots of interpretative signs providing cultural and environmental awareness along the trail. T
his trail also has possibilities for winter use as a ski or walking trail.
The pathway would have many options for side trips including: The Brule Sand Dunes and Lake, Wild Horse and Kinky Lakes, the old Pocahontas Coal mining site, Jasper House, Jasper Lake and lots more.
And it would improve traffic safety, for bikes and cars, by getting cyclists off Highway 16 and onto a trail of their own.
Recently, some Hinton residents have begun work on this project.
The idea is to have local volunteer groups in each town work on their own sections that would join up at the Jasper National Park boundary.
Hinton’s contribution would likely be a 24 kilometre trail on the north side of the highway that would connect with various others at the boundary.
Anyone who has ridden or walked the Canmore to Banff, Westridge (Invermere to Fairmont), Kettle Valley Railroad or Northstar Rail Trail gets the general idea of what this “pathway” would look like and how popular it would be.
These projects encourage residents, businesses and local governments to participate in any way they find meaningful. Every kilometre seems to have a sign recognizing some individual or group effort in the project.
Hinton may be a small town in a big world.
But we certainly have the volunteers and talent to create a great project at a reasonable price.
We have done it before with the Beaver Boardwalk that visitors from far and wide call “unique”, “high quality” and even, my favourite, “magical”.
And what better way to move past the pandemic than with a magnificent trail to Jasper?
If you want to help us do it again, the volunteers for this project have only just had their first meeting.
The next step, we think, is to organize a non-profit society to move it ahead.
Anyone who is interested should contact Garth Griffiths at 780-865-3354 or [email protected].
Let’s open a pathway to and from our towns and region.
Stuart Taylor
Hinton, AB
