{"id":1934830,"date":"2026-05-14T10:43:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T07:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1934830"},"modified":"2026-05-14T10:43:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T07:43:00","slug":"7-years-after-the-first-trail-was-built-naneum-ridge-trails-are-finally-official","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1934830","title":{"rendered":"7 years after the first trail was built, Naneum Ridge trails are finally official"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photos provided by Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Following more than a decade of planning, and seven years after the first trail was built, the trails at Naneum Ridge \u2014 located about 30 minutes outside the small college town of Ellensburg, Washington \u2014 are finally official. At least, they will be on May 16. That\u2019s when the trails at Naneum Ridge \u2014 also known as the Cookie Cutter Trail System \u2014 will get their long-overdue grand opening ceremony.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so much work that\u2019s gone into this, and to finally get it recognized and get signage up there too [\u2026] is going to be huge,\u201d Jesse Cunningham, Kittitas Program Manager for Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance<\/a> told Singletracks.<\/p>\n

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Grants were off the table, so the chapter worked to raise funds and stakeholders got creative<\/h2>\n

Naneum Ridge State Forest is managed by the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR). In 2015, with input from various recreation groups that included members of the Kittitas Chapter of the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance, the Naneum Ridge to Columbia River Recreation Access Plan was published, outlining a 10-15 year development plan. There was just one hitch: There was no funding available to support the plan or to build any of the trails.<\/p>\n

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Actually, there was another hitch. There\u2019s no permanent public access to the Naneum Ridge site. Surrounding private property owners granted the Washington DNR management easements into the area, but \u201cbecause there\u2019s no permanent public access, they could not access publicly available funds through grants, which allow us to do some of the work that we do in Washington, particularly with the state agencies,\u201d Cunningham said. Without this important source of funds, the club would need to get creative.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe said to DNR, we\u2019re motivated to do this. If you\u2019re willing to work with us on it, we will self-fund this, and we\u2019ll have volunteers, and we\u2019ll fundraise, and we\u2019ll make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

So the club got to work on fundraising. By 2019, enough funds had been raised to build the first trail, Basalt Flow. <\/p>\n

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\u201cIn 2022 we had another chunk of time where we had an excavator up there and we built some jump lines and kind of a small skills area,\u201d Cunningham said. \u201cAnd then we ran out of time and money at that point, but we scratched in a line. Literally the last day that we had the excavator up there, our excavator operator said, \u2018Well, I can just take a quick run down this trail.’\u201d<\/p>\n

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An expert-level jump line, the Basalt Assault trail required too much work for volunteers to complete it by hand. After sitting unfinished for nearly four years, this year the club finally managed to secure an excavator to complete the work in hopes of having the trail ready to ride in time for the official grand opening this weekend.<\/p>\n

Support from the DNR helped keep the project moving<\/h3>\n

While local mountain bike advocates were working to bring the Naneum trail system to life, the Washington DNR was working on infrastructure improvements as well. The department completed various improvements to roads in the area, and installed a pit toilet. And crews from the Washington Youth Conservation Corps, along with fire crews off deployment, were made available to help with trail work and maintenance.<\/p>\n

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