The Tour of Anchorage trail is being upgraded!
The objective of the Tour of Anchorage Trail Project is to upgrade this popular trail to a 4-season trail, thereby facilitating access to the parkfor more people. The Municipality of Anchorage managed the northern section, referred to as the Old Rondy trail (along Campbell Creek). NSAA is implementing the work on the Homestead and Viewpoint trails as a cooperative effort among the MOA and BLM. Funds for this work come from a grant from the National Park Service Rivers Trails and Conservation Assistance Program, matched by MOA and NSAA. The trail surface will be hardened with gravel throughout much of it and regraded to make a relatively smooth, flat crosssection. The mud puddle sections will be corrected by either filling or draining. The existing trail width will be maintained at 10'.

Frequently Asked Questions about the trails

Far North Bicentennial Park Multi-use Trail Partnership Initiative

The partnership is between the Nordic Skiing Association of Anchorage (NSAA), Municipality of Anchorage Project Management and Engineering Department (MOA PM&E) and National Park Service Rivers Trails & Conservation Assistance Program (NPS RTCA).

Introduction

The goal of the initiative is to demonstrate a project implementation method that maximizes use of public funds for trail construction.  Soft surface trail projects have many variables and often require a high degree of flexibility during the construction phase, thus making them difficult to bid out on a fixed price contract.  Employing a reliable, experienced nonprofit organization to implement the project is one way to maximize the return on public funds.  NSAA has the personnel and equipment for building trails and can mobilize volunteers.  This partnership consists of equivalent contributions from MOA, NSAA & NPS RTCA.  MOA's contribution is $15,000 of gravel; NSAA's share is $15,000 in manpower, equipment and supplies; NPS RTCA's is $15,000 in cash.  The objective of the project is to upgrade the Tour of Anchorage trail to a four-season trail by hardening the surface with gravel.

Scope of Work for Tour of Anchorage Trail Project

The “Tour Trail” in FNBP goes from Service HS to Tudor road.  It consists of three main sections - 1) Homestead trail from Service to the BLM Campbell Tract boundary by the Little Campbell Creek bridge; 2) Viewpoint Trail from Little Campbell Creek to the steel bridge over the South Fork of Campbell Creek; 3) Old Rondy Trail form the steel bridge to Tudor Road.  This project deals only with the Homestead and Viewpoint trails.  The Abbott Loop trail branch may also be included if there is sufficient funds.  The general objectives of the project are to make it a four-season trail.  This consists of hardening with gravel to make the trail durable during break-up and in the fall wet period; correcting the drainage problems; and improving the cross sectional grade of the trail for ease of snow grooming.  The project area consists of four main sections; each is briefly described below:

1. Homestead Trail - 1.8 km (1.1 mi.) from intersection of bike trail by Service HS to the intersection of Abbott Loop and Viewpoint Trail by Little Campbell Creek.  This trail is an old ditch style road.  The soils are glacial till with varying silt content.  Numerous large mud puddles develop after wet spells in spots where the trail surface is lower than the surrounding terrain.  Mud accumulation in these low spots inhibits drainage into the soil.  The basic treatment for these low spots will be to excavate a drainage trench or a shallow swale off to the side and then raise the trail surface with material excavated from the swale.  The trail surface will then be capped with gravel.  Practically the entire length of the trail will be capped with gravel 4” deep by 8' wide.  This cap will be graded and compacted to form a slight crown in the middle of the trail.
2. Abbott Loop Branch - 0.6 m (0.4 mi.) section from the intersection of the Homestead trail to the Abbott Loop trailhead/parking lot.  There are a few low spots in this trail that will be fixed by capping with gravel.  One spot needs a culvert.  This section is lower priority than the Homestead trail and may be deleted if funds run out. 
3. Viewpoint Trail from Homestead to Coyote Trail - 0.35 m (0.2 mi.) section connecting the new section of Coyote trail to Homestead.  This section of trail is low lying but in relatively good condition.  A couple of mud holes need filling with gravel. 
4. Viewpoint Trail - 2.3 km (1.4 mi.) section from the intersection of the Coyote to the South Fork Campbell Creek Bridge.  This section is another ditch type trail winding through varied terrain and generally well drained glacial till soil.  The main objective will be to grade modify the surface grade from a dish to a crown.  This will facilitate drainage and allow better grooming of snow in the winter.  The method for re-grading will be to till the soil with a MERI Crusher and then grade with a small grader and compact with roller.  The extent of work done to this trail will depend on the amount of funds remaining after the Homestead and Abbott Loop trails. 

The Homestead trail will be the subject of the bulk of the work therefore more detailed scope is provided.  The gravel supplied by the MOA will be delivered to a stock pile on ASD property by Service HS Little Gym (at the edge of the soccer field).  This amount will be 1000 tons of type 2 gravel or about 550 cubic yards.  This is sufficient to provide a 4” layer 8' wide for about a mile.  Before hauling the gravel the excavation for drainage swales will be done.  One or two of the swales will be made wide enough to be used as a turn-around for the truck.  The gravel will be hauled by truck or front end loader down the ski trail (Randy's loop) to the Homestead trail.  A small dozer will be used to spread the gravel and the final grade will be compacted with a roller.  The drainage swales will be re-vegetated.  This sub-project will be performed with volunteer manpower.  A detailed log of the trail follows: