Seeking Silverdale and Central Kitsap

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My wife and I had planned to take a hike with friends today, to enjoy the beautiful weather for a mid-October in the Northwest. Originally, we were heading for Mount Walker in the Olympic National Forest south of Quilcene. Rather than test her legs on a trail that forest firefighters train on, Joyce asked if perhaps there was something a little less uphill that might serve the purpose.

So we ended up at Buck Lake in North Kitsap, just on the edge of Hansville. While we’ve been to Point No Point several times, I’ve never visited the Kitsap County Park at Buck Lake before. And we’ve never had the chance to explore the trail system that the Hansville Greenway community volunteers have been working on for several years. I’m glad we did.

We started at the parking lot of the park, and walked down to the lake to take a look. It was deserted when we arrived … not a soul in sight. Aside from the call of a flicker, and seeing a few robins, there weren’t many animals in sight either.

After getting our bearings and finding the trailhead for the greenway, we headed south along the shore of Buck Lake, then through a meadow, and then through some woods past Upper Hawks Pond and then finally toward Lower Hawk’s Pond, where we saw two mature bald eagles on a tree overlooking the wetland. (It was hard to call it a pond today; the dry weather has just about drained the area.)

Along the way, I came upon this scene, where a ray of sunlight illuminated a fern on the forest floor.

The volunteers and the Hansville community should be congratulated for creating a very special place. Yes, some of the woods we walked through had been logged and were regrown. But still, it seems much more natural than most of the areas served by the Clear Creek Trail in Central Kitsap. It’s unfortunate there weren’t enough natural areas left in Central Kitsap when the Clear Creek Trail volunteers began their efforts.

— Jeff

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I’m a Silverdale resident and frequent walker on the Clear Creek Trail. But I had no idea the trail actually extends from the mouth of Clear Creek on Bucklin Hill Road all the way into Old Town. It’s just disguised as a sidewalk for most of that journey.

Trail advocate and volunteer coordinator Tex Lewis says the group stenciled Clear Creek Trail logos on the sidewalks from the Silverdale Beach Hotel all the way into Old Town Silverdale several years ago.

According to Lewis, the goal has always been to work with property owners in Old Town to see if the route of the trail could be moved closer to the water so more people could experience the waterfront. Well, the trail just took a step in that direction.

The Port of Silverdale just contributed to the trail by allowing access to one of its commercial properties at the end of Lowell Street. That, combined with permission from property owner Ron Templeton, allowed the trail to run from the end of Byron Street up the waterfront to Lowell.
View Map

A Boy Scout Troop looking for a project was put to work creating a crushed rock trail from the Templeton property to  the end of Lowell Street.

Lewis says that the trail follows the sidewalk on the waterfront along Bayshore Drive, then follows the walk in front of the building housing the Yacht Club Broiler. To link that point of the trail to the end of Lowell, however, will require other property owners to grant beach access to the trail.

On the other end, the plan calls for the trail to follow Bayshore, cut between the old Sandpiper Restaurant and the water, and link up to the waterfront walking path around the Silverdale Hotel, and finallly to the walking trail at Old Mill Park. Access to the area around the Sandpiper is pending redevelopment of the restaurant site, Lewis said.

— Jeff

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I took advantage of the sun on Monday to take a walk on the Clear Creek Trail.

It was obvious that I wasn’t the only one who thought about doing so. While in the past few months there have been times when I haven’t seen anyone while taking walks on the trail, on President’s Day afternoon, there were dozens of people out on the trail.

When I was just about home yesterday, I ran into a neighbor walking her dog, and we talked for a while. I said I had been on the trail, and she commented that the trail is like Silverdale’s crown jewel. I couldn’t agree more, and neither could the people I encountered on the trail Monday.

What struck me as I walked, and as I greeted people who I saw, was that the simple act of walking in public brings people together. There wasn’t a single person I passed yesterday who didn’t return my greeting, or initiate a greeting. I had more human contact in an hour along the trail than you get in a year driving a car around Silverdale.

We absolutely need to find a way to make Silverdale more pedestrian friendly. If anything, the way Silverdale was designed discourages walking between stores and from one area to another. Long term, Silverdale businesses will be better served if they encourage people to leave their cars and walk in the community. And, long term, Silverdale residents will be better served, healthwise, if they leave their cars in one place and walk to multiple spots to do their errands.

As a community, we should be looking for ways to expand the Clear Creek Trail, and to make walking in Silverdale a pleasure, not a scary experience.

— Jeff

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I wanted to call your attention to a story in this week’s Silverdale Life newspaper (delivered by mail to homes around Silverdale) about the recent volunteer work parties that addressed cleanup along the Clear Creek Trail.

I believe the Clear Creek Trail is one of our most valuable community assets. It’s an amenity that the community can rally around and that serves residents of all ages and all social strata. I wanted to call your attention to the great community support for these work parties (and remind you that the schedule of work parties for the trail is included in my weekly Friday post of significant community events). 

A trail is a live entity. It changes throughout the year and after every storm or season. Left to its own devices, it would soon become impassible and trash ridden. The volunteers who give their time to keep the trail in good order deserve our thanks.

— Jeff

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This is the second in a series of posts in which leaders of Silverdale/Central Kitsap have an opportunity to answer some questions about the area and their thoughts about building a sense of community here.

The first Q&A was with Darla Murker, executive director of the Silverdale Chamber of Commerce. This one is with Tex Lewis, a well-known volunteer who has been a driving force in the creation of the Clear Creek Trail in Central Kitsap.

As most people who know him can attest, Tex is a man of action rather than words. His answers are, in every case, much shorter than my questions. Tex is a man who seeks no attention for himself, but works tirelessly on behalf of a project that has meant much to Silverdale.

1. How do you see your role as it relates to the Silverdale/CK community?
A: I am a worker in the Silverdale community.

2. What’s your favorite thing about Silverdale/CK?
A: The Clear Creek Trail

3. If you were “mayor” of Silverdale, what’s the first new policy you would implement?
A: Make it easy for people to do good.

4. What place do you consider the public gathering place of Silverdale, and what do you think that says about us?
A: The Mall. It’s a nice place that was given to us. We have finally started to think about creating another public place as a community center.

5. What things do you think stand in the way of building a better sense of community in Silverdale/CK, and what would you do about them if you could?
A:  We keep waiting for someone else to do it. Motivate folks to take charge of their own destiny.

Thanks to Tex for his thoughtful, if brief, answers and for being willing to accept the e-mail interview challenge. I am working from a growing list of people who I hope to interview for the blog to discuss building a sense of community in Silverdale and Central Kitsap. If there’s someone you think should be interviewed for the blog, please send your suggestion to me at    seekingsilverdale@gmail.com .

— Jeff

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I took off from Silverdale this morning to take a walk. One of my favorite places to hike within 90 minutes of home is on Dungeness Spit. It’s usually dry there when rain is falling everywhere else (though it was sunny everywhere today, a wonderful break from what we’ve had) and it’s also a relatively flat, easy hike. There’s almost always something to see on the walk. I saw a small hawk this morning take off from a driftwood snag not more than 15 feet from me. 

I got there early this morning, right after the park opened at 8 a.m. The light for the first part of the walk was very warm since the sun was still low in the sky. I enjoyed the water and the fact that I was literally alone on the spit for the entire time I walked out toward the lighthouse. Only after I turned around and started back in did I see someone else on the beach.

I’m not saying we can create a place like Dungeness Spit in Silverdale. We don’t have the type of shoreline or the backdrop. But people really don’t want to have to drive for 90 minutes to take a long walk. The Clear Creek Trail is Silverdale’s answer to the Dungesness Spit walk. … (more…)

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My wife and I like to avoid driving the car when we can, and we try to get some exercise by walking. So we will sometimes walk from our home on the Ridgetop down into central Silverdale to go to a movie, to shop, or just to be out on a nice day. (I know, nice days have been rare recently, but that’s a subject for a weather post, not this one.)

A few things strike me as we walk in Silverdale.

First of all, we seldom see many other pedestrians. We can walk Ridgetop Boulevard from Hillsboro Road by Ridgetop Junior High all the way pass the mall to the theaters and pass only one or two other pedestrians along the way. I think that fact is tied directly to a second observation.

Silverdale is not built to encourage, reward, or even tolerate pedestrians. There are sidewalks, but the sidewalks tend to hug the curbs. Cars whizz past at speeds that typically exceed the limit, and the proximity of the traffic creates a sense of unease. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought about what would happen to me if I took a false step on one of our walks and tripped. I could easily imagine myself falling into the path of a car, which would have little opportunity to slow or swerve out of the way. Walking Silverdale’s sidewalks is not a pleasant diversion. When you do so, your senses are heightened and you feel on alert for danger.

(more…)

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Sometimes it’s easy to forget when you’re in the heart of Silverdale that there’s still a lot of nature around.

One of the community’s real gems is the Clear Creek Trail, which offers a walk through preserved natural areas in the very core of Silverdale’s commercial district. The trail passes through the trees that are in the foreground of this photo, right in front of the embankment that carries State Highway 303 toward it’s interchange with State Highway 3.

There will be much to say about the Clear Creek Trail as this blog continues, since I think the trail is one of the best community-building features we have in Silverdale. It’s amazing how many people use it on a nice day, and how many times you’ll see someone on the trail even on a miserable day (my wife and I walked the trail behind Harrison Medical Center on Christmas Day, when all the sidewalks in Silverdale were impassible due to snow).

But the trail aside, we should all take a moment to appreciate the setting of our community. It’s what draws people here, and it’s part of the common bond that links us together.

— Jeff