We’ve had a big year in 2024, building new trails in McCall and Donnelly!
We held a ribbon-cutting for the new Samson Trail walking and biking trail on Oct. 9th with kids participating from Barbara Morgan Elementary School and Payette Lakes Middle School.
It felt wonderful to see all the kids enjoying the new trail after passing through a colorful balloon columns by the trail entrance! Ultimately, we’re building our trails for them, their grandchildren and future generations of the community.
The Samson Trail project took three years to plan and build. Valley County Pathways, thanks to our donors, paid over $30,000 for the design and engineering of the Samson Trail project from the Deinhard junction going south to Pearson Lane, a distance of about 2 miles. Valley County Parks & Recreation landed a $250,000 grant for the project from the state Children and Pedestrian Safety program, and oversaw the construction phase with Falvey Construction building the trail.
VCP contributed more than $60,000 to the construction cost, including a $25,000 grant from St. Luke’s FitOne, to get that project across the finish line. Everything costs more than anticipated because of inflation, the cost of construction materials, labor and more! Many thanks to St. Luke’s for that!
We also want to give special thanks to the Local Highway Technical Assistance Council (LHTAC) for supporting the Samson Trail project with the state grant and to LHTAC Deputy Director Ken Kanwnik for attending the ribbon-cutting event.
Hope you’ve had a chance to walk, run or bike on the new trail!
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So close! The Town to Beach Flyway in Donnelly is 98% complete. Watch for a grand opening next spring.
Our pro bono trail contractor, Josh Murrey with Northwest Land Services, worked with Valley County Pathways volunteers and his own crew to finish grubbing the Town to Beach Flyway trail corridor last summer. Then, he graded the full length of the trail and applied roadmix to the top layer of the natural surface trail for long-term durability. There are just a few more spots that need finishing.
Gordon Cruickshank, former Valley County Commissioner, installed two trailheads on the Flyway trail – one by the West Roseberry entrance to the trail and one by the Dawn Drive entrance.
People are welcome to use the trail this winter – just know that there are a couple uncompleted sections of the trail you will need to walk around.
We want to thank Josh Murrey and his crew, VCP volunteers, and Gordon Cruickshank for all of their outstanding work this summer. We look forward to hosting a grand opening next spring with Mayor Susan Dorris and the City of Donnelly and our neighbors, volunteers and supporters in Donnelly.
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Three state trail grants landed for new trails in 2025
Riding the momentum of our work in 2023 and 2024, we congratulate our trail partners in the City of McCall, City of Donnelly and Valley County Parks & Recreation for landing more funds for walking and biking trails via the state Children’s and Pedestrian Safety Program.
New trail on West Roseberry for Donnelly. VCP Board Member Brett Shepherd applied for and received a $250,000 grant under that program on behalf of the City of Donnelly. The grant will cover the cost of building an 8-foot paved pathway along the south side of West Roseberry Road, from the turnoff to the Flyway trail to Dawn Drive.
Developer Craig Groves will be building a pedestrian sidewalk on the north side of West Roseberry from Roseberry Plaza to Kassandra Drive on the north side of the road. The two projects combined will provide a pedestrian pathway and striped bikeway from the Donnelly Fire Station to Dawn Drive. Yay!
Brett is working the LHTAC engineers to design the new pathway, and we expect to build it in the summer of 2025.
Samson Trail phase 2 walking and biking trail/safe route to schools also has been funded with a $250,000 grant from the state Children’s and Pedestrian Safety Program. Valley County Parks & Recreation has the lead. VCP already has paid for design and engineering to extend the Samson Trail walking and biking trail to Pearson Lane, a distance of about 1 mile. Now it’s just a matter of building the trail! Oh, and we need to raise another $100,000 to cover construction costs for that project.
McCall Parks & Recreation received a grant to build a paved pathway along Wooley Avenue from Davis to the raised wooden bridge that connects to paved pathways adjacent to Spring Mountain Boulevard. That one is expected to be built in 2026.
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It’s because of our donor’s support that we’ve been able to support and build our trail projects in Valley County.
We’re still short over $100K for Samson Phase 2. Even though the county got another $250K from the state children’s and pedestrian safety fund for that project, the cost estimate is in the $400K range. Go here if you’d like to donate to Valley County Pathways.
Overall, Valley County Pathways has a vision to build more than 70 miles of pathways to connect the communities of Cascade, Donnelly, McCall and New Meadows and to popular outdoor destinations like Ponderosa Park, Brundage Mountain, Jug Mountain Ranch, Lake Cascade State Park, Tamarack Resort and Gold Fork Hot Springs. See more at valleycountypathways.org.
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