COEUR d'ALENE - Despite the cold weather, city workers and a handful of volunteers are still chipping away at a new trail system in the Fernan Lake natural area.

The natural area is a 54-acre city-owned park on the south side of Fernan Lake, just west of the Armstrong Park subdivision on Potlatch Road.

A majority of the property, 47 acres, was donated to the city by the late Jim Elder, Pat Acuff and Doug Potter several years ago, and the city purchased an adjoining seven acres about three years ago in order to access the property.

The new trailhead is still in rough form, but is located at a turnout east of the city water pump station on Potlatch Road.

"I am just guessing, but I think we have roughed in about 1,200 feet of trail so far," said Mike Kempton, who is spearheading the project for the city parks department.

Monty McCully, the city's trails coordinator, said the trail will be a three-loop system, and one of those loops will be accessible by wheelchair when it is complete.

McCully said there is no immediate timeframe to finish the park, and no specific budget. Most of it is being built by staff and volunteers.

The plan is to keep the area as natural as possible, while providing another area to view bald eagles and access Fernan Lake's southern shores.

"One of the loops will go down to the bay below," McCully said, adding one loop will go to the east and west ends of the property.

The eastern loop will stop short of the city's property line to protect a bald eagle nesting area in that vicinity.

Kempton said a pair of eagles has been nesting in the area year-round for the past three years. Interpretive signs will be installed in the parking lot area to inform the public about the eagles.

Eventually, McCully would like to connect the trail system to the Centennial Trail along east Coeur d'Alene Lake Drive. The city master plan for trails would have the trail extended along the freeway corridor north to Cherry Hill Park, and eventually to Canfield Mountain.

McCully and Kempton have dubbed the system the 'foothills trail.'

"But there are still a lot of things that need to be done to make that happen," McCully said. "We would have to talk with (Idaho Transportation Department) and get it approved."

The Fernan Lake trail system will be for hiking only. McCully said that was a condition the donors had when they signed property over to the city.

Kempton said park workers are working on the new trail system during the winter months when they are not bogged down with summer duties.

He has also tapped the help of Mark Jones, from New Vision High School, who works with students in the "alternative to suspension" program.

He has been bringing students out to the project every Tuesday and Thursday for the past few months.

"This is a legacy project," Jones said. "I like to do these projects that kids can look back 10 years from now and say 'I was a part of that.'"

When he heard there was new park going in, he had to be a part of it. He said the math and science departments will eventually get involved in the applied learning program too.

"We are pretty excited about getting the math and science students out to work out some of (Americans with Disability Act) issues on the trail," he said.

Jones, McCully and Kempton agreed that completion of the park is probably a couple years away, but until then they plan to keep plugging away at it.

"We'll just keep piecing this thing together," Jones said.