Key segment from Coram to West Glacier to be built this year

Gateway to Glacier Trail along U.S. 2 between Coram and West Glacier will be built this summer, but that’s not all of the trail news coming out of the Canyon in recent days.

Also this summer, renowned Bigfork blacksmith Jeffrey Funk will build a welcome kiosk at a trail staging area in Hungry Horse using a portion of the 1894 Old Steel Bridge that spanned the Flathead River east of Kalispell for well over a century.

Tying it all together are two other trail projects in the works.

The nonprofit Gateway to Glacier Trail group has successfully lobbied the Montana Department of Transportation to include a bike path from Hungry Horse through Bad Rock Canyon and across the South Fork of the Flathead River as part of an upcoming upgrade of U.S. 2 that includes the replacement of the South Fork bridge.

The trail group recently won a Federal Lands Access Program grant that will pay for a 2.7-mile trail from Columbia Falls to Bad Rock Canyon, Gateway to Glacier Trail past president Val Parsons said.

That leg of the trail will be built next summer, starting on the south side of U.S. 2 at the Flathead River bridge. The trail will head east to Big Sky Waterpark and cross over U.S. 2 at the intersection with Montana 206, Parsons said. It then proceeds to the House of Mystery.

“It’s pretty exciting news,” Parsons said of the effort that began in 2010 to create a bike and pedestrian route through the Canyon area to Glacier National Park. “Six years seems like a long time, but it’s not really that long.”

The trail group is negotiating with Glencore for an easement along the east side of the Flathead River near Columbia Falls that would accommodate an additional scenic loop for the trail system.

The only existing paved portion of the trail runs from Hungry Horse to Coram.

The Flathead County commissioners on Monday awarded a construction bid to LHC, which had the low base bid of $450,211, for the 6.8-mile segment between Coram and West Glacier.

Also approved was a bid of $243,723 from LHC for an additional loop on Old Highway 2 that includes a portion of Belton Stage and Lake Five roads.

The county had advertised for bids for the main trail — which will be separate from U.S. 2 — plus three alternate additions that incorporate portions of Old Highway 2.

Four years ago Gateway to Glacier Trail beat out three other local contenders for the county’s last allocation of federal trails money through the Community Transportation Enhancement Program. Since then the Gateway to Glacier Trail group has been raising money and promoting the safety project.

While the trail group expected to provide the 13.42 percent required local match, the state Department of Transportation has agreed to fund the match of about $108,382, county planner Rachel Ezell said.

The state’s contribution frees up more than $100,000 the trail group has raised, Parsons said. If the group’s money isn’t used for the Glencore easement, it likely will be used for trail maintenance, she said.

The welcome kiosk will be in Hungry Horse on a small patch of county park land that contains a huge steel wrecking ball used to remove trees during the construction of Hungry Horse Dam.

Inside the kiosk will be a plaque recognizing the late Jim Dupont of West Glacier, who served as Flathead County sheriff for 16 years and was in his first term as a county commissioner when he died in 2012. Dupont was a big supporter of the trail project.

Parsons said all of the county commissioners who have worked with the project will be recognized alongside Dupont. There will be a donor recognition wall in the kiosk, along with a history of the trail. In the 1970s and 1980s, a local 4-H club pushed for a trail through the Canyon, Parsons said, with 4-H members even going to Helena to urge lawmakers to fund it.

Using a section of the Old Steel Bridge for the kiosk will give it a historic feel. Pete Skibsrud of Kalispell bought a portion of the historic bridge in 2008, then transferred ownership of the 14 tons of iron to Funk in 2014. Funk, in turn, cut the bridge into dozens of pieces and is putting the steel to use for a number of projects.

Funk builds customized gates and does other decorative metal work. In the late 1990s, he dismantled the Kearney Rapids Bridge over the Swan River near Bigfork and put parts of it to different uses. He told the Daily Inter Lake in 2014 that the type of wrought iron used in the Old Steel Bridge is no longer manufactured and it is more resistant to corrosion and fatigue than steel.

Parsons said the Gateway to Glacier Trail group is in the final round of fundraising for the kiosk; the group received grants for about half the cost.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.