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Monthly Trail Meeting
Date: Friday, March 8th
Time: Noon to 1:30 p.m.
Place: 205 Riverside Dr. (South Portal Bldg)
The purpose of our meeting is to hold an open forum to discuss ways to further our mission of promoting great trails in Klamath County. Please join us for all or part of our upcoming meeting.
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Maintenance Day
Check out the new KTA Meetup group for upcoming maintenance days by clicking here.
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Member Highlight
Justin Rodriguez grew up outside of Watsonville, California, on a small 18 acre farm. He developed an appreciation for the outdoors growing up, but it wasn't until college that he met some friends who were interested in hiking and backpacking. He was intrigued, gave it a try, and has been hooked since. He met his wife, Joyce, in college. He graduated with a degree in civil engineering, but notably focused on the water/environmental aspects of civil engineering with the hope of being able to find a job in a rural area.
Justin and Joyce chose Klamath Falls for her medical residency for both the excellent program and community at Cascades East, as well as the ease of access to public lands and open space. Both Justin and Joyce were amazed at how convenient it is to access trails in the Klamath Basin. When they first moved to town, they were temporarily housed in the city-owned residence in Moore Park. It was a great introduction to exploring Moore Park trails.
Justin enjoys ranching sheep and training dogs on their 80 acre ranch. Their children, Eleanor  (11 years old) and Kate (14 years old), have many interests including reading, music, and Destination Imagination. The family frequently hikes in Moore Park during the summer. For longer outings, they usually go to the Sky Lakes or Mountain Lakes Wilderness areas. There is sometimes grumbling from the children, but all is well as long as there is plenty of snacks, water, and shade, and maybe a lake for swimming.
In the past year, Justin has started mountain biking due to an interest sparked by his involvement in the KTA and the development of the Spence Mountain Trail System. He notes that sometimes it's nice to cover more ground by mountain biking, compared to hiking. He enjoys the challenge of having to "pick a line" and building up momentum to get over obstacles. Surviving a downhill run on Spence puts a grin on his face. He would like to encourage people new to mountain biking to start by trying a bike rental at Zach's Bikes, which is how he first tried the sport last year.
Justin became involved in the Klamath Trail Alliance (KTA) 5 years ago. He played a significant  role in helping plan and secure funding for the Geo Trail near Oregon Institute of Technology (Oregon Tech). In addition to Sky Lakes Medical Center, Oregon Tech, KTA and several individuals were integral in making the project a success. Justin is currently helping collaborate with Sky Lakes and landowners to expand the trail.
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Spence Mountain Trail Expansion
The plan for 2019 is to build another 7 miles of trails at Spence Mountain growing the trail system from 28 miles to 35 miles. Three trails, Queen of the Lake, Winema and North Star, will comprise the planned 7-mile expansion. The objective of this phase is to connect interior trails to the main trailhead located on Highway 140 providing longer loop options and enough variety for multi-day adventures.
Queen of the Lake will be our second black diamond trail that originates at the Spence Mountain Trailhead and follows the shoreline along Howard Bay for 2 miles. Due to the nature of the terrain (rock & steep sidehill) the trail will be mostly built by hand. Winema Trail connects to Queen of the Lake near the shoreline and gradually climbs 2 miles to where we left off last year. If time allows we will build North Star a 3 mile green trail that connects back into Junction 7 or the intersection of Shoalwater, Captain Jack and Modoc.
The project budget for 2019 is estimated at $132,360 to include trail design, trail construction, trail signs, highway sign, kiosk and an updated trails master plan. Dirt Mechanics, our trail building contractor, plans to start as soon as the snow melts and work until the end of May 2019. We are looking forward to another productive year thanks to the generous support of our community, a Klamath County Tourism grant and a Travel Oregon tourism grant.
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How to Become Involved with the KTA
Visit KTA's website or our Facebook page for more information on projects and events. Consider joining or renewing your membershship today! Individual memberships start at only $20 per year. These funds support trail maintenance, promotion, new trail development and the resources needed to keep us up and running as a non-profit organization! Email Info@klamathtrails.org to join the mailing list for updates.
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