Group lays groundwork for recreational path

Meeting to be held Thursday at Moat Mountain Smokehouse

Local cycling guru Steve Swenson has a dream: a multi-use recreational path that would extend from North Conway to Conway as a start, and maybe eventually from Bartlett to Madison.Swenson and others have organized a meeting to be held at the Moat Mountain Smokehouse in North Conway Thursday, March 19, to outline plans for the path.We're asking everyone to come and join us for a complimentary cross-country ski, courtesy of Mount Washington Valley Ski Touring and Snowshoe Association, at 4 p.m. We'll then head to the Moat Mountain Smokehouse, where there will be free pizza and appetizers, at 5:30 p.m. We'll then have a series of speakers and slide shows from 6:30 to 8 p.m., said Swenson, a retired SAU 9 school psychologist and father of professional mountain biker Peter Swenson and former Olympic cross-country skier Carl Swenson.In addition to Swenson, speakers at the March 19 forum will include local cycling enthusiast Sally McMurdo, who will share her insights from having visited many cycling communities in the United States with her husband, local cycling columnist Peter Minnich; and Dave Kinsman of Fryeburg, Maine, who will discuss his efforts as president of the Mountain Division Alliance to help create a 52-mile bicycle/pedestrian trail from Fryeburg to Portland, Maine, along the former Mountain Division line of the Maine Central Railroad.In an interview last week, Swenson took time out from his small-scale backyard maple sugaring production behind his and wife Sally's Kearsarge Road home to discuss the local group's efforts to build the recreational pathway.We've met with Conway officials, and they are writing a general letter in support. Town manager Earl Sires has also been invited to speak at our meeting, said Swenson, who says the group has obtained a small, initial grant from New England Grassroots Environmental Fund to help in its planning and publicity efforts for a non-motorized pathway.Swenson who has bicycled and cross-country skied throughout the country and Europe says the idea is to obtain easements from landowners for the proposed trail.He says the effort echoes a similar local endeavor undertaken some 15 years ago to build a merchants' cycling path behind businesses along the Route 16 strip.That initial concept was envisioned as a pathway that would enhance Mount Washington Valley's image and draw as a destination resort.The town did receive federal ISTEA (Intermodal Surface Transportation Enhance Act) money to build a paved bike path along the shoulder of West Side Road.The town also built a bike bridge and path behind the Conway Police Station along the Saco River in the early 1990s after obtaining a grant.The town conservation commission worked with the local New England Mountain Biking Association chapter to also build the Red Tail Trail on town common lands off Hurricane Mountain Road as part of a forestry timber management project.Swenson believes a dirt path, possibly along some portions of North-South Road, could continue those efforts to promote the valley as a mountain biking and cycling destination.Other communities have done well with bike paths, if you look at Magog, Quebec, or Stowe, Vt., the latter of which is a close parallel to us with its ski trails and a river valley. There is a beautiful pathway that goes through tunnels from the trail up to the mountain. They have a paved path, and you go up there and you see cyclists and rollerbladers. That's the vision but we would probably start with a gravel surface, from North Conway to Conway, using some of the existing pathways that are now down by the river that are town pathways. We need permission from landowners to cross some land; we would hope to use some of the cross-country ski trails that start in Bartlett.We would like to have some of it be visible alongside the North-South Road but separate from the highway; we would like it to go as far south as Madison eventually. But we are going to need the town's support. We need money, we need people to help write grants, he said.In a March 10 open letter, Conway selectmen touted the economic, recreational and transportation improvement aspects of the proposal.The Town of Conway is pleased to provide this letter of support for the development of a recreation and commuter trail system within the Mount Washington Valley," the letter stated. "Such a trail system would provide both residents and visitors with a safe and efficient means of non-motorized transportation through the valley. The Town of Conway has successfully cooperated in several trail projects with the sponsors of this effort (the New England Mountain Bike Association, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Carroll County Conservation District) and looks forward to continuing to do so.Swenson said selectmen's support is appreciated as the group pushes ahead.I can see a link from the new 121 Fitness Center right out of Whitaker Woods to the DeMark Center, right there behind the hospital. So there are a lot of opportunities to connect, said Swenson.He said the price could be as much as $3,000 or $4,000 a mile.Again, it varies where you're going to build a trail, said Swenson. He said the group is hopeful that the project could be eligible for stimulus money.I think stimulus money is targeted for things just like this, because it represents a healthy lifestyle, it's alternate transportation, it's just a worthwhile infrastructure to have in a community, said Swenson. I think the merchants realize it. I know that the Mount Washington Valley Chamber of Commerce is having a meeting after ours, and they are talking about the goal of the Conways as a cycling destination and this would fit right into that concept.Members of the committee first met over a year ago. Swenson became involved a few months ago. Other members of the committee include Larry Garland, chairman, a Jackson resident who is an avid cyclist and who serves as cartographer for the Appalachian Mountain Club; Rob Adair, engineer and president of the White Mountains chapter of the New England Mountain Biking Association; local cyclist Sally McMurdo; members of the Conway Conservation Commission; and local cyclist Lisa Holcomb.For more information, call Swenson at 356-9021 or Adair at 496-5853; Holcomb at 447-3443, or e-mail to info@mwvbikepath or go to www.mwvbike.org.Like the Field of Dreams, if you build it, they will come, says Swenson.Again, if you sponsor an event or have friendly bikeways, people will come, said Swenson, and they need to eat, they need places to stay. I think merchants need to become aware of what is possible on the 19th we are going to be able to show things that are possible, as well as some things that are not possible right away. You go to Martha's Vineyard and see their bike path and the cycling shops. Or, you know, you look at Holland, where you can bike anywhere and go through the biggest city, or Munich, Germany, right? But again, we've got the setup here, and I think it's way overdue.