New Janey's Trail offers lunchtime walk opportunity

“Janey is the motivation for helping with the Pilot Hill trails,” Evans said. “It’s a great project and she suggested we invest in it to help ensure its success.”

Evans recalled mountain biking the hills east of town well before the area became a protected area, and when he had access thanks to permission from the landowner.

“I rode my bike up here for some 50 years,” Evans said. “It is wonderful seeing the entire community enjoy it. Janey’s Trail is one of the shorter routes, and I imagine it will get lots of traffic, but all the trails look great to me.”

The new path offers an excellent opportunity for users of all ages. The nearly mile-long path is 5 feet wide and meanders through the sagebrush prairie. It is perfect for a lunch break stroll due to the minimal grade.

The trail is accessed from the parking area at the east end of Willett Drive. Take the paved City Path to the south. After about 100 yards, Janey’s Trail forks off and is marked with new signage. The route is a “lollipop” configuration with a straight path to an intersection marked with a bench where users can sit to enjoy the view of Pilot Hill to the east. At the intersection walkers can go either direction since both return to the intersection.

The aggregate surface, looking more like concrete in some sections, offers a path suitable for parents pushing strollers and walkers with mobility challenges. Youngsters learning to ride on strider bikes are welcome, but it is otherwise limited to runners and walkers rather than those pedaling on two wheels. There are plenty of nearby alternatives in the recreation area for that use.

Leah Burgess, co-chair of the Pilot Hill, Inc. Board of Directors, said it was such an honor to have the organization be the recipient of the generous donation. She recognized many of the entities that made the trail possible: the University of Wyoming, city of Laramie, Wyoming Game and Fish Department, and the other members of the Pilot Hill Board of Directors.

Sarah Brown Mathews, executive director of Pilot Hill, Inc., also gave credit to Evan Ely of Singletrack Trails for designing a route suitable to all users. Laramie resident Bruce Burrows, known for his trail-building expertise, also volunteered his time, as did Pilot Hill Board Co-chair Tony Hoch, who put in the trail marker and benches. Local heavy equipment owner Craig Aldridge hauled in the heavy stones used to construct the path’s bridge over the now-dry Spring Creek. Mountain Cement helped defray costs with their donation of aggregate material.

Mathews said there were many volunteers, donors, agencies and grants involved to make Janey’s Trail and the entire Pilot Hill area possible.

“We are immensely grateful to everyone in the community who make these trails possible.” Mathews said.

Janey’s Trail is one of the first trails built in Phase II of the Pilot Hill plan. In the future, interpretive signs will be placed along the trail to educate visitors about the unique nature of the Pilot Hill Area.

“We are honored by the generous intent of this gift from John,” said Mathews in a news release about the event. “We plan to be really busy over the next few summers. We’ve finalized the engineering work on all the remaining trails in the plan, and with generous support from our donors, we believe we can complete all the trails in the system in the next two to three years.

The Pilot Hill Land Use Plan was created to guide management and use of the Pilot Hill area based on the community’s vision for the space. It calls for nearly 3,000 acres to be managed in partnership with the Wyoming Game and Fish as a Wildlife Habitat Management Area, and just over 4,000 acres as a recreation corridor. In the recreation area, the plan calls for approximately 40 miles of nonmotorized multi-use trails for hikers, mountain bikers and equestrians.