Humboldt Trails Summit to showcase countywide trail connections
Field trips at the Humboldt Trails Summit will put future trail links on the map, from the Hammond Trail bridge to the Eureka-to-College of the Redwoods corridor.
Residents heading to Eureka for the Humboldt Trails Summit will get a closer look at the trail projects most likely to change how people move across Humboldt County, from the Hammond Trail bridge replacement to the long-planned Eureka-to-College of the Redwoods connection.
The summit is scheduled for May 30 at the Sequoia Conference Center, 901 Myrtle Avenue, with a Trail Partner Fair from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The presentation window is set for 11 a.m. to noon, and the afternoon field trips will run in two blocks, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. The Humboldt Trails Council says the fair and speaker presentations are free and open to the public.
What makes this year’s gathering notable is not just the lineup of speakers, but the fact that several projects are moving from concept to visible alignment. Local coverage says the field trips may include the Bay to Zoo Trail, the Annie and Mary Connectivity Trail and the Little River Trail, giving attendees a ground-level look at where new connections could eventually thread together Eureka, Arcata and the county’s coastal communities.
That network is being framed through the Great Redwood Trail, which the California State Coastal Conservancy describes as a 320-mile, multi-use rail-to-trail project linking San Francisco Bay and Humboldt Bay. The conservancy says the completed trail could generate $24 million in annual local economic activity, cut 1,580 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions and create 1,384,915 walking and biking trips each year. The Great Redwood Trail Act was signed into law in 2021, and the Great Redwood Trail Agency replaced the former North Coast Railroad Authority in 2022.
In Humboldt County, the most immediate change is already visible on the ground. Humboldt Bay Trail South added 4.25 miles and completed the missing link between Eureka and Arcata, a corridor county reporting said was scheduled for completion at the end of 2024 and later said opened to the public in 2025. County materials also identify the Eureka-to-College of the Redwoods segment as the next regional priority for active transportation and recreation; a February 2026 planning study says that extension would add about 4.1 miles from the south end of Eureka.
Other projects on the summit’s map carry their own history and pressure points. The Hammond Trail bridge, originally built in 1941 and repurposed for bicycle and pedestrian use in 1983, is being lined up for replacement as a critical connector bypassing Highway 101 between Arcata and McKinleyville. The county has put the project at $7.5 million, with $5 million in federal community project funding. Farther south, the Little River Coastal Trail concept was funded through the State Coastal Conservancy, which authorized up to $90,000 for planning from Little River State Beach to Scenic Drive.
At a prior Trails Summit, Sen. Mike McGuire called the Great Redwood Trail “an opportunity of a lifetime” and said it could give rural communities a much-needed boost. This summit will test how much of that promise is now visible in survey stakes, bridge plans and the next miles of trail Humboldt residents may soon use.
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