Impressions of the East Slope Trail

The East Slope Trail at Chambers Creek Properties is open, and I have walked the trail a couple times. It’s fairly steep near the environment services building. From there, it heads down towards Chambers Creek. This puts the trail closer to the wastewater treatment facility than ideal. At one point, I did get a little whiff of something. The appeal for the trail, however, is at the end.

I have wanted to visit the canyon area of the park for a long time. I have also read that there is an entry point south of the Chambers Creek bridge. This is roughly where the East Slope Trail ends.

I found the canyon entrance. It’s actually pretty hard to miss. There are just two problems accessing it. First, there are crosswalks around the end of the East Slope Trail, but none crossing the actual street. Since the canyon entrance is on the other side of the street, this is an unfortunate oversight. The other problem is that the bridge across the street is clearly intended for vehicle traffic only. There really isn’t space for pedestrians, especially without getting in the way of traffic.

When they first announced the East Slope Trail, they said that it would eventually connect to the canyon. I’m guessing that they do have plans for improving access. For now, I’ll try to be careful crossing the street and the bridge. Perhaps I will try to time my bridge crossings for gaps in the traffic. Regardless, I ‘m pretty sure that this crossing won’t be enough to keep me out of the canyon.

As for the canyon itself, I feel that there is still quite a bit of work to be done. The trail through the canyon is unpaved, created a different feeling from the other trails. It can be steep at times. If I wanted to try some of the spurs, they would likely add significantly to the difficulty. A trail that approaches the creek kind of peters out. Most access to the creek requires little spur trails that do not appear to be maintained. Most of the trail is well above the creek, and the creek tends to remain hidden. It would also be nice to have some signage to help point out the creek, access points, the main trail, and any points of interest. Additionally, a more extensive series of trails that don’t require going under and over logs would be nice.

There is definitely life in that area. I saw pileated woodpeckers both days and heard an Osprey yesterday (apparently, they still haven’t left for the year). There were also a couple deer near the East Slope Trail on both days.

In summary: The East Slope Trail itself is nothing special, but it’s worth walking just for access to an incomplete trail system within the canyon.