Big steps forward with construction on Muir’s Ascension and Strawberry Valley Trails

This is the third installment in the Gateway Trail expansion update blog series.

In the summer and fall of 2022, Trail Labs tackled construction in the forest between the Ten Gallon Trailhead and McBride Springs, which is the upper section of Muir’s Ascension. This beautiful segment of Gateway Trails meanders through tall stands of fir with mostly dense canopy overhead. The trails have dips and rises, big loops and berms, and a winding rocky section not seen in other areas of the project. Kudos to Trail Labs for moving many tons of rocks to allow riders and hikers to traverse this angled terrain.

About halfway down Muir’s Ascension, work started on Strawberry Valley Trail. About half of this trail is now complete, and it’s fast and flowy. The bottom half is roughed in, and will soon connect to the rerouted segment of Gateway I.

This blog update is being written in the early spring of 2023, with several feet of snow still on the ground. When that snow melts, Strawberry Valley will be completed and construction will start on the missing segment of Muir’s Ascension between McBride Springs and Lemurian Delirium. Hopefully, we’ll have enough construction crews to also continue work that was started in the Learning Zone (near the Nordic Center) late in the fall of 2022.

To clarify the above, click on the Maps and Zones tab on this website.