On Monday March 1, 2004 two representatives from CMBA met with three City reps, in Bowmont Park, to discuss the alignment of the designated trail in the Waterfall Valley area within Bowmont park. Waterfall Valley is the valley area directly south of the Silver Springs Plaza, at approximately the mid east-west point in the park.

Waterfall Valley will have an interpretive trail running north-south along the bottom of the valley from the north end by the Silver Springs Plaza down to the river. The alignment of the designated trail, for both walkers and cyclists, that will ring or circumnavigate the upper, northern portion of the valley was the topic of discussion.

In the end, we left having two options for trails within the valley itself. The decision will be very dependent upon where a safe crossing of the interpretive trail can be made and that is dependent on whether a reasonable ~ 120 degree (hairpin) turn, on a hillside, can be engineered and built.

The group continued west of the valley because alignment within the valley and exiting on the west side must also be integrated with the available trails to the west. Unfortunately, the ridge top trail just west of the valley is unacceptable due to ground sloughing and safety issues. But we came up with two options that will work. CMBA would prefer the trail to be on the hillside and further away from the regional pathway and houses, for aesthetic reasons. Even further to the west, we scoped out an alignment that benches into the hillside. A short connector link may need to be built, but everyone was in agreement that this was workable. This carried us as far west as the next major valley which has an existing contouring, ring trail.

In summary, we scoped out a possible designated trail, with two sections, each having two options, from the east side of Waterfall Valley to almost the regional pathway at the west end of the park.

CMBA was very pleased with the openness and attitude of the City. They are genuinely interested in creating a multi-use trail that will be interesting and viable for all users but within the guidelines of public safety and liability, cost, and within IMBA's trail building and sustainability guidelines. We were pleased with the outcome. Life is full of compromises. "You can't always get what you want, but sometimes ... ".