LIGHTING THE WAY: Summer light pole installation means a bright winter at GPRA

GOVERNMENT PEAK — It is already shaping up to be a busy summer at the 8,000-acre Government Peak Recreation Area near Hatcher Pass, and the calendar hasn’t even rolled into June yet.

New mountain bike single track is being added. A horseman’s group is working on improvements to the historic Carle Wagon Trail nearby. And when the snow flies, recreational Nordic skiers and local high school ski teams who enjoy the nearly four miles of trails will have an added bonus for the dark winter — lights.

The Matanuska-Susitna Borough started the lighting project last month. While the poles sit in the GPRA parking lot near the chalet, crews have finished drilling most of the holes and are now working on the utility trenches, according to borough engineer and project manager Mike Campfield.

The parking lot will be closed to all public and private use June 14-15 while a helicopter ferries the poles to various locations around the trail system. The project should be finished by August, Campfield said.

A $390,000 grant from the Mat-Su Health Foundation, a portion of another Rasmuson Foundation grant, and borough and Mat-Su Ski Club money will fund the installation of LED lights in the stadium area as well as the Pioneer, Matanuska and Susitna loops. In winter, the Pioneer Loop is a nonmotorized trail for mountain bikers, dog walkers, skijorers and hikers. The other two are ski-only trails.

Campfield said project contractor Yukon Electric will install 102 poles, with each cemented into plastic sonotubes and backfilled with gravel. The LED lights will be activated by a photocell to turn on when it gets dark in the evenings, Campfield said. A timer will shut them off nightly by 9 p.m.

This year’s early spring has helped move the project along faster than expected.

“With the weather we have been having, I think they are a little ahead of schedule,” Campfield said of the contractor.

Initial plans and funding allowed for only lighting the Pioneer and Matanuska loops, but the 2-kilometer Susitna was added after a $25,000 contribution from the ski club was added to other funding the borough had in hand for lighting. The club made a push earlier this year to reach out to its membership for a “Light the Susitna” fundraising campaign.

“It was great to see the ski club step up,” Campfield said of the contribution, adding that finishing the Susitna Loop will be a bonus.

“You are never going to get a better price,” he said of having the contractor already in place for the other loops.

The only lighting in the area was in the stadium, thanks to the rigging efforts of ski club board member Ed Strabel, a former Nordic ski coach at Palmer, Wasilla and Colony high schools and tireless trail groomer.

“It has been a long time coming,” said Strabel, who has been involved in trail building in the Valley since the 1980s. “The lighting is going to be a huge asset.”

The ski club is already in the process of planning some low-key community races for Tuesday nights during the ski season, Strabel said.

“People need to get out in the winter. I spent many years going to Chugiak for their lighted trails and the parking lots were always packed,” he added.

The lights will especially benefit the ski club’s Junior Nordic program, which has grown exponentially in recent years to some 300 kids per season. The program runs from January through March, and the early weeks of classes are deep in the winter darkness, meaning headlamps for participants.

Strabel said the Government Peak area along with Hatcher Pass gets a consistent level of snowfall that will continue to make the recreation area a regional destination.

“We had skiable conditions up there from the fifth of October to the 15^th of May,” he said.

Borough public affairs director Patty Sullivan, the grant writer for the lighting project, said a ribbon-cutting ceremony will be set for the fall.

“This is a significant winter upgrade,” she said. “Lighted trails allow kids, teams and even middle-aged office workers to get out into the winter night and move.”

Contact reporter Steven Merritt at 352-2269 or steven.merritt@frontiersman.com