Cordova's only ATV trail gets fixed, once the ground freezes

The Chugach National Forest is hiring a contractor to repair the first 1.7 miles of the Sand Trail, the only managed off-highway vehicle route on the district and a road out of Cordova for people who ride and hunt along it. Nobody can start digging until the ground freezes: five consecutive days below 30 degrees, or whenever the Forest Service says so.

The rest of the calendar is just as narrow. No clearing vegetation between May and mid-July, for nesting birds. No working in the water between July and September, for fish. Weekdays only, 7 am to 6 pm.

The trail runs about 12 miles up Scott Glacier Valley, through habitat for salmon that come in from the sea to spawn, nine miles east of town on the Copper River Highway. The work calls for 335 cubic yards of riprap to armor eroded riverbank and 600 cubic yards of aggregate to harden the surface for ATVs. Additional aggregate, rock barbs and dozer work in the channel are optional and expire if the Forest Service does not order them by Nov. 1.

None of this is new. A Forest Service listing in 2021 already flagged the same problems: aggregate needed, turnpike work to lift the tread above wet ground, and streambanks coming apart.

Quotes from contractors are due Sept. 22, a deadline the agency pushed back two weeks. The job is set aside for small businesses and runs through May 2027, weather permitting.