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Caribou Lake Trail

NEW! Download the Caribou Trail Topo Map (JPG, 1Mb)

The Homer District has established three objectives for their trails program, including:

1. To reroute and legally establish a trail to Caribou Lake that can serve as a model for future trail development on the Lower Kenai Peninsula;

2. To work with local, regional, state, and national organizations to promote the responsible use and development of trails in Alaska.

3. Provide educational information and outreach to trail users, as well as non-trail users, about the benefits and legal aspects of trails.

Since 2000, the Homer District has led a collaborative project to reroute 7.5 miles of trail to Caribou Lake, a popular recreational destination in the area. The Caribou Lake Trail project (download 500Kb pdf report for 2004) spawned from studies that illustrated the impacts of off-highway recreational vehicles on the landscape in the Lower Kenai Peninsula. The Snomads, Cook Inlet Keeper, the Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance Program, and the Homer Soil and Water Conservation District formed a partnership to address these issues by rerouting and working to legally establish a multiple-use trail to Caribou Lake. Funding for the project has been provided by numerous sources, including the State Recreational Trail Grants, the NRCS Wildlife Habitat Improvement Program, and the Snomads (a local ATV and Snowmachine user group).

The trail will primarily be used by ATVs, but this trail will also serve bicycles and hikers on their way to Caribou Lake or the backcountry in general. Originally, trails to Caribou Lake crossed completely through wetlands. With this reroute, the trail only crosses wetlands through approximately 3 percent of the trail. When the trail crosses through wetlands, the District has constructed boardwalk from local timber to allow for minimal impacts to the wetlands. This past summer, the District hired a trail crew and a contractor to mill and construct almost 6,000 feet of boardwalk on the trail, for a total of over 8000 feet of boardwalk constructed so far. The District has approximately 4,000 feet of boardwalk left to construct for a total of 2.6 miles of boardwalk!

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District volunteers working on the Caribou Lake Trail.