WARRENTON – Back in the 50s, Americans wanting to improve their quality of life moved out of crowded big cities and into newly created suburbs.

They were looking for big houses, big yards and big garages for their big cars. They definitely were not looking for walking trails in their new neighborhoods.

In fact, they were so completely uninterested in non-vehicle travel that most of the new ‘burbs and subdivisions didn’t include sidewalks. Why walk anywhere when you could pile into the family station wagon and cruise along the brand new interstate highways?

Half a century later, many Americans have come full circle.

Hiking, biking and walking are now considered healthful, even trendy. And walking trails are seen as a way to improve the quality of life and bring communities together.

Just ask Jim Scheller, chairman of the Warrenton Trails Association, a group which is moving ahead with plans to improve Warrenton’s existing trails and add miles of new ones.

“I think people clearly see that this is a quality of life improvement for communities,” Scheller said. “So many other communities have trails, and what we’re finding is the connections, the access, really help build community. They connect neighborhoods to shopping centers and connect homes to businesses and churches and schools.

“And they’re an alternate pathway, a place where the family can walk on Sunday afternoon or take a bike ride and feel safe.”

Hammond resident Barry Smith, 80, is treasurer of the Warrenton Trails Association and a lifelong hiker.

“I’ve always been interested in walking and hiking. It’s a nice, healthy thing to do,” said Smith, who often hikes with the Angora Hiking Club. “We hike along the Airport Dike Trail and the trails within Fort Stevens. We put on a monthly hike open to the public. The Sea to Fort Trail was the last one,” Smith said.

He said the trails association has grown from a core group of six when it was formed in 2003 to 39 members. The group meets at 6 p.m. the third Tuesday of every month at the Serendipity Caffe, 137 S. Main Ave., whose owner, Krista Bingham, is a member of the trails association board.

Scheller and the nonprofit trails association envision creating a 25-mile-long loop through the city and some adjacent federal, state and county land by linking existing trails. Some will remain “graveled and wild and grassy,” he said, but he expects a large portion to be paved with asphalt. And he said most of the trail system will be accessible to families and people walking their dogs.

Partners are crucialScheller emphasized that the success of the project depends on the support of the trails association’s partners – the city of Warrenton, the Warrenton Business Association, the Port of Astoria, the National Park Service and Oregon State Parks – and community volunteers such as members of the Angora Hiking Club and National Coast Trails Association, and students from Warrenton High School. The Oregon Department of Transportation, while not a formal partner, is supportive, Scheller said, and the Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District in Seaside is also cooperating.

Three existing trails, featured in brochures produced by the Warrenton Trails Association and its partners, include:

The 4.3-mile Warrenton Waterfront Trail, which runs atop dikes paralleling the Columbia River estuary and the Skipanon River, from the kayak dock at Second Street near downtown Warrenton, westward to the Hammond Mooring Basin.

The 5-mile round-trip Airport Dike Trail, which starts at a gravel parking lot off U.S. Highway 101 Business Route, past Fort Clatsop, just before the Lewis and Clark Bridge. The elk-proof fence has an entry for hikers, who can walk as far as the gate just short of the Premarq Center, then return.

The 4-mile Burma Road Trail, which starts at the parking lot at the Peter Iredale shipwreck parking lot at Fort Stevens State Park and continues through a gate, along an old dirt road that leads through a forest between the dunes, and ends at De Laura Beach Lane, where it’s possible to explore other trails, return along the same path or return along the beach, if the tide is low enough.

Links are in the futureThe trails association would link those trails, about half of which are paved, by extending the Waterfront Trail from the Hammond Marina into Old Fort Stevens, and from there to Burma Road, De Laura Beach Lane and Ridge Road to Rilea Armed Forces Training Center and the Fort Clatsop to Sea Trail developed by the National Park Service as part of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial.

From there, the trail would run along Fort Clatsop Road and Oregon Highway 105, then tie in to Fort Clatsop Road, and finally loop back on the city-owned dike that borders the airport and back to the Skipanon Marina in Warrenton.

The trails association presented its plan last year to city and county officials in a 60-page concept paper, and the city budget for 2004-05 allocated $30,000 for trails improvement. Of that amount, $16,000 was used as a cash match to leverage a $36,000 Oregon Parks and Recreation Department grant.

Any additional funding will be pretty much up to the Warrenton Trails Association, according to Carol Parker, Warrenton’s planning director. The group, along with willing volunteers, is also taking care of maintaining the trails, she said.

Warrenton’s trail improvement project is one of several in neighboring communities, including Astoria and Seaside, and Raymond and Long Beach in Pacific County, Wash. And the Port of Astoria plans to extend the Astoria Riverwalk through its property and up Pier 3 along Youngs Bay, and intends to apply for a $1 million grant that will create and improve trails in Warrenton as well.

Eventually, the Warrenton trail system could link up with Astoria, by means of the two Youngs Bay bridges, and Seaside.

Parker knows such widespread community support for trails is a good sign, and she has high hopes for a May 18 open house on the trail plan, which her department is sponsoring and has scheduled for 6 to 9 p.m. at the Warrenton Community Center. Parker said several maps will be provided so people who attend can draw on them to show where they would like trails and interpretive information to be located.

Scheller said the open house is designed to bring everybody together to pool their ideas and questions about the trail plan. “We want to be as inclusive as possible. We want all the ideas on the table. We want to share what we know and the inventory we’ve put together and make plans,” Scheller said.

After the open house, Scheller expects to have a follow-up meeting, then hearings with more public input, followed by the Warrenton City Commission adopting the plan. Parker said she will work with the trails association to incorporate ideas into the plan and determine how various segments of the trail should be zoned, then make sure the trail plans and zoning are made part of the city’s comprehensive plan, which she said will help the trails association to get more grants in the future.

“If it’s in the comprehensive plan, then that state or federal agency knows that you’re serious about it,” Parker explained.

“If you want it to happen, that plan you put together has to be adopted into the city’s comprehensive plan. Otherwise, it’s just another book that sits on a shelf.”