Brock Pluard, a member of a Department of Natural Resources fire crew, lays paving stones along a steep portion of the Ellen Davis Trail in Vancouver on Wednesday afternoon. (Photos by Amanda Cowan/The Columbian)Photo Gallery
At 87 years old, Don Cannard can’t break trails like he used to. But age certainly hasn’t stopped him from pouring his energy into his passion.
On Wednesday afternoon, Cannard was out on the roughly 2.5-mile-long Ellen Davis Trail near the Bonneville Power Administration’s Ross Complex. With trekking poles in hand, he oversaw significant improvements to the popular walkway he created nearly three decades ago.
“I’m making a thrust right now to really upgrade the trail,” he said. “We’ve put a lot of money into it.”
A portion of the trail that breaks away from Burnt Bridge Creek and climbs the hillside to the substation complex is particularly steep and prone to erosion, so Cannard cobbled together more than $14,000 from six grants to improve it. It was a lot of work in its own way.
“It’s tough to get grants for maintaining; most grants are for building,” he said.
In June, Larch Corrections Center inmates working on a Department of Natural Resources forestry crew cleared brush and widened the trail a little. On Wednesday they came back to spread gravel and lay paving stones.
The concrete path creates a 750-foot-long, gray crosshatch pattern up the steep slope, around the switchback and stops where the trail emerges near the BPA facilities. By the end of the day on Friday the pavers will be filled with sand and soil, then seeded to hold everything in place.
Cannard said he had people calling him earlier this year complaining about the trail’s condition and asking how they could help. Now that the work is underway, he heard from a runner that was disappointed that the trail was no longer entirely dirt.
“You can’t please everybody,” Cannard said.
Ellen Davis, the trail’s namesake, was famous as a local outdoors enthusiast and advocate and known for hiking even into her early 90s. According to Cannard, she used to walk a mile up the trail every day to get a cup of coffee and a doughnut before heading home again.
According to Cannard, hidden beneath the scrub at one end is a stone with a quote from Davis that reads “If you want a workout, walk my trail.”
The Ellen Davis has trailheads at Leverich Park and along Northeast St. James Road near Northeast 59th Street. With some help, Cannard built the trail about 30 years ago when a BPA employee wanted to start a fitness program. He knew Cannard regularly walked the woods nearby, and approached him.
Legacy of trails
Since then Cannard has spent decades maintaining the trail. But it’s hardly his only project. Through his life Cannard built miles of trails, including Kloochman Butte Trail, Bells Mountain Trail, Ed’s Trail, Bluff Mountain Trail and Hamilton Mountain Trail, among others.
The trail remains open while the work goes on. In fact Burt Hafner, DNR forestry crew supervisor, said he had seen about a dozen people walk through in the first half of the day. However, as work continues people will have to keep an eye out for small equipment and men moving materials.
The forestry crew’s main focus is fighting wildland fires, but this year’s relative calm has them focusing more on things like trail work and vegetation management.
Hafner said Cannard’s commitment to the trail was evident from the minute the crew came out to work on the project.
“The passion he has is incredible,” he said.
Morning Briefing Newsletter
Get a rundown of the latest local and regional news every Mon-Fri morning.
