Bob Jones Trailheads In SLO County Will Soon Truly Connect The ‘City To The Sea’
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (KEYT) – San Luis Obispo County’s well-known multipurpose Bob Jones Trail will soon literally connect the ‘City To The Sea,’ as its namesake suggests.
The trail currently exists in two separated segments.
On Tuesday, the SLO County Board Of Supervisors approved $10.5 million in state funding to Souza Engineering Contracting for the first phase of the Bob Jones Trail connector construction project.
“The state has a program of active transportation,” says Helene Finger, Friends Of The Bob Jones Trail President. “And we were one of the recipients of that funding. So it's not local funding.”
After decades of planning halted by funding delays and routing concerns, construction is expected to finally begin next month.
“I recently moved some bookshelves in my office. And behind them were some maps from 1991,” says Dawn Ortiz-Legg, District 3 Supervisor for the county of SLO. “Big maps in the old style, where they're trying to pin together a lot of the mapping of what the Bob Jones trail could look like. And it's been remarkable that we were finally at this point.”
The trailhead is at the corner of Higuera Street and Prado Road, and currently halts at Los Osos Valley Road.
Officials say a separate project will eventually link that access point to the nearby Octagon Barn.
“The trailhead here has been envisioned to be like a community meeting space,” says Finger. “So it can serve as a stopping point. Or it could be a starting point.”
The historic Octagon Barn will serve as the entry to the connector trailhead, adding 4 and a half miles of constructed multipurpose trail, ultimately linking visitors to the Ontario Road staging area, right around the corner from the recently completed park ’n’ ride on Avila Beach Drive.
“We came out here just to go see the beach because it had a great viewing,” says Luis Reyes, who lives in Bakersfield. “And also, the Bob Jones Trail great for just exercising, just seeing all the trees and forest area. It’s really nice.”
From Ontario Road, the famous trail leads to the Avila Beach access point, and is visited year-round by many cyclists, walkers, runners, and tourists.
While the work starts soon, and will take about a year and a half, timing for that last section is not yet determined.
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