The Chilkat River as seen from Mount Ripinsky in summer of 2017. (Emily Files)
Trails throughout the Haines Borough provide access to a number of beautiful mountaintops, beaches, rivers and lakes. It turns out some of the most commonly used trails may not be as public as you think.
The mountain ranges around Haines are used by outdoor adventurers for many different activities. People summit their peaks to go berry picking, skiing, snowboarding and mountain goat hunting among other activities.
According to Haines resident Burl Sheldon, the trails used to access these places today have been around since before Alaska even became a state.
“People that came here in the ‘60s cleared what was used in a previous generation by the soldiers that were here at Fort Seward and were using the Mt. Ripinsky hike as recreation and going up and seeing the grand vistas the same way we’re doing it now.”
Sheldon chairs the Haines Borough’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee. Recently the committee has been focusing more on how to improve trails in Haines.
“The trails subcommittee was developed because there are a number of items in the Haines Borough Comprehensive Plan that we have not made progress on that relate to our local trails.”
Recently the borough assembly allocated $20,000 to fund trail assessment and development.
That’s because trails on Mt. Ripinsky and Mt. Riley are used a lot by the public and commercial tour operators as well. While these trails are marked on the borough’s maps, they aren’t really owned by the borough.
Sheldon says the trails cross state land, but they also cross the private property of local residents and entities such as the University of Alaska and the Alaska Mental Health Trust.
“Because of the complexity of ownership and because those trails are very important, if it were the borough’s business to say well we need to coordinate and get our arms around this collectively, that would be a good idea in my view personally.”
Trails crossing private property in Haines haven’t caused many problems in the past, but recently legal concerns have been raised by some property owners.
David Griffin with the Mental Health Trust Land Office reached out to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee about the issue earlier in August. In an email, he wrote that trails on Mt. Ripinsky and Mt. Riley cross through Trust Land without any authorization and that commercial tour operators using the trails are trespassing.
This is worrying for local alpinist Jess Kayser.
“Right now both residents and visitors to the Chilkat Valley think that these are public access trails. The take-home message for me is everyone who uses the Ripinsky trail system is walking on private land and we should respect that and have gratitude to those landowners.”
Kayser is the chair of Haines H.U.T.S., a non-profit that recently applied for a lease from Alaska’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to build a public use cabin on state land on Tukgaho Mountain. DNR says the public is not allowed to access the cabin by crossing private property illegally.
Right now the easiest access to the proposed location of the hut is from the Mt. Ripinsky trailheads, which cross private property.
“DNR has requested that a discussion be had within the Haines community about these access points. The ideal situation would be that the Haines Borough takes the lead on this and identifies a trailhead where it can support securing a public easement.”
According to DNR, an easement safeguards public trails by legally protecting them from future land actions that might restrict access. They can also be beneficial to property owners because they limit liability and may provide a tax benefit.
At a meeting Monday, the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee advised the Haines Borough Assembly to look into acquiring easements from landowners who have property within the Mt. Ripinsky Trail System. The assembly will consider the request at its next meeting.
