Cooper Creek Trail Circle Complete

After over a decade of work from a collection of groups, the trail at Cooper Creek Reservoir goes all the way around the body of water and is accessible to hikers, mountain bikers, trail runners, and anglers. The completed, six-mile trail will get a grand opening on Saturday, May 14 at noon at the dam side of the reservoir. The different organizations who worked on the project will be recognized and the future of the dam and the trail will be discussed. There will be a raffle to help raise funds for continued maintenance and work on the bike-only portion. Then, there will be a ribbon-cutting ceremony and people are encouraged to get on the trail. Bob Feiler is the vice president of the Umpqua Velo Club and organized the work parties to get the last three miles of the trail finished. The southern three-mile half was done by the Sutherlin Rotary Club in 2010, including the bridge. Feiler started working on the second half in 2017 with help from Rotary, Boy Scouts, Umpqua Velo and LUMBR, and other individuals and groups. Feiler started building trails as a park host in campgrounds in Washington and Oregon. "I really enjoyed building them and maintaining them." Feiler said. "The best part is to see all the folks. You go out there and see hikers, runners, and people with their kids. It really has become popular. All that time, people would say, 'it sure would be nice if it went all the way around.' What most people did is, they would walk the South side, and then they wound up walking on the road back." Feiler said when he first came to the area in 2012, there weren't really fun and accessible trails in the area. The nearest ones were in Cottage Grove, Bandon, the Rogue River and Bend. "The North Umpqua Trail is a pretty challenging trail and it's a really hard trail to keep open," Feiler said. Over the years, he got connected with Douglas County Parks and Recreation, the Sutherlin Water Control District that owns the Cooper Creek Reservoir, and helped create LUMBR which all opened up the doors to making the first segment wrap around, creating one circuitous trail. The second half of the trail was finished in April after over 1,300 hours of volunteer labor and $4,000 in donations to bring in equipment to finish. They were held up by rough terrain, the snowstorm in 2019 that brought 300 trees down on the trail, and the pandemic. Every hour of work was done by volunteers. LUMBR stands for Land of Umpqua Mountain Bike Riders and the goal is to build, maintain, and ride mountain bikes on trails within a 30 minute drive from the Roseburg area. The group is working on a few more trails and is always looking for volunteers or people interested in riding. More information can be found at www.UmpquaVelo.org/lumbr.