HUMBOLDT — “Base Camp.”
In recreational terms, a base camp is where adventurers gather to prepare for an activity or recuperate afterward. It’s a staging area. A gathering spot. A home away from home.
In Humboldt, Base Camp will become a place to launch recreational adventure activities like campouts and retreats. It will target bicycle enthusiasts, especially, and others with links to the nearby Southwind Rail Trail. And it will connect a trail to downtown Humboldt, drawing visitors to the shops and restaurants nearby.
Those are the hopes of A Bolder Humboldt, which is building the recreational area around the trailhead to the northeast of town.
The project, which could partially open later this summer and is targeted for full operation next spring or summer, already has drawn a great deal of interest.
A yoga instructor wants to have a yoga retreat at the site, said Beth Barlow, who is overseeing the project on behalf of A Bolder Humboldt. A group of women wants to rent cabins for a quiet weekend together. Bicycle groups want to organize camps. Families are eyeing it for reunions.
More than $1 million in grants have been issued for the project or related improvements.
The Kansas Department of Transportation in November awarded a $1.08 million grant for “The Last Mile,” which would build a parking lot at the Southwind trailhead and construct a mile-long trail and sidewalk to connect the trail to downtown Humboldt, targeted for both bicycling and walking. The total cost of the project is about $1.5 million, and it is currently in an engineering phase.
The Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism awarded another $92,293 to the Base Camp project, Barlow learned just last week. That money will help fund the second phase of the project, which includes a primitive camping area, shower and restroom facilities and a bicycle obstacle course.
THE SOUTHWIND Rail Trail, about six and half miles long, opened in 2013 between Iola and Humboldt. It serves as a southern extension to the 51-mile Prairie Spirit Trail from Iola to Ottawa.
The trail is one of Humboldt’s greatest assets, Barlow said.
A couple of years ago, Thrive Allen County hosted a community conversation that asked residents to list Humboldt’s assets. When the trail came out at the top of the list, A Bolder Humboldt began brainstorming ways to use it to promote tourism.
The Works family, whose members are part of A Bolder Humboldt, own property on both sides of the Southwind trailhead. B & W Trailer Hitches sits to the west of the trail. A vacant house, large barn and 21 acres with a fishing pond is located to the east.
A Bolder Humboldt realized the 21 acres would be a perfect spot for a recreational retreat and the trailhead project was born.
Barlow serves as marketing director for B & W and also owns and developed the elegant candy store, Bijou Confectionary, on the downtown square. She admits a recreational bicycling and camping project was “not my forte.”
