Focus area
Connected Sisters
Trails that work as real transportation, connecting neighborhoods to schools, downtown, Whychus Creek, and the forest.
Sisters is a trail town, and the riding and walking around here is some of the best in Oregon. But recreation trails and transportation trails are different things. The honest test of a connected town is whether a ten-year-old can bike from their neighborhood to school safely, or whether you can walk to the creek without getting in your car.
We're looking at how the pieces could add up to one network that works for daily life, not just weekends. Neighborhood paths, sidewalks, safe ways across the highway, creek access, and clean connections out to the regional trailheads and the National Forest.
Other small trail towns have found that connecting the network pays off in safety, health, lighter school traffic, and money spent in town. What we still need to learn is where our specific gaps and barriers are. That is where the mapping work starts.
The question we keep asking
Can a ten-year-old bike safely from every Sisters neighborhood to school?
1
highway runs through the middle of town
U.S. 20 cuts right through Sisters. Safe crossings shape everything else.
Get involved
Know this territory? This focus area needs resident knowledge, working hands, and honest critics.
Ways to participate →“Trails should function as transportation infrastructure, not only recreation.”
Live work