Young energy breathes new life into old Fresno river camp, parkway trail expansion
A beautiful thing is happening in a far corner of Fresno, where the San Joaquin River flows beneath Highway 99 and the sprawling new high-speed rail viaduct.
What kind of thing? Youth from central and south Fresno joining up with a northwest Fresno neighborhood on a visionary project for the betterment of an entire region.
Definitely worth spending a couple hours of my Saturday learning and getting excited about.
Most people reading this know something about the San Joaquin River Parkway, the 22-mile natural riparian and recreational corridor between Friant and Highway 99. What they might not know is that the parkway’s western terminus is actually Camp Pashayan, a place so obscure even Google Maps is ignorant of its existence.
Perhaps not for much longer. About 200 people, many of them families from Fresno but also also Calwa, Sanger and Reedley, became better acquainted with the place during the #River4All Community Day hosted by Building Healthy Communities.
Folks took hiking tours of the 40 acres and got to experience the San Joaquin River from its banks. (Flows were too high for swimming or boating.) Other local nonprofits including RiverTree Volunteers, Central California Off-Road Cyclists and Fly Fishers for Conservation set up booths. And beneath the only structure on the property, a large gazebo, plans were displayed on how to best “reactivate” the site as well as create a new 4-mile multipurpose trail between Camp Pashayan and the Milburn Overlook.
Designs for both Camp Pashayan and the Lewis S. Eaton Trail extension (which proponents are calling the San Joaquin River Parkway Western Reaches Access Activation Plan) were formulated based on the results of six community workshops held over the past two years, as well as input gathered from more than 1,000 surveys.
Lilly Lee, a McLane High School junior and Building Healthy Communities youth ambassador, was one of those heavily involved in that process.
“I would definitely love to see it open up to the community and start having people come in to camp out, go fishing, canoeing,” Lee said. “I’m actually excited to swim in the river.”
New life for river camp
Camp Pashayan has long been a place for Fresno youth to recreate and learn about nature. But for the last several years it’s been abandoned.
The property is named for Charles Pashayan — the father of former Fresno congressman Charles “Chip” Pashayan — who purchased the land in 1977 and turned it over to the local Boy Scouts council the following day.
Camp Pashayan became part of the San Joaquin River Parkway in 1995. For years, it was managed by the nonprofit San Joaquin River Parkway and Conservation Trust and served as a rare point of public access to the river. Even if relatively few people knew of its existence.
Since taking over operations of Sycamore Island in 2013, the parkway trust now utilizes that location off Avenue 7 1⁄2 in Madera County for its river tours and to host activities and events. Leaving “Camp P” unmanaged and behind a locked gate.
By the looks of things, not anymore.
“Getting Camp Pashayan open is a good thing by itself,” said John Shelton, executive director of the San Joaquin River Conservancy — the state agency entrusted with assembling the river parkway. “Then we need to figure out how to connect it.”
Camp Pashayan sits at the terminus of a dead end road (North Weber Avenue) in extremely poor condition. Also in the vicinity is Ram Tap Horse Park, a PG&E substation and the Fresno County Peace Officers shooting range. The largest recent addition to the neighborhood is the 4,740-foot-long concrete superstructure built to carry bullet trains.
Grant agreement for camp, trail
Between the freeway hum, noise from passing freight trains and rounds being fired at the shooting range, “Camp P” isn’t exactly an idyllic paradise. Still, Fresno Building Healthy Communities President/CEO Sandra Celedon recognized its potential when she and youth members of her organization got an initial look.
“Young people are always asking me, ‘How come we don’t have access to the river in Fresno?’ ” Celedon said. “It always starts with that question.”
Last June, Fresno BHC entered into a grant agreement with the state Wildlife Conservation Board to provide planning and design for both Camp Pashayan and a recreational trail along the river toward the Milburn Overlook.
The latter idea came from a series of neighborhood meetings following a February 2000 shooting outside the Milburn Overlook. The Eaton Trail extension and Camp Pashayan redesign have since been incorporated into one project.
Despite the presence of state- and city-owned land along the route, constructing a multipurpose trail between Camp Pashayan and the Milburn Overlook will present several challenges. Not the least of which are two pinch points, one along the PG&E installation and another east of Riverbottom Park, where the right-of-way is narrow and difficult to traverse. (In the parkway’s 2018 master plan update, the Eaton Trail is shown crossing into Madera County to avoid the second pinch point.)
Two short segments have already been built behind Riverside Golf Course and a neighborhood west of the golf course.
Celedon is already thinking bigger. Such as using the high-speed rail corridor for a cycling and pedestrian trail linking downtown Fresno, Roeding Park and the river. Inquiries have already been made.
“Why can’t we do that?” she asked. “It would set Fresno apart.”
