Last updated: November 20, 2022
Place
Friday Harbor Airport Trails
Quick Facts
This 2 mile trail network travels through wetlands, industrial areas, and creeks, providing views of a busy airport and vistas of distant mountains.The trail network is the result of community collaboration, created by the Port of Friday Harbor, Boy Scout Troop 90, and the San Juan Island Trails Committee. It also forms the beginning of a 7 mile tral that leads between the town of Friday Harbor and our American Camp Unit.
The airport which the trail traverses is itself an important part of our island's history.Roy Franklin, who built this airport, began his career in Friday Harbor flying in and out of a sometiems icy cow pasture. Franklin "learned pretty quicly that you shouldn't buzz the middle of a herd of cows and spearate them. You want to get alongside them and push them as a group away from where you want to land or they'll just bunch up again." In 1954, after six years as the only pilot offering regularly scheduled flights to and from San Juan Island, Franklin purchased 66 acres of forest which he transformed into the initial Friday Harbor Airport.
In 1983, Franklin sold the airport to the port of Friday Harbor with the stipulation that the airport would NEVER be renamed to honor him. Today, the airport hosts tens of thousands of recreational, emergency, and cargo flights which help keep our isolated islands which lack a road connection to the mainland function.
The airport which the trail traverses is itself an important part of our island's history.Roy Franklin, who built this airport, began his career in Friday Harbor flying in and out of a sometiems icy cow pasture. Franklin "learned pretty quicly that you shouldn't buzz the middle of a herd of cows and spearate them. You want to get alongside them and push them as a group away from where you want to land or they'll just bunch up again." In 1954, after six years as the only pilot offering regularly scheduled flights to and from San Juan Island, Franklin purchased 66 acres of forest which he transformed into the initial Friday Harbor Airport.
In 1983, Franklin sold the airport to the port of Friday Harbor with the stipulation that the airport would NEVER be renamed to honor him. Today, the airport hosts tens of thousands of recreational, emergency, and cargo flights which help keep our isolated islands which lack a road connection to the mainland function.