Cottage Grove Sentinel
Sports & Recreation
B1
THURSDAY | JULY 8, 2021
New trail makes headway along Coast Fork
By Daniel Friis
for The Sentinel
Since early spring, the
Cottage Grove Public
Works and Development
team have been putting in
long hours working on the
city’s newest trail along the
Coast Fork of the Willa-
mette River.
The trail’s entrance is lo-
cated on the south side of
Lincoln Middle School in
between the bus lot and the
houses on Grant Street.
It extends just 960 feet
now, but by its comple-
tion, it’s expected that the
path will grow five times
in length with several ac-
cess points and other paths
along the way.
“The new trail is a great
addition to the city trail sys-
tem,” Faye Stewart, the Cot-
tage Grove Public Works
and Development Director,
said. “The trail will eventu-
ally connect to downtown,
giving local residents an
alternate route to walk or
bike to downtown.”
The trail begins with ac-
cess and views of the Coast
Fork of the Willamette
River. From there, it takes
guests along the Chambers
Covered Railroad Bridge,
where it stops for now.
The location of the trail
has been something of
pride by those working on
it. The beautiful views and
scenery of the river com-
bined with an abundance of
trees beside the path make
for a calm and enjoyable ex-
perience.
“The views of the Coast
Fork River from the new
trail are spectacular,” Stew-
art said. “It is a nice shaded
area that allows for users
to take in the beauty of the
surrounding area. It is also
a peaceful setting where
people can go to relax.”
Another advantage of
the path is the material it’s
made of. The trail consists
of gravel with a compacted
finer gravel on top which
gives a shock-absorbent
quality, so residents can
walk or bike smoothly.
With more time and
funding, the trail will be
paved.
The pathway is the
newest of several trails
occupying the Cottage
Grove area. With other
DAMIEN SHERWOOD/COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL
see TRAIL on B2
The new trail, currently a work in progress, will add a mile to the city’s trail sys-
tem and wind along the Coast Fork of the Willamette River.
Freedom Cup kicks off tripleheader at CG Speedway
By Stephanie Deatherage
Cottage Grove Speedway
kicked off their Indepen-
dence Day tripleheader
weekend on Friday, July 2.
The first of three nights
of the 2021 Freedom Cup
would have three divisions
on the bill, including two
Speedway Motor IMCA
Weekly Racing program
classes.
They included the Todd’s
Auto Body Sprint Cars,
IMCA Modifieds, and Roy-
alty Core IMCA Northern
Sport Mods.
Now residing in New-
berg, Scotty Fox had an in-
credible start in the Todd’s
Auto Body Sprint Car fea-
ture. Fox paced the field in
the first portion of the main
event but unfortunately hit
the wall and took a tumble
down the front stretch on
lap three. It would hand the
lead over to Cottage Grove’s
Justin Lemon.
Lemon did a masterful
job of keeping his mount in
front of the rest of the con-
tingent. However, he did
receive some pressure from
Camden Robustelli in the
T.J. Winningham-owned
entry in the closing circuits.
The two would fight it out
on the final lap, with Robus-
telli slipping past Lemon to
go on to score the victory.
It is the young Medford
driver’s first win of the sea-
COURTESY OF CODY REEDER
see KICK OFF on B2
Brookings-based Matt Sanders dominated the Royalty Core IMCA Northern Sport Mods this weekend.
Emergency fishing Burke, Williamson, Braaten crowned
regulations issued in
2021 Freedom Cup champions
response to drought
By Stephanie
Deatherage
ODFW has implemented emergency regulations which
began July 1 in several angling zones as Oregon faces a se-
vere drought this summer, putting the state’s salmon, steel-
head, trout and sturgeon at risk.
The latest regulations are listed at the top of the Rec-
reation Report for each zone. The public can check an
angling zone before going fishing at myodfw.com/recre-
ation-report/fishing-report.
These emergency regulations are in effect until Sept. 30,
2021, but may be lifted early or extended depending on
conditions.
A summary of emergency regulations follows:
Fishing will close for salmon, steelhead, sturgeon, and
trout from 2 p.m. until one hour before sunrise in some
rivers and streams in the NW, SW, Willamette, Central, NE
zones. (“Hoot owl” regulations to end fishing before water
temperatures are at their warmest, which stresses fish.)
Nehalem River (NW Zone) upstream of the Miami-Fo-
ley Road Bridge (and tributaries upstream of bridge) will
close to all angling July 1-Sept. 30. The Nehalem Bay/River
from the mouth to the Miami Foley Road Bridge remains
open under permanent regulations. The North Fork Ne-
halem is also open with “hoot owl” restrictions above tide-
water. All other open streams in the NW Zone will be un-
der “hoot owl” regulations.
The Deschutes River from the mouth to Sherars Falls will
be under “hoot owl” regulations to protect fish.
Angling closure within 200 feet of mouths of tributaries
see FISHING on B2
Athlete of
the Week
The third and final night
of the 2021 Freedom Cup
would be an exciting one
as the cars and stars of
Cottage Grove Speedway
battled it all out once more.
On Sunday, July 4, the
Independence Day bout
hosted the same three di-
visions from the two pre-
vious nights, including two
Speedway Motors IMCA
Weekly Racing program
classes. They included the
Todd’s Auto Body Sprints,
IMCA Modifieds, and Roy-
alty Core IMCA Northern
Sport Mods.
The Todd’s Auto Body
Sprints got off to a quick
start, with Scotty Fox tak-
ing control on the opening
lap. Fox, originally from
Oakland but now a resi-
dent of Newberg was in-
volved in a vicious crash
while leading on Friday
night. He paced the field
until being overtaken on
the fifth circuit by Vern
This week’s athletes
of the week are
the dancers of the
South Lane Ballet
Academy. The
previous week, the
dancers performed
for the community in
record-breaking heat.
COURTESY OF CODY REEDER
Nick Trenchard (second from left) of Klamath Falls scored two straight feature
wins over the Independence Day weekend in Cottage Grove.
Scervers.
The Dixonville veteran
of Scevers remained the
pacesetter for a lengthy
time. Finally, however, on
lap nineteen, Bailey Hib-
bard completed the pass
for first place. Hibbard,
from Medford, remained
there the rest of the dis-
tance to record his first win
of the season at Cottage
Grove.
Camden Robustelli, also
from Medford and racing
for car owner T.J. Winning-
During ex-
treme heat
at the end
of June, 85
dancers per-
formed at
the Bohemia
Park amphi-
theater.
PHOTO BY SOPHIA
EDELBLUTE/CG
SENTINEL
ham, posted a runner-up
finish with third going
to Eagle Point youngster
Johnny Burke. Jacksonville
teenager Carly Holmes was
fourth, with the fifth place
being credited to Tyrell
Mead, of Winston. Burke
would have the most point
by a narrow three marker
over Hibbard when all the
totals were accumulated.
Eric Ashley was the ear-
ly race leader in the IMCA
Modified main event. Ash-
ley, from Jasper, was scored
in that position until Chad
Groves passed him on the
eighth circuit. Groves in-
habited the coveted posi-
tion until lap 13.
Jesse Williamson was the
see CHAMPION on B2