The Town Council voted unanimously Aug. 7 to approve the naming of the Andrews-Kinsey Trail in the McDowell Mountain Preserve.

The 2.5-mile trail will connect the Western Loop Trail in the Fountain Hills Preserve with the Sunrise Trail in the Scottsdale Mountain Preserve.

The trail is complete and will be dedicated in the fall.

The late Chet Andrews of Scottsdale and Fountain Hills’ own Roy Kinsey had been scrambling around the McDowell Mountains between the two communities for decades.

They long held a dream there would be a trail across the mountains to connect preserve land in both municipalities.

With characteristic modesty, Kinsey said this is not about him, and without the recognition for Andrews he would have declined to have his name on the trail.

“This work reflects on (Andrews),” Kinsey told The Times in May this year. “I’m honored to be associated with Chet; in the early days we did a lot together.”

Kinsey’s relationship with the McDowells dates back to the 1970s when soon after he and his wife Bev moved here they rented near the base of the mountains while their home was being built.

After the town incorporated in 1989 there was a greater interest in developing a preserve to assure the long-time enjoyment of the mountains.

Kinsey said he wanted to be involved in the community, so in 1995 when the new town formed a task force to study the possibility of a preserve in the McDowells, he signed on and was selected to chair the group.

From that day on Kinsey has been the point man for McDowell Mountain preservation in Fountain Hills. He was named to chair the McDowell Mountain Preservation Commission when it was formed to advise the council on preservation issues.

He is also a founder and early head of the McDowell Sonoran Conservancy of Fountain Hills.

With that group he formed a corps of volunteer trail builders known as the Trailblazers. That team to date has enthusiastically carved about seven miles of trails in the Fountain Hills McDowell Mountain Preserve.

In Fountain Hills volunteers started at the Western Loop Trail and headed west toward the Scottsdale boundary. About a mile of the trail in Fountain Hills has been cut by hand.

Meanwhile, the City of Scottsdale hired a contractor to start at its Sunrise Trail and head east, cutting the trail with mechanical equipment.

The new trail crosses the McDowell range at around 2,700 to 2,800 feet in elevation.

“This pleases me in the community aspect,” Kinsey said. “We want to be good neighbors and providing this trail expresses that.

“The fact is (this trail) reflects the association between Scottsdale and the Town of Fountain Hills in a very positive way.”