This section of the Backbone Trail was pretty overgrown when we arrived.
Five CORBA volunteers and about eight with the Santa Monica Mountains Trails Council (SMMTC) trail crew worked together to clear brush on the section of the Backbone Trail from Latigo Canyon Road west to the bottom of Newton Canyon. The SMMTC crew focused on clearing out the invasive thistle and other low brush while the CORBA crew cut out the higher branches that would slap riders in the body and face as they rode down the trail. The SMMTC also cleared out a few drainage dips that had become clogged with dirt. Overall, we cleared out about 0.7 miles of the trail.
This section is always fun to ride down. Now you don’t have to worry about getting a mouth full of leaves and thorns to spoil the experience. Also, the sight distances are significanly improved so we riders should be able to see other trail users sooner, giving us plenty of time to slow down to passing speed before reaching them.
During the trailwork, a number of small goups of mountain bikers came through. Every one of them slowed down and thanked us for helping keep the trail in prime condition.
View our photo gallery of the trailwork.
After claring out the brush, the visibilty was significantly improved.
As in now our custom, CORBA provided prizes to those volunteers who signed up with us in advance. Here are today’s winners:
- David Turk got to choose first and grabbed the Ergon grips. Congratulations, those will substantially improve your hand and wrist comfort while riding!
- Jonathan Hayward chose a multi-tool
- Mark Mitchell chose a $25 gift certificate to Helens Cycles
- Stephen Turk chose a new inner tube.
Afterwards, we headed to the Urbane Cafe for lunch on CORBA.
Thanks to all the mountain biking volunteers who came out to join the CORBA trail crew, and the other volunteers who worked with the SMMTC crew!
