On Saturday, January 30, CORBA volunteers had a very productive day out in the Santa Monica Mountains. Ten riders met us at the Reseda trailhead, four of us loaded up BOB trailers full of tools, and headed for Rogers Road in Topanga State Park. Trailers and bicycles allow us to travel further down the trail in a given amount of time and get more done in the same time as the other two groups who hiked in and worked on the first mile of the trail.
It was a cooperative trailwork day with the Sierra Club and Santa Monica Mountains Trails Council. These other groups stayed closer to the beginning of the trail.
We rode to the Oak tree several miles in on the Backbone trail. Another five volunteers rode in from the south side and met us there. We hiked down about 3/4 of mile and went to work on this steeper and badly eroded section of trail. Most of what we did was erosion prevention, putting in new water diversions, and clearing out some older filled and blocked off ones.
After several hours of work, we had built and/or restored 40 water diversions, reinforced one section of trail that was eroding away completely, as well as some brush clearance. It was a productive day. Towing a trailer full of tools on the ride out adds an extra challenge, but can also be a lot of fun. CORBA’s BOB trailers have earned their keep over the years.
CORBA treated the volunteers to lunch at Sharkey’s afterwards, everyone feeling good about what was accomplished. When working with Sierra club and other groups on shared-use trails, it is always helpful to have a strong mountain bike contingency showing that we care for our trails as much as any other trail user group.
