On Hallowe’en day, 16 CORBA volunteers along with a half dozen from the Santa Monica Mountains Trails Council hiked up the Backbone Trail from Mulholland Hwy towards Etz Meloy for the third time in a year to cut back the overgrowing brush and improve the drainage.
It seems like all mountain bikers love this 2.5-mile long trail that twists and meanders, climbing gently and constantly up 600′ vertically.
I had hoped that we would have enough people to complete the brushing along its entire length, and the word is we succeeded – almost! There is still one very small gap that hasn’t had the brush cleared, but that section of the trail isn’t badly overgrown.
The CORBA crew focused on cutting back the brush, but the SMMTC crew also worked on the tread – cleaning and fixing the drains and spreading the slough across the trail to level it out. (Slough is the dirt that falls onto the inside edge of the trail from the hillside directly above, resulting in a narrowed trail because people don’t ride or hike on the uneven and loose slough.)
The CORBA volunteers included five students from Calabasas area high schools mountain biking teams, and two of their parents. The teams like their members to give back to the trail community. These kids did a great job helping to restore the trail, as did all the volunteers. Thanks for your help; everybody who uses the trail will appreciate your work when they don’t get scratched up from the brush that used to grow into it!
You can view photos of the work at our trailwork day photo gallery.
