Archive for the ‘CORBA News’ Category

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CORBA has adopted Conejo Open Space Los Robles Trail West (aka Space Mountain to Potrero Rd.)

Saturday, May 22nd, 2010

"Space Mountain" gets its name from the radio towers at the top of the Mountain.

CORBA is proud to announce our adoption of the Los Robles Trail West (aka Space Mountain to Potrero Rd.) under COSCA’s Adopt-a-Trail program. This program allows individuals, civic groups and private companies to adopt trails. Adopting entities agree to provide maintenance for their selected trails on a quarterly basis, as well as regularly monitor conditions on the trail. This is great news for users of this trail. It is a favorite of mountain bikers locally and from all over Southern California. Los Robles West is unique for its tolerance to rain. Good drainage and low clay soil make it ridable after even heavy rainfall, so it is heavily used during the winter. But “good drainage” is not “perfect drainage,” and heading into the summer there are often some rutted sections in need of repair, as well as brush clearance is always required after spring growth. The Thousand Oaks area is fortunate to have a large selection of Conejo Open Space trails open for multiple use. Unfortunately a shortage of resources limits the maintenance performed by the land managers. CORBA is stepping in here to help fill the shortfall.  We hope to engage local trail users to help provide ongoing trail maintenance to this trail. We are looking for volunteers and trail crew leaders to help maintain our newly adopted trail. If you would like to get involved please email us, or call us at 818-206-8213. 

View Los Robles West in a larger map

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Posted in Adopted trail reports, Conejo Valley, CORBA News, Trail Crew | Comments Closed

Report from CORBA Trail Crew – Santa Monica Mountains Trail Day 4/24/2010

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

By Danusia Bennett-Taber

Over twenty mountain bikers joined the CORBA Trail Crew for Santa Monica Trails Days on April 24th in Point Mugu State Park. They came to give something back to the trails they love to ride.

Drain placement is very important. This looks like the right spot?

CORBA crew leader Hans Keifer shuttled a few people and carried all the tools, while most of the group rode their bikes to the work location. The CORBA crew worked mostly on the upper section of  Wood Vista (aka “Backbone”) trail to add drains to eliminate channeling of water down the middle of the trail, forming a rut.

This section of the trail was really overgrown!

Volunteers also cut back brush. Not an easy task considering that a few sections of the trail were overgrown with a poison oak!

No work day could be complete without a quick ride on a newly maintained trail.

Special thanks to the Santa Monica Mountains Trail Days organizers for preparing the BBQ and for the prizes that were raffled off at the conclusion of trail work. Also thanks to IMBA/Clif for donating trail crew snacks.

Last but not least, thanks to all the CORBA crew volunteers that came to support trails. Trail work provides many benefits like creating and maintaining riding opportunities, preserving habitat, burning extra calories, interacting with fellow mountain bikers and making friends with other trail users. Now let’s go and ride! We earned it.

Rut is gone!

I pledge to come to every CORBA trail work day!

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Posted in CORBA News, Default, Santa Monica Mountains, Trail Crew | Comments Closed

CORBA’s Temporary Home

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

Thanks to the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, presenters of the upcoming 10th Annual River Ride, CORBA has a new temporary home. Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition

LACBC is sharing some of their office space in downtown Los Angeles with CORBA.  The downtown location is easily accessible by public transit, and will help CORBA’s volunteers and committees to conduct our outreach and fundraising efforts. CORBA’s renowned Fat Tire Fest is well into the planning stages and the office space will help our efforts to put on the biggest and best Festival ever.

With this space CORBA is seeking an intern to help with the administrative tasks that all non-profit organizations face. If you are looking to gain experience in non-profit organization management, we’d love to hear from you. If you love mountain biking, even better!

CORBA is still looking for a more permanent home but we are very grateful to the LACBC for the support. LACBC develops campaigns, programs, resources and events to support bicycling-related advocacy, education, outreach and fun all around Los Angeles County, and shares CORBA’s vision of maintaining and developing off-road cycling opportunities in the area.

Posted in CORBA News, Fat Tire Fest | Comments Closed

Santa Monica Mountains Trails Days 4/23-25 – Join us!

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

Join CORBA and several other trail user groups for a weekend of camping, riding and trail maintenance or just come out for the day!

The CORBA crew will be riding in to work on the Guadalasca and Wood Canyon Vista section of the Backbone Trail. Driving to the trailhead and hiking in is an option too. We will work on adding drainage to the trail as well as brush work!

There is a lot to do after this winter’s heavy rains so come on out and lend a hand!

See this PDF flier and registration form.

For more information contact Hans at trailcrew@corbamtb.com

Posted in CORBA News, Default, Santa Monica Mountains, Trail Crew | 3 Comments »

MWBA Pancake Breakfast

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

On Sunday, April 24th, the annual MWBA Pancake Breakfast will be happening at Cobb Estate in the foothills of the Angeles National Forest.

For the past several years, the Pancake Breakfast has been held the same weekend as the Santa Monica Mountains Trail Days, a full-weekend of camping, trailwork and riding at Point Mugu. We’ve always felt it more important to be out getting our hands dirty and working on trails, and CORBA hasn’t been at the pancake breakfast for the past few years.

This year we’ll be able to do both!  A few of the CORBA volunteers will head back from Point Mugu a day early to join in the festivities at Cobb Estate.

CORBA volunteers will be there to talk about trail issues, promote trail stewardship and mountain biking, and to just be a part of the fun. If you’re not a CORBA member, you’ll be able to join on the spot. If you are, you can renew.

Come out to the Pancake Breakfast and show your support for trail stewardship in the area. Now, more than ever, our local trails need it.

See you there!

Posted in Angeles National Forest, Charity, CORBA News, Rides and Events | Comments Closed

State Trail Day in the Angeles Forest 4/17/10

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

Hans, an OTB rider and the CORBA trail maintenance coordinator, sits on the CORBA trailwork trailer, loaded with tools

Join the CORBA Trail Crew and other trail user groups for a day of trail maintenance.

Meet at 8:00 am at the Wildwood Picnic area.  Bring your own lunch and water.  Sturdy shoes and long pants are required.

Work will be on the Stone Canyon Trail.  This trail goes up to Mount Lukins.

Take Big Tujunga Canyon Road approximately 5 miles north of Ora Vista Street to the Wildwood Picnic area.

For more information contact Hans at trailcrew@corbamtb.com

Posted in Advocacy, Angeles National Forest, CORBA News, Trail Crew | Comments Closed

Youth Adventures ride at Cheeseboro Canyon – April 2010

Thursday, April 8th, 2010

On April 3, 2010 CORBA with help of Mountain Bike Unit volunteers hosted Youth Adventures program ride at Cheeseboro National Recreation area.

A group of teenage boys from El Monte California had a chance to ride famous “Cheeseboro challenge” hill. People say that a picture is worth a thousand words. How true! Just look how much fun they had!

CORBA's Youth Adventures Trailer at the Cheeseboro parking lot.

One of the boys is climbing The Challenge. Mountain Bike Unit volunteers (in yellow jerseys) provide the guidance “go,go, pedal! turn!…”

Youth Adventures began in the summer of 1993 and operates twice per month year-round serving over 350 kids annually.Youth Adventures was implemented as a way of reaching out to groups of children that have had limited exposure to public parklands. Mountain bike rides are scheduled with organizations that serve disadvantaged, inner-city or at-risk youth from ages 8-17 and are held in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. CORBA supplies the bikes, helmets, gloves, water, snacks and transportation. Rides are operated by Mountain Bike unit volunteers. For more information visit Youth Adventures web page.

posted by Danusia Bennett-Taber

Posted in CORBA News, CORBA Youth Adventures | Comments Closed

CORBA is looking for Office Space. Can you help?

Thursday, April 1st, 2010

For more than 20 years, CORBA has been run on a volunteer basis without an office or a central business location. Volunteer directors work from home, their offices, or wherever they happen to be. We have a P.O. Box, and our monthly board and member meetings are held at locations around the San Fernando Valley, Eastern Ventura County and the West Side.

CORBA is growing and needs your help. We’re looking for office space from which to operate. We need a central location from which to coordinate our advocacy campaigns, run the Fat Tire Fest, reach out to land managers and run our education and outreach programs. If possible, we’d also like to let go of our rented storage facility, and be able to keep our records, supplies and literature on hand.

If you have or know of an available office with work space  for two or three people, and/or a meeting space for occasional use, we’re interested. We’re open to sharing office space with an existing business or nonprofit. Inexpensive or donated space would allow us put more of our resources into advocacy and education rather than administration. CORBA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and donations–such as office space–can be tax-deductible.  We’d love to hear from you if you have or know of a suitable  space.

We’re also on the lookout for an intern to help with some of CORBA’s administrative functions. Somebody energetic and passionate about mountain biking who wants to gain valuable experience in advocacy, event organization, and grass-roots campaigning would be ideal. If you think you might be able to help, or know someone who can, let us know.

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Posted in CORBA News | Comments Closed

Welcome to CORBA’s Blog

Friday, March 26th, 2010

CORBA’s new blog is a tool for us to stay in touch with you. We’ll keep you updated on the latest from our mountains and trails. We’re always working behind the scenes on your behalf, but need a better way to keep you informed.

You’ll be able to use modern tools like RSS readers, smartphones, twitter, and facebook feeds.

Most importantly, you’ll be able to provide us your valuable feedback and points of view by commenting on our news postings, and by active participation in our upcoming forums.

To leave a comment to a blog entry from the blog home page, click on the “Comment” link. From a single-entry page, fill in the “Leave a Reply” section. You do not need to register with the blog to leave a comment, but you will find it more convenient to do so if you want to make more than infrequent comments.

All comments are reviewed before being displayed to make sure they’re not spam or otherwise inappropriate.

Posted in CORBA News | 2 Comments »

CORBA Has a New Calendar

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

We have moved to Google Calendars to display our activities. You can access it on our home page from the menu bar or from the calendar image, shown at right. Why change? There are a number of advantages:

  • Entries are color-coded by activity type, making it easier to find the kind of event you’re looking for
  • You can copy our activities to your own Google calendar and add alerts for yourself
  • You can display our whole calendar on your own Google calendar
  • We can display events from other organizations that use Google calendars. So far we have rides from two clubs, the North Ranch Mountain Bikers and Over the Bars Mtn Bike Club
  • For CORBA volunteers, it’s much easier to administer these calendars

If you belong to an organization that uses a Google calendar to publicize activities, let us know and we’ll consider adding it to our collection. Contact us at info@corbamtb.com.

Posted in CORBA News | Comments Closed

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