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Trail Days 2018: We Need Your Help to Restore Sycamore Canyon Trails April 26, 27, 29!

Monday, April 9th, 2018

New this year! The organizers request you register online at their website: https://smmtc.org/machform/view.php?id=11102&element_4_4=California by April 23, please.

Complete info from the organizers: https://www.smmtc.org/maint/traildays.php

For the 37th year running, we have an opportunity to work at rebuilding the trails and then BBQ and camp at Danielson Ranch in Sycamore Canyon. It is opened annually for the Santa Monica Mountains Trail Days! This is a unique opportunity to work on the trails that we enjoy so much in Sycamore Canyon, and the event is followed by a BBQ dinner and prizes (see photo), with free camping on Friday and/or Saturday night. This is hands down the best day to get in some trail maintenance work! Camping is optional; you may leave with the escort after the BBQ.

Schedule at a glance

Friday night April 27 – arrive for overnight camping (optional). Bagels and hot beverages supplied Saturday morning for campers.

Saturday April 28 – Trailwork, barbecue dinner, prize give-away. Bring your own lunch. Optional overnight camping. Bagels and hot beverages supplied Sunday morning for campers.

Sunday April 29 – Trailwork, prize give-away. Bring your own lunch.

You can volunteer to help out on Saturday, Sunday, or both.

BRING: LUNCHES, BEVERAGES, SNACKS AND WATER. Tools and instruction on using them are provided.
WEAR: Gloves, hat, long pants, protective clothing, and work boots or sturdy shoes.
REGISTRATION: Advance registration is required for the activities shown below, and appreciated by April 18th!
TRAILWORK: Saturday and/or Sunday. Help with trail restoratin on one or both days!
CAMPING: Free camping Friday and/or Saturday nights for volunteers at the Danielson Multi-use Area located under the sycamores and oaks in the heart of Point Mugu State Park. Bring your own gear.
DINNER: Sat. Night Barbecue Free FOR VOLUNTEERS. Bring appetizers and beverages.
PRIZES: Thank-you prize give-aways will be held Saturday after dinner and Sunday after trailwork.
VEHICLE ACCESS: You will be able to caravan into and out of the park by vehicle only at these few designated times:

ARRIVE

Friday – 5 pm and 7 pm
Saturday – 7:30 am and 4:30 pm
Sunday – 7:30 am

DEPART

Saturday – 4 pm and 9 pm
Sunday – 8 am and 2:30 pm

DIRECTIONS: Take the 101 Freeway to Wendy in Newbury Park; drive south to Potrero Road, turn right; at Reino bear left to NPS service road (first driveway). Cars will be escorted into and out of the park only at designated times shown above. DON’T BE LATE or you won’t be able to drive in.

MAP: http://bit.ly/1jvTBZP

Posted in Santa Monica Mountains, Trail Building and Restoration, Trail Crew | Comments Closed

Trailbuilding Workshop – Save the Date: April 6-8, 2018

Thursday, March 1st, 2018

 

Learn how to build and maintain trails

The Forest Service, in partnership with CORBA, the Mount Wilson Bicycling Association, IMBA, and the National Forest Foundation will hold a three-day trail workshop.

The agenda is still being finalized, and official invitations and announcements will go out in the coming week, but you can save the dates of April 6, 7 and 8, April 2018. Details will be included with the Forest Service official announcement.

 

Friday, April 6, will be an all-day classroom session at the Altadena Community Center. This day will cover the assessment, management and planning of trails, and will be of most use to those advocating for trails, planning to build trails or land and trail managers.

Saturday April 7 will see a morning classroom session, followed by Saturday afternoon in the field, then a full day of hands-on on Sunday April 8.

There is no charge for the workshop and lunch will be provided. If you’d like to attend contact us and we’ll let you know when registration opens.

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Posted in Angeles National Forest, San Gabriel Mountains, Trail Access, Trail Crew | Comments Closed

Gabrielino Trail Restoration Update

Thursday, March 1st, 2018

CORBA has been working behind the scenes on restoring the Gabrielino National Recreation Trail. The Gabrielino is the last trail still closed because of damage due to the Station Fire. It’s been an ongoing effort since 2011 to open up sections of the trail and then keep them clear of downed trees.

In early 2015 the Los Angeles Conservation Corps worked with Bellfree Contractors to rebuild the Gabrielino from Paul Little to Oakwilde Campground. CORBA helped fund that effort with a generous grant from REI. We subsequently concentrated on the Ken Burton trail, a project that rallied volunteers in an intensive 8-months of bi-monthly work days.

Searching for the trail in February 2016

Only the section from Oakwilde to the junction with Bear Canyon trail remains closed to public use. CORBA has been awarded grants from both REI and Edison International to help fund the restoration of this section. Those funds support volunteers, buy tools and materials and will pay for professional services to improve the sustainability of the trail and reduce future maintenance needs. We are grateful for their support.

The trail was littered with downed trees in 2016

In early 2016 we did a hike-through inspection of the trail with Forest Service staff, Bellfree Contractors, Los Angeles Conservation Corps and Boy Scout volunteers. The arduous journey involved climbing over and under dozens and dozens of downed trees, searching for remnants of trail where it had been washed away, and dodging and ducking heavy brush. Sections of the trail were completely gone, the only route was to hike along the streambed, which was also covered in downed trees.

After more than a year of internal Forest Service review, the go-ahead was given to us by District Ranger Bob Blount last summer. Sadly, Ranger Bob passed away last week and won’t see this trail completed. He was especially excited for us to be working on this trail and bringing it back to its earlier glory. We hope to finish the project by summer in his honor.

After months of extreme fire danger (meaning no chainsaw use), last fall CORBA and MWBA volunteer sawyers spent six solid days wielding chainsaws to cut through the deadfall along the trail.

With the corridor opened up, MWBA have devoted their monthly trailwork day to the project since December. In three work days the volunteer crews have worked on just over two miles of the trail.

There is so much enthusiasm for getting this trail restored and opened that there have been more volunteers that tools for the last two days. The volunteer effort has been astounding, with more than 40 volunteers signed up each day. Some sections that have been worked on are now in better shape than before the Station Fire. But there is still much to do.

So far, over 50 individual volunteers have devoted more than 1000 hours to the restoration effort.

 

A recently restored section

This is truly a team effort, with the Angeles Forest 50k Run trail crew having worked on another section of the Gabrielino near Switzers; the Sierra Club have been working on the section around Devore camp; and previous work was done by the Los Angeles Conservation Corps and the Boy Scouts on other sections.

Thanks to all the volunteers who have contributed to this restoration effort. Special thanks to our partners at the Mount Wilson Bicycling Association for organizing group work days and REI and Edison International for their financial support.

There is still more to do. The trail is not officially open to the public, but we hope to change that soon.. Watch for upcoming announcements for March and April volunteer work days from MWBA, or CORBA’s Meetup group.

Tags:, , , ,
Posted in Angeles National Forest, San Gabriel Mountains, Trail Crew | Comments Closed

Sapwi Bike Park Updates

Tuesday, February 27th, 2018

Building the pump track at Sawpi Trails in late February, 2018.

The Conejo Recreation and Park District is in the final stages of preparing the park for CORBA to build out the features within the park. The grading and clearing is completed. The staging for the amenities and fencing start in about 2-3 weeks.

The photo shows some activities from a workday this past weekend.

We’ve previously written about Sapwi Trails park progress. Here is our comprehensive October 2017 update, and information about IMBA’s fundraising drive to support the bike park.

Posted in Conejo Valley, Sapwi Trails | Comments Closed

Help with Backbone Trail Restoration on April 14!

Monday, February 26th, 2018
IMG_5778.jpg

Working on the Backbone Trail in November 2013.

On Saturday April 14th, CORBA and the Santa Monica Mountains Trails Council will be working together to restore the Backbone Trail from Latigo Canyon Road. It’s been several years since we worked in this area so we’ll be doing general work on the tread and cutting back overgrowing brush.

We will meet at the dirt parking lot on Latigo Canyon Road where the Backbone Trail crosses the road. Specific driving directions and map are posted on our Meetup event page.

As a thank-you, CORBA will be taking volunteers to lunch afterwards. Trailwork days normally run to about 2:00 pm, so bring a snack to tide you over!

Registering online at our Meetup event will help us plan for this event so we’ll know how many tools to bring and have a better idea of how much we’ll be able to accomplish. Thanks for registering in advance!

This is a popular trail so we hope to see a lot of our mountain biking friends there to help out!

No experience is necessary to help out with trailwork. Tools and instructions on how to use them safely and effectively will be provided. Children under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian and be must over 7-years old to attend, and children under 14 must be constantly and directly supervised by their parent or guardian who brought them.

Please leave your 4-legged children at home!

And you don’t need to be a mountain biker to help out – Everybody is welcome! For more information on trailwork in general, visit our trail crew web page (http://corbamtb.com/programs/trail-crew.shtml).

Be sure to wear protective clothing (sturdy shoes, long pants and sleeves, hat, gloves) and bring snacks, sunscreen and water. CORBA will provide the tools and training. Everybody works at their own pace.

Posted in Santa Monica Mountains, Trail Building and Restoration, Trail Crew | Comments Closed

February Skills Clinic photos posted February 3

Saturday, February 3rd, 2018

This month we had nine riders, over half of whom were in, or training for, the Mountain Bike Unit (MBU). Way to go! The weather was clear and warm but the stream had some slimy water in it, so we skipped the creek crossing and rode down to the Rock Pool instead. The park was really crowded because of a running event and visitors who arrived later were circling the parking lots looking for some place to park. That made it hard to find a safe place with enough room to practice the skills.

The Basic Skills Clinic is always held the first Saturday of the month at Malibu Creek State Park.

You can see the photos in our February photo gallery.

Posted in Free Basic Skills Clinic, Santa Monica Mountains | Comments Closed

Bright Night Riding Lights Blind Other Trail Users

Saturday, January 20th, 2018

By Tony Hoffman, Resident of Thousand Oaks and frequent trail user

Fellow Trail Users, mountain bicyclists who are out for exercise and to enjoy nature are riding at night in greater numbers than ever before, likely due to improved lighting technology. The newer LED lighting systems are brighter and run longer than the previous generations of  bicycle lights.  But do you ever think of their impact on other trail users or wildlife?

I frequently hike at night and become momentarily blinded by the LED lights from oncoming mountain bicyclists. Often times it is group of night riders who also leave me seeing spots for 15-30 minutes after they passed me. I’ve noticed that most of the time it is two lights per bicycle, one on the helmet and one on the handlebars, so 5 bikes equals 10 extremely bright lights blinding me.

I’ve politely requested the approaching bicyclists “dim” their lights but have been ignored or told the lights will not dim. We all know that cars should dim their brights when approaching other cars to keep the driver from being blinded. Shouldn’t bicycle lights also be dimmed when approaching other trail users for the same reason? If the lights cannot be dimmed, what is wrong with turning off the lights and riding or walking past other trail users and turning your lights back on after you are past us?

Technology always outpaces the law but courtesy never goes out of style. Please consider the impact of your lighting systems on us hikers who enjoy a walk in the park in the dark.

Posted in Etiquette, Santa Monica Mountains, Trail Hazards | 1 Comment »

Summary of Backbone Trail Restoration Done January 13, 2018

Wednesday, January 17th, 2018

Nineteen volunteers from CORBA and the Santa Monica Mountains Trails Council met where the Backbone Trail crosses Kanan Road, just north of Tunnel #1, to spend the next few hours restoring the trail towards Latigo Canyon Road. The trail was last worked in April 2016 and since then most of the drains had become clogged with silt and the brush was narrowing the usable part of the trail.

The trail had been flagged the previous day to mark 60 drains that needed to be unclogged or newly built. The flagging went 1.4 miles from the trailhead.

Locations of the 60 new/cleared drains are shown as red X’s along the trail. The parking lot on Kanan is the green star on the left.

We had an inch or so of rain a few days before so the dirt was quite soft. This made the progress go much more quickly than it usually does. It’s so much easier to dig out damp soil than the usual packed dry clay that has the consistency of hardened concrete.

Building a new drain

Most of the volunteers worked on the drains but a small group cut back the overgrowing brush. A crew leader used a hedge trimmer while the others gathered the clippings and hid them off the trail.

Because of the enthusiasm of the volunteers and the soft soil, we worked all 60 drains and got back to the car over a half hour earlier than expected. Of the 60 over 0.9 miles starting above the Kanan tunnel, 16 were new. With only one hedge trimmer, that work went more slowly so there is more work to be done there.

Enjoying lunch on CORBA at the Urbane Cafe and Hamburger Habit.

After the event, CORBA treated the volunteers to lunch at the Urbane Cafe and adjacent Hamburger Habit to thank them for their contribution to everyone’s enjoyment of the trails. Thanks, job well done!

You can see other photos from this event at the photo gallery.

Posted in Santa Monica Mountains, Trail Building and Restoration, Trail Crew | Comments Closed

January 2018 Skills Clinic photos posted January 8

Monday, January 8th, 2018

This month we had a larger turnout of 14 riders, including three youngsters. Way to go! The weather was clear and cool. Again we rode through the creek, which is completely dry, and most riders went down the steps on the way to the hill-climbing exercise.

The Basic Skills Clinic is always held the first Saturday of the month at Malibu Creek State Park.

You can see the photos in our January photo gallery.

Posted in Free Basic Skills Clinic, Santa Monica Mountains | Comments Closed

Help with Backbone Trail Restoration on January 13!

Wednesday, January 3rd, 2018

Clearing brush on the BBT east of Kanan Rd in April 2016

On Saturday Jan 13, CORBA and the Santa Monica Mountains Trails Council will be working together to restore the Backbone Trail from Kanan Road east towards Newton Motorway. We worked here in the spring of 2016, less than two years ago, installing drains and cutting back brush. Now many of the drains are clogged with silt and of course the brush needs cutting back to clear the trail.

We will be meeting at the paved parking lot immediately north of Tunnel #1 (closest to the ocean) on Kanan Rd at 8:30 am on Saturday January 13th. As a thank-you, CORBA will be taking volunteers to lunch afterwards. Trailwork days normally run to about 2:00 pm, so bring a snack to tide you over!

Registering online at our Meetup event will help us plan for this event so we’ll know how many tools to bring and have a better idea of how much we’ll be able to accomplish. Thanks for registering in advance!

This is a popular trail so we hope to see a lot of our mountain biking friends there to help out!

No experience is necessary to help out with trailwork. Tools and instructions on how to use them safely and effectively will be provided. Children under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian and be must over 7-years old to attend, and children under 14 must be constantly and directly supervised by their parent or guardian who brought them.

Please leave your 4-legged children at home!

And you don’t need to be a mountain biker to help out – Everybody is welcome! For more information on trailwork in general, visit our trail crew web page (http://corbamtb.com/programs/trail-crew.shtml).

Be sure to wear protective clothing (sturdy shoes, long pants and sleeves, hat, gloves) and bring snacks, sunscreen and water. CORBA will provide the tools and training. Everybody works at their own pace.

Posted in Santa Monica Mountains, Trail Building and Restoration, Trail Crew | Comments Closed

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