Archive for the ‘Rides and Events’ Category

Malibu Adventure Games This Saturday May 18

Thursday, May 16th, 2013

poker-rideThe centerpiece of the Malibu Adventure Games at Malibu Creek State Park is the XTERRA Malibu Creek Trail Run, but it will also feature mountain bike poker rides, and CORBA will be providing a skills clinic. There will also be a geocache scramble, climbing wall contests, and a vendor expo. For more information go to malibuadventuregames.com.

Report on May 11 Space Mountain Trailwork and Photos

Tuesday, May 14th, 2013

SAM_0986On Saturday, May 11, eleven mountain biker volunteers along with four from the Santa Monica Mountains Trails Council ascended “Space Mountain” (Los Robles Trail West) in Thousand Oaks to fix up CORBA’s adopted trail.

Several years ago, a few CORBA volunteers built drainage dips on the trail to protect it from the erosion of winter rains. Those drains have served the trail well, but now they are filling with silt and so are losing their effectiveness, and they need to be cleaned out. The chance came when the Springs Fire burned through Pt Mugu State Park, requiring us to cancel the work we had scheduled for Guadalasca Trail, and allowing us to work on Space Mountain instead.

Overall, we cleaned out somewhere between one and two dozen drainage dips along the bottom 0.6 miles of the singletrack section. We would have done more, but we called it a day an hour and a half earlier than normal because the extreme heat that day and lack of shade wore everyone out.

When we got back to the cars, volunteers picked prizes for themselves before we headed to Hooters for lunch, both provided by CORBA to show our appreciation for the people who gave up their time to help out with the trails. We thank you!

Take a look at our photo gallery of Saturday’s trailwork.

We expect to put on a couple of trailwork days in June to help fix up trails damaged by the Springs Fire in Pt Mugu State Park. Keep an eye out for notifications of those events!

SHARE/IMBA Orange County Poker Ride May 18

Wednesday, May 8th, 2013

 

share_final_logoJoin your fellow IMBA chapter club to the south for a very fun ride.

SHARE Mountain Bike Club of Orange County presents “The Poker Ride”. 2013 SHARE/IMBA Poker Ride at Santiago Oaks Wilderness Park in Orange County on Saturday May 18th.  Sign up now!

Registration: http://www.active.com/cycling/orange-ca/santiago-oaks-poker-ride-2013

Join SHARE in celebrating our club’s 25th year and celebrating our first year of being Orange County’s IMBA chapter mountain bike club. The 2013 SHARE/IMBA Poker Ride is on May 18th @ 8 am in Santiago Oaks Regional Park.

Ride is $25 for all participants. Post ride lunch and beverages is $10 (free for SHARE/IMBA members).

Information at: www.sharemtb.com and https://www.facebook.com/sharemtb

SHARE will extend free lunch to all CORBA members.

Skills Class 5/4/13 CANCELLED

Friday, May 3rd, 2013

As of 5 pm on Friday May 3, Malibu Creek State Park was closed due to high fire danger, and it was unclear as to whether it would be open on Saturday. In addition, air quality was poor due to smoke moving south into the area from the fires burning in the Santa Monica Mountains to the north. Therefor we have cancelled the 5/4/13 Introduction to Mountain Biking Skills Class. Hope to see you next month, June 1!

 

May eTerraTimes Newsletter Published May 2

Thursday, May 2nd, 2013

The May edition of CORBA’s monthly newsletter, the eTerraTimes, was published today, May 2. If you don’t get it by email, you can view it online.

As always, the eTerraTimes has all the latest news for mountain bikers in the Santa Monica Mountains and surrounding areas.

Shameless Plug Alert

Wednesday, May 1st, 2013

By Mark Langton

Mark Langton

As the coordinator and instructor for the monthly CORBA Introduction to Mountain Biking Skills Class at Malibu Creek State Park, I look forward to the first Saturday each month to help yet another group of eager mountain bikers become safer and more proficient. I also provide private lessons (mountainbikeskills.com) and have gotten quite a few new clients over the last couple of months, which is pretty typical for this time of year, what with the weather getting nice and a crop of races just around the corner.

What continues to amaze me is how many people think they don’t need  coaching. As I say all the time, even the best athletes in the world have coaches. I see people in the CORBA classes who have been riding for quite some time who have developed bad habits that are quite debilitating. And they almost always can be easily corrected with a few minor adjustments. But the adjustments aren’t always intuitive or obvious, and that’s where a coach comes in. If there were a better way to improve one’s technique instead of using interpersonal coaching, I think they would have come up with it by now!

So hopefully I’ll see you one of these months at the FREE CORBA skills class. No reservations needed. Come back as many times as you like, it’s always free!

Space Mountain Trailwork Scheduled for May 11

Monday, April 29th, 2013

Join CORBA and the Santa Monica Mountains Trails Council as we fix up CORBA’s adopted trail, Space Mountain (Los Robles Trail West) in Thousand Oaks. We’ll be doing treadwork, clearing silt out of the drainages. This is a favorite mountain biking trail, especially in the winter when other trails are muddy. Our work on Saturday will help keep the water off the trail and open to riding next winter!. After the trailwork is finished, CORBA will have prizes for some (or all) lucky volunteers, and treat you to lunch afterwards.

SpaceMtnNo experience is necessary to help out with trailwork. Tools and instructions on how to use them safely and effectively will be provided. Children must be over 7-years old to attend, and children under 14 must be constantly and directly supervised by their parent or guardian who brought them. 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.

Be sure to wear protective clothing (sturdy shoes, long pants and sleeves, hat, golves) and bring snacks, sunscreen and water. CORBA will provide the tools and training.

We request that you pre-register online so that we’ll know how many tools to provide. Remember, by registering here, CORBA will treat you to lunch afterwards, and enter you in the drawing for mountain biking prizes! We have some great 2.25″ CST tires, for both 26ers and 29ers.

CORBA’s thank-you lunch will be after trailwork ends at 2:00 pm, so bring some snacks to tide you over.

Meeting location and details are on the online registration page.

Originally this trailwork had been planned for Guadalasca Trail in Pt Mugu State Park, but we relocated because the Springs Fire has closed that park.

GirlzGoneRiding May 2013 Update

Monday, April 29th, 2013

WendyKimGGR NEWS!

Bells Bells Bells Bells! In accordance with CORBA & IMBA, GGR will start to incorporate using BELLS on their bikes. Bells and communication on the trails with the hikers and equestrians is key to keeping all users of the trails aware that bikers are coming.

GGR is now soliciting sponsors for their main event Oct 20th at Malibu Creek State Park. This is also a CORBA membership drive and fund raiser. Please email wendy@girlzgoneriding.com for details on becoming a sponsor. It’s EASY!

Please check out the GGR Calender!
http://www.girlzgoneriding.com/calendar/

Rides and special events are posted on the FB page here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/350083721682365/

May CORBA Kids Club Ride Set for Sycamore Canyon – Pt Mugu Side

Thursday, April 25th, 2013

Our last ride at Malibu Creek State Park was a success, with two new riders joining us!

aprilridemandell

May’s ride will take place at Sycamore Canyon.  Please meet us in the day parking lot at Point Mugu at 9 a.m.

Wood Canyon Vista Trail maintenance completed during Trail Days

Wednesday, April 24th, 2013

During the annual Santa Monica Mountains Trail Days in Pt Mugu State Park, CORBA volunteers with the help of a few others repaired drains and cleared brush along the entire 1.8 miles of the Wood Canyon Vista Trail, a segment of the Backbone Trail.

Clearing brush on the Wood Canyon Vista Trail. Links to the photo galleries are at the bottom of this article.

Clearing brush on the Wood Canyon Vista Trail. Links to the photo galleries are at the bottom of this article.

The SMM Trail Days is a weekend-long event organized by the Santa Monica Mountains Trails Council that has taken place at the end of April for 32 years running. As well as helping with trailwork on Saturday and Sunday morning, volunteers are able to camp over Friday and Saturday night at the Danielson Multiuse Area, enjoy a barbecue dinner on Saturday, and win great prizes on both Saturday and Sunday in appreciation for their work.

On Saturday morning, 17 CORBA Volunteers and a few others were shuttled from the registration area to the bottom of the Wood Canyon Vista Trail. We split into four groups, headed by CORBA trail crew leaders Steve Messer and Steve Clark, and Trails Council crew leaders John Kross and Greg Sweel, and started up the trail. Two of the groups focused on cleaning sediment out from existing drainage dips and cutting new drainages where needed, while the other two groups wielded loppers or a hedge trimmer to cut back overgrowing brush. In addition, we had the support of two employees of California State Parks who used a gas hedge trimmer to cut back a major overgrown section halfway up the trail. This section included lots of poison oak, so we are extremely grateful for their help!

Overall we fixed up about 1.3 miles of trail from the bottom.

While we were working on this section of the Backbone Trail, other groups were working on Coyote Trail, and in the Boney Mountain Wilderness Area, Blue Canyon Trail, Old Boney Trail and Chamberlain Trail.

Preparing dinner on Saturday night.

Preparing dinner on Saturday night.

On Sunday, a smaller group of 6 CORBA volunteers plus 3-4 others were shuttled to the top of the Wood Canyon Vista Trail so we could work down to where we had left off the day before. We split into a group with loppers led by CORBA trail crew leader Steve Clark to cut back brush, and a group with treadwork tools to clean out drainages, led by Trails Council crew leader Howard Cohen. We completed the upper section of the trail in about an hour and a half, then hiked to the bottom to catch a ride back to the registration area. On the way down we were able to take in the magnificent view of Sycamore Canyon and Boney Mountain, something we don’t have as much time to appreciate when we’re riding our bikes.

Other groups were working on the Upper Sycamore Trail and “Toe Stubber” Trail (part of Old Boney Trail) in the Wilderness Area on Sunday.

I’m very pleased with the work CORBA volunteers accomplished over the weekend! I never expected we’d get the whole trail completed. I’m also grateful for the help of a few other volunteers, and especially the State Park staff who took care of the poison oak. Without them, we wouldn’t have completed the trail.

A special thanks goes out to the Trails Council for the outstanding job they do in organizing this event, with the extras like free camping, bagel breakfasts, Saturday night BBQ dinner, and great prizes for everyone. And the rangers and other employees of the State and National Parks had a huge part in making this event such a success. All this effort ensured that the volunteers came away not only with a sense of accomplishment for helping to keep the trails in good shape, but also with great memories of the whole weekend!

Here are links to photo galleries of the weekend: