Archive for the ‘Rides and Events’ Category

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SoCal Interscholastic Cycling League Launched with Backing from Easton Sports Development Foundation II

Friday, August 29th, 2008

August 29, 2008

OAKLAND , CA – The Northern California High School Mountain Bike Racing League (NorCal League) will launch the Southern California Interscholastic Cycling League (SoCal League) in the 2009 academic year with grant support from the Easton Sports Development Foundation II.

The new league is based on the successful model of the NorCal League, now in its eighth year, which currently has reached a membership of over 400 high schoolers, 150 coaches, and 35 schools from within the region. Matt Fritzinger, Executive Director of both the NorCal and SoCal leagues, said, “We are tremendously grateful for the generosity of Mr. Easton and his foundation. The grant allows us to launch a new league, and that has been a dream of ours for several years. With the SoCal League, we’ll be fostering the same values of life-long physical fitness, community, and self-confidence combined with athletic competition that has been so successful in Northern California.”

The NorCal League has developed methods and curriculum for introducing young riders to the world of mountain bike racing, as well as recruiting and training coaches that are committed to producing amateur athletes who are gracious in both victory and defeat, and are respectful of their environment and community. The SoCal League is one of the first few recipients of an ESDF II grant in part because of the proposal’s emphasis on coaching, community, and making cycling a main-stream high school sport. Fritzinger said, “We know that good coaching means working closely with families, and helping athletes create a balanced life perspective. We aim to take the SoCal high school mountain bike teams in the same direction as we have in Northern California working to make cycling as important as baseball, football and soccer in the fabric of our high schools.”

For information about the SoCal League visit www.socaldirt.org and visit their booth at CORBA’s Fat Tire Fest on October 12, 2008. Also, visit CORBA’s SoCal League web page.

Posted in California, High School League, Youth | Comments Closed

Mustard Growth on the New Millennium Trails in Calabasas

Friday, May 9th, 2008

May 9, 2008

Spring has sprung and so did the Mustard plants! The New Millennium Trail has become so overgrown with this plant the trail is unusable at this time! The CORBA Trail Crew was out on 4/15 and 4/17 working on the trail. It was a slow process but we managed to clear .7 of a mile from the intersection of the Bark Park Trail heading south.  There is still much work to be done!

CORBA has been communicating with the Mountains Restoration Trust (MRT) to come up with a solution to get this great trail passable once again! The MRT has mobilized their Crew to work on brush removal on the trail. The CORBA Trail Crew returned to the trail on 5/9 and worked on some slides and erosion problems on the South side of the trail near Normans Way.

The MRT Crew has cleared the brush from Parkway Calabasas past Normans Way/Stokes Canyon to the switchbacks and Parkway Calabasas towards Calabasas Road/Gun Club Road past the water tank on the ridge above the other set of switchbacks.

We hope to be able to report very soon that the entire trail is once again usable!

Web pages to check out:

December 7, 2008 Update: The trails are completely clear of mustard and other weeds.

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

The Riordan Trail Update

Friday, July 20th, 2007

Jul 20, 2007

The Mt. St. Mary’s Trail is now being realigned and has been renamed the “Nancy & Dick Riordan Trail.” The trail will be completed in, approximately, November 2008. Until then, the Trail will be closed to the public due to construction hazards. The Riordan Trail, however, has already been officially dedicated by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and half of the new trail has been constructed. For more information go to www.canyonback.org

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

May 2017 eTerraTimes Newsletter Published May 5th

Friday, May 5th, 2017

The May 2017 edition of CORBA’s bimonthly newsletter, the eTerraTimes, was published today, May 3rd. 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.

Posted in CORBA News, Rides and Events | Comments Closed

Vetter Mountain Trail to Open May 5, 2017

Thursday, May 4th, 2017

After more than two years of dedicated volunteer work by CORBA and MWBA volunteer sawyers, we’re happy to announce that the Vetter Mountain Trail, near Charlton Flat in the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument, will be open to the public this weekend.

Our volunteer sawyer crew has been cutting downed trees off the trail, clearing brush, and working to reopen the heavily-damaged trail. It is in one of the most badly burned areas of the 2009 Station Fire, and thousands of trees killed in the fire have been falling since then.

Vetter Mountain Trail, May 2010

We surveyed the trail for the Forest Service in 2010, the year after the Station Fire. The area had barely begun recovering and would need several more years before work could begin. Vegetation had to grow back, hillsides stabilize, and standing dead trees would fall to the ground. Intense poodle dog settled in not long after, increasing the hazards.

October 2015 we began volunteer work, needing to first clear the trail corridor as best we could, and in many cases, locate the trail. CORBA and MWBA Chainsaw crews began the heavy work. Sawyers have cut well over 100 trees that fell across the trail, and dozens more on the roads to access the trail, in ten days of chainsaw work over the last year. We cut back brush that was choking off the trail, and reopened the corridor. Three times over the past year we cleared the entire trail of downed trees, only to return months later to start again.

Volunteer Sawyers begin work on Vetter in 2015

Earlier this year, hot shots fire crews were able to fell most of the largest standing hazard trees, reducing hazards along the trail corridor. The rate of trees falling is slowing down, especially since the big windstorms of this past winter. Numerous dead trees are still standing, and will continue to pose a hazard for some time, much like many other trails in the recovering areas. Be especially aware if you’re on the trails in a burn zone during high winds or bad weather, as dead trees are especially prone to falling in these conditions.

Volunteers on National Trails Day

Last Saturday, at our urging, the Forest Service scheduled the annual National Trails Day volunteer project on the Vetter Mountain trail. Volunteer Crews from Coca Cola, MWBA, CORBA, JPL Trail Builders, Angeles National Forest Fire Lookout Association, National Forest Foundation and many other groups and individuals proceeded to re-establish tread and cut back brush. Sawyer crews chainsawed a dozen or more trees from the trail. Sunday, CORBA volunteer sawyers returned to continue cutting the remaining downed trees from the trail.

Today, Thursday May 4, the CORBA team will return to put some final touches on the trail, remove the last remaining obstructions, and officially remove the “trail closed” signs in preparation for the trail’s opening this weekend.

The Vetter Mountain trail has been closed for 8 years. It is part of the classic and much-loved Chilao Figure 8, a popular mountain bike loop that includes the Charlton Connector Trail, Vetter Mountain Trail, Mount Hillyer Trail, connecting fire roads, and the Silver Mocassin trail. It has been missed, and will be enjoyed once again!

Once lush with majestic conifers, and known for a series of switchbacks, followed by a flowy descent along a drainage, the trail looks much less apocalyptic than it did on our first survey in 2010. The area is recovering, but it is still within the burn zone, and will look very different from it’s pre-fire state. We’re just happy to have it back!

The Vetter Mountain trail has been closed for 8 years. It was part of the classic and much-loved Chilao Figure 8, a route that includes the Charlton Connector Trail, Vetter Mountain Trail, Mount Hillyer Trail, connecting fire roads, and the Silver Mocassin trail. It has been missed, and will be enjoyed once again!

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Posted in Angeles National Forest, San Gabriel Mountains, San Gabriels National Monument, Trail Building and Restoration, Trail Crew, Trail Hazards | Comments Closed

California Trails and Greenways Conference – Ken Burton Trail Restoration Project Wins Award

Thursday, May 4th, 2017

The 2017 California Trails and Greenways Conference (CT&G) was an extra special conference for CORBA. CORBA has been involved with the conference for more than 25 years. The CT&G Conference brings together trail advocates, nonprofits, and land managers. California State Park employees are able to earn continuing education credits, and district trail coordinators from around the state meet here annually.

Steve Messer and Matt Baffert accept the Merit Award for Development

CORBA was nominated and received the Merit Award for Development for the Ken Burton Trail Restoration Project, which saw 100 volunteers put in over 1600 hours into the restoration of the trail last year. Accepting the award for CORBA were Steve Messer, who led the project, and Matt Baffert of the Mount Wilson Bicycling Association who contributed significantly to the project, and who were also the original builders of the trail in the early nineties.

 

Kurt Loheit, one of CORBA’s founders who led IMBA’s early involvement in trail design and construction, received a Lifetime Achievement Award for more than 25 years of volunteerism and trail advocacy.  Kurt was instrumental in developing the trail design principles that have put IMBA at the forefront of sustainable trail design.

Also receiving a lifetime achievement award was Ron Webster, a Santa Monica Mountains Trails Council and Sierra Club trailbuilder who constructed over 35 miles of the Backbone Trail. The National Park Service received an award in the Acquisition category, for the acquisition of the last private property segments of the backbone trail just in time for the trail to be completed and designated a National Recreation Trail last year.

Steve Messer, CORBA’s President and trail crew leader, gave a presentation on the Teen Trail Corps with Austin McInerney, Executive Director of the National Interscholastic Cycling Association, and Laurel Harkness, IMBA’s California-Hawaii Regional Director. The presentation was streamed live on Facebook, and is archived there. The Teen Trail Corps is a joint project between IMBA and NICA, supported by REI, which encourages youth engagement in IMBA’s four tenets of mountain biking: Ride, Respect, Build, and Speak. It is based upon much of the work of CORBA with local high school teams.

Many California IMBA Chapters were represented at the Conference, which gave us a great opportunity to meet and discuss statewide matters of importance to the Mountain Biking community. The Chapters were also able to meet with Dave Wiens, IMBA’s new Executive Director, and discuss IMBA’s future, the Chapter program’s future, and the apparent disconnect between issues of importance to California mountain bikers and those of IMBA. Chapter leaders came away from the meeting encouraged and appreciative of Dave’s willingness to work with the Chapters.

Electric Mountain Bikes were a hot topic of discussion, with E-MTB manufacturers offering test rides during the conference and at Sea Otter. Currently State Parks allow Class I e-mtbs on any trails where bicycles are allowed. However, that policy is under review and may change. Federal land managers all consider e-MTBs as motorized, and restrict them to OHV approved routes also used by motorcycles, 4x4s and side-by-sides or quads. Local land managers policies vary across the state.

It was not coincidence that the conference was timed to allow conference attendees to then attend Sea Otter, which began the day after the conference. It made for a great week of advocacy, bike riding, and trail talk.

Posted in Rides and Events | Comments Closed

Report on the Santa Monica Mountains Trail Days, April 28-30, 2017

Tuesday, May 2nd, 2017

On Thursday, in preparation for the annual Santa Monica Mountains Trail Days held every year in Pt Mugu State Park, I drove my now very dusty car down the main Sycamore Canyon trail and parked at the bottom of the Wood Canyon Vista Trail, a segment of the Backbone Trail. I hiked up the trail and flagged 59 spots where drains were needed – mostly to clean out existing drains that had become clogged with silt from the winter rains, but also some new drains about 2/3 of the way up the trail.

Saturday, CORBA volunteers and few others install drains and repair ruts on the Wood Canyon Vista Trail, a segment of the backbone trail.

Saturday morning, the State and National park services drove 17 of us, including 2 youngsters, and our work tools to the bottom of the trail. After grabbing our tools, we hiked 1.5 miles up to the work area, about 2/3 of the way to the top, and proceeded to work down. Altogether, we put installed or cleaned 26 drains.

The area of greatest concern was at the start of our work area where the trail passes through a grassy area and is solid clay. Most of the rest of the trail is very rocky. This clay section is pliable, quickly becomes depressed in the middle where a rut erodes when it rains. This section of the trail was completely restored during trailwork in February 2015, yet it was as rutted as ever after just two years. A narrow but deep rut had developed in the middle of the trail, just wide enough for a mountain bike tire to slip in and get jammed.

We learned that leveling the trail doesn’t last here, so instead we cut a drain in about every 50 feet. That involved cutting through the berm (the dirt that builds up on the outside edge of the trail and keeps the water from running off), the first few inches was as hard as concrete, despite having been rain-soaked a few weeks earlier. The drains were 3 to 5 feet wide. We used the dirt we dug out of the drains to fill in the rut on the trail. Now we have a section with frequent drains to keep the water from running all the way down the trail, and the rut is filled with dirt. Hopefully this restoration will last longer than two years!

Overall, we dug out 26 drains over 2100′ of trail and filled in about 500′ of rut! Well done, everyone!

Saturday restoration on the Upper Sycamore Trail.

While the CORBA crew was working on the Wood Canyon Vista Trail, the other volunteers (about 60 of them) worked to restore the Upper Sycamore Trail where Sycamore Creek crosses it a number of times. By all accounts, this trail was decimated by the stream. This is a very shaded trail in a deep canyon and popular with hikers, but it’s in the Wilderness Area and so closed to mountain biking.

Everyone was back to the staging area by about 2:30 so we spent the afternoon relaxing and chatting with friends until the barbecue dinner. As usual, we had chicken, hot dogs, veggie burgers, baked beans (regular and veggie), salad and garlic toast. It was up to us to bring our own beverages. As dinner was winding down, the prize give-away started. There were so many prizes that everyone must have gotten one.

Saturday barbecue dinner.

The work continued on Sunday morning with a much smaller force of about 30 total. We all shuttled up to Upper Sycamore Trail, then split into two crews. One hiked up to the top of the trail to work on tread issues while the other worked on clearing overgrowing brush from the bottom. Sunday is always a smaller and shorter event; we were back to the staging area by noon to enjoy left-overs from Saturday’s barbecue.

CORBA would like to thank all the volunteers who came out to help fix up our trails in Pt Mugu State Park. Everyone did a great job! And a special thanks goes to the Santa Monica Mountains Trails Council that organizes this event every year.

You can see all the photos from this weekend in CORBA’s photo gallery, or photos from Steve Messer and Xander Tenai . Take a look to see what we accomplished.

 

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

Report on Earth Day trail building in Malibu Creek State Park April 22, 2017

Sunday, April 23rd, 2017

A few dozen volunteers gathered at Malibu Creek State Park on Saturday Morning, Earth Day, to help spruce it up. There were three main projects: to pick litter out of the creek, to paint over graffiti, and to build an extension to the Grasslands Trail. CORBA and other mountain bikers worked on the new trail.

A number of years ago, a steep fall-line trail that connected the Grasslands Trail to High Road was closed because it was not sustainable. At the time, it was planned that a new, contour trail would replace it. After many delays caused by, among other things, fires and floods in other parks, the first phase of the new trail was completed this past Saturday!

This trail is going to have a great view!

The trail had been roughed in by a SWECO trail bulldozer in the past couple of weeks, so the job of the volunteers was to put on the finishing touches – removing rocks, smoothing out bumps, ensuring an even outslope so next winter’s rainwater will run off the edge rather than down the middle, and completing the uphill edge.

There were enough volunteers that we got the work completed well before the expected time of noon, meaning that we had a bit of a wait until the Subway sandwiches were delivered for lunch. That gave us more time to sit and chat.

The second phase will be to build a 16′ bridge across an intermittent stream. Once that’s done, the remainder of the trail can be built to finish the connection to the High Road trail that leads to Crags Road, Century Lake and the MASH site.

Thanks to all the volunteers who dedicated their Saturday morning to help with one of their local parks!

You can see some of the activities in our photo gallery of the Grasslands Trail extension.

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

SCV Trail Users Affiliate with CORBA

Friday, April 14th, 2017

SCV Trail Users volunteer at Placerita Canyon, 2016

Santa Clarita, California – April 14, 2017 – The Santa Clarita Valley Trail Users Committee (SCVTU) is pleased to announce their restructuring to become a standing committee of the Concerned Off-Road Bicyclists Association (CORBA), an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

In recent years, SCVTU has worked closely with CORBA on trail advocacy and planning in the Santa Clarita Valley and northern Los Angeles area. A committee charter was adopted by SCVTU, and approved by the CORBA Board at the March monthly meeting.

“This is a logical next step to strengthen the relationship between SCVTU and CORBA to increase our effectiveness as a bicycle advocacy organization,” said Steve Messer, CORBA President. “Together we’ll be better prepared to improve mountain biking opportunities in and around the Santa Clarita Valley.”

Santa Clarita Valley Trail Users has developed strong relationships with local land managers over the past several years including City, County, State, and Federal officials. SCVTU recently led a volunteer effort in the Placerita Nature Center to build check dams after the Sand Fire to protect the sensitive canyon from further environmental damage. SCVTU was also instrumental in working with the Los Angeles County to reopen the Canyon Trail to bicycles.

“CORBA has been a valuable resource to SCV Trail Users for many years. Santa Clarita is uniquely surrounded by open space affording local residents a unique opportunity for outdoor recreation on a beautiful trail network.  Our vision is to work with local land managers to improve connectivity between trail areas and to increase and improve multi-use trail opportunities for public use in the Santa Clarita area,” said Ken Raleigh, SCVTU Chairman.

The timing couldn’t be better. With a new trail master planning process for the Santa Susana Mountains about to begin, and approved City and County trail master plans that include bike parks and new trails, there is a lot happening in the Santa Clarita Valley. There are also some challenges including the Sand Fire recovery efforts now underway. The SCVTU committee is hitting the ground running.

Santa Clarita Valley Trail Users Facebook page has over 400 members. The Committee is comprised of 10 members with founding member, Ken Raleigh, serving as Chair.

Posted in Angeles National Forest, Rides and Events, Santa Clarita Valley | Comments Closed

April Skills Clinic photos posted April 1

Saturday, April 1st, 2017

There was a baker’s dozen at this month’s Skills Clinic, an appropriate number for April Fools Day.

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 April photo gallery.

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

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