It was another beautiful day to be riding in Malibu Creek State Park! Eighteen riders came out to enjoy the fabulous weather today and participate in this month’s basic skills clinic. About eight were Mountain Bike Unit recruits. You can see them in the May Skills Clinic Photo Gallery.
Skills Clinic Photos for May 5, 2012
May 5th, 2012May eTerraTimes published May 3
May 3rd, 2012The May edition of CORBA’s monthly newsletter, the eTerraTimes, was published today, May 3. 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.
Tales From The Trail
May 2nd, 2012
By Mark Langton
I regularly make a plea to mountain bikers to slow down, as it is the one true way to solve the only valid complaint hikers and equestrians have about mountain bikers on the trails: that bicyclists scare people because they go too fast. Well, I’d like to recount a very personal experience of just how true that complaint is.
A couple of weeks ago I was riding on one of my regular routes. Just as I began rounding a slight downhill bend on a smooth wide doubletrack trail, I saw a family of hikers about 40 yards ahead. I was not traveling excessively fast, but my quick appearance surprised the group. I braked smoothly to a stop at least 10 yards before the first hiker, but the damage had been done: Mother, protectively reaching for her young 3-year old son who was walking beside her, loses her footing and falls to the ground, catching herself with her hands as she lands on her hip; Father, carrying an infant in a baby carrier backpack, jumping to the side of the trail; 3-year old son cowering behind his father’s legs, and in his frightened 3-year old voice saying “that bicycle scare me!”
All I could do was apologize profusely and make sure the woman was okay. She was, but she could have very easily twisted her ankle, sprained a wrist, or worse. If the man carrying the baby had fallen, he would have had no way to protect the infant in the baby carrier. Both the man and woman were accepting of my apology, the man even saying “hey, it’s a trail.” But I couldn’t help thinking that perhaps the rest of their hike was now ruined. I know the rest of my ride was not all that pleasant.
I didn’t think I was going that fast, and in fact I was able to stop in plenty of time and was never a threat to their safety. However, as illustrated above, I actually was a threat, because I startled them into a reaction that could have caused problems.
I often hear people trying to justify banning bicyclists from the trails by saying things like “what if a family with little kids were hiking and a bike came around a corner too fast, and they ran over the kids?” My response is usually something like “Of course we don’t want that to happen, but statistically it is not happening, so you can’t use a hypothetical situation to justify a restrictive policy.” And I still feel this way. But you can bet I’m going to go even slower around corners, especially on trails that I know are used more frequently by families. And I’m going to continue to promote the message of slowing down for corners, and always slowing to other users’ speed.
Please take a moment to think about why you ride on trails. Hopefully it’s to enjoy and commune with nature. There’s nothing wrong with pushing your aerobic and bike handling levels, but remember that there are others out there for the same reasons you are. Treat others as you would want to be treated. Ride as if there’s always someone around the next corner. Possibly a family with kids.
Urgent Rancho Palos Verdes City Council Mtg May 15
May 2nd, 2012On May 15th at 7:00 pm, the Rancho Palos Verdes City Council will review and approve the final trails plan for the Palos Verdes Nature Preserve. This is mountain bikers’ last chance to ask for changes.
CORBA Palos Verdes has proposed allowing bike access on more trails.
For information go to: www.mtbpv.org or email info@mtbpv.org
We need your support. Attend the meeting even if you don’t want to speak. Write the Rancho Palos Verdes City Council, CC@rpv.com. Please make the letters positive.
When:
May 15th 7:00 PM
Where:
Fred Hesse Community Center
29301 Hawthorne Boulevard
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275
Report on and photos of 2012 Santa Monica Mountains Trail Days
May 1st, 2012Over the weekend of April 28-29, about 200 volunteers had a great time chatting, chowing on a fabulous barbecue meal, taking in the scenery, winning wonderful prizes, and if they liked, camping overnight in the Danielson Multiuse Area in Pt Mugu State Park. The reason for the revelry was the 31st annual Santa Monica Mountains Trail Days where outdoor enthusiasts of all varieties got together to repair trails for everyone to enjoy.
Saturday
When we arrived on Saturday morning, the staging area at Danielson Multuse Area was bescattered with a couple dozen brightly colored tents of people who had arrived Friday evening and camped overnight. The CORBA volunteers grabbed some tools and shuttled to the top of Hell Hill to work on Guadalasca Trail. Our job would be to clear the brush that was overgrowing the trail.
The 34 mountain bike volunteers, including a half dozen members of the Channel Islands High School Interscholastic SoCal Cycling League, split into three groups, led by crew leaders Hans Keifer, Steve Messer and Steve Clark. We were to hike down the trail, cutting back the overgrowth as we went. Helping us were two State Parks staff who were ahead on the trail. They had chain saws to cut back the largest branches. Keifer and Messer followed with their crews, armed with loppers and small saws, to remove brush and branches of an intermediate size. Bringing up the rear was Clark, wielding a power hedge-trimmer, and two brave assistants, who cut down the smaller brush and swept it off the trail. This included a huge section of poison oak that was flourishing on the top part of the trail, above the first switchback. On the way down, this last group cut back poison oak that the other groups had left. Near the bottom, on the old ranch road section, the power hedge trimmer was also used to cut back thistle near the trail. We wanted to cut it out before it developed seeds for next year’s crop of prickles.
Guadalasca is now in much better shape. It is clear of overgrowth over most of it’s length, and the risk of contacting poison oak is much reduced.
While the CORBA crews were working on Guadalasca, other crews were working on Blue Canyon Trail and Old Boney Trail. Both these trails are in the State Wilderness Area and are closed to mountain biking.
The crews finished about 2:00 pm and headed back to the staging area for some R & R before the barbecue dinner, consisting of salad, tri-tip, chicken, vegi burgers, baked beans, garlic toast and hot dogs, with cake for dessert. The grills were manned by State Parks maintenance workers who had volunteered to help out. Dinner was augmented by snacks and amber/red/white beverages that adults brought for themselves.
While dinner was being prepared, tables were laid out with dozens of items that were to be awarded to volunteers during the prize giveaway. They were there for people to oggle and figure out which they would pick for themselves when their ticket was drawn. Tickets were given out to people in line for dinner. The giveaway itself was held after dinner. Everyone won a prize, but of course the people whose tickets were chosen first had a larger selection to pick from. Among the prizes were two $350 RST M29 Air 29″ forks. New this year were grand prize drawings, in addition to the regular prizes, for a North Face down sleeping bag, a North Face 2-person tent and a mountain bike helmet.
All the pictures of Saturday’s activities are available for viewing in the Saturday photo gallery.
Sunday
Most people headed home Saturday evening after the prize drawing, but a few stayed on for another night of camping. A few of those left on Sunday morning, but many stayed for another morning of trailwork, and were joined by a few who drove in for the day.
Trenched trail with bushes blocking the view around bends
The CORBA crew consisted of four mountain bikers, three Americorps volunteers and three State Parks employees. We headed over to Sin Nombre Trail in two groups. The State Parks staff, along with their power hedge trimmer, started at the top and worked their way down. They were accompanied by two bikers who worked with loppers. The remaining five started at the bottom and worked their way up.
The bottom group worked on the tread and brush in two areas. The trail in the first area was deeply trenched and had large bushes growing next to the trail on the inside of bends. We built two rolling dips to prevent rainwater from running straight down the trail, thus keeping the trenches from getting deeper (they’re already deep enough that you can easily hit your pedals on the side of the trail as you climb up). We also partly filled in the trench so it’s not so deep now. We would have filled it in completely if we’d had time.
The large bushes growing right next to the trail on the inside of bends present two problems. First, they obscure the view around the bend so you can’t see people coming the other direction. The trail is moderately sloped here, so people riding downhill can’t see others coming towards them, and don’t have much time to react to avoid a collision. Similarly, people coming up the hill can’t see if a rider is coming down towards them. Second, the bushes are so close to the trail that there’s no room to lean into the turn without running your torso into the bush. Riders need to slow down so much that they’re not leaning, or else ride off the outside of the trail, thus widening it over time. We fixed these problems by cutting the bushes back about three feet from the center of the trail, giving much improved visibility around the curve.
The oak tree on the left used to grow to the edge of the trail, blocking the view of this turn at the bottom of a small hill.
The second area was at an S-turn at the bottom of a small hill. An oak tree at the bottom of this hill obscures the view of the turn, resulting in some mountain bikers missing the first turn and running up a small bank, then being in a poor line for the second turn and possibly falling or running off the trail and down a grassy bank.
The top group and bottom group happened to meet at this point, so the top group worked on trimming back the tree to improve visibility while the bottom group widened the trail by about 18″ to make the turns a little more gentle.
While we were working on Sin Nombre, a second, slightly larger group had headed back up the Blue Canyon Trail to work there.
We got back to the staging area about 1:00 pm for a quick lunch before the second prize giveaway. In addition to the regular prizes, the grand prizes were another 2-person tent from North Face and a $100 gift certificate for Westlake Cyclery.
All the pictures of Sunday’s activities are available for viewing in the Sunday photo gallery.
The 2012 Santa Monica Mountains Trail Days were organized by the Santa Monica Mountains Trails Council in conjunction with California State Parks. Other groups who helped out were CORBA, the Sierra Club, Crenshaw Eco Club, California Native Plant Society, SMM Natural History Assn., Malibu Creek Docents, Temescal Canyon Assn., Ray Miller 50/50 Run and the National Park Service. A special Thank-You goes to Barb Thomas who was the coordinator of this event for the SMM Trails Council.
If you missed the fun and excitement this year, this is an annual event so you should plan to come out next year for the 2013 edition!
2012 Trails and Greenways Conference
April 24th, 2012
Multi-use trails. We can and must get along.
CORBA was very much involved in last week’s California Trails and Greenways Conference. This annual event brings together land managers at the Federal, State, County and City levels, along with resource planners, volunteers, non-profit organizations and professional landscape architects and trail builders.
The theme for this year’s conference was “Navigating Radical Change.” The most radical of all changes that land managers are facing is the shrinking of budgets for trail and open space projects. Another is the changing demographic of trail users.
Navigating radical change - mutli-use friendly pinch points on Tapia Spur
Many sessions at the conference talked about the importance of engaging volunteers, of reaching out to foster public-private partnerships between land managers and non profit advocacy groups.
CORBA has already been putting into practice many of these principles, partnering with the Forest Service and State Parks to help maintain trails; partnering with the So Cal High School League to empower the next generation of off-road cyclists as advocates and stewards.
CORBA President Mark Langton participated in a rousing panel presentation on the Conejo Open Space Conservation Agency, a multi-use trail system that has worked successfully with minimal conflict for more than two decades. An entertaining keynote address was given by conservation celebrity Ed Begley Junior. He treated the attendees to stories of how and why he came to be so ingrained within the conservation movement.
Among the volunteer groups in attendance, there were at least five bicycling advocacy groups represented. IMBA’s new regional director Patrick Kell was there, along with representatives from the San Diego Mountain Bike Association, Central Coast Concerned Mountain Bikers, Santa Barbara Trail Volunteers, CORBA, the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition and other groups.
Cycling trail advocates from across California
On Friday morning of the conference, 8 bicycle adovocates joined Steve Messer and past CORBA board member Hans Kiefer in a tour of Rocky Peak. They had a great ride, showing once again that there is some great mountain biking around Los Angeles.
A conference such as this is vital for bringing disparate user groups, land managers and trail stewards together, where we always learn we have much more in common than we think. The fact that working together is often the only way anything can be accomplished was one of the most important take-home messages from the conference.
Everyone can get along
On Saturday, after the conference, Orange County’s Trails4All brought 6 equestrians, 4 hikers, and about a dozen mountain bikers from CORBA, SHARE, SDMBA, CCCMB together for a ride/hike/run/hoof event. We travelled together on the trails of Malibu Creek State Park, showing again that where there is respect and cooperation it is very possible for all user groups to co-exist peacefully on the trails.
Our since thanks to the organizers, the presenters, the sponsors, and to all our fellow attendees at the conference. These meetings underscore the importance of working together, and create at an atmosphere conducive to constructive and informative exchanges of information and viewpoints. We look forward to next year’s Trails and Greenways conference in Lake Tahoe.
Bikes, horses, hikers and runners. We all love trails.
Fixing a hazardous turn in Pt Mugu State Park
April 16th, 2012On Sunday April 15, as part of National Volunteer Week, about 40 Amgen volunteers gathered in Pt Mugu State Park to work on the Sin Nombre Trail. Most of them worked on fixing ruts and cutting back overgrowing brush, but 8 of us, all but one mountain bikers, split off to fix up the dangerous corner near the top of the trail at Ranch Center Road.
The problem is at a dip to cross a very small stream, combined with a tight left turn. After slowing to negotiate the turn at the stream crossing, the rider encounters a short but unexpectedly steep climb out of the stream. Because the trail has been downhill until this point, often people are in too high a gear and stall trying to climb the hill. When they put their foot down, they discover that the trail is also narrower than expected and there is little room for their foot, and they can fall about 6′ down the steep bank to the rocks of the stream. The problem is made worse by a rock near the middle of the trail at the start of the climb out that it high enough to bang your pedal on. Many riders have fallen at this turn; some were taken out by helicopter with serious injuries.
We widened the trail and fortified the outside edge with large rocks. Gaps were filled with smaller rocks, then everything was covered with dirt.
On Sunday, I enlisted a very experienced trailwork volunteer and crew leader for the Santa Monica Mountains Trails Council to figure out what we could do to cut down on the number of accidents on that corner. His solution was to build up the outside edge of the trail with large rocks to make it a little wider, and to remove the protruding rock at the start of the climb out of the dip. So after a lot of digging and relocating really big rocks, the trail is almost a foot wider, all of it on the outside, so there’s more room to put your foot down if you stall out on the climb out. The rocks also armour the outside edge of the trail so it’s less susceptible to errosion and so will last longer.
As we were working, a large number of mountain bikers rode through, the vast majority of them thanked us for fixing up the trail. Some of them told us of stories of having fallen at the corner and injuring themselves. None of them appeared to be beginners.
One fellow fell in and hit his neck. He couldn’t move, being paralyzed in all his limbs and with no feeling in them. That lasted for what must have been for him the longest 10 minutes in his life, before feeling started to come back and he could move again. It turns out he’d sprained his neck. Talk about a close call!
Another rider said he tore his shoulder and broke his collarbone when he fell there.
We believe the trail is safer after our work, but it is still risky to people who are taken by surprise by the steepness of the climb. The trail is wider so it’s easier to put your foot down on the trail, but if you’re riding too close to the edge, you can still go down the bank. So always be careful on this corner, and advise less experienced riders to get off their bikes and walk!
You can see photos of the work on the VenturaCountyTrails.org photo gallery.
Upper Brown Mountain Trailwork with the SoCal High School League, April 7, 2012
April 12th, 2012Upper Brown Mountain before the 2009 Station Fire was a wide fire road in generally in good shape. The rains of two winters and eighteen months without public use because of the forest closure have allowed nature to re-claim much of the old fire road. Many large drainages were completely washed out, the hillsides had slid into the road bed, trees were down, and brush was growing back with a vengeance.
Banner gives a safety talk and JHA
Though still officially closed, the Forest Service closure signs have been gone for some time. People have been venturing up there to explore the now dead-end fire road. The fire road has narrowed to a singletrack for most of its length, narrowed by a combination of slough from above, severe erosion from below, and vegetation. Several of the newly narrowed sections were within inches of the edge of the old fire road, a potential hazard when two people are passing each other, or if riding the area at night as the edges were hidden behind grass. There was at least one large tree down, and several killer “snags” dead trees that were partially fallen, leaning against or resting on top of other trees along the trail. These can give at any time, and are a major safety concern on all trails in the burn area. Now two and a half years after the fire, many of these burned trees are rotting and weakening, and the likelihood of them falling increases with time.
Saturday’s trailwork was led by Banner Moffat of the Friends of El Prieto, and all the SoCal High School League teams and their coaches were invited to participate. Though there were only 35 RSVP’s, 52 people came to the event, a few ready to hike in, but the vast majority ready to ride up to the work site. A few stronger students and a couple of coaches towed BOB trailers full of tools.
Towing the tools up the hard way
- Split into crews led by Mitch Marich and Matt Lay of the Mount Wilson Bicycling Association, Steve Messer of CORBA, St. Francis coaches Lee Bird and Joel Sercel and others, the crews spread out along the length of the trail from the Ken Burton trailhead, all the way down to saddle. Downed trees were removed, killer snags taken down, and some drainages were rock-armored and reinforced. The student athletes got a lot done covering most of the sections from the Ken Burton down to the saddle.
The forest service is considering opening Upper Brown Mountain in its next revision of the forest closure order. Without some attention to safety and a demonstration that the community is willing to maintain it as singletrack, it might be a candidate for reopening until graded back to a fire road.
There were in total at least 54 people who volunteered their time. Of those ten were women and 41 were high school students. Teams represented included Crescenta Valley, St. Francis, San Gabriel Composite, Burroughs Burbank, and independent riders from South Pasadena and other areas.
CORBA is proud to support the SoCal High school league, and we applaud their efforts to create a high school program that includes such a balanced mix of teamwork, sportsmanship, competition and stewardship of our trails.
Shared Use Event at Malibu Creek State Park April 21
April 10th, 2012On Saturday, April 21st at 10 AM will be the annual Shared Use Bike-Hike-Horse-Run event at Malibu Creek State Park that follows the State Trails and Greenways Conference (www.parks.ca.gov/trails/conference) . Registration is required for the conference, but the post conference event is open to all.
The event is intended to show that trail users of all types can enjoy trails together safely. There will be a short 7 mile option and a longer 13 mile opportunity. The ride will begin at upper parking lot and head into the park on Crags Road. Both routes will turn around at the MASH site, get the rare opportunity to exit Malibu Creek State Park through the Salvation Army gate on Mott Road and then return to the park on the newly refurbished Tapia Spur Trail. The event will be followed by lunch. Please rsvp to Jim Meyer at JMeyerT4A@aol.com.
Skills Clinic Photos for April 7, 2012
April 7th, 2012What a beautiful day to be riding in Malibu Creek State Park! Twenty-seven riders came out to enjoy the fabulous weather today and participate in this month’s basic skills clinic. With such a large class, we were running a little behind so we skipped the steps and the splash in the creek. Even so, it was a great class with lots of action-packed photos! You can see them in the April Skills Clinic Photo Gallery.
