Posts Tagged ‘Santa Clarita Valley’

REI and GGR Trailwork in Santa Clarita

Wednesday, December 5th, 2018
New Trail Construction at Golden Valley Ranch Open Space, Santa Clarita

This past Saturday, December 1st, CORBA’s Santa Clarita Valley Trail Users committee (SCVTU) organized another volunteer trail building day at Golden Valley Ranch Open Space in the City of Santa Clarita. 

The SCVTU has been working with the City of Santa Clarita to provide new trail opportunities on former ranch properties. Both East Walker Ranch and Golden Valley Ranch were acquired by the City to both limit future development of the area, and to provide a recreational open-space resource for the Santa Clarita Community. 

Earlier this year, the group completed approximately three miles of new trail at East Walker Ranch, which was used for last summer’s PedalFest mountain bike race series. 

The new trail being constructed will link East Walker Ranch to the southern neighborhoods of Santa Clarita around Fair Oaks. It will provide trail connectivity from the City’s neighborhoods to these open space areas, and eventually into the Angeles National Forest. The trail will be a much more enjoyable experience than some of the steep ridge line ranch roads that currently exist.

Earlier this year, REI awarded CORBA a $15,000 grant to help lead the new trail development. The grant is being utilized by SCVTU to purchase trailwork tools, materials, volunteer support, and professional contractor services where they are indicated. 

Not only did REI provide financial support, but last Saturday, REI Woodland Hills invited all their employees to join in on the effort. REI chose this project for their “employee community service day.”  Some REI folks brought out their entire family. Kids too young to be out on the trail helped pot native succulent plants which were given to volunteers as “thank-you” gift at the end of the day.

Girlz Gone Riding (GGR), a women’s mountain bike club supported by CORBA, sent about 18 women to put in work on the trail. The girls had a lot of fun. A common theme to the comments was how rewarding it is to help bring a brand new trail to life. 

Jose Gonzales, SCVTU’s trail guru, had spent several days over the last few weeks working with Jason Lindenberg to lay out and flag the new trail, along with some preliminary brush clearing. 

About 60 people came out to the event, staged at East Walker Ranch.  Our target for the day was to complete bench-cutting and clearing about a half mile of trail. With the enthusiasm and energy of the group, we were able to complete close to .7 miles! 

Rains earlier in the week had softened the ground, making it relatively easy to contour the trail and pack it down. Conditions were just about ideal for building new trail in this terrain. However, the sticky clay will not be friendly to hiking boots or tires, and the new trail should be avoided when wet. 

The Santa Clarita Valley Signal came out to cover the event. The City is also very excited about the project. We appreciate the enthusiasm of all the volunteers. REI Woodland Hills Store Manager Nikki said they had so much fun, they’re ready to come back in January and help finish building the trail.  

A delicious Mexican cuisine buffet was served after the trailwork

We expect there to be at least two more workdays to finish this trail segment, after which it will be opened to the public. Watch for announcements of upcoming trailwork opportunities.

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Posted in Rides and Events | 1 Comment »

Action Alert! Protect Mountain Bike Access

Saturday, August 16th, 2014

From our Friends to the north, Santa Clarita Valley Trail Users:

Dear Friends,

Congressman “Buck” McKeon is holding a Town Hall meeting to discuss a proposal to designate approximately 40,000 acres just north of Castaic Lake as a federally protected Wilderness area.  This proposed Wilderness area could potentially include the Fish Canyon, Salt Creek, Elderberry Canyon, Tule and Red Mountain areas on the northeast side of Castaic Lake.  All of these areas are very close to Tapia Canyon where the majority of mountain biking occurs in Santa Clarita AND which will likely be lost to development in the not too distant future.

Even though many of us would support the protection and preservation of our public lands, it is important to note that the Wilderness designation severely limits recreation on such lands.  Specifically, cycling or mountain biking is prohibited in Wilderness areas because they are “mechanized”.  Access is only allowed on foot or horseback.

Already, the federal government has set aside very large Wilderness areas near Santa Clarita including the Magic Mountain Wilderness (just south of the 14 Freeway near Canyon Country), the Sespe Wilderness (just north of Fillmore and Santa Paula), and the San Rafael Wilderness (just east of Ventura and Santa Barbara).  This is why you can’t ride a mountain bike in the mountains above Fillmore and why there are so few mountain bike trails in the Ventura/Santa Barbara area.  We think these three Wilderness areas near Santa Clarita are more than enough.

For this reason, we encourage you to attend next week’s Town Hall meeting to let Congressman McKeon know that you object to the Wilderness designation of these additional areas near Castaic Lake because it would permanently prohibit mountain biking.  The current designation of Backcountry – Non-motorized or something else more protective (such as a Special Conservation Area) would be preferred so long as mountain biking continues to be allowed.

Here are the details of the Town Hall meeting:

Date:  Tuesday, August 19

Time:  10:30AM

Where: Santa Clarita City Hall, Century Room

Address:  23920 Valencia Boulevard, Santa Clarita, CA  91355

Thank you for your continued support.

SCV Trail Users

Safe and Equal Access for All Trail Users

SCVTrailUsers@gmail.com

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Posted in Advocacy, Santa Clarita Valley, Trail Access | Comments Closed

LA County Trail Assessment Public Meeting

Thursday, February 16th, 2012

A packed room hears the County and DC&E's presentation

A packed room hears the County and DC&E's presentation

On February 15, 2012, more than 80 people gathered at Hart Park Hall in Santa Clarita Valley to hear and weigh in on the County’s plans. Of those 80 or more people, more than 70 identified themselves as mountain bikers. The SCV Trail Users did an outstanding outreach effort to get people to come to the meeting. Many brought helmets, identifying themselves as off-road cyclists. The closure of the Canyon trail in Placerita Nature Center to bicycles has united the cycling community in the area.

The meeting was being conducted by DCE Planning, the contractor retained by the County to perform the trail assessment and make a recommendation.  After a brief round of introductions by Melissa Erikson, Sarah Sutton gave background on DC&E’s experience related to trails and planning and the trails assessment process they will be using. Stephen Copely is the non-motorized trails manager for the fifth district, and will be the contact person for the County as the process moves forward, though he did not speak during the meeting.

Melissa then gave some background of the DOJ ruling from March 2011 regarding accessibility and ADA compliance, which is her specialty. There’s a lot of misunderstanding about this DOJ  ruling. Trail and open space managers must allow personal mobility devices–which in the broadest interpretation could mean anything from quads to motorcycles to segways to wheelchairs–on any trail that pedestrians/hikers are allowed, unless they can show a “good reason” they shouldn’t be allowed. In order to show a good reason, an objective assessment of the trail is needed.  Essentially the assessment will kill two birds with one stone: determining the feasibility of personal mobility devices for the disabled and permitted uses on a trail.

(more…)

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Posted in Angeles National Forest, Los Angeles, Trail Access | Comments Closed