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News from the CORBA Website
Blog since the previous eTerraTimes
CORBA Annual Update
February 27, 2019, 10:12 PM
We’ve been overdue for an update, and as President of CORBA,
I have to apologize for the lapse in communication as to our
many ongoing efforts over these past few months. For me personally,
it has been a challenging year, but the one thing that has not
lapsed is CORBA’s dedication to improving trails and […]
CORBA Membership Update – We Need Your
Support
February 27, 2019, 9:51 PM
CORBA has recently changed our relationship with IMBA. As
an IMBA Chapter, all memberships were joint CORBA/IMBA memberships
with the membership dues being split equally between CORBA and
IMBA. Entering 2019, CORBA is no longer a Chapter of IMBA. We
are now a co-branded Affiliate under the new IMBA Local program.
IMBA, in the wake […]
Edison
Grant for Trail Restoration at Sturtevant Falls
February 27, 2019, 7:52 PM
CORBA is once again honored and grateful to receive a grant
from Southern California Edison. The $15,000 grant will cover
restoration and resource damage along a section of the Gabrielino
Trail near Sturtevant Falls. For the past three years, we’ve
worked on reopening the western end of the trail and maintaining
much of the rest. At […]
Sapwi Bike Park after the Rains
February 27, 2019, 2:08 PM
Good News!! The Sapwi Bike Park in Thousand Oaks remains
in good condition. Members of the Sapwi Bike Park Committee
have been working hard to protect the pump track with tarps
to help minimize the maintenance required. Please continue to
not ride the track in a wet/muddy condition and respect the
closures. The committee is […]
Trail
Restoration in Malibu Creek State Park April 20th and Lunch
February 26, 2019, 4:34 PM
Crags Road, also known as “The Rock Garden” or “The Creek
of Doom,” suffered major blows this winter, first by the Woolsey
Fire that decimated the hillsides, then rainstorms that tore
the trail up pretty badly and covered parts with rock slides.
We worked on this section not far from the M*A*S*H site in November
[…]
COSCA
March Trailwork Day March 16th
February 25, 2019, 5:00 PM
The Conejo Canyons and Western Plateau in Thousand Oaks have
taken a real beating this winter, first by the Hill Fire that
denuded the terrain, and then the heavy rain that resulted in
ruts and washouts. We’re going to get out there to restore these
trails to their original glory! We use the Conejo Open […]
January
2019 Skills Clinic photos posted January 5
January 5, 2019, 1:55 PM
This month we had one brave participant in the Skills Clinic.
The weather was cold and overcast, but with no rain. This was
the first clinic held since the Woolsey Fire swept through the
park. A few photos of fire damage are included with the regular
photos this month. The Basic Skills Clinic is always […]
Jan
12th 2019 Trail Fire Closures Update for the Santa Monica Mountains
January 4, 2019, 12:23 PM
(The original post from January 4th was updated on January
12th when the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority
(MRCA) opened most of their open space areas.) South of the
101 Freeway, the Woolsey Fire completely decimated most of the
open space between Las Virgenes/Malibu Canyon Road on the east
and Point Mugu State Park (Sycamore […]
President's Message
- CORBA Annual Update
We’ve been overdue for an update, and
as President of CORBA, I have to apologize for the lapse in
communication as to our many ongoing efforts over these past few months.
For me personally, it has been a challenging year, but the one thing
that has not lapsed is CORBA’s dedication to improving trails and
mountain biking opportunities in and around Los Angeles.
 Over the past year, CORBA has seen many
successes, and just as many challenges. CORBA members and all SoCal
mountain bikers have a lot to celebrate about 2018. Here are some
notable moments:
- Restoration and re-opening of the Gabrielino National Recreation Trail trail after nine years of closure
- Partnering with the US Forest Service to conduct a high-level, four-day Trail Stewardship Summit
- Opening of Sapwi Bike Park in Thousand Oaks with the first public pump track in the area (phase one).
- Volunteer construction and opening of 3+ miles of new multi-use singletrack trail at East Walker Ranch, City of Santa Clarita.
- Acquisition of funding for tools to equip the SCV Trail crew
- Completion of the San Gabriel Mountains
National Monument Management Plan, with significant review and input
from mountain bikers through our participation on the SGM Community
Collaborative.
- A new cost-share partnership agreement with the Forest Service for future trail maintenance and volunteer training
- Adoption of a bike-friendly Santa Susana Mountains Trail Master Plan, Phase 2 by Los Angeles County with input from CORBA and our SCV Trail Users committee
- Ongoing maintenance of dozens of miles of
multi-use trails in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area,
Conejo Open Space and Angeles National Forest
- Installation of bench seats at Brown Mountain Saddle, Angeles National Forest
- 11 free Skills Clinics held at Malibu Creek State Park. (For the first time in more than 20 years, we had to cancel a clinic due to the Woolsey Fire).
- Continued support of the Mountain Bike Unit in patrolling the Santa Monica Mountains, a CORBA-initiated program
- Repairs, updates and maintenance on our fleet of 40 Youth Adventures bicycles
- Approximately 18 Youth Adventures trips, taking at-risk youth on interpretive mountain bike rides
- Represented mountain biking interests at numerous public meetings, scoping meetings, and planning sessions
- Monitored and responded to legislation affecting bicycling on our public lands.
Challenges
However, even with all these successes, CORBA’s biggest challenge is that our membership numbers have declined by 40% since December 2017.
[See the following story for more...]
CORBA Membership Update – We Need Your Support!
 CORBA is only as strong as its members. Join us!
CORBA has recently changed our relationship
with IMBA. As an IMBA Chapter, all memberships were joint CORBA/IMBA
memberships with the membership dues being split equally between CORBA
and IMBA.
Entering 2019, CORBA is no longer a Chapter of IMBA.
We are now a co-branded Affiliate under the new IMBA Local program.
IMBA, in the wake of their financial troubles, has restructured and are
no longer a “membership-based” organization. Your membership is now with
CORBA, not IMBA, unlike the previous arrangement under which you were
joining both organizations. IMBA now provides membership management and
other services to organizations like CORBA for a much lower fixed cost
per member. This greatly benefits CORBA, as the vast majority of your
membership dollars now stay local, instead of just 50%.
If your membership has lapsed or expired, or if you’ve never been a member, we urge you to join or renew.
For less than the cost of a good tire, you can keep us going and
growing, representing and supporting mountain biking in and around
Greater Los Angeles. If you prefer not to join, your tax-deductible donations are just as much appreciated and all of your donations support local trails.
Most of the trails in the Santa Monica Mountains that are open to
bikes might still be closed to bikes if not for CORBA’s past efforts.
We’re continuing to advocate for access to trails closed to us in the
’80s and ’90s by California State Parks and other agencies. We’ve
prevented loss of access to several trails in Wilderness proposals. To read
more about the new relationship between CORBA and IMBA,
the new challenges facing CORBA and how you can help, read
our blog
article on membership.
Recreational
Rides
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A
recent
Beginners' Ride had 16 participants. Would you like to join us too?
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For a list of upcoming recreational rides, please visit the CORBA
Calendar.
Visit our
Events Calendar to see all the rides and other activities!
CORBA’s Club
Rides calendar provides a full
monthly schedule of mountain bike rides for all skill levels. Mountain bike
rides are organized by CORBA member clubs and led by experienced and
knowledgeable guides. Recreational rides are a fun and social way to experience
a variety of trails in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, and beyond.
Upcoming
Trail Restoration Workdays
 For many years, most trail upkeep has been done by volunteers because of budget
cutbacks at our parks systems. So come out and help CORBA and
other volunteers keep our trails in top riding shape! You can learn
more about what to expect and what you'll need to bring with you
on our Trailwork
web page.
A number of companies and volunteer organizations have asked
us if they could do trailwork as a team building exercise, or just
to give back to the community. We are happy to work with such groups
- shoot us an enquiry at trailwork@corbamtb.com
for more information!
For CORBA workdays, we provide lunch for participants after we're
finished. Please register
in advance to help us prepare
by knowing how many volunteers to expect.
Parents/guardians are responsible for minors at all times, and they
must constantly and directly supervise children under 14. Children must
be over 7-years old to attend. Please leave your four-legged friends at home!
March 16, 7:30: COSCA March Trailwork Day in Thousand
Oaks. The Conejo Canyons and Western Plateau have taken a real beating this
winter, first by the Hill Fire that denuded the terrain, and then the
heavy rain that resulted in ruts and washouts. We're going to get out
there to restore these trails to their original glory! We use the
Conejo Open Space trails regularly, so this is our chance to give back
to the community while expanding our trail opportunities! Please register
online so we'll know how many people to expect. Full details
are available on the registration
page.
April 20, 8:30: Crags Road in Malibu Creek State Park.
Crags Road, also known as "The Rock Garden" or "The Creek of Doom,"
suffered major blows this winter, first by the Woolsey Fire that
decimated the hillsides, then rainstorms that tore the trail up pretty
badly and covered parts with rock slides. We worked on this section not
far from the M*A*S*H site in November 2017 (see photo above) and now
we're going back to fix it again. Please register
online so we'll know how many people to expect. Full details
are available on the registration
page.
To see all trailwork dates, including those of other groups,
visit the CORBA
calendar.
Join our mailing list to get updates on trailwork
opportunities!
Send an email to Trailwork-Volunteers+subscribe@corbamtb.com
General
News
Sapwi Bike Park after the Rains
 Good News!! The Sapwi Bike Park
in Thousand Oaks remains in good condition. Members of the Sapwi Bike
Park Committee have been working hard to protect the pump track with
tarps to help minimize the maintenance required. Please continue to not
ride the track in a wet/muddy condition and respect the closures.
The committee is preparing for the second phase of the park. They hope to have the funding and plan in place soon.
It has been wonderful to see the many kids enjoying the park and learning new skills.
Jan 12th 2019 Trail Fire Closures
Update for the Santa Monica Mountains
 South of the 101 Freeway, the Woolsey Fire completely decimated most of the open space between Las Virgenes/Malibu Canyon Road on the east and Point Mugu State Park (Sycamore Canyon) on the west. North of the 101, most of the open space south of Simi Valley and between Valley Circle on the east and Erbes Road to the west was destroyed.
With the recent rains, the regeneration process has begun and new growth can be seen on the burned hillsides.
Nevertheless, many of the trails are still closed until they are assessed for damage, and repaired as necessary. In addition, heavy rains my result in mudslides that may damage sections of the trail that survived the fire.
The good news is that many of the trails are now open to use. The bad news is that during the Federal Government partial shutdown, the National Park Service is not able to work on their trails, prolonging the time that they will be closed.
The following list is not exhaustive – there are many smaller trails not listed that may be open or closed. If you see that a trail is marked as closed or cordoned off, please stay off it.
Areas that are open
Areas that are still closed
- The entire Backbone Trail between Malibu Creek State Park and Point Mugu State Park. This includes the popular sections
- Encinal Canyon Road to the Mishe Mokwa trailhead
- Trancas Canyon (Encinal Canyon Rd to Zuma Ridge Motorway)
- Kanan Road west to Zuma Ridge Motorway
- Kanan Road east to Corral Canyon Rd
- Zuma Ridge Motorway
- Charmlee Wilderness Park
For your own safety and to protect the plants and creatures that live in the open space, please stay off closed trails completely, and where the trails are open to use, please stay on the trails!
Free Mountain Biking
Skills Clinic
 Saturday
March 2ndis the next skills clinic, followed by April 6th.
The CORBA free skills clinic is held on the first Saturday of
every month at Malibu Creek State Park.
Mountain biking is a lot like tennis or skiing. Just a few minor
adjustments in technique can make a huge difference in your
control and proficiency. If you want to get better faster,
you need to know the fundamentals of mountain biking technique.
Whether you're just getting into mountain biking or have been
riding for years, you'll learn some valuable tips from our Introduction
to Mountain Biking skills class that is offered each month.
Check out our Skills Clinic
web page for all the information. After the clinic, see photos
of your new skills on the CORBA web site that you can share
with your family and friends!
Follow
CORBA on Meetup, Twitter and Facebook
 We have set up accounts with Twitter and Facebook to help keep people informed
of the latest developments in our trail advocacy, recreational rides and trailwork days. Join
our events on Meetup meetup.com/CORBAmtb
and follow
us on Twitter at twitter.com/CORBAmtb
and Facebook at facebook.com/CORBAMTB.
Get Our Blog Articles Delivered to Your
Desktop
Have you ever wished you could get our blog articles without having
to check
the CORBA website every day to see if there’s anything new? Well, you
can! Even though our blog software won’t send articles by email, you can
still get them delivered to the inbox of most email readers like
Microsoft
Outlook. You use the “RSS feed” functionality for this. In fact, you can
read
our articles in any software that receives RSS feeds, such as Internet
Explorer
and other web browsers. This
blog
article on RSS feeds shows you how.
Support
CORBA
Join or Renew your membership today on our membership
web page. Join Our Team! Do you have any ideas about mountain biking recreation in the
L.A. region? Would you like to apply your skills and manage projects
that contribute to the sport and lifestyle that you love? Is there
an advocate in you? We are recruiting motivated individuals who
work well with others. Send an email to info@corbamtb.com
or come
to a monthly Members Meeting to find out more about what we do and how you
can help. Check the calendar
for the next meeting.
Another simple way to
support CORBA
- Amazon.com:
Buy online and Amazon will donate to CORBA through their Smile
program
(Click on the links above to get more details!)
CORBA
News eMail List
Please do not reply to this email as the corbanews mailbox is
not monitored by people. To contact CORBA, email to info@corbamtb.com
or visit our 'Contact Us' page
for other addresses.
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Over the past year, CORBA has seen many
successes, and just as many challenges. CORBA members and all SoCal
mountain bikers have a lot to celebrate about 2018. Here are some
notable moments:
