Raffling off the Santa Cruz Carbon Nomad was a huge highlight of the year
2011 was another year where Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz knocked it out of the park! Since 2007, the club membership and participation, fundraising, events and activities have been growing. Our ability to raise funds, engage volunteers, land managers and decision makers really broke through this year.
First of all: Thank you to the volunteers, attendees and donors who have made MBoSC and our events so successful! It’s so rewarding to all of us to see the community come together on a shared passion for the local dirt. We have earned a great reputation as an organization who are easy to work with and can get things done. We are making progress toward getting more bike access in public lands.
Some of our larger accomplishments this year…
- In March the IMBA Trail Care Crew trained 40 of us on sustainable trail building techniques and we practiced it on the Zane Gray trail in Wilder Ranch. Event weekend included a diverse crowd of land managers, trail builders and riders. Support from the bike industry and local shops. It was a very productive visit.
- The Santa Cruz Mountain Bike Festival was a knockout and exceeded our wildest expectations. This community supports mountain bike events! Thanks to volunteers and supporters like you! We had well over 2000 attendees and raised $16K towards Aptos bike parks. We intend to hold the 3rd Santa Cruz Mountain Bike Festival April 4-15, 2012 in Aptos. It should be a great show. You’ll enjoy it.
- At the Sea Otter Classic in April we raffled off a Santa Cruz Carbon Nomad and raised $11K for the Pogonip multi-use trail.
- We helped with the XTerra event in Wilder Ranch with course design, marking and volunteer course marshals. It was a great way to demonstrate the Santa Cruz experience to an international audience.
- This summer we helped launch Trips for Kids Santa Cruz. T4KSC is committed to giving at-risk youth the experience of mountain biking by providing the equipment, transportation, moral support and skills instruction to help kids discover our sport. This is a great cause to support. Consider donating time or money to this cause.
- In August mbosc went to Tahoe to do trail work with other northern California clubs. There was another trip to Downieville to ride and enjoy the trails.
- In August, we partnered with “Take Back Santa Cruz” on a Pogonip cleanup event. About 40 of us pulled out 15 yards of trash and waste. Folks got to see first hand the type of trail experience we’ll get.
- The Pogonip Multi-Use trail was progressing. After a brief setback from the resignation of Park Superintendent Steve Hammack, new Park Superintendent Mauro Garcia took on the project and moved forward. We completed the public comment period for the environmental review and will be heading the Parks Commission and then to City Council in Q1 2012.
- We donated $2,500 to State Parks to help with the conversion of a hiking only Skyline Trail in Castle Rock to multi-use. This trail is currently in construction and will be ready by the end of January.
In between we rode together, ate together and had profound discussions over pitchers of beer around Santa Cruz, Aptos, Soquel, Monterey and other places in the great state of California!
2012 is going to be a year of opportunity. Our focus on the first part of the year will be the Pogonip multi-use trail, raising funds with the Santa Cruz Mountain Bike Festival and a custom Caletti bike raffle at the Sea Otter Classic. The second half of the year we are planning to implement the Pogonip multi-use trail, participate in the Soquel Demo State Forest trail plan and work on the Enchanted Loop reroute in Wilder Ranch. The 14,000 acres around Davenport represented by Coast Dairies/CEMEX properties will start to appear on our radar again. We are a volunteer organization and are looking for your help to accomplish our goals. Please consider being a member, donor and/or volunteer some of your time.
We live interesting times. The fundamentals of the economy is being questioned. The status quo is challenged and a new generation is rising to lead the path to a sustainable existence. Mountain bikers have demonstrated qualities that can help ease us through some of our local issues to create a bold new future for our community.
Have a healthy, happy and prosperous 2012! See you on the trails!
