News and Events 2002

Mark Schmidt and Lora Woolner with the IMBA Trail Care Crew came to Santa Cruz on Sunday July 21 to ride and meet with MBOSC members and State Parks Rangers and Staff. The TCC had been in the Bay area leading trail building schools, trail work projects and giving presentations for a couple of weeks and were definitely ready to enjoy riding on some sweet Santa Cruz trails. We had a large turnout of 14 people for the ride including most of the MBOSC officers and Kirk Lingenfelter who manages trail projects and maintenance for the State Parks Santa Cruz District. Kirk started this position about a year and a half ago and is very enthusiastic about getting projects completed that have been needed for a long time. His efforts are already visible on many trails in the county.

Of course we couldn't just ride with so many dedicated trail work enthusiasts all together in one place! We spent some time discussing a planned re-alignment of Twin Oaks that will hopefully allow it to remain open throughout the wet season. We've wanted this for several years now and we were pleased when Kirk informed us that the CEQA application has already been submitted for this and hopefully will be approved soon. Work could start on this realignment once the ground softens up a little this fall after a few rains. The IMBA TCC had several good ideas of how to reclaim the old trail when the new alignment is constructed.

We also discussed possible routes for avoiding the steep climb in the sun on Enchanted Loop Trail near the junction with Eucalyptus Loop Trail. Everyone wants an alternative to the boring fire road hell-climb and Kirk could see the need for an improvement here also! We discussed several options in this area that need to be investigated further.

With the trail work discussions completed, and time getting late for Mark and Lora (they were heading to Yosemite that night) most of us headed back along the Ohlone Bluff Trail so Mark and Lora could see the great views of our coast. That turned out to be not as much fun as we had hoped since we made the mistake of starting at the very end and forgot that it entailed some hike-a-bike over sand pits and rock cliffs! Oh well, at least we had some great views! We'll just make sure that we take the TCC on other single track trails around Santa Cruz next time they visit.

After the ride many of us took Alex and Trish up on their invitation for a barbeque at their house on the summit. After several cold and foggy days by the coast it was a welcome invitation to go some real summer weather and sit in the sun and swim in the pool. Thanks again for your hospitality and the great sendoff to Mark and Lora!

Thanks to the TCC for coming to Santa Cruz and to IMBA for working so hard to keep our trails open. We are looking forward to their next visit and will work on planning some trail work project that we can work on together. And of course, thanks to Kirk and everyone else for coming out to meet with the TCC and make the ride more fun!

Geoffrey Smith

More from IMBAs Northern California Visit

I just wanted to send out a huge 'thank you' to all of the mountain bikers who participated in the Carrot Fest. It was a great success.

There were lots of helpful bikers and hungry horses who thought they had died and gone to horsey heaven with all of the carrots they got to eat.

Not only is this event important in showing our support for multi-use trails, but it is a valuable tool for equestrians in training their horses for trail riding. Many of the equestrians expressed to me how wonderful all of the bikers were and how much this event has helped them and their horses.

Thank you all for your help and we look forward to next year and Carrot Fest V.

Happy Trails to All!
Trisha and Nabi

WELL! Due to my not having made a March announcement for the April tentative date, and to the May date conflicting with the "24 hrs of someRaceThing", the only feasible remaining weekend for the MBOSC biking and camping trip to Bogg's Mountain is:

JUNE 14-15-16 (Fri-Sat-Sun)

in other words, it's the last possible 2002 weekond that one could legitimately call "this spring".

Driving to Bogg's from Santa Cruz takes about 3.5 hours; it is about 45 minutes north of Calistoga, which is at the north end of Napa Valley.

Camping is relatively primitive at Calso Camp, but there is a fair amount of space. Water is available at the entrance to Bogg's, but not at the campground.

Here's "The Internet's mountain bike park" page about Boggs: http://www.live.com/mtb/rides/BoggsMtn.html

Harbin Hot Springs resort is not very far away; I have an old description of a dirt road route that one can ride from Harbin into Boggs. (I've never tried that.)

Please send Doug Landauer a message if you're interested.

GOOD NEWS! We logged over 476 volunteer hours or 119 days at MBOSC sponsored monthly trail workdays in Wilder Ranch State Park during 2001. MBOSC wants to thank all of the volunteers who gave their time to help make the trails in Wilder Ranch better for everyone. These efforts are extremely important for us if we are going to be successful opening new trails around the county. The local land managers need us to help keep their trails maintained and are very appreciative of our volunteers!

MBOSC congratulates Greg Lydon, our most dedicated Trail Work Volunteer at MBOSC sponsored workdays in 2001! Greg volunteered over 40 hours or 10 Sundays of his time to help keep the trails in Wilder Ranch State Park in good shape for everyone. In case you read that too fast, he only missed 2 days of MBOSC's monthly trail work! Way to go Greg!

Close behind Greg in total number of volunteer hours at MBOSC sponsored workdays are Allan Sherlock and Chuck Wisse. These two enthusiastic diehards tied for second with 36 hours or 9 Sundays out of their weekends during 2001 to make the trails in Wilder Ranch better for the future. Allan has done a wonderful job taking over as MBOSC's trail work coordinator and I want to personally thank him for his efforts. MBOSC needs more members like Allan who are willing to spend some of their free time to help make our club stronger for the future. Chuck Wisse has got to be the most inspirational of all of the trail work volunteers in Santa Cruz County and has expanded his efforts through Trailworkers.com. Chuck has been working on our local trails for more than a decade and his passion just keeps building!

Greg, Chuck, and Allan are wonderful assets for trail work in this county and have been actively leading workcrews and teaching new volunteers for the future. We all owe them a huge thanks for their efforts, keep it up Guys!

The total hours listed don't include Greg's, Chuck's, Allan's or others' many hours volunteering during other non-MBOSC sponsored trail workdays around the county including those in Nisene Marks and Soquel Demonstration State Forest. MBOSC thanks everyone for your efforts to maintain Santa Cruz County trails and we hope to open many more trails in the future for you to work on.

On Saturday June 9th, 2001, trail enthusiasts joined at Wilder Ranch State Park Equestrian Staging Area for the Carrot Fest III clinic. Carrot Fest III is sponsored by the Santa Cruz County Horsemen's Association and the Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz in a joint effort to create safer multi-use trails by desensitizing and training horses to be comfortable with the presence of bikes and educating bikers to the needs of equestrians on trails. In addition, it brings both user groups together in a fun environment to get to know each other and reinforce that we share the common goal of enjoying the great outdoors. Since horses are food motivated animals, mountain bikers offered fifty pounds of donated carrots as rewards to the horses who quickly understood that bikers were friendly. By the end of the clinic, equestrians and mountain bikers were able to share the trail with more relaxed horses. The clinic was followed by group rides on the trails in Wilder Ranch.

There were 13 equestrian teams, 15 mountain bikers and 1 hiker with an umbrella for the desensitizing clinic:

MBOSC wants to thank Abouche' in Scotts Valley for donating the coffee and to members of SCCHA for making the great coffee cake for the volunteers at the event. MBOSC also thanks Liz Maitoza and Trisha Reid of the Santa Cruz County Horsemen's Association for their efforts to make these events so successful. Check out the SCCHA's image gallery for photos from previous events. http://www.netsnapshot.com/pcw/b?KEY=5&ACCOUNT=16