Castle Rock

Castle Rock

Castle Rock Skyline Trail opening March 23, 2012

February 7th, 2012

Skyline Trail assessment with Hilride May 2007


We have an update on the 1.7 mile Skyline Trail in Castle Rock from the Chris Pereira Trails Supervisor for the Santa Cruz District:

We are very close to completion and estimate only 1-2 more weeks. Even though winter has been extremely mild, the rain we have received has created some very soft conditions at locations where trail realignments were constructed to reduce grades or improve sight distance. Because of this there has been difficultly getting good soil compaction at these locations. We know this trail is going to get heavy use once opened, so we have postponed the opening date to March 23, 2012, to allow for more seasoning of the trail.

Thanks again for your generous donations that paid for bridges, retainer wall lumber, rock, new trail signage, and staff time for technical oversight of the project.

The key take away is that the opening date will be March 23, 2012. Please do not ride on the trail before then.

There had been some discussion about partnering with ROMP for an opening ceremony – which would be nice. MBOSC leadership is pegged with the Santa Cruz Mountain Bike Festival and the Pogonip Multi-Use Trail. We have a couple of folks who are interested in helping out and we are targeting May or June. If you want to help out then let us know and we can put you in touch with other interested parties.

The funds for this particular project came out of the mbosc general fund since we did not hold a fund raiser specifically for this project. Thank you all for your donations and support for mbosc over the years!

You can renew your membership, join or donate to help replenish those funds. We are an all volunteer 501(c)3 organization so consider having your employer matching your donation if they provide such a program.

This process started with a November 2006 request from MBOSC to convert limited use trails in Santa Cruz County to multi-use. Hilride visited in May 2007 to provide an assessment of the Skyline Trail in Castle Rock. Since then we have submitted comments into the Big Basin General plan and the Castle Rock Trail plan.

The Skyline Trail represents the first legal single-track for mountain bikes opened in Santa Cruz County since the U-Con trail in 1999. There will be more miles of legal single track opened this year.

Thanks you once again for your support!

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Your Donations at Work: Skyline Trail in Castle Rock

September 19th, 2011

California State Parks have been going though some tough times in the past few years and Castle Rock State Park is one of the parks which is slated for closure. They are still executing their plans to work on our trail conversion proposal and one of the first trails they are going to address will be the 1.7 mile Skyline Trail at the top of Castle Rock State Park.

The Skyline Trail in Castle Rock State Park runs parallel to Highway 35 and is currently designated as a hiking only trail. MBOSC just donated $2,500 towards improvements which will make this a full multi-use trail. These funds will be used for oversight/supervision of trail construction and trail construction materials.

The multi-use upgrade will start on November 1st and when completed will allow bikes to connect Saratoga Gap to Skyline Sandborne Park. This trail will connect two multi-use parks from two different land agencies and create additional connections for longer more continuous rides. This trail has been designated part of the Bay Area Ridge Trail. One more piece of the puzzle.

These are your donations hard at work. We use our funds to enhance, promote and protect mountain biking in Santa Cruz County. If you believe in our cause then please consider joining our membership and donating generously.

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Castle Rock Trail Plan Meeting Monday March 8th

March 7th, 2010

A meeting between California State Parks officials and mountain bikers concerning the Castle Rock Trail Plan is scheduled for 7 pm Monday March 8th at the Zayante Fire Station located at: 7700 E Zayante Rd, Felton, CA 95018-8704. No preparation needed. Just show up.


View Larger Map

The Castle Rock Trail Plan and the Big Basin General Plan are VERY positive for mountain biking and – if successful – they will result in the expansion of legal mountain biking trails in these parks. Expanding mountain biking in both of these parks essentially gives us a legal skyline to sea trail in the North part of the County.

However, there is no guarantee of success. There are a lot of groups who are opposed to mountain biking in Santa Cruz County and they are better funded and more organized than us.

We need to have community support for mountain biking in both of these plans. It is important to get these comments into the public record. It can be easy as firing off a quick email, making a phone call or showing up and asking questions. It’s a small commitment on your time which can pay off big in the long term.

The meeting in Felton is between the mountain biking community and State Parks planning officials, trail gurus, mountain sector superintendent and perhaps the district superintendent. All the big guns. They will give a presentation on the Castle Rock Trail Plan and will engage us with a discussion.

Castle Rock State Park will never be seen as a “destination” State Park for mountain biking along the lines of Wilder or Coe State Parks. (This is largely because most of the interior of the park is a State Natural Preserve, and also because most – if not all – new trails opened to bikes there will be fireroads, rather than singletrack).

Nonetheless, Castle Rock State Park is very important to us because of its connectivity to Sanborn County Park, MROSD (Saratoga Gap and Long Ridge OSPs), and especially Big Basin State Park. In particular:

1. The Skyline Trail (which runs parallel to Highway 35, on its northern side) passes through not only Castle Rock State Park, but also Sanborn County Park and MROSD Saratoga Gap OSP. This trail has been designated part of the Bay Area Ridge Trail, and it’s important that it – like most of the rest of the Bay Area Ridge Trail – be opened to bikes.

2. The Saratoga Toll Road is a long, scenic trail that runs from Saratoga Gap down (southwards) to Waterman Gap, roughly parallel to Highway 9. (Although it is fireroad-width, it is actually (IMHO) much more scenic and more pleasant than the corresponding section of the Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail, which runs very close to Highway 9 in several places.

The Castle Rock Trail Plan allows for (but – because of the anti-bike members of the committee – does not specifically call for) bike access to the Saratoga Toll Road, along with a connecting trail that would connect to the Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail in Big Basin (near Highway 236). Bike access to the Saratoga Toll Road (plus connecting trail) would make possible a scenic, off-road route from Saratoga Gap through to Big Basin (and hopefully from there to the ocean eventually).

There is no rational reason – beyond historical exclusion, hiker/equestrian fear and NIMBYism – for the Saratoga Toll Road to be closed to our use. It is very important that we correct this, by making clear to State Parks – at Monday’s meeting – that we want and expect access to the Saratoga Toll Road (and Skyline Trail).

I would like to emphasize that this meeting is between State Parks officials and mountain bikers. We represent a significant user group in this process. We don’t have to defend ourselves from other user groups in this meeting. This is a great opportunity for mountain bikers to engage these officials on our issues and concerns within State Parks.

The meeting room at the Zayante Fire Station has a capacity for at least 100 so lets try to pack the meeting with mountain bikers!

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Nat and Rachael Lopes of Hilride

September 17th, 2007

Nat and Rachael Lopes were part of the IMBA Trail Care Crew for 3 years and in that time had traveled across 46 states and 9 Canadian provinces. Soon after “retiring” from the TCC, they came home to California to form Hilride Progression Development Group. Hilride is dedicated to realizing the potential of the global mountain biking movement by helping with community planning and assisting with the creation of the facilities and trails to realize the full economic potential of mountain biking. Hilride has also assisted in running events like the IMBA California Ales and Trails in Marin County earlier this summer. Currently, Hilride is helping to develop mountain bike tourism in Croatia.

MBOSC hired Hilride to attend a meeting with our District State Parks office and help us do a trail assessment in Castle Rock. This assessment helped the District determine the multi-use suitability of the Castle Rock portion of the Bay Area Ridge trail. They also attended the MBOSC meeting that evening and entertained us with movies and stories of mountain biking in far away places.

I really admired their professionalism and experience. On the trail in Castle Rock they would immediately recognize issues and prescribe solutions. They educated the State Parks staff about trail issues which related to mountain biking which included safety, mitigating trail use conflict, maintenance, environmental sustainability and providing a great user experience. Nat and Rachael work really well as a team. Their experience and backgrounds perfectly complement each other. They produced a high quality trail assessment very soon after the walk.

I really enjoyed working with Hilride and I would highly recommend their services. If your community needs experienced mountain bike advocate/trail/tourism consultants then consider hiring them. MBOSC would gladly hire them again and we hope to work with them again in the near future.

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