Wilder Ranch

Wilder and Gray Whale

New Picnic Table at Overlook at Wilder Ranch

December 6th, 2011

Andrew at the Wilder Ranch Overlook

The overlook at Wilder Ranch State Park is an amazing destination for all trail users. After your climb to the overlook you will be rewarded with a spectacular view of the entire Monterey Bay. On a clear day you can see the stacks of Moss Landing, the Salinas Valley and Monterey.

Rider and MBOSC member Andrew Murray and his brother Fenton installed a picnic table at the overlook as a tribute to their mother Ida Carbone Murray. The brothers financed the project and worked with Wilder Ranch Ranger Jamie Stamps to get approval for the table.

In Andrew’s words:

Dear Fellow MBOSC Riders and members:

The attached photos are of a picnic table that my brother, Fenton Murray, and I recently had installed at Overlook Point in Wilder Ranch State Park. The picnic table is intended as a tribute to our late mother, Ida Murray, who died earlier this year at the age of 91. The table was constructed by inmates of the California Department of Corrections, and it’s purchase was made possible by contributions from friends and family, and the cooperation of the State Parks System and Ranger Jamie Stamps.

Ranger Stamps an accomplished elite mountain bike racer and cyclist, was quick to point out that of all the places in Wilder, Overlook Point could surely benefit from a picnic table. Anyone that’s visited the site has probably wished there was something other than just a USGS Survey Marker there to sit on and enjoy a snack or just take in the view. That combined with the amazing view made this a compelling location for the table.

In selecting a site, we wanted a location that replicated the view that Ida had from the deck of her West Side Santa Cruz home for the last 40 years. We also wanted the bench to serve as a resting and meeting spot for hikers, bikers and horsemen/women to enjoy the view and snacks or meals at the same time, as our mother was so well known for her parties and social gatherings around the dinner table.

Overlook Point is approximately 1.5 miles up Wilder Ranch Loop Trail from the Main Ranch and has a commanding view of the Wilder property and of Monterey Bay. On exceptionally clear days, by looking just to the right of the tip of the Monterey Penninsula you can actually see Point Sur Rock nearly 50 miles to the south.

For those interested in learning more about Ida Murray, you can view her story here.

Cheers,
Andrew Murray

We are really pleased that Andrew and Fenton worked with the local State Parks personel to provide this wonderful resource to the community – which will be enjoyed for many, many years.

A picnic table honoring Ida Murray

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Emma McCrary Loved the Dirt You Ride

July 18th, 2011

If you like riding the Rincon Trail, thank the McCrarys. Those who cut their single track teeth on Wilder Ranch trails should also thank the McCrarys. Emma McCrary and her husband Bud built many of the original Wilder single track trails. And for any who enjoyed the gritty victory of finishing a Surf City Cyclocross race at Big Creek Lumber, you guessed it, the McCrarys made that possible too. They built miles and miles of trails on private land, including their own property, Big Creek Lumber property, and other people’s private property.

Recently, Emma McCrary left us. In life, she shared herself, her time, her land, and her equipment with the Santa Cruz community, including the county’s cyclists.

In this age of conflicting politics about trail usage, increasing tension over renegade trail building, and occasional disputes on the trails between cyclists and other user groups, I can’t help but see Emma McCrary as a kindred spirit and role model for how to live on the trails. She seemed to love trails, people, horses, and Santa Cruz. She wanted to be part of a community that loved trails as much as she did. It’s this same trail love that originally formed MBOSC. MBOSC was founded by people who wanted to be members of a community that loves trails, and strives to share them. Let’s continue to share the love. Just like Emma McCrary. It’s the least we could do after she gave us so much.

Video celebrating Emma’s life

To learn more about her, click here.

To leave a note for the family thanking them for the couple’s enormous contributions, click here.

If you’d like to join in a a celebration of Emma’s life it will be on Saturday, July 30th, at 2:00 PM. at the Big Creek picnic grounds 316 Swanton Road, Davenport, CA but look for “Big Creek Road”.

One of Emma’s favorite charities was St Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Click on this link if you would like to make a memorial contribution.

Posted in access, equestrians, history, wilder, women | Comments Off

Santa Cruz XTerra in Wilder Ranch

May 17th, 2011

Podium photo from Emma Garrard http://www.emmagarrard.com/

Can you imagine doing a 3+ hour club ride, after doing a 20+ min swim in our blistering cold ocean, and then following up with a 10K run, with sun, wind, and rain. I can’t and yet I witnessed a group of extraordinary folks from across the US and the world go out there and do it for the XTerra in Wilder Ranch. A big shout out to our local MBOSC folks for competing. Kathy won for her age group. Rebecca, Reema and Rodger also competed.

The winning time was in the 2:15 range, the last athlete came in at the 5 hour, 15 minute range. Her name was Libby. She manages a bike shop in Florida. She came in on Thursday, stayed with a neighbor of Kathy Franks’, and is flying out this morning. This was Libby’s 50th Xterra, and approximately 150 tri-athlon. She is no Conrad (the caveman) Stolz, but she definitely has a lot of the same qualities that has made him a 4 time champion. I was equally inspired by both. Congratulations Libby!

A special thanks to those who volunteered.

Sebastien Praly for organizing MBOSC volunteers and being the primary contact with XTerra.

Mark Davidson and Daryl Breuninger for hanging out there in cold, wind, and occasional rain. They got first class seats watching the pro’s fly by at Mach speed, and hanging out there to the end helping XTerra cleaning up and breaking camp.

Matt Ammann and John Caletti. They Swept the two loops, picked up after the racers, and provide fantastic muddy support.

John and Anya for helping XTerra with the cleanup of the signs, and very patiently sweeping the last runner.

Tim Grimes, Andrea Lee, Jon Lukas, Magdalena Parker for providing support on the mountain.

Dwight Howard, Paige Anderson, Jill Hilldge, Sharron Turner, Richard Seiter, Pricilla and her kids for getting out on the bluff trail and supporting the running section.

We have a bunch of others we also helped out very early in the morning on West Cliff Dr, Kristin Kirkendall, Jeff Smith.

Thanks to Roger Kern for his help on the course design and the MBOSC Saturday morning crew for marking the course before the event.

We have some who after their initial posts, came over to the main area and continued to support the event (Tim and Andrea, Mark, Daryl).

Thanks to Specialized, Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks and Wilder Ranch State Park for your support if this event.

Special thanks to Jen Karno for bringing XTerra to Santa Cruz.

Special thanks to XTerra Dave Nicholas and his crew for coming to Santa Cruz.

What’s the big deal? We got a race in Wilder Ranch (last time was in 94). We showed the City of Santa Cruz, once again that we are serious about our sport, fun, and pastime. That there is a source of revenue for the City and our State Parks with Mountain Biking. And that if the City and State Parks need our support as Mountain Bikers, they can get it.

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Wrap up: IMBA Trail Care Crew Santa Cruz Visit

March 31st, 2011

We had a very successful International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) Trail Care Crew (TCC) visit this past weekend. The Santa Cruz mountain biking community knocked IMBA’s socks off with our support of the event. They cited only 2 other visits in 2 years of travel that matched the number of volunteers, donations and swag Santa Cruz contributed.

On Thursday night, the TCC gave the Grassroots Advocacy: How to Get What You Want presentation to the club officers and key volunteers to MBoSC officers and key volunteers. MBoSC is the first group that this presentation was given to they correctly identified political engagement as our area of improvement as a club.

On Friday morning, the crew presented Better Living Through Trails: The power of mountain biking to improve your community to a diverse crowd: City employees, Parks and Rec, State Parks, Parks Commission members, bike community leaders, MBOSC member and officers.

On Saturday we had about 40 volunteers, State Parks and City of Santa Cruz staff attend an instructional workshop about building sustainable trails. Following a burrito lunch in the Wilder Ranch Barn the trail workers were shuttled to the top of Wilder Ranch and added drainage features to upper Zane Gray trail. The rains had eased up and we were fortunate to work in the sun. Volunteers were treated to free dinner, beer and schwag at Seabright Brewery after a great workday.

The local bike industry demonstrated their generosity in support of this event. All trail work volunteers got a nice Ibis beer glass and everyone got schwag. Bell/Blackburn donated full face and XC helmets, carbon and aluminum water bottle cages, Specialized donated a couple of S-works helmets and plenty of soft goods, Ibis donated hoodies, T-shirt and lots of beer glasses and John Caletti donated some nice T-shirts.

Some of the accomplishments from the visit include:

We have a better sense of how to grow the political influence of the club.
We informed a broad group of local stake holders on the economic and health benefits of a trail system
We strengthened our partnerships with State Parks and the City of Santa Cruz
We have 40 local mountain bikers trained in sustainable trail building – which should really help out on the Pogonip multi-use trail (MUT)
We put in approximately 30+ sustainable drainage features along the upper Zane Gray trail in Wilder Ranch

Best quote from MBoSC member James Bradley: “We spent the morning with high quality classroom instruction followed by practicing it in field. Catered lunch, free dinner and beer and schwag. This is the kind of seminar that costs top dollar – and it was free? What a deal!”

We would like to thank Chris Pereira – Trails and Road Supervisor for this State Parks District – for working with Drew on finding a project that the crew can work on. Wilder Ranch Ranger Jamie Stamps for understanding the local mountain biking community’s desires for more legal and sustainable trails, being an advocate on our behalf and for hanging out with us at Seabright Brewery on Saturday night. I would also like to thank Meta Rhodeos from the City Parks Department for attending many of the sessions and for her work on the Pogonip MUT.

We would like to thank the sponsors of this event: Don from Bell Bike Helmets/Blackburn, Tracy from Mick’s Automotive, Shawn from Epicenter Cycling, Ian and Mallory from Specialized Bicycles, Marty from Digital Media Factory and Charlie and Jessica from Seabright Brewery.

Other thanks include:

* Seabright Brewery for donating a keg of their delicious Pelican Pale Ale and sodas.
* Digital Media Factory for providing a warm, dry space for the trail school classroom.
* ibis Cycles for the schwag and beer glasses for all volunteers.
* Karen Kefauver for plugging the weekend’s events in her Spin City column.
* Dave Smith and Shuttle Smith Adventures for shuttling a good portion of the trail workers and tools to the work site & back.
* Norma Jeans and Peet’s Coffee for coffee and pastries.
* Taqueria Vallarta for warm burritos on a cold, rainy trail work day.

Thank you to all trail volunteers for devoting a rainy Saturday to learn and practice building long-lasting sweet single track

Thanks to Drew Perkins, Mark Davidson, Eve Davidson, Chris Pereira, Jo Rathbun, John Fuchs, Michele Lamelin & Lindsay Overton for your work in organizing these events. A very special thanks to Shannon Armstrong for coordinating the entire event and having it run so smoothly.

Finally, we would like to thank Chris and Leslie Kehmeier for inspiring our community. They are incredible ambassadors of the sport. Every time a TCC crew visits Santa Cruz MBoSC grows in a very profound way.

What a great and productive visit! Full speed ahead on the Santa Cruz Mountain Bike Festival!

Write up and pictures from the Trail Care Crew.

Posted in advocacy, beer, bike industry, bike shops, economic, imba, party, pogonip, state parks, wilder | Comments Off