Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day - Empire Mine

BONC will host our own Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day on Saturday, 10/4 at 9AM.

We will lead a few rides for big and little ones from Penn Gate at Empire Mine starting at 9AM. Kids five years and older are welcome, all the way up to high schoolers. We have rides for everyone, plus snacks and give-a-ways. All riders must sign a waiver form, wear a helmet and bring a bike.

Please mark your calendar. We still could use need some additional volunteers and non-cash donations. This will be a great time!

Pioneer Singletrack Conversion

Please join us as we convert Pioneer fireroad into singletrack as it descends into Bear Valley:-)

TWO DATES:
October 11th from 9am till 1pm (free lunch provided at 1:30pm)
October 12th from 9am till 1pm (bring your own lunch, water)

Camping is available Friday and Saturday nights at the Diamond Creek parking area. No running water at this site. RVs and trailers are OK. Meet at the Excelsior Road at Highway 20. A short distance down this road will be our meeting place for both days. Please wear long pants and hiking/work shoes and gloves. If you would have any of the following tools would be of help to bring: loppers, pruners, shovels, steel rakes and/or McClouds.

This is a joint project with the USFS, Gold Country Trails Council, Nevada County Woods Riders and BONC, so it is *super important that we have good mountain bike representation*.

Meeting with the Horse Folk

As you can see from yesterday's post, I had a great meeting with the Gold Country Trails Council last night (view the slides). We spoke about sharing trails and unifying our efforts. The presentation was well received.

I promised attendees that I would share some of the comments equestrians made about local mountain bikers with BONC membership. These included:

• Equestrians find that the vast majority of local mountain bikers are extremely considerate and courteous on the trail. Even if a cyclist rides inappropriately, he or she is receptive to constructive criticism from equestrians on the trail.
• No one wants to replicate the culture of user animosity and conflict that is so dominant on Bay Area trails. We have something very special here that is worth preserving.
• Horses are prey animals. Thus they react quickly if a hiker or cyclists suddenly appears from behind a tree. Because of this, please announce yourself, talk and make some noise when you approach a horse.
• When riding on a trail that cuts across a slope, it is best to ride on the down side of the animal.
• GCTC equestrians try to avoid wet trails because they leave hoof holes and such trail conditionals are stressful on the horses legs.

GCTC is working very hard on many of the USFS trails that we ride and enjoy. It is crucial that we continue to work with them and support their efforts as much as possible.

Sharing Trails

I made the following presentation to the Gold Country Trails Council last night:

Wrapping Up the Forest City Bridge

From Zachi Anderson:

"The bridge project is pretty much done. We have to attach the handrail but every thing else is now done. In the picture below you can see the pearl necklace that Jon Fisher is walking back on. It descends from the embankment above for a sweet trials run. The entrance to the pearl is 60 feet farther back up the trail with a filter at the beginning. The employed concept is that the route to the trials section has to be a clearly less traveled secondary trail (12” wide) and not the primary trail (36”wide). The filter is a technical section (in this case a 16” rock step up) that has to be negotiated to access the main trails section. The entrance is prepositioned to eliminate impulsive uninformed attempts. You must have ridden the main trail to see the option first. It is all very stable boulders that are sustainable (no rot) and all hardened surfaces over 10%.

BIG thanks to all the people that have helped. Jon Fisher and Tom Ernest especially for their high volume of participation and personal investment. We will line up another fun weekend to ride this baby when we throw in the hand rail."

A big thanks indeed!