Rattlesnake Trail Extension

From Gene Haroldsen:

"The following two dates have been set for volunteer work parties to begin construction of the Rattlesnake Trail Extension within the County's Right of Way from North Highland to the Colfax Highway (SR 174):

10 a.m. to about 12 noon, Thursday, December 3rd - Volunteers need to meet at the intersection of North Highland Drive and Rattlesnake Road.

10:30 a.m. to about 12:30, Saturday, December 5th - Volunteers need to meet at the intersection of Lower Colfax Road and Rattlesnake Road.

The initial effort will involve grubbing the trail alignment. We will have an assortment of Nevada County Land Trust hand tools available but you are welcome to bring your own (i.e. lopper, Pulaski, McCloud, etc.) Please bring work gloves and anything you may wish to drink or eat.

For planning purposes it would be helpful if you could let me know if you plan to participate on either or both days. If you have questions or concerns, please contact me. Thank you for your interest and support of this joint Rattlesnake Neighborhood Association / Nevada County Land Trust project."

New Trail Near Pioneer Planned

While picking up a Christmas tree from their farm, I spoke with Willie and Sue Bruisin about plans for a new 1/2 mile trail that will descend down to the Rock Creek Nature Study Area from Pioneer. Working with the USFS, the Gold Country Trails Council (GCTC) is spearheading this effort. The trail is flagged and once the EA docs are done, the GCTC will be looking for donations or grant funding to build this trail. The plan is to use California Conservation Corps for construction.

The new trail will replace the existing steep trail that descends from Pioneer from almost directly above the Rock Creek NSA. Though this existing trail is fun to ride and challenging, traffic down it has exposed a 4" cable that poses a serious hazard to trail users. Personally, I am OK with this change if it means that no one becomes injured. Plus, the new trail will be longer anyway.

New Year's Day Ride

BONC will hook up with FATRAC and Hammering Wheels for a News Year's Day ride. Join this big fun group event and see how well you ride with a hangover.

As usual, we'll offer different levels for riders. The advanced group will ride from the top of Stagecoach (Russell Road) at 9:00 (map). Intermediate and novice/beginners will start at 10:00 at parking area across from Drivers Flat on Foresthill Road (map). All rides will end ~1:00 and we'll offer some food for participants.

Please consider bringing something to share (soda, cookies, pie, chips, ham, salad, cake, etc.). See you there!

Tour du Bill Haire - Sat. December 5th @ 10AM

Did you know that the Nevada County Land Trust has built miles of trails close to town? For the next BONC Gala ride, we'll celebrate these beautiful, fun trails by a riding bunch of them. Think of this as the Tour du Bill Haire :-)

Please meet at Back Body and Beyond (Darwin's office) at 605 South Auburn Street in Grass Valley (see map) at 10AM on Saturday December 5th.

We'll offer various ride options from *advanced to beginner*. The beginner group will be a No-Rider-Left- Behind ride. When we finish, we'll gather to enjoy some complimentary food prepared by BONC. Please bring a bike, helmet, water and mid-ride snacks. If you want to join BONC, we'll have memberships available. As usual, we could use volunteers for this ride, including ride leaders, food bakers and someone to hang out at our booth during the ride. Let me know if you can help out, thanks!

Local Cycling Collaboration

Thanks to all who joined BONC for beer and ice cream last night! We had great turnout and a lot of fun. I especially enjoyed hearing about future collaborations between SEBC/SERT, YBONC, APPT, BONC and others. There was consensus that our whole is larger that the sum of our parts and that local cycling advocacy efforts are more effective when we coordinate our efforts. We'll explore this more in the coming months. We are lucky in that our little area has such proactive groups.

BONC membership has doubled this year, which I like to think is because of our increased effectiveness as a social/advocacy organization. I would like to double our membership again in 2010 by offering even more to our community.

On a related note, BONC is in need of a membership coordinator. This is a modest obligation that would allow you the opportunity to interact with other cyclists and focus on increasing and retaining our members. If you are at all interested, please let me know, thanks!

Round Mountain Re-Route: Done

BONC had a super productive, fun day finishing up the Up-and-Over Trail re-route on Round Mountain today. We improved the new trail, closed the steep old section, installed a swanky new sign, moved some boulders to block motos and put in a feature or two. We also had a killer ride in near-perfect conditions.

For through traffic, please use the new trail: it needs to be used and compacted. Coyote Point is now the destination of a spur trail. The new trail will now re-vegetate and settle in over the winter and by spring, it will start to look like singletrack.

A big thanks to all the volunteers, BLM and the Round Mountain neighbors for making this happen. More great things are in store for RM soon, so stay tuned.

Converting Lower Pioneer to Singletrack

I've started discussions with CalTrans and the USFS about the potential of rerouting Pioneer to singletrack between the Five Mile House and Lone Grave. They are amenable thus far, though the USFS would consider this a low priority project. I understand this perspective, as there are many other worthy projects on their plate, including the undergoing re-route of Upper Pioneer as it descends to Bear Valley.

I am looking at this as a long term project. Such endeavors inevitably take much longer to plan and implement than we would like, but I think this is a worthy one. Imagine being able to ride swoopy, tight singletrack right from Harmony Ridge Market. It would be a much better trail experience so close to town. I do imagine it will be years before we turn dirt on this project, so patience and perseverance are key.

If you want to learn more about this or other activities of BONC, please attend our upcoming meeting. Join the BONC list for details or we can chat about it at Saturday's event at Round Mountain.