Newsletter, December, 1996 by Jim Jacobsen The new season of trail building is underway at Camp Tamarancho in Fairfax. The BTC is beginning its third year of trail building at Tamarancho, with three great trails already built and five more exciting projects planned. The first year we built B-17 Trail, a 1.15 mile trail around the north side of White Hill, making a far better connection between Fairfax and Woodacre, avoiding the grueling climb over White Hill or the equally brutal slog up Dead Heifer. This trail was built for and used as part of the race course by the Marin Knobular race in 1995. It passes through Redwood groves and mixed hardwood forests. With four tight switch back turns and six creek crossings the trail is a delight to ride and a sensory potpourri of varied sights, smells and natural surroundings. In December 1995, we built Laguna Trail, consisting of a new 1/4 mile long section connecting two existing trails which were upgraded significantly to make a 3/4 mile route around the lake. We then embarked on our most ambitious project, Wagon Wheel Trail. This 1.4 mile trail is on a southern slope looking out over Cascade Canyon. With spectacular views, varied vegetation and some difficult terrain, this trail is a delight to ride. The project was challenging and very interesting to build. The two 20 foot bridges are the most spectacular construction features and were fun to build, using a generator, a gasoline powered wheelbarrow as well as a complete selection of hand and power tools. With routed redwood handrails and decking, they are a cut above the typical public works project and at a small fraction of the cost. The many retaining walls, five creek crossings, and numerous loops around trees are evidence of a care fully planned trail, fitting in rather than fighting with the natural surroundings. We went to great lengths to avoided removing trees and paid particular attention to erosion prevention and water drainage. Where the trail passed across water courses, the soil excavated to form the trail tread was removed from the immediate area and not allowed to silt up the stream. Rocks were used to protect creek crossings, prevent erosion and to stabilize the trail tread. We build trails with minimal impact and for maximum enjoyment. With the completion of these two trails the 1996 Marin Knobular Race course was 6.25 miles long with 4 miles of single track and 850 feet of climbing per lap. The trails held up remarkably well in spite of the heavy use during the race, about fifteen hundred trips in one day, with negligible damage and no erosion. This demonstrates that properly designed and constructed trails have little tendency to erode and bicycles can use them without damage to the trail. These trails are also proof that bikes can use single track trails safely and responsibly in Marin County. The Marin Council of the Boy Scouts of America own this 650 acre property and have generously allowed access by the public upon purchasing an annual pass for S25. This pass is available at the Boy Scouts headquarters 225 West End Ave. San Rafael, Ca 94901. For details on becoming a Friend of Tamarancho call (415) 454-1081. Please buy the pass if you plan on riding at Tamarancho, it is cheaper than buying a new tire for your bike, and it allows you to legally ride the best single track trails in Marin County and support the Boy Scouts at the same time. The BTC has provided almost 4,000 hours of volunteer labor building these trails. This is the equivalent of two full time employees working for an entire year. The BTC is now holding trail work sessions twice weekly, Saturdays at 10:00 and Tuesdays at 2:00. We meet at the Tamarancho Ranger Station at 1000 Iron Springs Road at the start of every work session. We provide all tools and provide refreshments. Building a trail is an informative and rewarding experience, it gives everyone a better idea how much work it takes to build a trail, what elements go into a good trail, and it also develops upper body strength, something that bicycling alone doesn't do. The camaraderie of working together with others to complete a worthwhile, tangible project that the public can then enjoy is very rewarding. This positive energy and creative spirit must be experienced to be understand. We have tools and tasks for everyone. The experience and knowledge gained along with the pride of completion is a very satisfying accomplishment. I would like to thank the many generous contributors for their help in building these trails, especially these special donors: Mark Lowenstern and Chris Lang of the Marin Knobular, Single Cyclists, Clif Bars, RockShox, Grizzly Peak Cyclists, Wilderness Trail Bikes, Golden State Lumber, and for their exemplary support, The Marin Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Special thanks to all the dedicated trail workers whose help and "sweat equity" made the whole project possible. In the upcoming trail building season we plan to build five trails that will complete a perimeter trail roughly following along the Tamarancho property lines. This will allow the Scouts to more fully utilize their entire property and have the public concentrated on these trails and not in the main scouting activities areas. We have about four miles of trail to build and we need volunteers to help realize this goal. Please call 488-1665 for further information on how to help on this exciting project .If you can't work, you can send money to buy materials. The BTC is also asking the Marin Municipal Water District for their permission to build a shared use trail on the Azalea Hill, above the Meadow hub on Fairfax, to be built and paid for by the BTC. This trail would be very much like the ones at China Camp State Park, about four feet wide, built with a trail tractor. It would be a realignment of an existing steep erosive trail that the MMWD has already identified as needing improvement. If built as a shared trail, it would permit off road bicycle access trail to the Pine Mountain area and allow a better more ecologically sound trail for hikers and equestrians. The MMWD Board will discuss this proposal sometime early next year. I hope it will begin a new era of cooperation between the BTC and the MMWD. With shrinking public funding and the need for more volunteerism this is the type of project that we will see more of in the future. The National Parks are implementing user fees and others agencies are contemplating similar plans. This is an idea that will grow in popularity and can be of benefit to bicyclists. As we become a major source of revenue we will see increased facilities to be paid for by ourselves from these new user fees. Volunteerism will leverage the user fees to provide greater access and recreational facilities for bicyclists and other users. With the increasing popularity of mountain biking, more areas will grow to accept their use. Coupled with educational programs and sensible planning, we can become an equal partner in the trail user community. Nationwide, over 600 miles of trails have been opened to bicycles during 1996. This trend of cooperation between bicyclists and land managers is growing and I hope that Marin County will see similar cooperation. This year's Turkey Day ride was great fun as usual. The BTC worked with the MMWD and provided bike patrollers. The Patrols went off in half hour increments and were equipped with walkie talkies and vests, and helped out if aid was needed on the trail. "The event was uneventful" in the words of the MMWD Ranger Bill Hogan. But ask anyone who did the ride, and I'm sure they'd have another tale to tell. A rough tally showed that over 850 bikers did the Pine Mountain Loop on an absolutely glorious day. (They stopped counting at 819). If you've never experienced the "Event", I'd highly recommend it. Maybe we should start another tradition, Christmas Day. Travels With My Y Bike by Danny Forer What I did this summer: Rode my bike. When not riding the dirt in Marin, or the pavement of the East Bay, I was traveling to places to ride. This is a story of 3 fat tire trips I took this summer. My first dirt trip was to Crested Butte, Colorado. "Crusty Butt" has the reputation as the best alpine biking in the country. I agree. We did 7 different loops,each one starting from the front door of our Condo, at 9,000'. All of the riding was in Alpine terrain, on dirt roads and buff single track. We went through gorgeous canyons, along ridge lines, up and down mountains, over passes, through a ghost town, and past an abandon mine or two. The vegetation was notable. It was vibrant, full of life, bursting forth in profusion. Lupine, sunflowers, paint brush, aspen trees, weeds, skunk cabbage forests, everywhere. At such high elevation, for 9 months of the year these plants are under many feet of snow, so when Spring comes (which here is July), the plants go into a growth frenzy. It's like they know they only have a few months before Winter comes again, and they damn better take advantage of the nice weather. There is just 2 seasons here, a long Winter, and a short, intense, Spring. Not only was the riding here exceptional, I liked the town a lot. I have visited many of the famous mountain/ski towns Aspen, Vail, Durango, Taos, Steamboat, Telluride, Jackson Hole- but Crusty Butt is my new favorite. Only 1 paved road connects town to the rest of the world.There are no strip malls or fast food, no night life, but a great small town to walk around in. All the new development, with the ugly condos, and ostentatious mountain mansions, is at the Ski Area, a couple of miles up the road. Crested Butte is a way cool, former mining town, in a beautiful location, that is now the center of the mountain biking universe. At the end of the week a local gave me a lift back to the airport in Gunnison. On his radio I heard my first ever mountain bike report Yep, trail conditions report, just for cyclist. How about it KFOG? The second trip was an organized mtb bike ride with Harebrain Adventures, in the Blue Lakes (near Carson Pass) region of the Sierra. This touring company is owned by Bob Ward, who has written several guide books for fat tire riding in the Sierra and also for Moab, UT. I have enjoyed reading his folksy newsletter/trip catalog for a few years, and when Q friend told me he had a good time with "Bo" on a weekend ride, I decided to sign up for a 3 day trip. There were about 20 guest on the tour, and about 15 were return riders, who have gone on other Harebrain tours. As you would expect on an organized tour like this most of the riders were "weekenders", with varying levels of skill and stamina. To get in additional miles I would go for a ride by myself in the morning, do the group ride, and then when everyone was in the camp I would do some more riding with a guide in the afternoon. The support was great, the food, cooked by a graduate of the CIA (no not that one, the Culinary Institute of America) was exceptional, and the people were pleasant. An example of the kind of support they are proud of: On the application form, under "Special Dietary Needs", I wrote, as a joke, ~I require ice cream and beer daily." I was surprised, and also a bit embarrassed, when on me first night, while camping, they brought out ice cream, a 5 gallon container of Double Rainbow (I think), that they had on dry ice. (As for the beer, you bring your own and they put it in the cooler and bring it to the camp.) However, the bottom line was, the riding was dull, the pace was s-l-o-w, the rest stops were frequent and too long, and there was, for me, no excitement or adventure in this trip. The cost was about S80 a day, which is reasonable if you don't have people to ride with, are unfamiliar with an area and worry about getting lost, want someone who will fix mechanicals, and want to be pampered while camping. Not for me. The last trip was my family's traditional week in Mammoth, in the end of August. This year the big mtn bike race was held that same week, which was both positive and negative. More than 50,000 people attend for the racing and viewing, and the town was mobbed. Standing in line at Vons, buying dinner stuff, reminded me of the start of the Bay to Breakers, wall to wall people in sports clothes. And everywhere you look are bikes more tricked out and expensive than mine. Damn I hate that! But, it was interesting to watch the pros compete (best was the trials competition, the downhill event, when they were racing head to head, was boring), and attend the 250 booth expo, which is the largest bike show open to the public in this country. Just by luck I got to ride alone with Ned Overend for 10 or 15 minutes. This is his final competitive season, and he will be retiring at the end of the year. He was so easy going that I felt comfortable enough to jokingly ask him if I was setting too fast a pace. Mammoth has a reputation as a mountain biking kind of place, but, in my opinion,the off road riding is over rated. Mammoth mountain is ugly. The views can be spectacular, and there is lots of single track, including my favorite, a 7 miler from Minaret Summit, back to town, but most of the riding is on sand (pumice), the area is chopped up for skiing, there are no forests, lakes, or streams, it costs S12 for a trail pass, you can't ride the best route up to the summit because it is one way downhill, and basically the riding I do locally at Tamarancho Bike Park, and Pine Mtn, I think is superior. However what brings us back year after year is the excellent road riding and the outstanding hiking. A little over 2 years ago, a section of dirt road was paved, so it is now possible to do a road ride from our condo, to the vacation hot spot (pun intended) of Benton Hot Springs, population 10. We had lunch downtown, no reservations necessary. To fill our water bottles, my wife Bonnie and I had to buy bottled spring water, because all the tap water in the town, and that includes the water that flushes the toilet, is 180 degrees. As the owner of the store told me, the locals learn: first you brush your teeth; and then you shave. We did a 75 mile out and back ride, all at the base of the White Mountains, on quiet well paved roads, with no homes or services except for the one store at the hot springs. The route is mostly high desert, with some climbing, going over 3 easy passes. We also did another favorite ride, again right from the Condo, the climb up Rock Creek road to Mosquito Flat, which at 10,300' is the highest paved road in California. As I say: come for the climb, but stay for the pie", which is home baked at the Lodge at the top, owned by a woman from the Bay Area. Any sense of smugness about our athletic accomplishment was diminished when our waiter, as he brought us our pie, told us that the night before he and some friends had done a training run, starting at Tom's Place (7,000~), going up the 10 miles to the Lodge. ( Note: All the opinions expressed in this article are my own, except those that are given to me by my wife.) ©1997 Bicycle Trails Council of Marin |
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