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UCSC trails and why Fight Club rules may not be working.

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#21 ·
UC is unlike most illegal trails out there. There are legal trails there and most of the local residents ride there on the legal and illegal trails.

The reason we do 'fight club' aka 'we don't talk about it' rules is because it is very easy to post trail names, maps, photos, videos, directions to the place and it will be Google searchable. One will argue that everybody knows about it already but it's simply not true. I would say that 80% of the Bay Area and beyond biking population do not know about it and that can bring a lot more load and pressure on these trails.

We are entering a new stage in mountain biking like the skateboarders and surfers did. We are progressing from a fringe sport of rebels and opportunists to a club that is preventing shutdowns and entering a final stage. This stage is one of parents and professionals with true financial, political and organizing, revenue-generating and job-creating power. It always takes a generation to pave the way for their kids and it is finally happening all over the country. Places like Tahoe, Bend, Arkansas are experiencing an unprecedented build-up of legal, rad trails.

Marin and Bay Area may take two generations but it is happening now in the Santa Cruz. Our angels are MBOSC and Santa Cruz Bikes (and other bike companies). They are helping the county realize that mountain biking is a true cog of the town's culture and economy. There is an amazing .pdf trail plan and I will upload it asap so anyone can upload it.

I paid them a visit and wrote a story here:
Building more singletrack in Santa Cruz - Mtbr.com

But the shocking premise is there's only 38 miles of legal singletrack in the entire Santa Cruz County. One could ride that in one day so they aim to change that.

Long story short, we'll keep this post open as long as we keep it clean and productive. Support the cause and spread the word.
 
#28 ·
fc said:
UC is unlike most illegal trails out there. There are legal trails there and most of the local residents ride there on the legal and illegal trails.
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Matt did a nice job on that Power Point. Yes UCSC has some bike legal trails; the problem area is the trails feed to the north and down into Henry Cowell. FWIW the PPT does not discuss that at all. The only bike legal trail in Cowell south/west of Highway 9 is a tiny portion of U-Conn.

I wish Matt and MBOSC the best of luck if they try to get those Cowell trails legitimized; IMHO this will be next to impossible.
 
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#31 ·
Hi folks, Matt from MBOSC here. Just for reference here is the communication we circulated to accompany the petition.

Are you concerned about the future of mountain bike access on California State Parks property? We here at Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz sure are. This past weekend we have been inundated with widespread reports from the unofficial trail network above Highway 9 in Henry Cowell State Park of a State Parks effort to close down trails, threats of bike confiscation and citations. These provide a stark reminder that this beloved trail network is not something that should be taken for granted. This trail network has grown largely unchecked over the past couple of decades and attracts more and more riders every year. With new trails popping up each year, many with little consideration of natural resource impacts, and an increasing number of riders traveling to the area to ride them, it seems that reaching a tipping point is inevitable.

The ever-growing popularity of mountain biking and its impacts on our local public lands has not gone unnoticed by State Parks. They have been stymied in dealing with the issue by a litany of factors. Lack of resources for enforcement, lack of resources to update trail plans to provide more recreation opportunities, and outdated land and trail designations are a few of the issues that have limited improvements to mountain bike access.

Our friends here in the Santa Cruz District of California State Parks (yes our friends), are not fundamentally opposed to increased and improved mountain bike trail access. We have had an increasingly positive partnership with parks locally. For example, the Enchanted Loop reroute and the Old Cabin Classic have been extremely well received, and we have many other projects in the works. Unfortunately The California Department of Parks and Recreation, is not an agile organization. Rules and regulations are determined at the state level in Sacramento. Our local district, sector, and park staff do not have the latitude to diverge from what is dictated by Sacramento. The fact is that State Parks has no provisions for mountain bike specific recreation in its trail designations, nor its land designations. While parks provide off-highway vehicle use for motorcycles and ATVs, they have not been able to figure out mountain biking recreation. This is in large part to trail standards and land designations developed during the infancy of mountain biking that have not caught up to modern trail use needs.

We are engaging in conversations regarding what would it take to update trail and land designations to reflect the popularity and importance of mountain bike recreation. There is a willingness to find solutions here at the local level, but ultimately the shots will be called in Sacramento. We here at MBOSC are working closely with other California mountain bike advocacy groups to develop a unified approach for addressing these issues at the state level. We invite you to help us in this effort!

Here is what you can do to help:

Sign this petition encouraging the Director of State Parks, The Road and Trails Program Manager as well as the State Parks and Recreation Commission to amend Trails and Land designations to provide for mountain bike specific recreation for all skill levels.

Sign up for MBOSC's mailing list to stay tuned about opportunities to get involved!

Donate to and/or join MBOSC - help us fund these advocacy efforts. Building trail is the easy part of our job, advocacy, politicking, and community organizing is the difficult, time consuming part! We have dedicated professional staff working on these issues day in,and day out.

Volunteer with MBOSC this season to help with trail work at Wilder Ranch and Nisene Marks - Demonstrating good stewardship is the best form of advocacy!

Be respectful of State Parks Staff in all interactions - remember they are just doing their job and the guys out here on the ground have no control over what stems from Sacramento.

Engage in conversation, not confrontation - public land management is a proper pain in the ass. Being confrontational about our beliefs regarding land use is not constructive. Let's keep the conversation positive and show people why we need mountain bike trails in a respectful manner.

Make good choices about where and when you ride.

Thanks for your support!

We are fully committed to working with State Parks to finding a solution to this ongoing issue. I was on conference call with many of the other California MTB advocacy groups on Wednesday to discuss how we are collectively going to get some movement on these issues from State Parks. There is widespread support for engaging with State Parks at the Sacramento level to get some top down progress on these issues. We are developing a scope for how this is going to roll out and will share that as it develops. It is going to require grassroots community support and will likely require professional lobbying services.

We are not trying to reinvent the wheel here, just helping State Parks adapt to modern times. The BLM has been at the forefront of progressive trail thinking for Land Managers here in the US. They worked with IMBA on creating new mountain bike trail standards and produced this impressive document the Guidelines for a Quality Trail Experience. If you spend some time with this document you will see that every type of riding experience from put-put beginner to huck-yer-meat DH riding is included. Having this precedent already established by another US land manager should allay some of the cynicism regarding State Parks. This is what we would like State Parks to integrate into their trail standards and land designations and believe that we can get there.

Our goal is to keep this discourse conversational rather than confrontational. We have an increasingly positive relationship with State Parks and there are so many opportunities here on the horizon. We would hate to see that compromised.

Please get on MBOSC's mailing list to stay informed about what we are doing to move this forward and how you can help.

I will try to check back here as time allows...

Feel free to contact me directly at matt@mbosc.org.

Alright OK.

Matt
 
#34 ·
If we have such a "positive partnership" with our "friends" at the Santa Cruz District of State Parks, wouldn't it have been more productive to have an open dialogue with MBoSC prior to this most recent enforcement action to express their concerns and objectives?
 
#35 ·
It's interesting to note the difference between Bay Area advocacy, notably Marin based and MBOSC. Seems like one group is getting results and another is not. OK I'll be fair, the RTMP has yielded about 3 miles or so of unconnected narrow trail to the map. Following an 8 year effort.

Progress!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#36 ·
CRUZe said:
If we have such a "positive partnership" with our "friends" at the Santa Cruz District of State Parks, wouldn't it have been more productive to have an open dialogue with MBoSC prior to this most recent enforcement action to express their concerns and objectives?
Click to expand...
It's what you would call a shakedown.
 
#37 ·
Rumors only, can't name names, but was told that specific people's stated it could be a quick way to cover costs... In 60 days things will get serious and fines without warnings. I hope this is only like the 2009 crackdown.
 
#38 ·
m3the01 said:
Rumors only, can't name names, but was told that specific people's stated it could be a quick way to cover costs... In 60 days things will get serious and fines without warnings. I hope this is only like the 2009 crackdown.
Click to expand...
Rumors are very hard to believe since that is the M.O. of this campaign for the last decade.

We can only wait and see. And organize.
 
#39 ·
fc said:
Rumors are very hard to believe since that is the M.O. of this campaign for the last decade.

We can only wait and see. And organize.
Click to expand...
I'm quite certain rumors are due to CSP's dysfunction. They probably don't know what they are doing themselves. They claim to be improving themselves but wont even listen to input from a multi year campaign called "Parks Forward."
 
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