RR: Sycamore (Pt Mugu)

[Abui]

Sycamore over the last few days...

Anyone who has ridden the Overlook in the last two weeks has surely seen the grading work/destruction. The Overlook where I knew every turn and berm and could maintain speed (oops I mean efficiency) is gone. In its place is soft dirt mixed with whatever rocks and brush the blade turned up.

Wood Canyon has been untouched up to now. One morning I finished a trip down and saw the tracks of a monster (the little one at least) complete with droppings.



Down at the junction I saw the mother ship.




I talked to the operator. He told me that Wood Canyon will be plowed/realigned after his current assignments (like moving the life guard towers). Damm, another superb ride going away.

Anyway my next ride included going up Hell Hill - also regraded.

Testing the equipment -




OMG - Wide enough for you?





Lovely water diversion




Needs packing down







Goodby rocks. The left half of the route was once the entire road and was exposed rock. Now all covered by debris!





Final note. I saw the chopper pull out. His friends came down and said he had a severe head injury.

Guadalasca trailhead.

[TrojanInsomniac]

What a shame........Sycamore had become one of my favorite spots to ride in the area. Thanks for the update, Doug.

[Devoid169]

I've only been there a couple times and can say that it's well worth the trip if anyone is thinking of heading up. Even with the new 'improvements' I'm sure it'll still be worthy of riding. Reminds me of Daley Ranch and Whiting combined. Thanks for the update as well - I'll forward it to my sister and brother-in-law who ride there fairly often.

[Burner]

wood canyon is one of the best flowy sections of SINGLETRACK trail in the santa monicas... why on earth would they plow it?

i need to ride it before that happens.

[MotoDave]

Man, that really sucks, the trails I have been on in there were great just how they were.

Does anyone know the reason they are destroying the trails?

[Abui]

Originally Posted by Burner

wood canyon is one of the best flowy sections of SINGLETRACK trail in the santa monicas... why on earth would they plow it?

i need to ride it before that happens.

It was once a road, more like doubletrack with a preferred line.

The only excuse would be to get rescue vehicles up.

What's funny is that there have been huge granite-like boulders piled in Sycamore for potential erosion control (when the stream erodes the banks). Now the boulders are going back to the coast. Turns out the residual salt etc. would confuse fish swimming up to spawn.

[RazoR]

If they destroy enough trails, they'll have no reason for rescue access...I'm sure Guady is next....

[SnglTrckMnd]

That's a bummer they destroyed Wood Canyon but Sycamore will still be a great place to ride assuming they don't mess with Backbone, Two Fox, Guadalasca, Sage & Sin Nombre.

[RazoR]

I've been riding the hell out of Sullivan cyn, they're going to plow there soon, get it while its fun, its a work of art right now!

[bwolmarans]

Wasting what little of our tax money is left over after the war and the bailout and tearing up some of the funnest trails without soliciting our input. We had to find this out from Doug, in this thread, because there were no signs posted at trailheads, absolutely no notice from state parks, no heads up from anybody, not even our mountain bike trails organizations. The possibility of fire danger justifies anything these days I suppose, even if it means destroying the trails they are trying to protect. Wait until they find out we're riding two foxes, they'll have to plough that as well because how else would they drive a rescue vehical up there if somebody needed it?

[wahwahrydr]

Sad... Do you guys have any idea what a "fire road" means, perhaps you are just too self absorbed to think out side of your small world... The road you are whining about has been there for many many years, and if you know anything about Southern California those roads are graded every few years.

Did you even think perhaps there is now such a high volume of people using our trail systems that someone actually thought ahead said, hey lets expand the fire road before the idiots who come down ripping this trail runs into some poor hiker head on

[lmnop]

As someone who has experience in grading and site development, it continues to amaze me just how poor a job the State Parks and LA County Parks do when they get out and do some maintenance on a fire road. I know the operators are "just doing their job", and they may have experience on equipment, but they have the wrong equipment for the job. These guys should get a lesson or two from the Forest Service (who in my opinion does a pretty good job with their roads).

Almost looks like they were trying to create some small fire breaks...

[Upchuck]

Originally Posted by wahwahrydr

Sad... Do you guys have any idea what a "fire road" means, perhaps you are just too self absorbed to think out side of your small world... The road you are whining about has been there for many many years, and if you know anything about Southern California those roads are graded every few years.

Did you even think perhaps there is now such a high volume of people using our trail systems that someone actually thought ahead said, hey lets expand the fire road before the idiots who come down ripping this trail runs into some poor hiker head on

As much as I hate to see Wood Cyn get graded into a offroad highway, it's there for a reason: Access to the mountain in the event of fire or emergency.

There's no reason to be worried about Wood Vista (aka Backbone), Guadalasca/o, Sin Nombre, or Two Foxes. They are all in very good shape with no "hazards" for multi-users. In fact, Backbone is still recovering from the last trail "improvements" and is doing nicely.

A shame about how loose Overlook is though. It's one of my favorite climbs on the SS.

See you all out there this weekend. And the next...and the next...

Originally Posted by bwolmarans

Wait until they find out we're riding two foxes, they'll have to plough that as well because how else would they drive a rescue vehical up there if somebody needed it?

Two Foxes is officially open to bikes, as is Sin Nombre and Hidden Pond. I don't see any reason they'd take the Sweco in there.

[bwolmarans]

WahWahRydr: So you're saying that we were mistaken thinking wood canyon trail was for bikers and hikers, and that we should be thankful the trucks share THEIR fireroads with us at all? As for your other comment, I call trolling.

Originally Posted by wahwahrydr

Sad... Do you guys have any idea what a "fire road" means, perhaps you are just too self absorbed to think out side of your small world... The road you are whining about has been there for many many years, and if you know anything about Southern California those roads are graded every few years.

Did you even think perhaps there is now such a high volume of people using our trail systems that someone actually thought ahead said, hey lets expand the fire road before the idiots who come down ripping this trail runs into some poor hiker head on

[bwolmarans]

Did you see the picture up higher in this thread of emergency vehicals at the Guado trailhead? That shows access is possible prior to grading. There was a large turnout of trail workers at Santa Monica mountain trail days in Sycamore canyon in May and so much attention and care given to every little leaf and shrub so as not to prune them back to much, and then BRAAAAAAAP The man comes in with a grader and just bulldozes the sh***t out of it.

I'm not against fire breaks or access but I'm against our parks department treating us like a bunch of stuffed owls and acting like "ah shucks, y'all used to mountain bike on them thar trails?". Any mountain biker could have gone along and given input on how to make the fire roads accessible, but still leave them rideable and fun. But that would have required to parks department to treat us with respect.

Originally Posted by Upchuck

As much as I hate to see Wood Cyn get graded into a offroad highway, it's there for a reason: Access to the mountain in the event of fire or emergency.

There's no reason to be worried about Wood Vista (aka Backbone), Guadalasca/o, Sin Nombre, or Two Foxes. They are all in very good shape with no "hazards" for multi-users. In fact, Backbone is still recovering from the last trail "improvements" and is doing nicely.

A shame about how loose Overlook is though. It's one of my favorite climbs on the SS.

See you all out there this weekend. And the next...and the next...



Two Foxes is officially open to bikes, as is Sin Nombre and Hidden Pond. I don't see any reason they'd take the Sweco in there.

[Upchuck]

Originally Posted by bwolmarans

Did you see the picture up higher in this thread of emergency vehicals at the Guado trailhead? That shows access is possible prior to grading.

Prior to the grading, it was quite difficult for an emergency vehicle to reach the bottom of Guad. It would be nearly impossible to reach an accident victim further in unless rescuers came in on foot.

So is that to say you're also against the grading on Overlook Fireroad? Without it, it would be impossible for emergency vehicles to get in there.

Don't get me wrong, I'm as much against trail sanitizing as you are. I've seen too many fine trails in the area get destroyed over the last 15 years. I cringe everytime I think about the fate of Sullivan Cyn...again.

We have to be reasonable, though, when we start arguing about ever stretch of dirt that we like to ride. Fireroads are used as an access road for emergency personnel.

I was pretty riled up when they botched up Cheseboro Cyn, Backbone (3rd Tunnel), Sullivan Cyn (last time), Dead Cow, Chumash...but eventually they all evolve back into the fine ribbons of rock strewn trails we all dream about. The best thing to do is become a part of the solution and start joining trail work days.

End of soap box commercial.

[bwolmarans]

I'm done posting in this thread after this, but yes I am very much against that as it is the kind of decision only a dimwit beaurocrat in an office could have made, not a real ranger.

There was no need to grade it, I could have charged a lowered honda civic up overlook last week before it was graded, and now nobody can ride it, it's all loose topsoil, the rains are coming, it will be a mudbath and get rutted to sh**t by the runoff and all the good soil will wash downhill real fast.

Hope the fishies like the taste of several tons of overlooks best topsoil in their streams because they're about to get a sh*tload curtesy of our parks department. Good thing we didn't have crazy downhillers skidding on the trail and f-in it all up.

Over and out.

Originally Posted by Upchuck

So is that to say you're also against the grading on Overlook Fireroad? Without it, it would be impossible for emergency vehicles to get in there.

[Burner]

Originally Posted by Upchuck

There's no reason to be worried about Wood Vista (aka Backbone), Guadalasca/o, Sin Nombre, or Two Foxes.

I was thinking this was talking about wood cyn vista... good news.

[kyoseki]

This was one of my regular ride routes, I can understand the need for emergency access, but there was nothing on the wood canyon approach to the bottom of Guad that a stock Wrangler couldn't handle.

Again with the overlook fire road, they're destroying the roads because their vehicles aren't equipped to handle them.

Look at the tires on the things, and the ground clearance. It's a street pick up with a cage in the bed to strap shit to.

What's next? Paving it all because their pick ups can't drive straight up there?

Why fit the terrain to the vehicle and not the vehicle to the terrain, sooner or later you're going to need access to some place you haven't graded, what then?

You can't tell me equipping a couple of pick ups with lift kits and decent tires costs more and does more damage than tearing the whole place apart in the name of conservation.

[Abui]

wahwahrydr the anonymous troll sounds like {guess who}?

Originally Posted by wahwahrydr

Sad... Do you guys have any idea what a "fire road" means, perhaps you are just too self absorbed to think out side of your small world... The road you are whining about has been there for many many years, and if you know anything about Southern California those roads are graded every few years.

Did you even think perhaps there is now such a high volume of people using our trail systems that someone actually thought ahead said, hey lets expand the fire road before the idiots who come down ripping this trail runs into some poor hiker head on

Quote from North_Ranch_Mtn_Bikers on yahoogroups.com

Originally Posted by Steve

These kind of guys really piss me off!

Sycamore (Pt Mugu)

Don't they realize that the fireroads in Sycamore Canyon are called that for a reason, because they're there to help put out a fire if one develops? It's interesting that I saw this today, when Porter Ranch and another area just east of the 5 are on fire.

Come on folks, get a grip on reality! We ride on fire roads, and every few years they go through and grade them so they can get emergency crews through. We're lucky those roads are there for fire access or we wouldn't be able to ride there at all!

It's too bad that selfish turds like this give mountain bikers in general such a bad reputation.

(Thanks to Brett for brining this to my attention.)

- Steve