A situation developing in Aliso Woods & Need your Help!

Most of you that ride Aliso Woods know Rocket-It pretty well. It's a long technical downhill single track that's been undergoing quite a bit of change in the last few years (very similar to what happened to Rattlesnake in El Moro). This is a great trail to ride at speed, especially with all the suspension we have today.

Better riders accept the challenge of this rocky trail and ride mostly down the middle. Unfortunately, there are many riders that are now attempting to ride the sides of the trail in order to miss the rocks (you know the section I'm talking about) and in doing so are widdening the trail itself.

When I first started riding this trial 20 years ago (it wasn't a park than and I admit we were poaching on totally rigid bikes... och!!!) the trail was only 3-4 feet wide in sections. It's grown to over 8 feet in certain areas... while still considered a backcountry trail, this is difinitely not good. Not only are the bushes being destroyed, we are erroding the trail itself.

It now looks like SHARE (which organizes and coordinated the trail work in AW) is going to have to do much the same as we did in El Moro on Rattlesnake and rebuild the sides of certin sections. This takes a lot of time and effort but the trail's well worth it.

According to the Resouce Management Plan (RMP) for the park, we are due to open up 12 new trails (Car Wreck being one) and will close down and return to natural conditions 12 others. We are making
positive strides with the land managers and have a great relationship with Ed & Stan (the 2 park rangers at AW).

I'm asking the better riders to help educate others to try and find and stay on the lines down the middle (much more challenging) and stay off the sides of the trail. I know that one of the great aspects of mountain biking is a go anywhere type of attitude.... but not at the expense of a trail we all love to ride.

Let's keep on riding in the right direction as we have a jewel of a park sitting right in our back yard. :clap:

OMR

 

thanks for the update and heads-up omr. i usually carry a lot of speed right down the middle of the rock garden on rock-it so i honestly havent really noticed the widening of the "p-line" down the sides of it.

 

I've only ridden there once.. I wish sometimes that people would realize if there isn't an official "go around" that they should walk what they can't ride! I always try to tell people there's no shame in walking anything (and really there shouldn't be).

Hopefully the trail will remain open and people can start staying on the rocks. Not like they don't know what they're in for

 

I've taken the p-line on that very trail. Heck, I think I even have a picture of it that I've used as my avatar! I had no idea I was contributing to trail erosion. I appreciate the head's up and I personally vow to either ride the middle or walk it with my head held high. Mostly.

 

how about we get this fruit loop of an american gladiator to stand by the bypass line and smack people off their bikes

 

Thanks for the word OMR!

I know a lot of the outside lines are used by the riders going UP. But, the same holds true for going in that direction also. Up the middle has more traction while climbing Rocket, although it's more tech, I think it's the better way.

It'll be pretty sweet if they actually open Car Wreck back up. It's one of the better GNAR trails in the park.:bang:

 

OMR: Thanks for the info - this is great stuff!

We've all used the side lines on Rockit on occasion, or directed newbie friends to use them. I'd never really thought about the spreading effect. Thanks for opening my eyes to that.

Thanks also for the indirect reminder to join SHARE, something I keep neglecting. I'm trying to get on their site right now, but the main page is the only part that's working for me. Somebody nag me later about joining, please!

For anyone who's interested, here's a link to the Resource Management Plan web page. A public hearing that had been scheduled for tonight is listed as postponed, but no new date/time is given.

The Draft RMP section has a ton of maps: Figure 19 was the easiest for me to see the proposed trails, though I'm still missing info on the ones that are slated to be closed. Maybe I'm missing something - my browser crashed twice while trying to view the PDF's, so I didn't get through them all, and the full report is 299 pages! Anybody know what they're planning to close?

Pretty sure I saw that on the map as one to be re-opened.
Thanks for the warning! #-o

 

Here you go:

Page 5: New Open Trails

Reroute Corridor Trail
Aliso Beach
Car Wreck
Birthday (Nestall)
East Ridge (Five Oaks link)
Aliso Creek (east)
Alsio summit
Esslinger Trail

Page 6: To be closed and re-habitated

Ibis
Bong Drop
Dog Park
Smoothies
Alione
Schoolyard
Red Ryder
No Way Out
JT's

The RMP has maps that point out where these trails are. You can also stop either Ed ot Stan at the park and ask them where these are as well.

OMR

 

Awesome - thanks again!

(guess I shoulda gone as far into the report as the table of contents, eh? #-o)

 

OK. now I'm confused, (I know it doesn't take much). The way it reads " to be closed and re-habitated" makes it sound as if they are opened now. Is that the case?

 

Exactly. I remember asking about Bong Drop last year on these boards, and I thought I read it was closed.

 

And is there a timeline for the openings & closures, or is it still dependent on variables like public hearings, EIR's, and volunteer assistance?

(sorry - I know it might be in the report, but this is so much easier...I mean, err...you're doing a public service by posting here! Yeah, that's the ticket! :lol: )

 

I wonder how much of the widening is from an increase in traffic going UP the trails, & people riding on the easier dirt than trying to ride the rocks. I personally have seen alot more people coming up that right side than going down

 

I agree with Maxwell, I think most of it has to do with climbers. I've noticed over the years more and more people going up Rock-it than ever before, and not to stereo-type but a lot are wearing lycra and on hardtails so they aren't gonna want to climb the middle of the rock garden.

I use the rock garden as an ultimate high speed shock test on my bikes. When I got my DHX coil Push'd I started getting scared at the speeds I was hitting through that rock garden 8-[ Sad that it has to come to this point, but the same way it happened to Rattlesnake I look forward to the narrowing of the trail.

 

Good Questions

Pat: They are right now considered illegal and thus closed. Unfortunately, they are still rather easy to ride to and down. The rehabitation to take place will close them off completely to traffic.

OMR

 

They are currently not open or authorized for use, but the County's meaning for "closed" means to basically eliminate them completely and get the trail restored back to native vegetation.

There is also wording in the RMP to the effect that the new trails (or existing non-sanctioned trails) to be added to the system would not take place until the ones scheduled to be closed and restored are successfully closed.

All in all, it's a win for the park and a win for the users. The park gets a rest from too many off-shoots, and the users get access to some long desired trails.

 

Yes, the rangers consider this closed and will ticket riders if they are caught.

OMR

Thought you'd jump in here sooner or later.

BTW: cool single speed you're on these days :clap:

OMR

 

Exactly what i was going to say. I'll admit i've been guilty of this on occasion, mostly cuz i don't wanna get plowed by the downhill traffic.

 

Personally I think this thread is misguided.
We've all taken that line once in a while however now that its possible to go around the rocks there's no reason why the trail will get any wider. Trying to 'control' the situation by highlighting it to a minority that use STR is a bit like trying to catch the wind in a paper bag. Park rangers ride and hike through Aliso all the time and if they deem a situation to be unsatisfactory they change it. No action has been taken mainly because a 50yard long run thats a yard wide down the side of some rocks in insignificant in comparison to Aliso woods as a whole. Sorry but perspective is important.

 

I don't ... though I've only encountered a couple of riders climbing the rock garden section during the countless times of been blasting down... I don't look forward to yielding to climbers... [flame suit on ] unless there was a common understanding that climbers YIELD to downhillers on the rock garden :bang: