CORBA Trail Work Day -- Zuma Ridge Mtwy to Kanan on the Backbone

Discussion in 'Trail Conditions' started by shudder, Feb 24, 2013.

  1. shudder

    shudder no big deal

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    Well, this isn't exactly a ride report, more of just a trail report... but those are kinda the same thing, right?

    I signed up a few weeks back for my first CORBA trail maintenance day, scheduled for Saturday , Feb 23, 2013. The day came up, and conditions were just perfect for a ride, but instead, I spent six laborious hours with a host of CORBA folks, working on the Backbone trail between Zuma Ridge and Kanan Tunnel 1 (about 2 and a half miles of trail).

    This is a VERY popular stretch of trail. There were many, MANY hikers on the trail this day, but really only a handful of MTBers. Everyone greeted all of us with our loppers and saws, and thanked us all for caring for the trails. That was cool.


    The day was headed up by Steve from CORBA and Dave from the Trails Council. Along with those two leads there were 14 workers, many of whom had done this sort of work before (this was my first time). And make no mistake -- when you go through some section of trail that used to have a great tunnel, or whatever, and you complain about how badly it's been torn up by trail maintenance folks, it is a crew just like this one that's done that work. There's no money for trail maintenance out there, so it's up to volunteers who are trained on the trail at the time of duty as to what and how to get the work done.


    Specific to that lack of training, we came upon our most intense work of the day pretty quickly -- a hundred or hundred-30 foot section of ST that had grown into a tight tunnel. Now, I like an ST tunnel as much as the next gonzo MTBer, but tunnels don't make for good two way traffic, nor allow ease of passing for multi-use folks. We were told by our leader, Steve, to cut back the encroaching brush way back off each side of the trail. If you only trim it a bit, it will take another trail day like we did in just a few months to keep the trail passable. So, Steve told us to stretch our arms out wide, and ensure the brush didn't come into contact with our hands. And you don't want to cut limbs off leaving 'pokers' in there, so you cut back as far as you can, meaning that you sometimes overdo it. Well, overall I think we did a good job, but that one section, which was once a tunnel, is now a wide open section of ST. And I get that that is as it should be, or we run the risk of having multi-use accidents on the trail for lack of visibility around tight corners. I was bummed to cut back the tunnel so much, but because it is brush, I expect it to grow back at some point. It's like a haircut: even bad ones grow out.

    If you wanna bitch about how badly the work is being done, then get out there and volunteer for a trail maintenance day yourself. Show 'em all how it's done. I'm sure CORBA would love to have more hands at work, especially those that 'know' how to do it (but to be honest, it really seemed like there was no other way to achieve the necessary cutback of the brush without feeling like we were overdoing it, but again, it will grow back).

    I asked at one point if there were any STR members in the group, and I got a bunch of blank stares. Okay, moving on...

    Here's some pics from the day.

    The gathering of the crew at 8:30 on Kanan
    [​IMG]

    Young man Tony pondering if he's up to using one of the diggers... (nope!)
    [​IMG]

    Eric tapes Jesse's broken fingers (!!!)
    [​IMG]

    Carly and the others listen to Steve tell us how wide to make the trail when we cut things back
    [​IMG]

    Steve works on his Don Quixote walk (or explains how to carry the long lopper saws...)
    [​IMG]

    Steve starts a bit of instruction on the trail
    [​IMG]

    Matt has a go at taking down a low-hanging branch
    [​IMG]

    ST tunnel on the left, Phil on the right cutting it back
    [​IMG]

    Looking back on our cut -- yeah, yeah, I know it looks like shit, but it will grow back
    [​IMG]

    Diggers creating the water runoff channels along the trail
    [​IMG]

    Steve takes down some burly overgrowth as Leonard protects himself!
    [​IMG]

    Leah lops off a few bits that were encroaching on the trail as Steve watches
    [​IMG]

    Steve and Leah head on down the trail -- nothing to do here...
    [​IMG]

    At the bottom, the creek had some water in it. Kids and creeks -- they just get together -- Phil's son Tony here with the large rock...
    [​IMG]


    And that was about it. We started at 8:30, and finished up by 2:30, and then it was time to head out. All in all, it was a lot of #hard****ingwork as I said in my Facebook update.

    - shud
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 25, 2013
  2. genusmtbkr5

    genusmtbkr5 STR Moderator

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    Thanks for the work Shud! I deleted your other thread as you requested.
     
  3. ocdingbat

    ocdingbat Member

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    i am working out there for the next couple months. how do you get alerts or emails on when one of these Cobra clean ups are coming up? Btw great job!
     
  4. ladera Dave

    ladera Dave New Member

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    it is good to give back to the trails we love to ride.
     
  5. da big hills

    da big hills happy night trails

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    Thanks for cleaning the water channel. Water bars are a most delightful distraction. What did you do with all those cuttings?
     
  6. shudder

    shudder no big deal

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    You can see what's going on for upcoming CORBA rides and stuff on their MeetUp: http://www.meetup.com/CORBAmtb/

    L
    eader Steve had us hike it off trail a few feet. Not perfect because for now it'll all be a big mess just off the trail, but eventually it all breaks down.

    - shud
     
  7. The Savage Rabbit

    The Savage Rabbit New Member

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    I think I saw you guys there. Around 12:30 or 1:00pm I rode Backbone from Kanan to Encinal and back. I saw some people on the trail with that equipment. Also looked like there were some spots in the trail that had just been filled in where erosion was taking its toll. On the way back I exited the trail at that turn out rather than the trail head and and saw a bunch of people.
     
  8. sheclimbs

    sheclimbs Active Member

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    Thanks for the hard work!
     
  9. shudder

    shudder no big deal

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    That was us!

    - shud
     

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