#mbosc

episode 2 remake releases june 11th.

episode 3 remake releases june 25th.

MBOSC’s First Ever “Old Growth Classic” Mixed Terrain Race, Part 5: The After! • 8/25/18

After arriving back at the campground in Little Basin I snagged a quick shower and made my way over to the expo for beer, post-beer cocktails, the awards.

Paul won an award for having the most number of flats. Well, he and another guy had two flats apiece, so the MC decided that since the prize was a tire pump that they should pump out some pushups in a contest to see who got the prize. As former military, I think Paul had the edge, and he was attempting to psych out the other guy by wearing a full pack and doing ‘decline’ pushups (with his feet up on a box.) Showoff! Luckily the MC put a stop to the madness after about 20 minutes and awarded them both prizes.

Simone, of The Next Ride mountain bike group I ride with, won her age group outright, so no push ups required :-)

Around about 7:00pm we were having dinner and there was an announcement that the last rider of the day was coming in, so please come over and make some noise. We did, and were tickled to discover that it was our campground mate Deepa(!) It was her first gravel event and she gutted it out to ride the whole thing. Congrats, Deepa! And, nice champagne chug at the finish as well:

MBOSC’s First Ever “Old Growth Classic” Mixed Terrain Race, Part 2: The Start! • 8/25/18

When you see Mark Davidson's smiling face first thing in the AM, you know it'll be a good day! Plus, he pointed me towards the Verve truck for coffee. Dan was already in line waiting for a cappuccino, but I opted for a drip so I could get to breakfast more quickly. After downing a pretty decent breakfast burrito, we made our way to the Meadow where people were assembling for the start. 

Since we weren’t racing in a competitive way, we staged pretty much at the end, or as some like to say, in ‘the party at the back.’ (Kinda like a mullet.) We did some pre-race limbering up moves. There were some announcements we couldn’t hear, and then we were off!

MBOSC’s First Ever “Old Growth Classic” Mixed Terrain Race, Part 1: Getting There • 8/24/18

When Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz announced their first mixed-terrain race/ride back in the spring I was intrigued. It would include a weekend of camping in Little Basin State Park. (Little Basin recently became a state park, after being privately owned by Hewlett Packard for use by its employees for years.) There would be food, music, post-ride festival, Hakka MX demo bikes from Ibis, coffee by Verve Coffee Roasters, campfires...holy cow! I signed up immediately and then set about getting some partners in crime. I got Dan and Paul hooked pretty quickly. :-)

Conveniently, Paul offered up to take us in his Sprinter Van o’Adventure. He’d sleep in the Sprinter, and Dan and I would share a tent. We were off to the races! (Literally.)

Driving into Little Basin we felt we were in a world apart. Cell reception ceases almost as you drive in. We were truly off the grid for the weekend! We found our campsite, site 38, in the “Stargazers” area and got situated. Then I headed up to the expo area to get fitted for my Ibis Hakka MX demo bike. Pretty sweet! Felt very light, and was equipped with SRAM 1x with hydraulic disc brakes:

Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz Trail Crew Field Trip: Walking the Emma McCrary Trail looking at Trail Features • 10/21/17

Now that we’ve had some in-class time learning the concepts of trail design and construction, it’s time to go walk some trails and see how it’s all implemented.

Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz Trail Crew Work Day: Pogonip—Lookout Trail Reroute • 11/4/17

Getting ready to build some trail! Today as part of the MBOSC Crew Leader Training Series we're going to put everything together by creating a brand new hiking trail from start to finish at Pogonip. We’re going to reroute a section of the Lookout Trail which currently is too steep. Too steep is bad from a couple of aspects: It isn't any fun to hike, and it isn't sustainable—when it rains, water rushes down the trail causing ruts and erosion. We'll make a path that meanders instead of going straight down. Plus, we'll build in elements that will allow the trail to shed water and drain properly, so it should be good for years to come.

Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz had a tool maintenance party last weekend, so everything is clean, sharp and ready to go!

The trail designer and his crew "pin flagged" the trail route, and "brushed" (cut back branches and shrubs along the path) for us. Our job is to do all the rest of the tasks: removing the "duff" (organic matter, leaves, etc), then scraping off the "loam" (the next layer down consisting of mulchy dirt and organic matter mix), then cutting the actual trail "tread" from the solid dirt below, which has its own set of requirements as well. We need to consider slopes (both "in-slopes" and "out-slopes" as appropriate), gradients, grade reversals, berms, waterbars, drains, to control how water will flow over the trail to minimize soil displacement (that is erosion). Where good dirt needs to be removed to get the right slope or grade, we can use that same dirt to create "rollers" or waterbars elsewhere for grade reversals to manage water movement. Dirt that is used to build up an area is deposited a little bit at a time and tamped down for proper compaction, all the while while paying attention to gradients. Finally, the duff is raked back up to the edges of the newly-created trail tread to help define the edges, and "renaturalize"'the project--making the trail look like it's been there a long time, and belongs in the setting. Lastly, we decommissioned the old alignment of the trail by renaturalizing that as well, with duff and cut branches from the new alignment.

Drew, the trail designer, has left us instructions for certain aspects of the new trail. Here he's specifying how to add a drain to deal with rain water.

Proceeding in stages, you can see at the bottom of the picture where the "duff" has been raked off to reveal the dark brown loam. The loam too will be removed to get to the solid dirt which will become the tread of the trail.

Perfecting the CalTrans Crew stance, Matt is demonstrating perfect just-standing-around-doing-nothing form. It's OK, he's earned it. He's been building up that bump of dirt next to the tree and compacting each thin layer with that big heavy compactor thing.

Darius with his drain. The picture doesn't do it justice. He's standing on the roller that's been created to shunt water off to the left. The depression was created to channel water away and down slope off the trail. It's been renaturalized and doesn't really look like a constructed "feature." 

With the renaturalization done, the new trail really doesn't look all that new!

And, done! Had about 40 people working today, and we got a lot done. OK, not the entire reroute, as there is a yellow jacket nest that needs to be relocated, but we completed about 85% of the project today. And you can hike on the completed part as of now. Enjoy the new, improved Lookout Trail!

MBOSC Demo Forest Dig Day: Clearing the drains on the Fow Trail • 12/2/17

First Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz “Dig Day” at the Soquel Demonstration Forest. Today’s task: Clear the drains on the Flow Trail in advance of the winter’s rains.