Paying your dues?

For many of you, just the mere fact of living in CA means you’re paying your dues already.  As you know, CA often sits at the top of charts that list the most expensive places to live.  Being a CO resident who resides in CA, I often don’t feel the tax burden that many of you feel.  On top of that, my current place of residence, which is a stones throw away from my main riding spot (Annadel SP) allows me to not have to pay to play.  I simply hop on my bike and am heading up Spring Creek in a matter of minutes (I know, I know, many of you don’t pay to ride Annadel SP since it is one of the easiest parks to access for free in the state).

If you’re looking for an easy way to relieve your guilty conscious (if you’ve got one), or just want to contribute to helping the trails you ride, the Sonoma County Trails Council offers all the tools you need to get plugged in.

Sonoma County Trails Council: Working in partnership with others to advocate, plan, build, and maintain a network of sustainable, shared-use public trails for non-motorized recreation throughout Sonoma County.

I’ve had the recent enjoyment of joining the SCTC on several trail repair days at Annadel SP.  They have a regular 3rd Saturday of the month trail day at Annadel.  They also collaborate with other organizations as well as hold emergency repair days like the one documented below.  Check out their website and shoot them an email requesting to be put on their email list so you can join them on the next session.

Above:  Ken Wells (executive director) goes over some safety items before we head to the damaged trail.  While walking on the trail with your tools, (shovel, mcleod, etc.) always hold the tool on the downside of the trail.  This way if you need to let go of it, the tool will fall downhill away from you.

Below:  Don’t worry if you don’t have any tools to use, most of the volunteers don’t.  SCTC provides all the necessary tools.

 

Above:  Falling trees can cause a lot of problems for the trails (blockage, surface damage, etc).  This picture was taken a few hundred feet from the location we were heading to.

Below:  Here is Ken explaining the game plan.  We had a team of about 10 people for the damage repair.  Three other groups of 4-5 people were sent further down the trail to fix some minor drainage issues.

 

Above:  It is difficult to see the scale of the damage from this picture.  However, the fallen tree took about 12 feet of trail with it, making it nearly impossible to get around safely for the various types of users of Annadel SP.

Below:  The game plan was to simply move the trail into the mountain 3-4 feet to make room to pass through.  In the right hand side of the picture you can see how tall the fallen tree was.

 

Above:  You can see Ken removing what was left of a small tree in order to clear a path for the trail.  This was the only feasible way to re-route the trail.  SCTC is very environmentally conscious when designing and repairing trails.

Below:  Found a scorpion hiding in the dirt.  Good thing the mcleod just missed him.  He’ll live another day!

 

Above:  Getting there.  The hole left by the tree is being filled in with all the dirt that was removed from the side of the hill to make room for the new section of trail.

Below:  The finished product after about 3 hours of work.  If you have ridden on Two Quarry lately, you have probably passed though this section as well as the other 10 areas of the trail that needed some drainage assistance.

Check out www.sonomatrails.org or find the Sonoma County Trails Council on Facebook for more info about how you can get involved and support your local trails.  Wether you are a hiker, mountain biker, or equestrian, you can help make the trails safer for the entire community.  Pay your dues!

Click here to email the Sonoma County Trails Council

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