nicalorber's blog

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It's Sunday and I just got back from a beautiful weekend in Downieville. 27 folks showed up for the trail day, including 6 youth, to knock out 1000 feet of new trail. The North Yuba has seen a lot of work on it in the last few years and we're really close to finishing this 7 mile section of trail, which when complete will link a new 15 mile trail straight out of town that will be open almost all year round. This is a big deal and we're so close. But how close are we really?

I've had ideas of how close we were but had never ridden the whole thing to see for myself how much was really left to do until today. Tod (1D), Todd (DoubleD, Toe-Clip Todd), and I rode it today to see for ourselves . We spent a little less than 30 minutes hike a biking a half mile of unfinished trail til we hooked up with the finished half on the other side. Once we got to the other side, we were greeted with sweet flowing single track (minus a couple down trees and debris) that descended 3 miles into Goodyears Bar.  Read More »

As part of Decline Magazine's sponsorship, they gave us some ads. Here they are for your viewing pleasure.

Who is Palatar? Unless you were one of the chosen few to hear the memorable and remarkable campfire story by Max, you'll have to wait until the next Epic... or go camp out with the Quincy boys at the Smith Lake base camp.

Epic Recap: Trails were ridden, bikes were carried, paths were hiked, meat was grilled, new friends were made, laughs exploded, and rumor has it that somebody threw up... although I didn't see it nor was there any photo documentation, so we can only speculate at this point. To view pictures of the event, click here(if you have any pics from the event, upload them on Flickr and send them to the SBTS Group Pool por favor).  Read More »

Did you know that if you turn off all the lights and type by the light of your laptop that your screen will attract flies, beetles, and all forms of insects? It's true... and is happening right now... and since it's the mountains, the bugs are seriously gigantic.

Trail Update: The Smith Lake trail is done and our crew has moved on to the next project which is the creation of multiple switch backs coming off the back side of Elwell. The old(current) trail there is steep, unsustainable, and turns into a river when wet, so these switch backs will be a nice improvement once completed.

We've finished brushing on the new section and 3 of the switch backs have been constructed. Our crew will continue work on this section until the snow falls and we'll be working here the Sunday of the Epic weekend with as many volunteers as we can muster.  Read More »

Email received from Willie this morning:

The new trail, Smith / Jamison Connector, aka Cheez It, will be opened today. We will do the last of the blasting and open the entrance up to the Smith Lake Trail. It is incredible and is receiving rave reviews by visitors and the Forest Service.

Beer Pine anyone? It's the new game invented by our summer trail crew while occupying themselves late into the night at the Smith Lake Base Camp. "It's like beer pong, but with lodge pole pine cones," said Carroll as he ate his lunch of sandwich and Cheez-Its, covered in sweat and dirt, sitting next to his trail crew cohorts.

Carroll leads our summer trail crew which consists of himself, Max and Little Brad. On occasion they are joined by Cosmo, Tyler, Evan, Greg, Ron, Brett, myself, and many others who either make the trek to volunteer with them for the day or simply pick up a Pulaski after a chance encounter on the trail. The boys are out there five days a week working on the rocky re-rout on Smith Lake which is replacing the old degraded trail. The work they've done is incredible and the views from the ridge are fantastic. Smith Lake can be seen on one side while the entire Mohawk valley can be seen on the other.  Read More »

Bikes Belong Awards $5,000 to the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship for the North Yuba Trail

Boulder Colorado—May 5, 2008 Bikes Belong Coalition is pleased to award a $5,000 grant to the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship in Downieville, CA. This grant will help the group complete the final four miles of the North Yuba Trail—referred to as the Golden Spoke—which will connect to 14 miles of mountain bike trails. This non-motorized trail will enable cross-country mountain bikers to ride to the renowned Downieville trails from town instead of drive.

“We love to support trail projects that help mountain bikers ‘ride to recreation’ rather than drive to a trailhead,” said Elizabeth Train, Grants & Research Director at Bikes Belong. “This project is a great example of the important work Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship is doing for mountain bikers in Downieville.”

Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship has established itself as a strong partner with the National Forest Service and promotes stewardship and community support for trails through their Trail Adoption program. They’ve also garnered state funding for this project.  Read More »

This was the second scheduled Trail Daze on Gray Eagle Creek trail. Most of the twenty eight folks that showed up had attended the first work day on May 15. Most everyone knew the hard work they were in for ahead of time. Judy Schaber, from the Plumas Forest had a load of gravel, lumber and rebar delivered to the trail head, so we were ready to continue turnpiking the 250' section of damaged trail bed. The crew worked efficiently, breaking off into groups of four and five. Group detail included: culvert digging, rock excavation, rock crushing, peeler pole installation, pole drilling, rebar pounding, felt paper lining, rock placement, gravel shoveler, and gravel hauler. Lucky for us we had three motorized wheel-barrels on hand, one of which was Jim Jacobsen's personal machine. This was an incredible effort on everyone's part.  Read More »