nicalorber's blog

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 »