sbts's blog

Paul Bigbee from Palo Alto is the happy winner of the Ibis Mojo SL-R. Paul can pick up his bike in June and take his first ride on Mills Peak Trail. Paul bought $20 worth of tickets and received a bike valued at $8,400.00. Now that's leveraging your funds. And just like Paul, we need to leverage these precious funds to get as much Sierra trail built as possible.

FUN FACTS:
$35,365 donated
1766 donors
7073 tickets sold

Even though only one person could win the bike, everyone wins. Because the raffle funds will be used to build the final segment of Mills Peak Trail, connecting Dowieville to Graeagle. The plan is to have Mills finished by September for the Fall Mountain Epic in the Lakes Basin.

A huge thanks to Ibis for the Frame, Easton for the wheels, Fox for the suspension and Shimano for the group, and to everyone that participated. Thank You for believing in us.

ABOUT MILLS PEAK TRAIL  Read More »

Become A Core Member Today

We have officially launched our Core Member Program. Core Members are supporters who sign up to donate on a monthly basis starting at $10 a month. Core members provide the financial stability and support vital to our ongoing efforts to:

• Preserve historic Sierra singletrack
• Create employment opportunities in both Plumas and Sierra County
• Build and maintain trails for communities who economically rely on recreational tourism
• Host up to twelve volunteer trail events per year
• Pursue grants focused on job creation, resource protection and recreation enhancement
• Leverage grant funds through in-kind contributions, including: volunteer labor, tools and matching funds provided by membership and donations
• Provide tools and equipment for SBTS volunteers and crew

Core Member perks include:  Read More »

We woke up to a light drizzle early Saturday morning, so were concerned that the volunteers might decide to skip trail work. Fortunately more than 25 hardy folks ignored the rain and showed up for work. We split the crew in half and one group went with Henry to 1st Divide while the other group went to 3rd Divide with Erik. The 3rd Divide Crew worked on some light brushing as well as installing drainage dips and removing braking bumps along the entire 3 miles of trail. We had mostly experienced hard working volunteers who worked the entire length of the trail in less than three hours. Since we had time left over, we hiked down the top of 2nd Divide and worked on drainage on the first few hundred yards of trail. After getting the trails in shape for winter, we hiked back down and joined Wayno for tasty BBQ and beers at the Yuba House. Thanks to all our volunteers and sponsors yet another successful Trail Daze!

Report from Brett Marty

Today was one of those really good days out on the trail that everything went right and we felt like we really accomplished alot of work. Chuck and I continued to prep the turnpikes for the Septer 25th Trail Daze and they are looking great.  They have turned out to be quite an elaborate project, I even needed to use a mechanical wacker to help compact the earth for the elevated surface.  After a full day of work  with a lot accomplished we had nearly a dozen Feather River College students come up and put in 3 hours of solid work! The class was part of the outdoor recreation programs bicycle class taught by my good friend, Saylor Flett.  Dana Ludington also made it up for the volunteer action. The volunteers nailed the golden spike for the reroute that we are currently working on, completing the 400+ feet that was needed to connect and open the new trail.   Read More »

Fan mail from the trail:

Recently I was hiking from Bucks Summit to Silver Lake and back.  My friend Christina Kimmel and I came upon this crew working hard to better the trails.  I have hiked from Silver lake up to Spanish Peak before the trail improvements.  They have made a world of difference.  It is not only easier to hike, but it is also beautifully done. Kind of reminds me of an artistic Japanese garden. (I was born in Japan) 

Keep up the great work!!!!  Thank you so much.

Sincerely,   

Joan Woods-Gately

Melinda and Ron bag the elusive Red Fir Stump (redfirus gigantia).

Packing nothing more than an 18 lb "Tool Council" Rock Bar and a "Snow Healy" custom Pulaski Melinda and Ron took down this RFS. Melinda said, "we stalked him for an hour or more, but our training paid off and we got a clean kill".

Report from the field from Ron:

Over 2 days we built 500 feet of trail, then today we hit the (rock) wall, but still managed 100 feet.   Working with Diana we drilled and blasted 3 times, built a rock wall, polished a bunch of trail, and pulled 500 large rocks or so.  The last blast was off the hook, and we lost the kevlar blanket/shield that protects you from flying rock. That is until I thought of looking up, and there it was, high high high in a tree.

Come out and volunteer. We're on the trail everyday. Get more information on where to meet the trail crew.  Read More »

Melinda has been working with the Stewardship since day one and is one of the pillars of our volunteer community, having worked on almost every trail we've built. She can be found at any major event playing a key  role such as buying all the food(Costco anyone?), running the booth, or being a trail crew leader. Melinda has a long history of trail building dating back to the days when she helped build the popular Tamarancho trail in Marin.

Melinda lives in Clio, the town just down the road from Graeagle where a lot of our new trails are being built. This last summer(as well summers before...) she has spent loads of her free time volunteering with her husband and board member, Ron Heard, constructing the new Mills Peak trail. While working on this trail is incentivized by the fact that she gets a new trail in her back yard, her efforts have not gone unnoticed by SBTS. We would like to thank her for all of her hours of dedication which have helped make Mills Peak into a world class trail. With a little help from the community, this trail could be finished this year. Ron has been the champion of this trail from start to finish, and the results are amazing. The addition of this trail into the Graeagle community will expand the trail system in a way that the area has not seen in years.

Folks regularly leave donations at the tractor after hiking this trail simply because they are so grateful, excited, and psyched that it is being built.  Read More »

That's right we said it. We just completed construction on a new pump track open to the public at the Chalet View, located on HWY 70 between Portola and Graeagle.  Read More »