sbts's blog

Thanks to all those to came out to make our Spring epic such a success! It was great to see so many new faces. Special shout out to Zachi, Chris, Jeff, Brad, and the rest of the Forest City Alliance Crew who generously led the Friday ride through some precarious situations. Beware of ride leaders with a firecrackers and a good sense of humor is all I have to say...

The Saturday ride was a success with folks splitting up into as many as 5 groups to create their own hand crafted Epic routs. I think 5 brave souls finished the full monty, which was up North Yuba, up First, up Second, down Third, down First, and back down the whole North Yuba back to Indian Valley.  Read More »

On‐Mountain Prep with the Pros

Hot news! – Student signups are open now for the SBTS Prep with the Pros day at the Downieville Classic. On Thursday, July 8th (9am) and Friday, July 9th (9am) pro riders will team up with students on the trails of the race course. This is a fabulous opportunity for young riders to learn about mountain biking skills, the racing scene, and stewardship of the trails we all love to ride. Professional riders are taking a break in their valuable race preparations to “give back” to the community, sharing good times and great ideas with area youth.  Read More »

Just over the ridge from Downieville is the gold rush ghost town of Forest City. All the while SBTS has been busy building and caring for the popular trails on the DVille side of the ridge, a dedicated group of mountain bikers has been creating a system of trails near Forest City. It has long been a dream of ours to have a connector trail built between Forest City and Downieville to link up these two trail systems. Zachi has spent the last several Trail Daze events finding and flagging a route that will eventually connect to the Downieville section of the North Yuba Trail. Zachi and his crew have been braving hip-deep snow, 90 degree slopes, cliff faces, and huge rock outcroppings in an effort to find a route. Zachi thinks that with one more day’s effort, there should be a route flagged for the new Forest City to Downieville connector trail! To recognize those efforts, we at SBTS awarded Zachi Anderson April’s Volunteer of the Month. Zachi received an SBTS hoodie and his two crew members each got a pair of the latest SBTS socks.

According to the last weather report we’d heard, it was to be a nice day on Saturday. Unfortunately, we awoke to a cold gray day that felt more like mid-winter than mid spring and we were pretty sure we’d be getting good and wet before the day was done. The plan was to repair a damaged section of 2nd Divide located just past the cabin. We also needed to remove some large boulders from 1st Divide. Van and Todd needed to leave early, so we sent them to 1st to tackle the boulders while the rest of us headed out to 2nd. After hiking 3 ½ miles and finding ourselves less than ½ mile from the worksite, the snow was 8 inches deep and filled the trail and the surrounding woods. Rather than continuing up into uncertain conditions, we opted for plan “B,” to buff out the trail. (We’ll send a pro crew up to complete our original plan after the snow melts.)

The Trail Daze volunteers spent the next several hours pulling berm off the outer edge of the trail, filling ruts, and adding drainage features. In all, we worked on more than a mile of 2nd Divide. Ron walked the entire trail with his chainsaw and removed any fallen trees. Together with the work done last fall, 2nd will be in awesome shape for the season.  Read More »

The Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship (SBTS) has teamed up with Plumas Unified School District (PUSD) to provide an outdoor educational opportunity for students district wide. PUSD’s Rob Wade has been working on what he calls “Learning Landscapes,” a program that continues his efforts to get students engaged in the outdoors on the Plumas, fostering a sense of appreciation and stewardship. The main initiative of the Learning Landscapes program is to provide easily accessible trails with in a short distance of every school on the district. The trails would not only provide outdoor recreational opportunities, but would act as an outdoor classroom for teachers and students. Additionally, students with guidance from the SBTS, will be involved in the planning, building and maintenance of the trails.

Johnny Anderson, a Greeneville High senior took on the ambitious Learning Landscapes pilot project as his senior project. With guidance from the SBTS, he has been able to successfully plan, and start construction on a ½ mile loop trail that is with in a five minute walk from his high school. Previously Johnny volunteered on the Mills Peak Trail and then worked with SBTS’s Brett Marty and Ron Heard to plan and work out a project plan for his teachers. After meeting with the local community district and several days on site Johnny with the help of Brett and Ron, teamed up with a handful of his fellow class-mates to start construction on his trail.  Read More »