My time at the Classic and with the Stewardship

I discovered Downieville three years ago on a class trip, and although we had to leave early because of a forest fire near our campground, two things had made a very strong impression on me. First of course, were the trails around that area, which were so fun to ride, and the second was the people at Yuba Expeditions.

When we arrived, Wayne was there waiting there, and we all just walked into the shop and instantly felt relaxed and happy. I saw tons of sweet bikes and parts hanging around and knew this was my kind of place. After that, Wayne brought us to a campground that we were going to stay at and helped us set up. This kind of courtesy, from somewhat of a stranger to most of us, is something you don't see everyday anymore. In the following days, Yuba brought up their shuttle van and picked us up, brought us to the top of the mountain and introduced us all to the art of trail building.

I had honestly never really thought about who makes and maintains the trails I ride everyday. The guys at Yuba showed us some tools and techniques that day, that have paved the way to me doing work on trails at home, just because it feels good to do. After that little bit of trail work though, I was hooked. What a great way to spend a weekend!

As soon as our trip was over, I wanted to head back up there, and I did, for one of Yuba's Trail Daze. That too was and awesome experience, and what I realized when I got home was; when people go to Downieville, they are always in a good mood. No one can feel crummy there, and that's what makes it so fun to go there and help out. You get brought to these great trails and then spend a few hours working on them, trying to make them perfect, so that when you ride them the next day, or whenever, you can feel proud, and tell your friends and family, "I helped maintain this section." or, "There was a huge landslide here, and I helped repair it. You should have seen it before!". What you also get out of it though, is that you meet new friends, every time you go, because almost all of the people that are up there helping out, have similar interests to you; they love being in nature, getting dirty, sweating and having a great time while preserving something that would not be being preserved if they were not putting in precious volunteer hours.

I have now helped work on numerous trails, and the bonus for me is, I have to do community service hours for my high school, so I get those done, while doing something that I don't even consider to be work, it's more like play.

This year was my first year attending the Classic, and I was very impressed. I discovered that it is a mandatory event for any kid who is interested in Mountain Biking. It was definitely the highlight of my summer. My friends and I hung out with Brian Lopes, Mark Weir, Jason Moeschler, Dan Atherton, and others, as well as saw all the new bike gear from the sponsors, tons of sick new bikes and met lots of awesome people.

We made it a four-day-weekend, but Sunday was the best day. We were shuttled up to the top of the downhill race just as the last few riders were preparing to take off on their runs. We all had Ziploc bags in our hands, and Greg Carter, the head of the SBTS youth program, had a trailer behind his bike. Once all the riders had gone, we took off on the trail sweep. This may sound kind of gross or weird, but you have no idea how fun it is. We rode in groups and picked up the trash left behind by the racers. We found Gu wrappers, water bottles, inner tubes, tires, pumps, a GPS (which we later found the grateful owner of), tire levers and many other interesting things. When we got back to town, we were all beat from the long ride, and just as we got there, they were have the awards ceremony and raffle, but when they saw our group of weary teenagers and younger, they stopped everything and had us get up on stage. Everyone clapped for us, appreciating the effort all of us had put forth. What they didn't know was, WE HAD HAD SO MUCH FUN DOING IT!!! After that, we were given access to the swag boxes, and grabbed as many Camelback Elixirs, T-shirts, inner tubes, water bottles and other sweet stuff as we could. I'm not going to lie, the swag is pretty sick…

After all the festivities were over, I just sat in my car on the way home and thought about the great weekend I had just had, and all the perks that came with still being young enough to squeeze into the youth program. I think that everyone up there had a great time that weekend, but us youth had the best experience, meeting pro's, getting free stuff, free food for being a volunteer, and oh, I forgot something; whatever your age, when you go to the Downieville classic, definitely sign up to be a volunteer. Random people walked up to me all weekend just to say, "Thanks, I really appreciate your hard work.". That feeling you get when people appreciate your hard, selfless, work, is one that is not often rivaled, and I think I'm addicted to it…

Thanks a million to everyone at Yuba Expeditions, the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship, and all the volunteers that helped make this year's Downieville Classic so fun.

Keegan Mcauliffe 17 yrs old, Occidental Ca.