San Diego's Mt Laguna: New Singletrack

There's some great biking east of San Diego, in the Alpine and Laguna Mountains. Noble Canyon is an IMBA Epic and the Big Laguna Trail is another favorite.

The exciting news is this:

The San Diego Mountain Biking Association is teaming up with IMBA to open up 10 miles of singletrack that were previously closed to mountain bikes! Last weekend members of these groups practiced state of the art trailbuilding techniques in the Chico Ravine/Big Laguna Trail System at Mt. Laguna. Information about the event is here.

Soon, thanks to volunteers, there will be world class biking options just outside of San Diego.

Photo from IMBA website here.

IMBA to Design New Trails in Mammoth

Good news for Mammoth!
This is from the IMBA website:

"Trails Solutions Selected to Design Trails at Mammoth Resort"
IMBA's Trail Solutions has been selected as the consultant for natural-surface trails at Mammoth resort. Professionals on the Trail Solutions team will work closely with ALTA Planning and Design, who is providing planning services for paved pathways and road systems. According to IMBA's Cimarron Chacon, Mammoth has plans to become a "premier year-round resort community." The planning includes a multi-jurisdictional partnership with the town of Mammoth Lakes and the US Forest Service. Additional partners include Mammoth Mountain resort and the MLTPA, a local non-profit."

IMBA Trail Solutions Services

MLTPA Action Plan They want to "establish a vision for a comprehensive system of trails and public
access for Mammoth Lakes and the surrounding region."

Survey Here's a Trail-Use survey for the Town of Mammoth Lakes. You can tell them that you like to mountain bike and want more singletrack opened up!


The photos above are from the Mammoth Mountain Bike Park website here.

New Fresno Freeride Mountain Bike Park!

The FresnoBee reports that Woodward Park in Fresno, CA is developing into a world class mountain bike park. The article states that the 57 acre bike jump park, bmx track, and mountain bike park will certainly be the most progressive in the state of california. The BMX track is nearly complete, and the freeride jump park is on its way!

One excerpt from the article says, "Highlights of the L-shaped park, which overlooks Highway 41 and the San Joaquin River, include a downhill jumping course, multiple cross-country trails and an elevated section where riders will have to balance themselves while riding over logs and narrow lumber."

Sweeeeeeet!

Spandex vs Baggies

Guest writer, posted by mtndjd;
This post is purely Satirical and not intended to offend fans of Spandex. Its still ok for women.

If no one else is going to speak out, then the MudBlog is here to set some things straight;

There seems to be a grey area when it comes to the appropriateness of biking attire. Somewhere in our rough, gun slinging, cowboy, western cultural history; an embarrassing rift has occurred. The rift is sometimes as jolting and horrifying as scenes from a bad European beach movie where male stars run around in speedos, thongs, and G-strings (aka. marble bags). A naive observer might be inclined to ask, 'whats in your pocket?' the obvious problem being, there is no pocket. John Wayne will continue to turn in his grave until men in Spandex are outlawed in public.





The fashion trends among bikers have undoubtedly become commonplace due to road riding heroes such as Lance Armstrong, and Greg LeMond. These guys did it for the money, not because they liked publicly exhibiting their packs. Repetitious motion to the extent experienced during the Tour De France and the likes, gives some credence to the uniform. Unfortunately for early mountain bikers, like a Canadian without a mullet, if you weren't sporting tight spandex and shaved legs, you just weren't a serious biker. Luckily, the times have changed....but unfortunately, confusion still exists.

A shift to the more rugged, traditional American 'manly' style of attire has influenced mountain bikers of late. Durable 'baggie' shorts with crash padding and less revealing styling have brought the much needed coolness factor back to biking. The baggies incorporate spandex, or other non-chafing technologies, all without compromising the manliness factor. Since this change in styling has occurred mountain biking has exploded in America. One can only speculate that this is not a coincidence. Men everywhere are now proudly riding their bikes without having to leave their masculinity in the garage.



We would love to get some comments from all of you out there that still wear spandex in public.
1. How often do you wear Spandex in public?
2. Do you ever wear Spandex when not biking?
3. Do you ever notice people staring at you/yours when in public?
4. If you are a man, do you shave your legs?
5. Would you be comfortable wearing a speedo on the beach in America?
6. Do you realize that 'show-through' is accentuated when viewed from the side?

Post contributed by mtndjd.

Colonnade Bike Park Grand Opening!

Last month a great new asset for mountain bikers was opened to the public!! Hopefully this park sets a precedent for the rest of the country.

This is from the BBTC website:

I-5 Colonnade is the first ever urban mountain bike skills park. It's part of a City of Seattle park, but was funded and constructed by the BBTC (Backcountry Bicycle Trails Club).

The Novice Area (Phase 1) is complete and offers a 1/2-mile tight'n'twisty Cross Country loop trail with several intermediate to advanced options.

It's a great place to work on key skills be sessioning:

• Ladder bridges, log rides and skinnies
• Tight switchbacks
• Steep rock chutes and technical rock rolls
• Teeter totters
• Rock step-ups
• A long ladder bridge roller coaster ride (be careful to keep your speed waaaay down... she bucks!)

Phase 2 is under construction and scheduled to be completed by Oct'08. Phase 2 will focus on more flowy advanced trails and offer features like jumps, berms, wall rides, progressive drops, rock chutes, skinnies, pump track, trials area, etc. and a couple of sessionable practice areas.

More info: Colonnade Project Page and Colonnade Phase 2 Page.

Mountain Biking Yosemite

While mountain biking inside of Yosemite National Parks is not allowed, there are some great options just outside the park boundary. Trails on the Eastern Sierra side, near the Tuolumne Meadows entrance, offer the best scenery and singletrack. Two great biking options are Bennettville Trail and Saddlebag Lake Trail.


Bennettville Trail follows a section of the historic Great Sierra Wagon Road and scenically weaves past the infamous mine, the Great Sierra Tunnel, on its way to the ghost town of Bennettville.

Nearby, the Saddlebag Lake Trail is a mountain bike blessing. Absolutely amazing high sierra scenery surrounds this loop, which is nestled between Hoover Wilderness and Yosemite.

Another ride in the area, Lake Canyon Trail, requires a bit more aerobic exertion. Details and maps of the ride are depicted in Mountain Biking Mammoth. Enjoy!

Bikes & Wilderness

A lot of bikers don't really understand the implications of Wilderness, and the threat to mountain biking. Several Wilderness Bills are being proposed in California this year, led by Barbara Boxer, and would shut down thousands of acres to mountain bikes.

Here is a quick article from the IMBA website below: Bicycling and Wilderness: A Mountain Biker's Guide to Wilderness Advocacy.

"Wilderness often presents a dilemma to the environmentally conscious mountain biker. While most of us applaud the intentions of the Wilderness Act, we also believe that bicycles are an appropriate, muscle-powered activity that belongs in Wilderness alongside hiking and horseback riding.

But why did bicycles ever become embroiled in the Wilderness debate? Note that bicycling is not mentioned in the Wilderness Act. The key provision often debated is in Section 4(b), which prohibits in Wilderness all motorized travel and equipment and allows "no other form of mechanical transport."

What does the term "mechanical transport" mean? In 1965, shortly after the Congressional action, the Forest Service wrote formal regulations to implement the Wilderness Act and defined "mechanical transport" to mean a cart, sled or other wheeled vehicle that is "powered by a non-living power source." As of the year 2005, that definition is still law.

However, nineteen years after the passage of the Wilderness Act, during the early days of mountain bicycling, the agency added a regulation that prohibits "Possessing or using a hang glider or bicycle." That 1984 action was one of the first to ban bicycling on public lands and by eliminating riding on approximately 25 million acres, it was also certainly the largest.

Unfortunately, most Americans are not aware that bicycles are banned from Wilderness. This can create the impression that bicycles cause more harm to the environment than do hikers or horses. In fact, science has shown that bicycles generally cause about the same amount of damage as hikers and less damage than horses. IMBA has summarized the findings of this research, available at: imba.com/resources/science/impact_summary.html.

When the topic of bicycles and Wilderness is debated by the conservation community, views are often split. The Spring 2003 edition of Wild Earth, a biodiversity and conservation publication of the Wildlands Project, invited six environmental advocates to weigh in on the issue. You can get a sense for both sides of the argument and those on the fence."

Pictures above (top to bottom) are from the IMBA website, of the Meiss Meadow Trail near Tahoe, Mt Lola trail in Castle Peak, and the Tahoe Rim Trail...all threatened by Wilderness designations.

Coast Dairies - new epic singletrack?

The coastal Coast Dairies land and Sand Hill Bluffs in Santa Cruz is now officially public land and managed under California State Parks. This includes 13 miles of incredible scenic northern Santa Cruz coastline!

According to the Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz website:

* State Parks will receive the approximately 400 acres coastside of Highway One and the historic Laguna Inn that may one day be the site of a visitors' center. State Parks will oversee the public's use of the popular beaches and will manage agricultural leases on the coastal side.

*The federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will receive approximately 6,000 acres on the upland portion of the property, including the grasslands, redwood forests, and lands leased for grazing and the cement quarry.

*The local non-profit group, Agri-Culture, will acquire the agricultural land inland of Highway One that was in agricultural production when the Trust for Public Land acquired Coast Dairies & Land Co. (CDLC) and its property in 1998 (approximately 550 acres).

This is all exciting news and a great victory for public land, but has anyone heard if there has been any progress in allowing bikes on trails?

Wilderness & Trail Closures

Wilderness proposals are not voted on by the public, but by Congress (fat pale vampire-like people who have never even been on a trail). Yet, with a stroke of a signature, they can close millions of acres and thousands of miles of trails off to everyone but hikers and horseman. Somehow they think that a 1500 pound horse with hooves does less damage that a bikerider with a 25 pound bike (with the weight dispersed over soft rubber.) Anyone who claims this, has NEVER been backpacking in the Sierras, where trails have become deep multi-lane trenches of pulverized horse crap. But, this is besides the point...

Designating the lands as "Semi-primitive Back Country Recreation" areas instead of Wilderness would allow protection for the lands and ensure continued shared use of public lands. Closing more trails to multiple use would only serve to concentrate use and exacerbate problems on remaining trails. In many places, the only trail maintenance is done by mountain bikers and motorcycle riders. Trails would literally disapear without these users. But the special interests with deep pockets, powerful hollywood-type environmental groups and rich horseman groups, are lobbying congress to close access.

Chris Horgan of Stewards of the Sequoia is fighting the good fight. He realizes how threatened our access to public land and trails really is. He says this: "Every form of recreation on public lands has one thing in common, access. Without access one cannot enjoy mountain biking or dirt biking or camping or hunting or fishing or horseback riding or hiking. The issue is not OHV use. It is whether we stand united for access for all or whether we allow access to be restricted to a few. Do we encourage volunteerism or encourage intolerance?" You can read more about it and sign the petition at www.access-advocates.org NONE of the proposed wilderness areas are recommended by the Forest Service (they are supposed to be the experts) but congress tends to listen to the special interest groups with the money. Get involved - this is happening everywhere!

Do you want trails to ride on?

This is SCARY, for real. Soon Congress will be voting on Barbara Boxer's newest California Wilderness Bill - this will immediately close down thousands of acres of public lands to mountain biking all over California. Read a summary here and please sign the petition! Our elected officials need to know that banning mountain biking is NOT appropriate. Our lands can be protected through other designations, besides the anti-mountain bike "Wilderness" designation.