The voice of off-road bicyclists

News from the CORBA Website Blog since the previous eTerraTimes

President’s Message: 2016 - A Busy, Productive Year

• The Gabrielino Trail Restoration project was completed.  
• Ken Burton Trail restoration was completed, opening a popular loop after seven years of closure and years of work.
• Trailwork days were completed with Los Angeles County, the Conejo Rec and Parks District, Point Mugu State Park, the Mountains Recreation Conservation Authority, the City of Rancho Palos Verdes and elsewhere. High School student-athletes, boy scouts, college students, Amgen and Giant Bicycle employees and many of our dedicated volunteers and members participated.
• We made progress towards bringing the first bike park to Los Angeles.  LA County approved two plans that include bike parks. Thousand Oaks approved a bike park. BikeSGV began construction on the first public bike park in LA County.
• CORBA’s Steve Messer spoke at the California Trails and Greenways Conference on trail etiquette, and at the IMBA World Summit on the Teen Trail Corps.
• With Girlz Gone Riding we now have more women than ever on the trails. GGR’s event was rained out, but the support and camaradarie among so many women was incredible, and everyone still had a great time.
• The devastating Sand Fire closed a large portion of the Forest, right as we began work on the last remaining Station Fire closed trail, the Gabrielino.
• The Hastain trail lawsuit was overturned on appeal.
• IMBA lost a major sponsor creating new challenges (and opportunities).
• Confusion remains as to where the increasing numbers of e-bikes can legally ride.
• An important milestone, CORBA founder Mark Langton retired from the board. But after more than 20 years, he’s still volunteering every month to lead our free skills clinic (and again this Saturday).
• We gained two new board members, and IMBA has a new Board Chair.

In short, it was a very busy year. But where do we go from here? Among our goals for 2017 are:

• The completion and opening of the Gabrielino trail
• Completion of the Sapwi Trails bike park in Thousand Oaks
• Final approval for a bike park in LA
• Continue to expand our bell program
• Updating our online presence, communications and merchandise
• Celebrate our 30th anniversary
• Stay on top of the Santa Monica Mountains trails plan process
• Completion of the SGMNM Monument plan
• Beginning trail planning in the National Forest
• Expanding our educational outreach
• Double our membership (Tell a friend to join!)
• Have fun riding our bikes!

What else could we be doing? What could you help us do, or do better?  Let us know in the comments.

CORBA is an all-volunteer organisation, led by a small but dedicated board of directors and key volunteers. If you’re not a current member, please join CORBA. If you are, convince a non-member friend to join. You can help us double our numbers in 2017. If you’re riding around Los Angeles, CORBA has been involved in making sure you and your friends have that opportunity.

Just as importantly, remember why you love mountain biking. The feeling of freedom, of accomplishment, of challenge, of connection to nature, of camaraderie or solitude, and always of sheer fun. Those are among the reasons we all ride.

Others are using the trails for the same or other reasons. Trails are getting more crowded as social media introduces more and more of the LA population to trails and our amazing open space destinations. We need to always be respectful of others just as we’d like others to treat us. Slow down, be friendly on the trails. Lead by example. That’s the most important thing you can do to support continued mountain biking access.

And ride is something we all hope to do even more of in 2017. Happy new year!

(Editor's note: This is a slight condensation of Steve Messer's comments. You can see the entire retrospective on our blog, including credit to the many who helped with the work, a few photos and a really cool time-lapse video of removing fallen trees from the Strawberry Peak Trail!)

Save The Date! January 15th is CORBA’s Annual RAM Ride & Pancake Brunch!

(Note - This event was originally scheduled for November but was rained out.)

Monthly CORBA Meeting at REI in Woodland Hills

Come and join us to learn about current issues and let us know what concerns you! Always open to the public, the CORBA Board of Directors’ meeting is held the 4th Monday of the month in Woodland Hills. REI is kind enough to let us use their meeting room, for which we thank them profusely!

Every month (except December, when we have no meeting), we discuss these topics:

• Issues of trail access for mountain bikers
• Mountain bike advocacy and ambassadorship
• Public involvement
• The latest news from the land managers, including State Parks and National Park Service
• Trail building and restoration
• Furthering woman’s mountain biking
• Bike parks and other dedicated mountain bike facilities or trails
• Education and etiquette
• Anything brought forward by members of the public

The meetings are 6 – 8 pm at the REI in Woodland Hills (Google Map and Directions):

6220 Topanga Canyon Blvd
Woodland Hills, CA 91367
P: (818) 703-5300

We look forward to seeing you there!

Recreational Rides

A recent Beginners' Ride had 16 participants. Would you like to join us too?

For a list of upcoming recreational rides, please visit the CORBA Calendar.

• Visit our Events Calendar to see all the rides and other activities!
• Check our calendar to see when the next CORBA Kids Club ride will be held.

CORBA’s Club Rides calendar provides a full monthly schedule of mountain bike rides for all skill levels. Mountain bike rides are organized by CORBA member clubs and led by experienced and knowledgeable guides. Recreational rides are a fun and social way to experience a variety of trails in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, and beyond.

Upcoming Trail Restoration and Reports on Past Workdays

For many years, most trail upkeep has been done by volunteers because of budget cutbacks at our parks systems. So come out and help CORBA and other volunteers keep our trails in top riding shape! You can learn more about what to expect and what you'll need to bring with you on our Trailwork web page.

A number of companies and volunteer organizations have asked us if they could do trailwork as a team building exercise, or just to give back to the community. We are happy to work with such groups - shoot us an enquiry at trailwork@corbamtb.com for more information!

For CORBA workdays, we provide lunch for participants after we're finished. Please register in advance to help us prepare by knowing how many volunteers to expect. And... If you come out to two or more trailwork days in a year, we'll give you a cool long-sleeved CORBA trail crew shirt - be sure to ask for yours!

Children must be over 7-years old to attend, and children under 14 must be constantly and directly supervised by their parent or guardian who brought them. Children under 18 must have their waiver signed by their parent or legal guardian.

Summary of Recent Trailwork

Giant Bicycles and Amgen community outreach, December 5, 2016. Workers from these two companies with headquarters in Newbury Park took Friday morning December 9th off from work to help repair the Los Robles Trail West as part of their company’s community outreach programs. We expected 30 volunteers but at least 37 showed up, supervised by three COSCA rangers and one of CORBA’s trail crew leaders. Because of the large turnout, we got the work done in record time. The work area started at the top of the most eastward Dragonback hill, almost a mile from the Felton St. trailhead, and continued for 0.4 miles towards the picnic table at Angel Vista. Work consisted of treadwork: digging out stumps, filling ruts, adding or repairing drainages, resloping and raking loose rocks off the trail. You can see the full report on our blog, along with a link to the photo gallery of the work.

To see all trailwork dates, including those of other groups, visit the CORBA calendar.

Join our mailing list to get updates on trailwork opportunities!
Send an email to Trailwork-Volunteers+subscribe@corbamtb.com

General News

GGR: Girlz Gone Riding Year in Review

On a personal note, I had the most incredible and adventurist summer of racing bikes with friends. I had the amazing opportunity to race XC at the super fun summer series Pedalfest: Pedal Fest Enduro at Rim Nordic: Rim Nordic Bike Park and race on teams for 6 and 12 hour endurance events hosted by SoCal Endurance who always, always encourage women to race! SoCal Endurance

GGR ended the year with our annual CO ED holiday ride and luncheon. January brings on a new and exciting year! Chapter rides, endurance races and January 28th, we have the REI ALL OUT/OPT OUTSIDE event at Malibu Creek State Park. REI has asked CORBA and GGR to run the mountain bike portion of their event! We are so very excited and honored to be a part of this day! Spots are limited, so get signed up now! It’s free! REI All Out Event January 28th 2017

Until next time….we at GGR wish all of you a bright new year of prosperity, health, happiness and most important…epic riding!

To see more photos of GGR over the year, visit Wendy's blog article!