Getting Dirty

I finally got around doing something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. It’s a little embarrassing. I finally got around doing some trail and park maintenance. Yeah, I know… I’ve only been riding mountain bikes for, oh, I don’t know, twenty years, and I finally got around to it. Embarrassing, I know.

Part of it was due to the fact I had been working in bike shops a good portion of that time so that hemmed in a bit of my weekends.  But now that I have some time off (boy, do I have time off) it’s felt good to be able to give something back.

Especially now.

According to the California State Parks Foundation as of October 2009:

“ October 12, 2009: Governor Schwarzenegger just vetoed two landmark state park protection bills—Senate Bill 679 by Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis) and Senate Bill 372 by Senator Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego). These bills would have protected California’s state park system against development proposals that threaten state parks, and ensure that efforts to use state parks for non-park purposes result in no net loss of park lands for Californians. The vetoes of SB 679 and SB 372 come on the heels of $14.2 million in budget cuts to the state parks. These budget cuts threaten to partially close parks and to significantly reduce maintenance throughout the system”.

The net effect is that parks are still threatened with closures and park personnel may still face further layoffs.

What parks that remain open are dirtier and less safe so it’s up to user groups to pick up the slack and do some heavy lifting.

Fortunately the BTCEB offers both trail maintenance and bike patrol opportunities.

BTCEB’s website, Meetup and Facebook sites and pages all list plenty of volunteer opportunities so if you can free yourself it’s a great way in order to get involved… especially with the possibility of free food and drinks, it’s a win win situation.

I had fun doing it and I’d definitely volunteer my time again and personally I hope to be able to participate with the BTCEB trail maintenance up in Tahoe this summer.

Adam H