by Scott Bartlebaugh
No milestones this month but there are a variety of items in progress:
- Austin McInerny contacted the Tilden Park Supervisor after a no bikes sign was posted on the Volmer Peak trail which is a bike authorized trail. The sign was mistakenly installed and was taken down immediately.
- There was follow up with EBRPD regarding bike bell stations and setting up a trial program. If you haven’t tried a bike bell consider it particularly on trails or roads with poor sight lines. Hikers often appreciate the advanced warning that the bell provides but we still need to slow when passing.
- EBRPD Trails Development group was compiling trail access changes and we submitted a list of requests as part of the bi-annual board review of Ordinance 38. Ordinance 38 is basically the collection of all the park rules for park users. Changes to Ordinance 38 which would include updating attachment A which lists narrow trails that bikes are allowed to use requires board approval.
- A public comment letter was submitted to EBRPD requesting narrow bike trails, a bike skills area, and a pump track at Roddy Ranch.
- A meeting was held with EBMUD staff, general manager, and director Marguerite Young as follow up to her town hall meeting several months ago. EBMUD has seen hiking permits go from 4,700 in 2019/2020 to 13,500 2020/2021. By comparison bike permits were at 200. The low number of bike permits is partially reflected by the very limited bike access and the allowed access being steep fire roads. That said in the two years since the last two sections were opened to bikes they have not seen significant issues with bike use, any bike impact on water quality or significant illegal bike related activity. With the increased users they’ve seen increased work load on dealing with enforcement and trash issues. Recreation is NOT their top priority as a water district but we’d love to convince them they have plenty to offer with all the land they own and some trail. We’ll continue to advocate for more and better access on these large parcels of public land.
- The EBRPD Trail User Working Group scope that was discussed last month is limited to new trails in new parks. We have been having discussions with some hiking and equestrian members of the working group that would also like to see improved trail situations in existing parks. We are aiming to work towards some joint proposals for improvements in existing parks.
