By Tom Gandesbery
Scott Bartlebaugh, BTCEB’s new Advocacy Director, Chris Wikler, our even newer Trail Director and, Tom Gandesbery, the much older Member-at-Large conducted a reconnaissance of Briones Park trail riding opportunities on March 22nd We were joined by local riders Ash and Alec who had contacted us about collaborating with BTCEB and East Bay Regional Parks to bring legal single track (“narrow trails” in EBRPD Parks parlance) to Briones.
With daylight burning we only had a short time to see a small sampling of this huge 6,255-acre regional park. Incredibly, but perhaps not surprisingly, an EBRPD manager told us that there are approximately 25 miles of [bike legal] fire roads, but an additional 29 miles of narrow trails in the park that are *not* open to cyclists. One question we are asking is: Could some of these narrow trails be managed for bicycle use?
As an aside, Scott and Austin have been attending the recently formed EBRPD “Trail Users Working Group”, a committee representing various park users and interests. There have been only a few meetings so far, so it is a bit early to tell whether the effort will lead to more narrow-trail access on yet to be open lands in “landbank” status. Unfortunately, the Working Group is only talking about future trails that could be built in future park lands, not what is currently happening throughout the 73 existing Regional parks. Therefore, Scott and Austin McInerny, an active member of the Bay Area Ridge Trail, have started a parallel effort to engage some of the same stakeholders (equestrians, hikers, native plant afficionados) in conversations about what the District could do to manage the surge in demand for mountain biking across the region. That grass-roots effort may end up paying more dividends than the “official” trails group. Stay tuned!
