By Scott Bartlebaugh
East Bay Regional Park District Trail User Working Group
The TUWG met in July and has its final meetings scheduled in August and September. The last two meetings will be aimed at generating proposed actions and considerations the park district can use to enable more progress in providing trails to users and reducing user conflict.
Lime Ridge Walnut Creek Open Space
The WCOS Parks Recreation and Open Space commission skipped its June meeting but met August 2nd. Environmental evaluation work continues and bike access / proposed flow trail was not on this agenda. Look for a likely agenda item and update on the October 4th meeting and a call for public comment. On a related note a dozen commenters spoke in favor regarding the Triangle jumps near Larkey park slated for removal and a need for more bike recreation infrastructure.
EBRPD Tyler Ranch progress
In July the EBRPD increased a contract to keep the Tyler Ranch project moving forward. Over 10 years in the making this project continues with construction scheduled for completion in 2022 and will bring additional mountain bike access to multi-use trails. The Tyler Ranch property is adjacent to Pleasanton Ridge.
El Cerrito Middle School MTB Program Advocacy
A shout out and kudos to Cortis Cooper and the El Cerrito Middle School MTB program. Cortis has begun a public comment leg of their program and is working with his students to make live public comment at the EBRPD Board meetings on a continuing basis.
Crockett Hills Goldfinch Trail to get some Love
The EBRPD Small Trails crew is scheduled to spend some time on Goldfinch trail to re-work the tread surface. They will be bringing in a smaller machine than was used on the Sugar City regrade several years ago along with water and equipment to do some post grading and shaping compaction. While moisture is far from optimal this time of year for tread work they are bringing water out and understand this concern.
Goldfinch trail was machine cut in 2015 when Sugar City and Tree Frog were added but wasn’t ever completely finished. Subsequent seasonal closures due to nesting Golden Eagles and a lack of vegetation maintenance along with some cattle damage had taken its toll.
BTCEB volunteers have been working the past couple seasons to begin to reclaim the tread and help manage vegetation even though it is only open seasonally half the year typically. These efforts along with increased use by riders and hikers has been noticed by the park supervisor. The EBRPD Small Trails crew is separate from the Roads and Trails crew and is still in a trial type status. It’s hopeful that they will continue to get support and become a long term team to support larger and machine intensive trail projects.
