BTCEB Buzz, December 2021

*Sunday* December 26th – 9:00am to Noon
Deer Park Trailhead
199 PORTEOUS AVE, FAIRFAX, CA 94930

The Bicycle Trails Council of the East Bay (https://www.btceb.org) invites you to our monthly Gala Ride.  THIS MONTH WE WILL BE RIDING ON SUNDAY DECEMBER 26TH IN THE MT TAM WATERSHED IN FAIRFAX!!!

Join us on DECEMBER 26th for the BTCEB Holiday Gala ride in the scenic MOUNT TAMALPAIS WATERSHED. This is our post-Christmas / Boxing Day / Kwanza and work off the Christmas cookies ride! We will be riding on the bay side of Mt. Tam to explore the Bon Tempe and Alpine lakes while riding through the wooded landscape. The main ride is approximately 12+ miles with 1400 ft of climbing and will be broken into at least 3 groups, organized by pace and distance, from slower riders to more advanced riders. Come join the fun!

==> THE ADDRESS IS: 199 PORTEOUS AVE, FAIRFAX, CA 94930

We will gather at 9am at the Deer Park Trailhead by the restrooms and hit the trails promptly at 9:30am.

The Deer Park Trailhead is in Mt. Tam watershed, at the end of Porteous Rd and Deer Park Fire Rd. The parking is free inside the lots, but it is limited. If the lot is full, there is street parking on Porteous Ave and Meernaa Ave. Carpooling is encouraged to make sure we have space for everyone.

Join us for refreshments, beer and snacks after the ride. A well-tuned mountain bike is a must!

We offer ride groups for ALL SKILL LEVELS, from novice to intermediate to advanced. All rides are ‘no-drop’ rides (we won’t leave you behind or let you get lost) and are fully supported. A novice rider should be able to ride 10-12 miles ( including ~1000ft of climbing) on hilly narrow singletrack for 2.5 hrs.

We will separate into 3 levels of riders: The beginner group, group C, will ride around 12 miles and 1400ft of elevation gain; The intermediate group, group B, will ride around 14 miles and 1600ft of elevation gain; the advanced group, group A, will ride around 15+ miles and 2000+ ft of elevation gain.

We will post-pone if there is rain the day of or before.

Rides are free and open to the public and led by experienced local mountain bikers familiar with the trails. Medical coverage is provided to all paid BTCEB members, one more reason to join. So go to our website and hit the JOIN TODAY button. We take PayPal.

And as always PLEASE RSVP to join the ride.

Saturday December 18th – 8:30AM to Noon
Meet at Highland Way Parking Lot in Los Gatos 95033

The pre-holiday edition of our women’s ride series will be a bit more adventurous than usual: we’re going to venture into the depths of the Santa Cruz Mountains and ride Soquel Demonstration Forest. The mission of Ride Like a Girl is to have fun, learn new trails and meet other women who love to mountain bike. We’ll take care of you: these are no-stress rides where no one is left behind.

Join ride leader Rebecca Lewington on Saturday, December 18th at 8:30am in the parking lot off of Highland Way. We’ll roll at 9am, which will give us plenty of time to sign in and go over the ride. The dirt road up to the parking lot is rather rough. If you’re not sure your vehicle is up to it, park on Highland Way and ride the very short distance up to meet us.
The payoff for making the trek will be perhaps the finest singletrack in the Bay Area, the famed Flow Trail.

Our route will cover 14 miles with 2,000 feet of climbing. Please note that this ride is not suitable for beginners. Intermediate riders will be fine, but should be prepared to walk a couple of short, rocky sections of the Ridge Trail which are tricky even for experienced riders. The flow trail itself is not technical, just an unbelievable amount of fun!

Please bring your mountain bike, obviously, in good working condition. (No ebikes are permitted at Demo.) Whether you’re running tubeless tires or not, please make sure you have a spare inner tube to fit your wheels, plenty of water and some food for the trail. If it’s wet, which none of us should complain about, we’ll postpone.

We usually hang out for a while after the ride, so bring along your favorite beverages and snacks if you feel like it.

​Sign up on Meet Up.

And don’t forget to join BTCEB! We are much more than a group that puts on rides. BTCEB tirelessly advocates for better bike access on trails in the East Bay and we need your support.

JOIN today!

By Scott Bartlebaugh, Advocacy Director

We’ve been part of an effort working with EBPRD staff on a concept for a bike flow trail at Wildcat Canyon Regional Park (East Bay Regional Park District) for the last year and it’s progressed to a point of needing some broader community participation.

“The Park staff has reviewed the proposal and done a number of preliminary studies. They liked what they saw so they are proceeding with more detailed environmental studies.  However, the really crucial next step is in our hands – we need to show the EBRPD Board that there is broad community support for the trail.”  

We ask that you take the following actions if you haven’t already.  And if you have already, THANK YOU!

1. Sign the petition at wildcatflowtrail.org
2. Communicate this call to action to your networks and ask them to pass it along and recruit as many people possible to sign the petition.  Ask them to reach out to friends, family, neighbors,  and park supporters that aren’t mountain bikers.  Broad support from a variety of stakeholders is important in addition to large numbers.  If you are a member of another type of trail user group and can get that group to submit support for this trail concept that would be very helpful.

We are asking at this time that you don’t make a live public comment at the December 7th, EBPRD board meeting.  At this point the advocacy ask of the board is to support continuing work on staff to develop this concept and move it forward.  The leadership team for this effort would like to let the petition demonstrate the magnitude of support from the community while respecting the board meeting time and not overloading the public comment period.  If the board does not direct staff to continue work on this trail concept then we may ask for the community to step up with public comment at the board meetings.   

When you sign the petition you can also leave an email address for direct updates on the effort.

A Perspective on E-bikes – Food for Thought

Here’s a short read by long time mountain bike writer Zapata Espinoza with a perspective on e-bikes and how it relates to advocacy for mountain bikes.  Give it a read and consider the perspective.  

WHO’S AFRAID OF E-BIKES? – Mountain Bike Action Magazine

Public Comment Calendar

If you’d like to be added to a public comment opportunity email list, send a message to advocacy@btceb.org.  We will message out via email on particular public comment opportunities.  

• Walnut Creek Parks Recreation and Open Space Commission
  December 6th meeting to be cancelled – Look for a possible January 3rd
  Item:   Lime Ridge Flow Trail / Trail Committee Recommendations

EBRPD Public Meeting Schedules

• EBRPD Board Meeting 
  December 7th, 6pm
• EBRPD Board Meeting 
  Tuesday December 21st, 1pm
• EBRPD Board Meeting 
  Tuesday January 4th, 1pm
• EBRPD Board Meeting 
  Tuesday January, 18th 1pm

By John Roberts, BTCEB Director-at-Large

It happens all the time. On the trail, a hiker that is walking towards me from a far distance pulls off the trail. OK, I know that I, as a mountain biker, should instead be yielding to them.   What’s frustrating about this scenario is that many times the trail is wide enough for both of us to cross in opposite directions.

Under California law, when a motorist enters a crosswalk and a pedestrian is forced to stop walking on that crosswalk as a result, this can earn the driver a ticket (CVC 21950). Similarly, if I’m a bike rider and a hiker has to yield to me, it makes me feel uncomfortable. I may not be breaking any law, but I am missing an opportunity to show the hiker a noble gesture. 

So when I see an approaching hiker stopping at a far distance, I will immediately stop myself, even when there is still more than 10 yards between us. In the typical scenario, I shout out: “Go ahead!“. Then the hiker, dumbfounded, meekly says: “No, you go ahead.” Then I say: “But you have the right of way“. At this point in the rare occasion a hiker continues their walk, as they pass they will say thank you, or once the person said: “You are the only biker that seems to know that”.

The reality, is that most hikers that I have encountered will not give up the disagreement at this point. They will insist I should go first. Is it that they do not know how to ride and thereby misjudge my ability to ride by them, or is it a deep love of their personal safety?  I do not know for sure.  Some hikers even come up with clever ways of tricking me to go first. They’ll say things like: “It’s OK because I’m waiting for the rest of my family to catch up”.  Maybe, its a noble gesture. 

By Rebecca Lewington

For the fifth installment of our women’s ride series, a pack of 24 happy dirt lovers joined ride leader Rebecca Lewington on the trails south of Pacifica.

Perfect weather and trail conditions made it a day to remember. We took in the amazing views from Devil’s Slide and Old San Pedro Road, then tried not to look at the scenery on the diabolically fun Devil’s Downhill. The post-ride hangout at the Humble Sea Brewing Company was also most entertaining.

Ride leader Rebecca would very much like to thank Jaz, Lisa and Laura for helping her lead the ride. 

By Michael J. Hartlaub

The Norcal Cadette Girl Scouts 33519 led by Beth Detwiler came out to the pump track to provide some community service and earn their Silver Award Project by volunteering to build a bike repair work stand and tool box at our newly constructed pump track. Our builders were Maddie Stein, Sylvie Arestidies, and Charlotte Vance who came up with the concept to build a bike repair stand and tool box to help on-the-fly bike fixes.

Our heroic and kind scouts not only came up with a winning design concept for a bike stand, but also hand made and welded the steel stand and crafted a hand built and painted tool box. Our scouts came out, worked hard to dig through the dry-hard Oakland soil, mixed the concrete and planted the tool stand in a location adjacent to the pump track, near the Kiosk.  The stand comes complete with a multitude of Park Tools (TM)  wrenches, allen keys, screw drivers, and tire levers. Perfect for the on the trail repair and adjustment. The box is also a perfect place to donate extra tubes for a biker in need.

Stop by the pump track and tune up your ride on this awesome new bike repair stand brought to you by our local Girl Scouts Troop. And let’s give a big thank you to Maddie, Sylvie and Charlotte for the fine workmanship! 

By Michael Massucco

The addition of the water tank has enabled us to stay on top of track maintenance. The Track has been in great shape, We can water and fix little problem areas before they turn into big problems.

We are planning for more improvements! The photo above is a rough sketch of what we envision for the future expansion of the Oakland Pump Track. We need to do a bit of fundraising in order to get the clean soil delivered. Please donate what you can now, and get ready to shovel some dirt later!