by Scott Bartlebaugh
Progress was made on getting a couple pilot bike bell stations set up with EBPRD. REI committed to funding a grant to the East Bay Regional Parks Foundation. Look for pilot stations to be installed in early summer at Crockett Hills and Briones. The bike bell stations will have a tiny cowbell on a velcro strap that riders can hang on your handlebar or seat rails. The bells are intended to be borrowed but you can make a donation if you’d like to keep the bell. While this might not be the type of bell you want long term it will hopefully introduce riders to the positive impact bike bells have on sharing the trail with others. The early warning a bike bell provides reduces the number of hikers and equestrians that are surprised by bikes which is a frequent complaint about bikes.
MBOMD (Mountain Bikers of Mt. Diablo) reached out and asked BTCEB to present at the Walnut Creek Parks Recreation and Open Space Commission meeting and Chris Wikler presented. The various calls for the mtb community to submit public yielded 51 pro trail committee recommendation comments compared to 20 comments against the trail committee recommendations. Thank you to all that submitted public comments. Staff remained very positive on the trail committee recommendations and reported that environment evaluations were underway and expected completion of those by September. Review of existing trails against the recommended criteria to allow bike use remains to be done regarding trails that are currently signed no bikes but routinely ridden.
Kevin Brown from Oakland is stepping up and taking on an active roll in communicating public comment opportunities particularly with EBRPD. He’ll be posting reminders of meeting dates and how you can submit emailed comment or speak via Zoom. His target is to have several public comments at each EBRPD board meeting and perhaps some of their committee meetings from a broad number of individuals to make the case that many park users desire access to narrow trails and more advanced bike trails. Watch for posts on either the BAMBi (Bay Area Mountain Biking) or BTCEB Facebook pages. Joel Shrocke is working on an email based call for public action communication platform and we’ll let you know when that’s up and running. If you don’t use Facebook but would like to be plugged into notifications for public comment send an email to advocacy@btceb.org and we’ll get you plugged in by our email.
A joint proposal that was a product of work with hikers and equestrians for a process to create a plan for improved access in Briones has been submitted to the EBRPD. The process basically involves hikers, bikers, and equestrians working together to make proposals for trail access including adoption of bootleg trails to create better trail experiences for all three groups. A short meeting was held with park district staff and the park supervisor and the are not satisfied with the status quo and want to offer better trail options to mountain bikers including advanced trails. While this may seem counter to their current enforcement actions and trail closures they are engaging in discussion and discussing advanced trails. Advanced trails have not been explicitly defined but they have an understanding that there is interest in more technically challenging trails with drops and jumps. They understand that if advanced trails are not part of the offering that bootleg trail building is likely to continue. This is in the very early stages and there is cautious optimism.
