Bike Forums - San Diego Trail Maintenance Event

MULTIUSE TRAILS COALITION INVITES YOU TO COME HELP REPAIR COBBLESTONE TRAIL.

Certainly, one part of our efforts to ensure fair access to trails in Los Penasquitos Canyon and the Del Mar Mesa will be to generate "sweat equity" in the trails. City Ranger Rick Thompson has requested the community to donate volunteer time to maintain and repair trails, and the San Diego Mountain Bike Assn. responded by setting two of their 2004 "trail maintenance days" for Los Penasquitos. The first one is this Saturday, January 24th, 8:00am to Noon or so.

Ranger Thompson has put the word out to the equestrian community, the hikers involved in the Trails Committee and those of us seeking to support multiuse trail designations that he'd really like to see us all come out this Saturday.

The location for the work will be in the Upper Cobbles section of Cobblestone trail, leading down from the Del Mar Mesa into LPCP. This section of trail is currently, and has always been, open to all user groups. It connects to Lower Cobbles (which is marked as closed to bikes), and we are working to establish the entire Cobblestone Trail as a "multiuse corridor", ie open to equestrians, mountain bikes, runners, hikers... and with signs that say so!

The Ranger has identified an area on Upper Cobbles with erosion damage and some sightline issues, and will allocate volunteer labor for appropriate repair work. If you don't know, Ranger Thompson has significant experience in trail design and repair at Mission Trails Regional Park, so this event should give us all some great results on the trail!

The meeting point will be at the top of Cobblestone, on the Del Mar Mesa. To get there, take the 56 Freeway to Carmel Country Rd, south. Carmel Country Rd to Del Mar Mesa Rd (Shaw Ridge Rd) east/left. Follow Shaw Ridge Rd to the point where it Tees into Del Vino. Turn right onto Del Vino, park at the end of Del Vino. The top of Cobblestone is to the southeast of the end of the pavement. Of course, you can also ride your bike, horse or running shoes to the worksite. The meeting time to start work is 8:00am, but if you come later, you will be appreciated (see below).

Notes on Trail Maintenance: if you haven't come to one of these events before, you will enjoy it, even if you do break a sweat. There will be tools for working available, but you can bring your own (mark it with your name using a Sharpie) if you like. Certainly, bring a hat, some water and work gloves. If you don't have work gloves, you can use cycling gloves but they'll get a little torn up. These "work parties" usually go about 4 or 5 hours, so if you're late, it will still work out fine.

Come by! Lend a hand, whether it be in hard labor, walking water up and down the trail to workers or just cheering others on and taking photos. If you are planning to come, please RVSP to: MultiUseTrails-owner@yahoogroups.com so we can give an expected count to the Ranger. If you have questions, email them to the same place and I'll try to get back to you quickly.

Here's hoping to see you out there!

Multiuse Trails Coalition.