Sport And Biking Talk: Building more singletrack in Santa Cruz

Friday, July 21, 2017

Building more singletrack in Santa Cruz

Emma and Matt, the first two employees of MBOSC welcome you to a new age trail building.

MBOSC has grown up from its humble beginnings as a club to a trail building force to be reckoned with. With the initiative of a few motivated folks rallying in their spare time and earning a few key wins like the Emma McCrary trail and the West Side pump track, MBOSC has taken the next step in its mission.

They now have two folks working on staff, Matt and Emma and have an office to call their home. They are now graduating from piecemeal wins and projects to a sustained, focused effort strategizing the next decade of trail building in Santa Cruz County.

Matt explains that the entire Santa Cruz County only has 40 miles of legal singletrack. The average mountain biker rides 40 miles a week so legal options are clearly not enough.

They are now talking to the right landowners and earning a seat in the planning process for land use. They are pitching ideas, offering solutions and providing concrete examples of their successes.

We paid them a visit to listen and learn about their vision. It is indeed very bright if they get our support. We’ll be writing more about their plan in the near future. They are currently involved with 5 trail building efforts and there’s many more to come.

The trail building family is one of our most important units moving forward.

What are the current projects?

One of the greatest benefits of MBOSC now having full time staff in house is a new level of experience and professionalism is now in play. That means that instead of scrambling to prevent a trail from getting shut down, the staff is now strategically planning how to build new trail and fund projects. MBOSC is now meeting with the decision makers and becoming part of the planning process. Instead of complaining or begging for scraps, MBOSC is offering solutions to trail managers. As a result, the conversation is on a whole different track and trails have a better chance of getting approved and built.

Trail projects bring out time and money from people from all walks of life.

Below are some of the projects currently in play:

San Vicente Redwoods – 38 miles of new trail in Santa Cruz, Davenport area
City of Santa Cruz Parks Master Plan – City managers are involved creating new singletrack trails in Santa Cruz.
Santa Cruz County Parks Strategic Planning – In discussion with Land Trust of Santa Cruz about new trails
Cotoni-Coast Dairies National Monument – Crucial land near the coast line can connect San Vicente project to Highway 1 and coastal access
UCSC Long Range Development Plan – Exploring the possibility of legalizing the UC trails to ensure its longevity.

A new level of professionalism is now a reality for Santa Cruz trails.

What can you do?

Make yourself available for updates and meetings. And get ready to commit to trail work. And today, help raise money for your LOCAL trail projects here.