» Resources

Movie Night

dcrites — Tue, 25 May 2010 05:59:49 +0000

Thanks to everyone who made it out to the Ride the Divide sneak preview/ Many thanks to Hydrapack, Sports Basement, and Vanderkitten who provided some pretty sweet prizes for our raffle. Those of you that weren’t able to make it, you can still see the flick June 11th at the Red vic. It’s a pretty amazing story, following some amazing people, filmed with some amazing techniques. (Tomorrow I learn more amazing adjectives)

Ride The Divide Movie Trailer from Ride The Divide on Vimeo.

insert 'oohh's' and 'ahhh's' here

our estimable raffle operator

handsome product display

handsome tshirts, both new and old...

This man is happy he bought a raffle ticket.

hope to see you among this crowd next time

Rare Butterfly Sighted in McLaren: Bike Park Progress Halted

dcrites — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 18:14:46 +0000

Associated Press – A routine wildlife survey taken at McLaren Park today discovered a rare and dangerous breed of butterfly. Local scientists are baffled as to this creature’s avoiding detection in such an urban area for so long. Local residents who often use the park have long told tale of the creature, who was rumored to be to blame for the disappearance of several small pugs and poodles over the last calendar year.

All of McLaren park has been cordoned off for the public’s own saftey, as mothra lepidopteran is known to be posinous and particularly aggressive towards trail users of all types. The exact whereabouts of these animals is unknown, and helicopters have been scouring the area. In order to warn residents, this multi-lingual video warning has just recently been issued by Phil Ginsburg of SFRPD

“I sincerely hope that the resources of our fair city are enough to cope with a natural menace of this level. Perhaps the mission blues will unite in their desire to be the most known lepidoptera of the area.” Said Mr. Ginsburg in an official statement.

Naturally, due to the natural threat this group of animals represents, the McLaren Bike Park is on hold until further notice. SF Urban Rides members could not be reached for comment, though Board Member Tom Borden’s voicemail referenced a search for pedal powered bugspray. Perhaps there is hope after all.

SF Urban Riders took on Old Man Winter – Go ride a less-muddy Historic Trail

Mo — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 20:04:28 +0000

It was a great trail building day on Sutro today. A little rain, and there was lots of mud, but we got a lot of rock mixed in to a large section of the Historic trail. Both trail and day came together and we finished to glorious sunshine. It’s a long swatch, so there is still some mud lower down, but we think you’ll enjoy the improvements.

If you didn’t make it, and have never been there to help, click over to our Volunteer page to get all the details of this monthly event. Friend us on Facebook, and we will keep you updated, invite you even, to the monthly par-tee that is trail building.

The below is the now dated original post:

For tomorrow, we might get cancelled as weather people say rain, but they are wrong a lot. We’ll Tweet and FB a status in the morning. Remember this is Sutro, it’s not dry ever, really.

Tomorrow specifics – After meeting in Wood’s lot at 9, we’ll be here:

Trail building 2.6.10 - Where the action will be

this is what we are up to:

lets get rid of this

and this

It’s gonna be a great morning of maintaining our trails and making them a little less slippery,

“winterized” as our leader, Dan Schneider, calls it.

Then we are going to kick it, eat some pizza, drink some beer, and scheme up our next bike ride.

Hope to see you,

SF Urban Riders

SF Urban Riders Supporter Survey

dcrites — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:39:25 +0000

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SFUR Declaration of Support

dcrites — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 05:26:27 +0000

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Ride/Build/Ride

dcrites — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 21:07:01 +0000

For those of you that missed last week’s trail work day on Mt. Sutro, (present company included) fear not, another fine trail day exists right around the corner. The minor catch is we’re going to go work on some trails that aren’t exactly legal for bicycles to ride upon. Think of it as a little PR for SF Urban Riders and the mountain bicycle population at large. The view will be beautiful, and the work rewarding, as we get to know some trails up on Mt. San Bruno. Perhaps heading out there and lending a hand will make the hikers think twice before they stink-eye (or worse) another mountain bicyclist out on the trails among our fine California hills.

The details for the workday can be found here.

UPDATE!!! Due to a request from the Trail Center, we will not be leading a group ride to show up late. They’re kinda like my old band director, who said “If you’re early, you’re on time. If you’re on time you’re late, and if you’re late, you’re dead.”

So, uh, here’s to showing up ‘late’ at 8:30am, and we apologize for any confusion this post may have caused.

Ride.

Build.

Ride.

Join SFUR for the End Of Year Trail Celebration

will — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 01:50:10 +0000

Dirt Enthusiasts – join SF Urban Riders for the last trail work event of the year on Mount Sutro – and stay for the Party!

A Special Holiday Incentive: FREE T-Shirts! The fresh style of these American Apparel classics for ALL SFUR Members who participate and help SFUR achieve its goal of 2,000 hours of passionate volunteer service for the calendar year!!

SATURDAY DECEMBER 5th From 9am -1pm on Mount Sutro /UCSF Parnassus Campus

PROJECT SCOPE:
Big Fun! The Trail group will focus attention on the EAST RIDGE TRAIL from the Summit all the way done to the Trailhead on Johnstone Ave… affectionately known as the IMBA Trail to local riders.
Trail Crews will address drainage issues, improve switchbacks and corners, trim back the vegetative corridor and the highlight of the day will be fixing the Junction at the IMBA Trail and the Mystery Trail.
The Habitat Crews will be directly above continuing work on the Rotary Meadow.

PARTY SCOPE:
The after work celebration will certainly have holiday spirit!

Gifts of Appreciation- SFUR T-shirts for all cyclists that participate!
Special Belgian Style ABBEY ALE from New Belgium Brewing!
Delicious Pizza from Patxi’s Chicago Pizza.
More info:

http://sfurbanriders.org/wordpress/volunteer/

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=40128397605

http://www.natureinthecity.org/mtsutro.php

Mystery Riding Spot Quiz

dcrites — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:20:49 +0000

San Francisco Off Road Riding

We’ve met you on the trail, at a race, or maybe somewhere down in the Mission. All of us have one thing in common, we love to ride bicycles in the dirt. Some of us got together to form the San Francisco Urban Riders in order to promote off-road cycling in San Francisco. We’ve been busy getting organized, building a relationship with SF Rec & Park and other City organizations, working with Mt Sutro Stewards to construct multi-use trails on Mt. Sutro, promoting the construction of a bicycle skills (DJ) park in McLaren Park, and working to bring legitimate and fun bike trails to Golden Gate Park.

We’re making headway, but we need any kind of help we can get. If you would like to see better offroad riding in the City, give us your show of support by signing up on the form below. We need your contact information so we can show the City there are real people who want better riding in San Francisco. Just fill in the blanks and email back to us.

The pictures here were taken at some of the offroad riding spots around town. Know them?

* Required

Sigg’s Tree article

dcrites — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 22:40:37 +0000

The great Tasmanian blue gum and its management on Mt Sutro,

By Jake Sigg
The Tasmanian blue gum, Eucalyptus globulus, is surely one of the world’s great trees, but in recent decades it has become the center of controversy in California. This controversy—most of it uninformed—has unfortunately obscured the tree’s merits and its proper use. The controversy has little to do with the tree itself—an amazingly beautiful and successful creation of nature—but with improper siting, being often planted in inappropriate areas. Although Mt Sutro was one of those inappropriate areas—putting a tree plantation on top of a priceless wildflower/grassland—the damage was done long ago, and the plantation will remain, perhaps to the end of time. But it needs management, which the University of California has undertaken for the first time. Unfortunately, public acceptance of management involves understanding of basic biological facts—understanding that is in short supply in today’s urban world. My mantra is that we live in a biologically illiterate society, and this fact makes land management problematic.

There is no sound reason for controversy about the University’s plan to thin the eucalyptus plantation, because it should please both the tree’s lovers and its detractors. All “forests” (in this case, not a forest but a plantation) must be managed, whether by nature or by man. Nature does it easily, naturally, without effort. For humans it is fraught with difficulty. There is the added problem of getting understanding and agreement from the human community. Adolf Sutro’s plantation is no longer robust, in part because decades of prodigious self-sowing means that there are too many trees competing for too little space and other resources, something that wouldn’t happen in a natural forest. The result is overcrowding, forcing the trees to expend most of their energy in growing upward to reach the light. Most of them are devoid of limbs or foliage for the first 50’
or more. This seldom occurs in natural conditions, and the Tasmanian forests have a totally different character, being much richer and diverse. Further, the now-changed Sutro environment creates conditions for the invasion and proliferation of Himalayan blackberry, and English, Algerian, and Cape ivies. They form smothering blankets and impenetrable thickets that deprive access to both humans and animals; only the volunteer work of the Sutro Stewards has penetrated into these thickets, but large areas are still monotonous and uninviting due to the lack of diversity and the paucity of wildlife occasioned by the few-species understory. The blackberry and ivies, incidentally, also prevent the trees from regenerating, as seeds can’t germinate in the ivy/blackberry thickets. It is ironical that the blue gums carry the seeds of their own destruction, and only humans can assure their continuance here.

Those who object to the fire hazard-reduction plan must realize that management is not an option. The laissez-faire of the past century has come to an end, and management has become a compelling necessity. The possibility of a major fire—even a General Alarm fire—is too great and the University should not be asked to take this risk.

I have an additional concern not mentioned by the University: the possibility of landslides. Why do I have the temerity to posit this, when it is a geotechnical matter for which I have no training? Simple: nature will always assert the angle of repose. Count on it. With rock of integrity, such as granite, it may take millions of years to achieve the angle; with softer rock or rock lacking integrity, such as chert, it takes much less—like decades. Chert is a multi-layered rock, its layers alternating with mudstones and other constituents and riddled with fractures. Landslides are common in the band of chert traversing San Francisco from Bayview Hill to west of the Golden Gate Bridge. These slides are occasioned by removing toes of slopes for roadcuts or to build houses. One of the slides, disconcertingly, is on Medical Center Way (MCW) off Parnassus. One area to be thinned is directly above the whole medical center complex, including the stem-cell research building now being built. Can incalculable tons of mud and trees bury the stem cell building? In the wet season I don’t take my chances and I avoid my usual route up MCW while going to my monthly work parties with the Sutro Stewards. Should I mention earthquakes?

Adding to the likelihood of a slide is the presence of approximately 200 mature blue gums, each weighing several tons. This is weight the land has never had to support in millions of years; remove the previously-existing angle of repose when you cut the slope in two places (a hairpin turn doubles the road back, which doubles the risk) and, well, you see the picture. And there’s that previous slide just a hundred yards further down the road, in case you have doubts.

Jake Sigg is a member of the California Natural plant society and the “dean” of the San Francisco native plant community

Help Save Mt. Sutro Trails

dcrites — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 22:39:50 +0000

What’s going on?

UCSF is seeking funding from FEMA to do a large maintenance project in the Mt. Sutro Open Space area. The UC wants to remove many Eucalyptus trees to make the grove and forest sustainable, by reducing risk of fire or trees toppling from earthquakes. (While generally a moist area, it does experience long dry periods; risk of earthquake, it goes without saying …) Mt. Sutro is very much an urban forest, with UCSF and private housing abutting it on many sides. See more details here http://natureinthecity.org/sutro_qa.pdf

Why can’t the UC just do it? it is their land…

They have been communicating this plan with the community and have been met with strong opposition. The “Save Sutro” group holds that the forest that exists there is a marvel that should be preserved as it is and that the UC’s plan is extreme. You can read more here http://savesutro.wordpress.com/

“Save Sutro” says some pretty great things, like, don’t trees work to prevent landslides?

Maintained trees do help, but that doesn’t mean all trees do that, or that there might not be a tipping point in which the trees, due to their density, size, winds or earthquakes can no longer sustain themselves and become a huge danger to the surrounding neighborhoods. Jake Sigg says it much better here.

What does this mean for the trails SFUR has been building and maintaining?

The UC needs to have community support to keep them committed to working on Mt. Sutro.

Otherwise, they could let it return to being their crazy, wild back yard. We believe that the proposed maintenance will help sustain Mt. Sutro as an urban forest and thereby allow the trails we are working on to exist for a long time.

For this specific project, our presence and support will improve the likely hood of it being funded by FEMA. This is also a chance for SFUR members to let the UC know how much they enjoy the Mt. Sutro Open Space. We are part of the community that is affected by the UC’s Open Space management and we want to be sure that our voices and opinions are heard.

Will this FEMA money trickle down to the monthly trail building?

The current project is beyond the scope of what SFUR and the Stewards do, but could provide funds directly or lead to other funding for smaller maintenance project. SFUR and the Mt. Sutro Stewards have been working with the UC for almost 10 years in this area, but have not had any funding from them for years. While the smaller scale trail building and maintenance does not require much money, it would be great to get some to expand the work.

What will happen at this meeting?

The goal of the meeting is “a thorough discussion with neighbors and will use this feedback to shape how these projects proceed.” The UC will present the project and some experts to talk about the area and why the project is needed. Then they will open it up for the public to speak.

Is it a timed meeting?

We are assuming that it will run on time, and the first hour, 6:30 to 7:30, will be devoted to UC and its experts, and the 2^nd hour, 7:30 to 8:30 will be public comment.

What can SFUR members do at this meeting?

1) Be there! it will help you better understand the Mt. Sutro area, who the UC is as a land manager, and familiarize you with what other members of the community think about the Sutro Open Spce

2) Speak up! We hope that many of you are enjoying these new and maintained trails on Sutro, and have grown to love the area. We want you to let the UC and the community know the importance Mt. Sutro has for you, and that you support projects that continue to maintain it for the long run.

If I can’t do this meeting, will I have another chance to participate?

Yes, on Saturday, Oct 24th 2009, 12 noon there is a Sutro Walking Tour, starting on the Aldea student housing area at Johnstone and Behr. (This is off Clarendon Avenue.)

We think there will be another meeting, but it is not scheduled yet. We will keep you posted through the SFUR website and on Facebook.