Conquering Mount Sutro by Mountain Bike.

The SFUR Summer Mountain Bike Camp  in partnership with the Presidio YMCA, was once again an overwhelming success.  Over 45 youth participants between the ages of 10-14 years old attended the week long camps. Schools from all over the city were represented, such as Brandeis, Claremont, Marina, Presidio, Everett, Aptos, Star of the Sea, Claire Lilienthal, Live Oak and more.

After a day of safety instruction and primary skill building challenges, the action moved to some of the best local riding spots.The smooth and gentle trails of Golden Gate Park, the rolling hills of McLaren Park, the switchbacks of Mount Sutro, and the awesomeness of China Camp Sate Park as a finale. Some of the more adventurous rides started at the top of San Bruno Mountain and wound all the way down via pavement and dirt trail to McLaren Park, while another ride started at  Mount Sutro and rode all the way through Golden Gate Park and back to the Presidio YMCA.

The advanced group rolling San Bruno Mountain towards McLaren Park.

Each days location offered a progressive learning step to the next in order to build strength and confidence along the way. Each location also offered its own unique outdoor experience. The group learned about micro climates like the fogginess of Mount Sutro vs the Sunniness of the Presidio on  the same day. The locations also offered numerous wildlife experiences like Hawks, Deer, Turkey, Snake, Lizard, Birds, Bugs, Gophers, and numerous native and non-native plants.

From the many smiles along the way, we are certain our curriculum was enjoyed by the participants. The first day of the program was spent entirely on black top and structured around teaching the basics of balance, breaking, and shifting followed by a progressive series of skills challenges like a balance beam, small teeter totter, ramp ups, drop offs, tight corners and usually by popular demand some basic wheelie instruction. Learning these  skills in a controlled environment, with appropriate spotters made the transition to the trails much easier. When the action moved to the trails, instructors were able to emphasize lessons as they pertained to upcoming sections of trail, and set up safety spotters on more challenging sections. Individual instruction was targeted where necessary.  The program offered plenty of challenge, and participants were able to learn at their own comfort level.

Enjoying a post ride beach experience at China Camp.

Speaking of our training curriculum. Many thanks need to be given to the Norcal High School Mountain Bike League, whose brilliant approach to teaching basic bike fundamentals was heavily borrowed from. The Norcal League has a coach’s manual, and even offers a coaching clinic every October which SFUR considers mandatory for any youth instructor.

A big shout out to the Instructor Crew of Matt , Mark, Tanya , Lilly, Ted ,  and Dan, with major help from our Volunteers Christy McCain from SFUR, and Zach Moore from the Norcal League.

SF Urban Riders has several awesome Youth Mountain Biking Events coming up in the Fall of 2010. Keep in touch for more details!

Switchback training on Mount Sutro.

Jeremy masters the rocky section of Bayview Trail at China Camp.

The old BMX trail in McLaren Park was a fan favorite.

]]> http://sfurbanriders.org/wordpress/lead-story/summer-mountain-bike-camp-a-huge-success/feed/ 0 http://sfurbanriders.org/wordpress/news/sooo-many-ways-to-get-involved/ http://sfurbanriders.org/wordpress/news/sooo-many-ways-to-get-involved/#comments Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:46:02 +0000 Mo http://sfurbanriders.org/wordpress/?p=1170 That’s what we are about these days, getting the word out to all you bike-riding, city-park-lovin’ folks that want to participate and make change.

SF Urban Riders wants to be sure you know all the opportunities out there, whether it is to make/maintain trails or check out the meetings, and help you understand better the big old machine that is the San Francisco planning process.

So much going on, we don’t want you to get overwhelmed, we know you have busy lives, but we want you to know as much as we do about upcoming events, and why we think its important to go participate.

and with that (drum roll please)

We would like you to know about a Public Meeting about a space that is near and dear to our single-track lovin’ hearts -  Mt. Sutro.    The SF Rec & Park is proposing to reopen the section of the Interior Greenbelt that connects Sutro to the Stanyan St. Trailhead.   See the official flyer for a little more information.

Stanyan St. Trailhead -Interior Greenbelt Mtg – Public Notice 2-8-10

Why we think this is important – > This is about opening up an old trail and its entrance at Stanyan.  It is a route that anyone coming over from the Haight and East would be interested in and Rec & Park has said it would be multi-use.  This could be a beautiful new trailhead, with direct connection to our Mt. Sutro trails

And of course, its plain-ole important that we cyclists make a special effort to attend any meeting that is about trails in SF.

Grab a burrito on your way over, and enjoy the civic process.  If you can, think through why this trail is or would be important to you and yours, and speak up.  We always have to work to improve the public perception of who mountain cyclists are, so remember, you are helping represent, and we all appreciate it.

So there you go.  This Monday night, Feb 8, 2010.  from  6 to 8pm at Grattan Elementary.

Cyclocrossers, Singlespeeders, Frankenbikers, Trailbikers, and Dirt Jumpers united this last Sunday under the banner of a SF Urban Riders group ride.  One accomplice even came down from the land of Sonoma for, “something different”.  Seems that even though you can have the endless miles of singletrack of Annandel and West County out your back door, there’s always that allure of park/pavement/burger/beer combination that our fair city serves up so very well.

We met up around 9ish.  I say ‘ish’ because in proper mountain biker style, no one had a watch on or was really worried about exact times.  While we waited for a friend to arrive, we practiced wheelies and bunnyhops to bide the time. I also took pictures of us not practicing. Easier photo subjects, if somewhat less interesting.

Our route went out through some fun trails in Golden Gate Park, carefully plotting our route around and through the Nike Women’s Marathon – though we did get some free chips out of the deal.   They were worth the price, and that’s about all I can say for popchips.  A new spot to me, who has been riding in GGP for the last five years, was the dump yard out near the beach, and talk about a potential bike park area, there’s already a ton of material there, and no use other than allowing RPD to dump materials.  That and ride down hills,

Past Graffitti walls,

And through puddles, as boys on bikes must do.

From there, we went up to Mt. Sutro, which was beautifully moist from the fog and recent rain.  Per typical, it felt like a wonderful escape from the city, from San Francisco, and everything urban.

From there, we went out to Twin Peaks, Whiz Burger, and Zeitgeist.  There aren’t much for trails in the latter two spots, but there are certain other attractions beyond bicycles and trails after one has spent a few hours on bicycles on trails…

Hope to see some more folk, or just more of the same next month, or simply crossing paths on our fine SF trails.  We’ve got a lot of room to get better, but it’s pretty damn nice as is.  Now go out and ride your bikes.

Come out to our work party on National Trail Day, June 6th, from 9am-1pm at the Woods Lot @ Mt Sutro.  We’ll help you get your old shirt dirty while building some great trail, and you can buy a nice new SFUR shirt afterwards.   Or buy a new SFUR tee and roll in the dirt with it.  The choice is yours.