Dan Schneider and Chris Ruedy inspect the Interior Greenbelt Trail Corridor.

Its been rumored about for quite some time, there have been community meetings, and there was even an emotional vote of approval from the SFRPD Commission, but nothing tells the story like a photo.

The long awaited Interior Greenbelt Trail project, or better known as the Stanyan Street trailhead, finally breaks ground on Saturday October 2nd, 2010. The project is a partnership with UCSF and SF Rec & Park since the trail corridor shares property lines. Visit the SF Urban Riders Volunteer Page for more details on getting involved in this exciting and historic project.

The Interior Greenbelt trail was originally established in the 1880′s when Adolph Sutro owned the land and planted the trees that would become the infamous Sutro Forest. At that time Cole Valley was farm land, UCSF had not been constructed, and the newest train stop was at Stanyan Street to bring visitors close to Golden Gate Park. In order for Adolph Sutro to get weekly laborers to his Nursery at Clarendon and 7th Avenue he needed a connecting trail, so he constructed it and made it into an official route. It went on to become another of Sutro’s amazing recreational gifts to the city he loved, only to be improperly managed and lost to the public in the 1950′s.

This project will take 6-9 months to complete, and thousands of hours of volunteer work. It will add approximately 1/2 mile to the current Mount Sutro trail system, and more importantly direct access to Mount Sutro from Stanyan Street and Cole Valley. This trail project also signifies the beginning of a dream to build a trail that will continue from the Stanyan Street trailhead all the way around Mount Sutro, continuing over to Twin Peaks, and then  down into Glen Canyon. Its a big dream shared by many open space organizations, and just One Big Reason why the cycling community needs SF Urban Riders to be at the big table and advocate to keep this dream accessible to bikes!

Please be excited for this NEW Trail Project, but be RESPECTFUL. Please do not try to use the trail during construction, as it has NO EXIT.  Local neighbors thank you in advance for your courtesy!

The best way to check it out is to VOLUNTEER at the monthly trail building party.

The best way to stay informed of all things Mount Sutro and Trails is the Sutro Stewards website:

This section the Interior Greenbelt trail has been closed to the public for 50 years

Chris Ruedy, Craig Dawson, and Bandit at one of the hidden Chert Rock outcrops that are waiting to become cool trailside features.

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/news/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.

But paperboys on the corner are a thing of time past, so we’ll have to do with spreading the news electronically that we’ve made some print news.   If you’re feeling a little strained from reading on a computer all day, head down to the local newsstand and pick up a copy of the SF Examiner.  They’ve put together a nice article in the 6/13/09 issue regarding our efforts and designs on bringing a mountain bike park to San Francisco’s McLaren.  You can see the electronic version here, or by clicking on the riders below

If you go by the digital article, we’d love to have you leave a supportive comment, as that’s one way we can demonstrate public support of the Bike Park plan.  I know I’m going to grab a paper copy for posterity, and perhaps the kitty’s litter box as well.  Or perhaps some arts and crafts.   Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you ’round the trails.

Maybe it will never be that easy. It probably shouldn’t ever be that easy. However, the easiest thing you can do to enhance and expand your riding experiences when you venture to the land of Tam, Repack, Headlands, and Tamarancho is to visit IMBA’s site and write comments into the local government. There are miles of sustainable, beautiful trail, that we are not allowed to use solely because of our choice of vehicle. Let’s take one more step towards a beautiful future where cyclists, hikers, dog walkers and runners can all share miles and miles of beautiful trails.  Please take a moment to write in and indicate your support for more mountain bike access to our local trails.

Click HERE to take action and help open up one more trail to mountain bikers.  And be sure to use this whole interweb to tell a few people about us and about this opportunity for new singletrack access in Marin.

Here’s a couple snapshots of the workday, and if anyone has any more snapshots, of this workday or anything else you’d like to share with SF Urban Riders, please visit our flickr group, and upload a few pictures to share.

Click below to have a look at the proposed Mclaren Bicycle Skills Park!!!  Just as some folk can remember the days when San Francisco had no skate parks, one day people will strain to remember when McLaren Park wasn’t home to an amazing bicycle skills park.

Sign up can be found @ http://www.alesandtrails.net

You could go elsewhere this Saturday, you could go get a selfish ride on trails that wouldn’t be possible without a group like IMBA advocating for mountain bike access. But if you go elsewhere, you won’t get all this good stuff…

• Limited Edition Event Beer Tasting Glass
  
• Limited Edition Event Socks from SockGuy
  
• Trial Subscription to Dirt Rag Magazine
  
• Goodies from Clif Bar, Sports Basement, Technu and other sponsors.
  
• Opportunity to join a guided ride or skills clinic
  
• Gourmet BBQ ( We’re talkin’ really, really good, not just some cheap-o catered stuff)
  
• Beer Tasting from eight breweries
  
• Opportunity to demo bikes and participate in the Silent Auction, Shimano Youth Series race and Dirt Rag Photo Contest

SF Urban Riders will be present, and if the well groomed, fun and swoopy trails of China Camp aren’t enough, there are going to be an entire slew of fun technical features available for practice and sessioning.  The crowning jewel of which is what happens when SFUR puts its collective heads together around good drawings:

Click on the drawings to see some images of the structure in action.  We can’t wait to raise a cup and pop a wheelie in a toast to fine trails, fine people, and fine advocacy work.  As you can see below, it was obviously no fun at all last year.

Not only did we have Jason and Inga, but lots of the folk who had attended the training and trail work on Saturday came along for the ride on Sunday. In total our group had 27 riders of good spirit and ability.

We gathered at the Crocker Amazon skatepark. While we waited for the stragglers (you know who you are) we took a leisurely circuit on the Pilarcitos cyclocross course, stopping to take in the view of San Bruno Mountain where we would later be riding. Once we had the full crew we set off for the grind up South Hill Blvd. and then a circuit of lower San Bruno Mtn. County Park. We stopped off for a break and photo-op at a vista point looking north back at Crocker Amazon.

Coming out of the park, we crossed Guadalupe Canyon Parkway and took a nice bit of single track/fireroad back toward the Cow Palace. That short stretch took its toll on the hardware, with one broken frame and one flat tire. Fortunately, when you’re on bikes some kind of entertainment is always at hand. A long stretch of freestanding curb served as a skinny to challenge the waiting riders.

We finished the ride back to Crocker Amazon with a high speed pavement section down Carter Ave and then set off over to the adjacent McLaren Park. We followed a clockwise route around the park, first up to a vista point at the water tower, then on trails to the Jerry Garcia amphitheater, and then back up and over Mansell to the old BMX track. The track’s heyday was in the 1970 – 80′s. The big sweeping berms are still there, but long gone is any family activity which was so prevalent during its BMX days.

As we pedaled north parallel to Mansell, we looked down on the web of singletrack that has built up over the years on the hillside above the Gleneagles golf course. It looks inviting, but we’re not headed that way today. Instead we continue on until the roadside trail pinches in at the quarry above the water tanks.

Here we found a secluded bicycle play spot with drop offs, some jumps and a few bermed turns. Not everyone was up for this sort of riding, but we soon had six or seven riders trying out the features. One of our woman riders (Becky) took the lead on a big drop, followed by some of the seasoned freeride hands and then several other riders slowly worked through the visualization process and took the plunge. One rider went a little too big on the lower hip jump and landed “off by inches”. The result was a bit dramatic, but after a careful inspection by a wilderness first aid responder in our group, he was back at it in no time.

From the quarry, we proceeded down a nice bit of singletrack to the main path and back over to Crocker Amazon. That was about it for the ride. It was great to share it with our friends.

It certainly won’t be the last day we get together to enjoy the flow, friendship, and beauty that comes from riding a bicycle through trails and trees.  Stay tuned to this site for mention of upcoming group rides and events.  Thanks to Ruedyshots for the keen eye and swift shutterfinger.

Saturday April 4th

Join SF Urban Riders as we join the International Mountain Bicycle Association’s (IMBA) trail crew, Jason Van Horn and Inga Beck as they lead a trail building workshop that includes a morning presentation followed by an afternoon of on trail experience.  We are proud to announce that Jim Jacobson (China Camp, Camp Tamarancho) and Zack Anderson (Forest Trails Alliance) will also be lending their knowledge to the project. We will be realigning the East Ridge Trail and adding THREE unique switchbacks to divert the original trail from sensitive habitat and mitigate steep elevation loss.

Don’t Miss Out – Register today!
http://go.imba.com/sanfran.

Food and refreshments will be provided all day.  Free food, free education, and working to make your world a better place.  Does free get any better?

Below this fine photo, you will find some well-honed event details, and as always, feel free to contact SFUR with any questions you may have.

DUE TO CONSTRUCTION: Remember to travel via Clarendon to Johnstone then down Medical Center Way.

Parking is available for volunteers only during scheduled activities.