LCWP Trail Work - BVD +

I don't enjoy the STRAVA boasting or trash talk, or the impact of STRAVA cup hunters on the overall tone out on the trails (cut corners, near misses, angry riders, etc).

But I am far more upset about the ruining of OC trails. This one hurts. A lot. BVD (Emerald Falls) was a really fun, chunky, turny, upper-intermediate to lower-advanced challenge which, by the sounds of it, has now been obliterated and changed into an off-camber, dumb ass series of speed bumps, awkward turns and silt for us to enjoy. Hell, even the picture I posted above shows a p-line around the drop that wasn't there 6 months ago.

 

Hahaha! I’m loving this exchange! I put my money on @Stubborn Approach ’s 5 inches to @Obsidian ‘s 3.5 simply because of the airtime demonstrated in photos and not the six-pack under Obsidian’s riding kit. I’m on the injured reserve list thanks to chasing a Strava PR and trying to keep up virtually with a local high school kid that routinely hands my ass to me up and down on the mellow and the steep Sh!t. It is all in good fun as long as we can talk Sh!t and hear it too, no one other than the rider gets hurt (nice to meet you), and the trails are not cut (unless it’s a trail down a steep Ridgeline, then the path of least resistance dictates the route because geology rules).

 

I'm just trying to keep you broken people who can't ride anymore entertained. Truth be told, I try to go just slow enough where I don't break myself. So far so good.

 

That’s pretty much how everyone rides.

edit: …tries to, anyway.

 

That's cause mtn biking is hard and scary.

 

So, how come you didn't take a few minutes to eliminate the p-line shown in your last pic? You took the time to get a picture, five minutes later you could have had that P-line hidden like your Strava times.

 

What's the point? Any brush I could have shoved into place would have been removed by the next P-biker who didn't want the challenge of the drop. Clearly the preference in Orange County is to eliminate rocks and challenge.

 

Except for the brush destruction I don't see the problem.
1) those who can and want to drop still can.
2) those who dont have the skill to do a drop like that can still enjoy the trail.

Win on both sides IMO.

 

Well there you go being practical and rational…

That’s so stupid!

 

Ok so that one post of yours was sarcasm?. It was unclear. Not everyone Stravas. What’s with all the giving a s*** about others’ riding prowess (clearly good, in the case of stubborn and Herz) and the low-key insults you’ve been doling out in this thread ? Let’s keep the righteous? indignation where it belongs, against the BVD-destroyers

Thatd be a full-time job these days

 

I Rode BVD yesterday.
Destroyed : No
Awesome: No
In the middle: Yeah
Off Camber : No Not Really
Loosish Dirt : Yeah
Some chunk missing : Yeah

Some Rain and Riding it will be back..

BTW I was to busy looking around to huck the drop on the HT... I have a no injury rule right now

 

Dang! @herzalot I was hoping for good 'ol herzalot sarcasm.

@sir crashalot I hear ya'. I try to stop every ride and do a little something. Riding out in the desert it's easy to gather a bunch of basketball sized rocks and do what you need with them. You can't just plow through them like you can with dead branches and twigs.

 

Is that one chunky steeper section in the middle still there or “machined” away?

 

Gone. I rode it today and there is nothing left that I would call chunk. People with no suspension will love it.

BVD is basically untouched until you get to the beginning of where the fun stuff was ... now it is all loose dirt.
I did not stop to analyze, so I am not sure if they simply poured dirt over the rocks or plowed them away. They put a paver right in the middle of the trail for some reason too, just sort of a hump.
I did not notice any off camber turns like on Camarillo, just loose dirt for now. It will be a lot faster trail once the dirt firms up. Just not nearly as fun.

Now what will they do to Lizards with 11 days to play with?

 

Hopefully dirt piled up over rocks, so will wash away with next big storm. I fear for lizards

 

i am so bummed

 

I don't understand the logic of it. They don't want riders on the plethora of off menu trails out there ... then they neuter a fun, legal one.

Ol' Emerald is about as chunky right now as I have ever seen it, so at least there is that. For now anyway.

 

What is there not to understand? LCF is making the trails safer for the P-Riders so that P-Liners do not continue to establish P-Lines that encroach on the adjacent habitat. Thanks P-People for mountain biking.

 

is there anything we can do about this?

 

Who oversees LCF?

 

There was 1 chunkish section left... I think much of that Loose dirt will go down trail...

I will take the loose dirt over serious pack.. it will be back... I'm not worried about that.

 

Did LCF do this work? I think it may have been OC Parks.

Hallie Jones is the CEO of LCF. I can ask her.

 

LCF is the name people always seem to mention when complaining about trailwork in your local parks, so that's what I assumed.

Land managers and trailworkers who don't can have little clue what makes a trail good for biking vs not. For that matter, consider what might happen if the sort of MTBer who takes all the P-lines was in charge of maintenance. That wouldn't be pretty, either lol.

Raising concerns (ie complaining) can be productive if you get through to the right people and can show them how MTBer priorities can be met, while also meeting the land manager's requirements for sustainability, safety, etc.

Is there a local MTB group that works with OC Parks? Volunteer and help Kioti? If he had a big enough crew maybe he could take on projects such as this rather than OC Parks. If all else fails, find local govt representatives who are mountain bikers who can help influence decision makers.

That's all I got. Bottom line is if riders won't take the time to make their voices heard, the County or who ever is doing the work will do so as they see fit.

 

We rallied as local mt bikers a few years ago and were very active at LCF meetings. LCF got the message somewhat, fired their trail boss and seemed to kind of slink back into relatively harmless vegetation clearing and drainage work. But OC Parks came in doing big projects such as 5 Oaks, Lizard and T and A - I think. I kind of lost track as to who was doing the "improvements." I will need to get my sorry ass back into complaining mode.

The hardcore riders in and around Laguna pay no attention to the stupid trailwork being done because they don't ride the legal trails anyway. So they lay low and do their own thing and don't complain about trailwork done on the legal trails. At least that's my take.

 

Jackpot!!!! Be like the hardcore riders and you'll have nothing to complain about. There are plenty of off menu trails that will keep your eyes bugged out! And, even though those trails are "illegal", they aren't going away. Some of them have been there longer than some legal trails. Go shred the gnar, bruh!

 

OCP hires the California Conservation Corps to do trail work instead of utilizing the long term volunteers & their experienced knowledge of the trails & local building practices. It’s the main reason I no longer do much volunteering for OCP/LCF. LCF doesnt have a seat at the decision making table & is just another vendor utilized by OCP.

 

BVD falls under CCSP......no???

 

I think the lower half is in lcwp-where they did the work. The jurisdictional bifurcation is why there’s no trail sign

 

Phrase of the week!

 

Only time “bifurcation” has ever been written on an mtb forum!