How did you come to understand this? That would be good, but the DFG position at DMM does not bode well.

I had previously posted: "Sadly, DFG's regulations allow the possibility for kids to blast shotguns but not to ride bicycles. You can look it up. So there is no hope for "legal" mtb trails on DFG land unless their regs are changed. The best we can hope for is turning a blind eye, due to tacit inability to enforce (which could change)."

But one somewhat encouraging note at last nights DMM/LPQ CAC meeting was Rod's research (deeper than mine) into the actual DFG policies, which documented that they can, and have, written site-specific rules elsewhere that allow bikes.

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Thus, if we are to understand the world, we should live somewhere between judgement and amazement — Alfredo Lopez Austin

... and all you have to do is go to Sacramento with staff you've convinced already, to process a legislative change.

Let us know how that works out, eh? You get the drift: this is pipe-dream stuff. It's been dangled at us in regard to the DMM only to confuse and distract.

I've talked to Department employees and they have both told me that an official trails plan might be possible at Calaveras. No promises, but no slammed door, either.

The regs are changing, but unfortunately, there is good news and there is bad news. (A topic for another thread.) Advocacy can work, my understanding is that once bikes were prohibited in Cal. State Parks, and that has definitely changed; and I think that PQ itself had to be pried open.

You should ride Crestridge, which is DF&G property. MTBs are very legal there.

Any news on Calavera? I ran into Warren Wong in the back 40 about a week and a half ago. Challenged me on private property for permission near the banana plant ranchita, talked for awhile reminded him I had met him doing trail work on the Spine/Mordor a couple of years ago seemed make things go better after that but he mentioned that they might start doing enforcement in the DFG area (had a large version of the map posted by Kimba/moondog in hand) so the SHTF likely very soon.

I've seen trail closures signs they've put up had been removed and posts moved on the bermed trail, so likely not in the best of moods at DFG right now. There's a double jump trail coming down from the tank on the south side that I think is a sore point as a bunch of hillside was tore up to make that.

Fnords, what makes you assume I haven't ridden Crestridge? I had a good time there, and Kevin is doing great work. But Crestridge is not Calavera. So please tell us more about what you know. Who did you talk to, and was it an official discussion, or chance encounter? If you have DFG info that's a topic for another thread, many folks would appreciate you posting up that thread. A lot of our discussions have more heat than light, so shed some light. Yes, SHTF is about to happen at Calavera. I think it will get a lot worse before it gets better -- if it does.

edit: Hmmm...you said this in the thread about San Elijo:

If you're officially part of or involved with DFG and don't want to blow your cover, that is fine with me. Just help educate us.

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Thus, if we are to understand the world, we should live somewhere between judgement and amazement — Alfredo Lopez Austin

It seems like with the new high school going in which is supposed to have an "emphasis on environmental learning and experience", and given the rising popularity of high school MTB teams there might be an opportunity to leverage a win-win realtionship with the DFG. Kids learn how to build sustainable trails etc, perhaps a network of trails in return for a cleanup of over a hundred years of garbage accululated from ranching in the DFG area. It's about as pristine as Tunnels was, probably less so if someone ever did a soil assay over by that toxic waste shack(looks like they mixed up their nasty crop pesticides there).

Of course this would require Carlsbad actually finish the high school which is no longer a slam dunk, and an MTB team could be established there.

there's only one solution to this....occupy calaveras.

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'the notorious North County Sancho'

I'm banking on muni and state defaults, not too much further to go.

I was going to post this in the other thread, but figured putting it in the SDMBA thread was more "on-topic":

It appears the biggest gripe about SDMBA is that they're not doing enough...
Not enough advocacy
Not enough action
Not enough trailwork
Not enough events
etc.
And, unfortunately, the answer is simple enough...
Not enough active members

It also appears that another gripe is about the fact that SDMBA toots their horns when it comes to certain things, while it appears they do nothing about other.
I think what it really boils down to is a lack of communication from SDMBA and lack of interest from riders (both non-SDMBA members and non-active SDMBA members) to find out.

I'm in the same boat as ocd - I was an SDMBA hater. But instead of continuing to be pissed off at and complain about an organization I thought was doing an inferior job, I became an active member because I thought "Hey, I can do it better." Rather than throwing out "you should, you should, you should", I'm throwing out, "How can I help make it better?" But even then... I quickly realized that the biggest issue is... not enough active members.

So, I implore those who aren't members, or those members who aren't active, to help... in some way, shape, or form... other than just membership dues. Hell, I don't think you even need to be a member in order to go to trail work days and such. But help us! Even if it's in a small way... like offering up logo solutions for the new SDMBA-PRO, or just helping build camaraderie within the mountain biking community by posting positive things that can happen instead of being Negative Nancys, or offering to host an SDMBA-sponsored ride, or finding out the contact person for a certain riding area so some action can be taken.

I also want to ask ~ for certain issues like Sycamore, Calaveras, Tunnels... what should or could SDMBA do/have done to prevent or mitigate damages (closures)? This is not a smart-ass questions, but an honest question because I'd like to know.

I know that I am probably listed as an "evil SDMBA supporter/sympathizer/etc" because of my involvement with SDMBA-PRO and its efforts to try and get a bike park built in San Diego. And I'm starting to feel my fair share of flak, especially from the whole Oceanside Bike Park situation froma few years ago.

Seems like people are pinning that failure on SDMBA-PRO. As a member of SDMBA and SDMBA-PRO, I realize that you take on a bit of the history, but it is frustrating that no one pays attention to the progress we've made elsewhere... We've already had 3 meetings with National City mayor about a bike park, we're coming up on our 2nd meeting for a bike park in Balboa Park, we put on a successful movie night for a cool movie geared towards the DH/FR crowd, and we have a photo contest geared, again, towards the DH/FR crowd. We want to focus on the crowd that's felt like they've been so neglected by SDMBA.

Instead, people dwell on the fact of why aren't we doing more about the Oceanside Bike Park from 3 years ago when I wasn't even mountain biking yet and don't live in Oceanside and didn't even know about Oceanside when I first decided to become active and try to get a bike park in San Diego. And my answer is this... I am a human being, with selfish wants, and I want a bike park in Balboa Park so I don't have to drive 45 minutes north to ride a bike park. I wan to ride to the bike park. Sorry guys... wait... no, I'm not.

Who knows, maybe there is someone selfish enough who lives in Oceanside, or lives next to Tunnels, or lives next to Calaveras, or lives next to Sycamore to do something about those respective situations because they don't feel like having to drive 45 minutes to ride another trail when they can fight to save the one in their own backyard.

While SDMBA isn't able to miraculously LEAD and solve all the issues with mountain biking in San Diego... I know that they can assist you in your fight.

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~I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.
~Nothing from nothing is nothing.
~I'm allowed to be a pussy because I have one!

I would generally comment that image-wise to someone wishing to find out more about IMBA and SDMBA they suffer the same image issue when you visit their webpages, they both look horribly inactive. This may lead to the catch-22 situation you describe, need more active members but the organization looks inactive.

In IMBA's case some of this is a self-made problem through their deal with the SC a long time ago.



In the case of Calavera, it's been a very odd progression. I volunteered several years ago to help on SDMBA trail work day on the Spine/Mordor trail. Seemed that a person Erik T. organizing it (not sure if this is the person referred to earlier in this thread). I met the DFG biologist Warren Wong that day and talked a bit to him. Seemed as though SDMBA scored a bunch of points with him and there was talk of more trails being preserved. Got a few emails from Erik regarding stakeholder meetings for trail input etc then everything died.

Even now on the SDMBA website there's no mention of Calavera or several other trail systems for that matter, which also gives the impression that it's not active(which is a bit strange as I've seen Rich J. there on the weekend). In the time between the original trail work, habitat reclamation by CNLM (especially in the BMX jump, old MX bowls , and XC MTB trail areas) has predictably pushed trail users into the DFG area and led to new trail work (some excellent, some horrible). Of course this has led DFG to re-assert a more hands-on management of the area, leading to trail closures. Although not effective or enforced so far that appears about to change.

Not sure what could be done at this point with the DFG, some of the best trails in the area are off-limits. The goodwill is likely gone, maybe in-fighting in the SDMBA brought on this situation but I don't know the internal history. Maybe a tell-all is in order at this point to know where it all stands.

I know nothing about Calaveras or the other areas in question so unfortunately I dont have an answer for that. BKJ and I are part of a new push within SDMBA to build a better mountain biking community here in SD. Sometimes tell-alls help situations or make it worse ( I guess it depends on the person listening) regardless of the past though what people do going forward is what matters.
SDMBA has their own forums now at http://www.sdmba.com/forum for discussions like this. We dont want to clutter up DT with the jibber jabber, cause some people just dont want to hear it and we will respect that. As far as the main website goes that is a slow going work in progress. At some point in the future it will be a frequently updated and well maintained place, (BKJ is learning how to do it, I am supposed to help but havent lifted a finger yet) but until we get a volunteer to sign on that can whip it into shape it is left as "work in progress" . Bottom line is progress is being made, slow and steady wins the race right?

I wondered where some folks went.

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A mountain biker who doesn't ride road has no legs
A road biker who doesn't ride mountain has no soul

I agree, socal_jack. The site does appear to be inactive. I was given access to the back-end, so I could update articles on behalf of SDMBA-PRO, and it's really not the easiest system to use. I'm going to propose, at the next SDMBA meeting for the board to vote on, another revamp of the site to make it more user-friendly for those that need to update it.

As far as why the Calavera things weren't put on the site? I don't know, but this is my opinion: Part of it is that it isn't easy to get all that stuff on the site. It'll typically get sent to one or two people to post on the site, those people are super busy, and then it gets forgotten about. The other part, I think is there currently isn't a Calavera Liaison.

I admit, once I became active with SDMBA a couple months ago, I saw that there are plenty of things that need improving... but at the same time, once you see how everything works, you realize why it is the way it is.

Am I happy with that? No, which is why I'm going to do what I personally can to try and fix certain things. Not saying I'm doing it alone, there are others who are doing their part (both SDMBA members and new SDMBA-PRO members) both publically and sometimes without the publicity hoopla. But we could sure use more help.

_________________
~I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.
~Nothing from nothing is nothing.
~I'm allowed to be a pussy because I have one!

The only reason I mentioned a "tell-all" (heck, just a brief recap might do with no names, like citizen-X,Y,Z would do) is the reference to an "Erik" earlier in the thread in regards to screwing things up at Calavera. More important than who did it is how badly and with what agencies, so somone would know where to start.

http://www.sdmba.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=184

This thread has ErikMM's side of the story. Other folks have a different side of the story.

But there are probably three sides to this story: ErikMM's, the other side, and the truth.

_________________
~I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.
~Nothing from nothing is nothing.
~I'm allowed to be a pussy because I have one!