Earlier this spring, Rod, Rob, Rich and myself paced out a trail in Black Mountain from the ball fields, around the flat topped knoll, and over to the Carmel Valley Rd bridge. Not a long trail, about 1/2 a mile but it is a part of the critical connector between the ball fields and the Miner's Ridge trail parking lot.

As of July 7, IT IS APPROVED!!! A huge thanks to Rod Simmons as he was critical in getting the city biologist and environmentalists out for the subsequent walking approval.

The trail is ready to be cut once the one and only nest close to the trail is vacated. Nesting season is over in the end of July or early August. The trail will be built, based on ranger availability, on the backs of volunteers. Right now there is not a date as we just found out yesterday but it will be announced once the dates are secured. Interested?

The city is on board, the environmentalists are on board, the rangers are on board, and the community is on board. The process worked.

The pic got squished in the conversion from PDF but you can see the alignment we are using.

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The world does not revolve around you but your actions impact us all!

Right on! Post up those work days and I'll see you there.

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Obama's America: Our enemies don't fear us; our allies don't trust us.

awesome! so that means no more sidewalk pedal to get to the park? cool!

Half way. You will still have to climb a bit of sidewalk hill to get to the bridge but once there, it is a off road experience.

Not sure on the time frame for the next section from the bridge up to Miner's Ridge but it is planned to connect up with Lilack(?) the trail that heads out of the parking lot to the west and eventually dumps out on the parking lot access road. The goal is to reroute it so that will no longer happen. It is an accident waiting to happen. The best part is the elevation change between the bridge and the parking lot is only about 50 feet so a contoured trail would be ridable both ways!

Here are a few photo-shopped images Rod put together to show the newest segment.

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The world does not revolve around you but your actions impact us all!

Lilac, that trail has some steep up and down but has some potential if reworked.

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Obama's America: Our enemies don't fear us; our allies don't trust us.

does this trail go by the wrecked car?

Is that an old Dodge Dart?

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Obama's America: Our enemies don't fear us; our allies don't trust us.

Yes, there is an old white and rusted wreck below the trail.



No idea other than an American dead car.

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The world does not revolve around you but your actions impact us all!

Dodge Dart with a slant six is a hard car to kill. I'm in for trail work.

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

Was any of that in the burn zone from the Bernardo fire?

About half is burnt starting from the park around the bend heading to the bridge

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You never know what tomorrow will bring so go ride your EBike today or walk your pooch
Fear the Yeti
"Go ride your bike today, don't let the old man in.."

Mike

Yes top part burned. The blue zone is junk habitat (artichoke thistle). The knoll (green) burned but the tobacco trees weren't (also an invasive). Don't think the burn got over by the car.

Well done to all involved. It's so nice to hear positive news!

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If you are the big tree
We are the small axe

The continuation of the trail up to Miner's also has a permit issued (as do all of the new trails in the recently approved trails plan). This link is the priority however. Super thick vegetation in there. We'll wait until after nesting season (Aug 15 for gnatcatcher) before surveying for a suitable route. That will require some minimal brush cutting. A cultural artifact study is then required. Matt and I found some old beer bottles Wednesday night on our bushwack adventure but no signs of ancient civilization.