Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship

Beer Pine anyone? It's the new game invented by our summer trail crew while occupying themselves late into the night at the Smith Lake Base Camp. "It's like beer pong, but with lodge pole pine cones," said Carroll as he ate his lunch of sandwich and Cheez-Its, covered in sweat and dirt, sitting next to his trail crew cohorts. Carroll leads our summer trail crew which consists of himself, Max and Little Brad. On occasion they are joined by Cosmo, Tyler, Evan, Greg, Ron, Brett, myself, and many others who either make the trek to volunteer with them for the day or simply pick up a Pulaski after a chance encounter on the trail. The boys are out there five days a week working on the rocky re-rout on Smith Lake which is replacing the old degraded trail. The work they've done is incredible and the views from the ridge are fantastic. Smith Lake can be seen on one side while the entire Mohawk valley can be seen on the other. I've biked up to the work site several times to get the scoop on how the trail is going, deliver cookies, and get any good tid bits on the exciting night-life at basecamp. Spirits are high at Camp Quincy and all is going well there other than the occasional visit from a local bear, which the guys have named Bronco. The skinny on the trail is as follows. Trail is 100% brushed and about 60% complete overall. What does that mean? Well, you can walk the whole thing now, but only about 60% is really ready for prime time.  Read More »

Friday, July 11 | Prep with the Pros. We're pairing high school students one-on-one with pro riders as they prep for this world-class mountain bike race. Spend a couple of hours doing what the pros do - checking the equipment, working with sponsors, studying the course, and generally getting ready to fly. Top riders including Mark Weir (7x Classic Downhill champ), Jason Moeschler (3x All Mountain champ), Brian Lopes, Kenny Burt, Abigail Hipley, Jamie Stamps, Jackie Baker, and more will show you what it's like to get ready for the toughest mountain bike race in the country. All the students will have lunch together with industry reps for 'shop talk' about life in the bike industry. Join this unique event - no other pro mountain bike race this year offers this behind-the-scenes look getting to know the racers. The Details: students must register in advance by contacting Greg Carter at cartersboat@gmail.com. We have room for about 6 more students as of this writing, so get on it quick! We'll meet 10am Friday at Yuba Expeditions in the center of Downieville. Cost is $5 for the 'Pick your Pro' raffle ticket and lunch. Each pro has set his/her own time slot, somewhere between 10am and 4pm, and we'll trade slots as needed to accomodate schedules. Everyone meets back at Yuba at noon for the Industry Lunch talk. (Note - this event is almost full, so please email right away if interested!) Saturday, July 12 | Midday Mellow trail ride Sign up at the SBTS booth for a family-style ride on fire roads and some singletrack. We'll ride from town, getting some great views of the river.  Read More »

It’s an unfortunate fact that some people view our National Forests as a dumping ground for unwanted appliances, furniture, and other assorted garbage. Such dumping is of course highly illegal as well as creating an unsightly mess on our public lands. Recently the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship (SBTS) decided to do something about it. On June 14th, 5 members, led by SBTS Board members Brett Marty of Quincy and Ron Heard of Clio set out to collect discarded material at numerous locations around Quincy. Most sites were located in and around Mt Hough, Cascade Trail, Oakland Camp, and sites off Chandler Road. All sites were on National Forest land. Over an 8 hour period more than a dozen appliances including refrigerators, washers, and stoves were gathered, along with roofing material, an engine and transmission, mattresses, cans and bottles and other assorted garbage. There was enough to fill 3 large dumpster trailers, and 4 pickup truck loads. In addition to the free labor and tow vehicle provided by the SBTS, other important contributors included Feather River Disposal, Oakland Camp, Murray Construction, and the Forest Service. The cleanup would not have been possible without their generous support and donations. The SBTS is a local Plumas and Sierra County non profit 501 ( c ) 3 group dedicated to trail preservation, restoration, and construction on public lands.  Read More »

On June 7th, 62 volunteers answered the call to help celebrate National Trails Day by helping with the reroute of the Smith Lake Trail, located near the Gray Eagle Lodge just off Gold Lake Road. The event was sponsored and organized by the SBTS, which is rerouting erosive sections of both the Smith Lake Trail and the Mt. Elwell Trail. The SBTS is working extensively throughout the Lakes Basin region, including last year’s restoration of the popular Bear Lakes Loop. These projects are a result of Secure Rural Schools grants funded through the local Resource Advisory Committee (RAC) as well as contributions from the Forest Service for environmental studies and review. The focus of this volunteer Trail Daze, was the beautiful new Smith Lake reroute trail. The old trail around Smith Lake, and over to Jamison Creek to the west was seen as a high priority for the region, due to the extremely steep grade and wetland areas crossed by the old trail. The new trail avoids all these problems, by using an alternative route on the ridge top north of the lake. When complete, the route will feature extensive vistas, and a much longer season as it avoids all the stream crossings and late snow pack of the old route. During this Trail Daze event, which is just one of an ongoing series, volunteers first received a safety talk, lunch fixings, and even Trail Crew T Shirts.  Read More »

We've just begun work on the Nelson Creek Trail Project. The Nelson Creek Trail Project consists of rehabilitating a current system trail and connecting that trail to an old historic route. In the process of rerouting around steep grades or areas with access issuesthe proposed route varies from the the existing/historic route and terminates near the historic Nelson Point Hotel site. This route will serve as a link between the Lakes Basin Area and Quincy, and travels through some of the most remote, and beautiful terrain Plumas County has to offer. Currently the top 7 1/2 miles of the trail are open to use after our labors of last season. The lower 7 1/2 miles is in the Environmental Assessment phase and we plan on starting construction/rehabilitation this fall.  Read More »

Some of you may have heard about our Adopt-A-Trail Program. It's a program designed for individuals a and businesses to take a larger leadership role in the maintenance of the trails in exchange for a beautiful trail head sign with your name on it posted for the duration of the adoption. (psst... contact Wayne Hoffman if you're interested in joining in this program) Just wanted to give a little cross-promotional shout out to Passion Trail bikes and share their plans for their Trail Daze Event which they will be hosting on Big Boulder, their adopted trail. Here is the message from the Passion Trail Bikes newsletter.  Read More »

Bikes Belong Awards $5,000 to the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship for the North Yuba Trail Boulder Colorado—May 5, 2008 Bikes Belong Coalition is pleased to award a $5,000 grant to the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship in Downieville, CA. This grant will help the group complete the final four miles of the North Yuba Trail—referred to as the Golden Spoke—which will connect to 14 miles of mountain bike trails. This non-motorized trail will enable cross-country mountain bikers to ride to the renowned Downieville trails from town instead of drive. “We love to support trail projects that help mountain bikers ‘ride to recreation’ rather than drive to a trailhead,” said Elizabeth Train, Grants & Research Director at Bikes Belong. “This project is a great example of the important work Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship is doing for mountain bikers in Downieville.” Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship has established itself as a strong partner with the National Forest Service and promotes stewardship and community support for trails through their Trail Adoption program. They’ve also garnered state funding for this project. Bikes Belong Coalition is the U.S. bicycle industry organization dedicated to putting more people on bicycles more often. Bikes Belong lobbies to increase federal bike funding, awards grants to support innovative bike projects, promotes bicycling and its benefits, and backs crucial national efforts such as Safe Routes to School, Bicycle Friendly Communities, and the National Bike Summit. The affiliated Bikes Belong Foundation focuses on improving bicycle safety and enhancing children’s bike programs.  Read More »

The Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship (SBTS) has been working non stop all winter to complete what is known as the North Yuba Trail Extension. The Extension will connect Downieville to the lower North Yuba Trail which travels downstream from Goodyears Bar. The new section of trail will be 7 miles long and is a non-motorized multi-use trail with the added advantage that it connects directly to town where a trailhead facility is being developed. The trailhead facility will include bathrooms and parking, helping to free up parking in downtown. Since the trail is located at a lower elevation than many trails in the area, the season will be greatly extended. It is expected this will provide much needed additional business to merchants, lodgings and restaurants by bringing in customers during the traditional slow time. On April 12th more than 30 volunteers comprised of members of the SBTS gathered early in the morning to head out onto the trail to build nearly a half mile of trail. The event was sponsored by the SBTS, which provided safety training and construction guidance, as well as food and beverages for hungry volunteers. Some funding for the trail was received from Secure Rural Schools – Recreational Advisory Committee grants, and additional funding is pending from several sources. However, volunteerism is what the SBTS is all about, and a large percentage of trail has been completed by volunteers.  Read More »