Paul Bigbee from Palo Alto is the happy winner of the Ibis Mojo SL-R. Paul can pick up his bike in June and take his first ride on Mills Peak Trail. Paul bought $20 worth of tickets and received a bike valued at $8,400.00. Now that's leveraging your funds. And just like Paul, we need to leverage these precious funds to get as much Sierra trail built as possible.
FUN FACTS:
$35,365 donated
1766 donors
7073 tickets sold
Even though only one person could win the bike, everyone wins. Because the raffle funds will be used to build the final segment of Mills Peak Trail, connecting Dowieville to Graeagle. The plan is to have Mills finished by September for the Fall Mountain Epic in the Lakes Basin.
A huge thanks to Ibis for the Frame, Easton for the wheels, Fox for the suspension and Shimano for the group, and to everyone that participated. Thank You for believing in us.
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When Ron and I met in the morning it was dumping rain and 36 degrees out. Certainly not ideal trail building weather, and after recently completing two other projects in the snow and freezing cold (Jamison Creek Stringer Bridge and Long Lake Connector) neither one of us was excited to spend the day getting soaked in the mud. But this trail project was a bit different from the others, we we’re doing it for the kids.
Working in partnership with Plumas Unified School District and Feather River Land Trust, the SBTS trail crew constructed an ADA accessible pathway from the school to an outdoor classroom in the neighboring woods. In addition to the pathway, a singletrack trail was constructed to provide access to a wetland area. The trail project is part of “Learning Landscapes” and the brainchild of Rob Wade, who hopes to involve schools throughout Plumas County in the program, with a focus on getting kids outdoors and providing a positive environment for learning and being active. 
Families and friends of the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship gathered in Downieville on December 11th to work on a favorite local trail, the North Yuba River Trail; a 17 mile, riverfront trail that connects the town of Downieville to the historic mining sites of Goodyears Bar and Indian Valley. In total, 20 volunteers showed up to lend a hand on a section of trail located downstream from Slug Creek Canyon. The work focused on widening and off-sloping tread, cutting back brush and removing giant root wads, which are great for those experienced volunteers who want to focus in on what's immediately in front of them, tune out life's pressures and in some cases, get the demons out.
The dirt was perfect for digging and by the end of the day we had spread nearly a half-mile of moist chocolatey goodness through the forest. Making the day even more special, and certainly one of the greatest in North Yuba Trail history, we had our youngest group of volunteers along for the experience; Carson Passafiume 15 weeks old, Olivia Passafiume 3 years old, and Myles Williams 19 months old. Although they didn't get a ton of work done, it solidified what SBTS is truly about; sustaining and building trails for generations. 
The SBTS trail crew completed the Long Lake Connector Trail before old man winter had a chance to blast a deep blanket of snow across the Sierra. The trail is located in the Lakes Basin Recreation Area, Plumas National Forest. Restoration work began in Summer of 2009 when SBTS received grant funding from the Plumas County RAC, using Title II funds. The project focused on making the trail more sustainable and protecting the nearby watershed. Work consisted of widening the trail to 30”, removing root wads and brush, installing rolling dips and drains, constructing rock walls and steps, drilling and blasting large obstructing rocks, and off-sloping the tread to 2%. The majority of trail work was finished in Fall of 2009, however a quarter mile section of steep and heavily eroded tread would require a realignment. As part of the realignment process, the Beckwourth Ranger District conducted a NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) study to make sure that no resources would be harmed with the proposed alignment. The study required “specialists” (archaeology, hydrology, botany, wildlife) to conduct site visits and provide input to the project. The NEPA was finally completed the first week of October 2010. The SBTS trail crew began work that same week, knowing that a major snowstorm could shut us down. To help get us jump started, twelve great people from Patagonia in Reno, NV came out to lend a hand. The team worked alongside our crew for the entire day; clearing deadfall, removing brush and constructing a section of new tread. 
Working with the Beckwourth Ranger District, the SBTS trail crew headed deep into the Jamison Creek canyon to construct a log stringer bridge across Little Jamison Creek. The crossing had a stringer bridge at one time, but a tree fell across it and broke the log into 3 pieces, making the crossing impassable without trampling vegetation and wading through the sometimes chest deep and very cold water. A dying fir tree was selected near the optimum location for the crossing, however it was leaning the wrong direction and was hung up in a neighbor tree. Knowing it would be a challenge to fall the tree where we needed it, we recruited the expertise of our own Henry O’Donnell to fall the 30+ inch diameter fir. Henry carefully cut and pounded wedges into the tree, falling it in nearly perfect position. Once the tree was down, all the branches were removed and the area was picked up of all fallen debris. A griphoist, car jack and digging bars were then used to lift the tree onto a rock and cedar header, which elevated the stringer above creek level to allow the water to flow under the bridge. During the Spring runoff, water will flow over the log, so the log was pinned and cabled to a nearby live tree to prevent it from washing downstream. 
