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In this issue...
- CORBA News
- Welcome to CORBA's blog!
- A
Message from CORBA's President
- We're looking for Office Space. Can you help?
- Upcoming and Recent Trailwork
- March 27: COSCA Spring Trailwork Day Report
- April 17: State Trails Day in the Angeles National
Forest
- April 23-25: Santa Monica Mtns Trails Day
at Pt Mugu State Park
- General News
- Aquatic Snails Infest Santa Monica Mountain
Watersheds
- MBU Volunteers take Advanced Skills Clinic
- Rwanda Fundraiser Ride is Saturday, April 10th
- Bike Night at the Hammer
- Griffith Park Neighborhood
Council Elections
- Calabasas New Millennium Trail Boulder Update
- Angeles National Forest
Update
- SoCal League Into Second Year of High School Mountain Bike
Racing
- Report on the 2010 National Bike Summit
- Los Robles Trail in Thousand Oaks Crosses Private
Road
- Support Rails to Trails
- New on the CORBA Website
 Get this eNewsletter as a PDF
document!
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The Glendale Police Department's Students Training as Role
Models (STAR) Program works in collaboration with the Glendale Unified School
District and Catholic Charities. They aim to provide at-risk-youth ages 9-14
with a supportive setting with law enforcement as role models who conduct life
skills, survival and safety training among other positive self-esteem building
activities. This was their first ride with CORBA's Youth
Adventures program. Read more about this
Youth Adventures ride in our blog.
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Welcome to CORBA's blog!
CORBA’s new blog is a tool for us to stay in touch with you. We’ll keep you
updated on the latest from our mountains and trails. We’re always working behind
the scenes on your behalf, but need a better way to keep you informed.
Most importantly, you’ll be able to provide us your valuable feedback and
points of view by commenting on our news postings, and by active participation
in our upcoming forums. And, we'll use the blog as the
primary source of news. A major side benefit will be to cut down
on the length of the eTerraTimes each month. Most articles will
start with a few sentences to get the gist across, then link to
the full article in the blog. This way, if an article doesn't interest
you, you won't have to scroll through multiple paragraphs to get
to the next one.
We hope you'll let us know what you think about this and other
news items. View the
full article to learn how to comment on the blog articles.
 A
Message from CORBA's President
By Mark Langton
Get out and ride! I was out Monday and it’s perfect—cool
temps, new growth, great smells—don’t take it for granted!
I want to acknowledge Louisa Bonnie (photo at right) for
her tremendous efforts in coordinating and producing CORBA’s
Fat Tire Festival for the past several years. Louisa has
announced that this will be her last year of involvement with both
the festival and CORBA’s Board
of Directors. Her presence will be sorely missed. But I bet
you’ll see her more out on the trails!
CORBA is looking for Office Space. Can you help?For nearly 22 years, CORBA has been run on a volunteer basis without an
office or a central business location. We have a P.O. Box, and our monthly board
and member meetings are held at locations around the San Fernando Valley,
Eastern Ventura County and the West Side. We are growing and need your help. We’re looking for
a central location from which to coordinate our
advocacy campaigns, run the Fat Tire Fest, reach out to land managers and run
our education and outreach programs.
Read all the details in our
blog entry, including our search for an intern to help us.
Upcoming
and Recent Trailwork
 March 27: COSCA Spring Trailwork Day Report
On Saturday, March 27, about two dozen volunteers took part in the Conejo Open
Space Conservation Agency’s (COSCA) Spring Trailwork Day.
We worked on the Mountain Creek Trail in Newbury Park. This trail was built last
October during the Annual COSCA Trailwork Day by a much larger group of
volunteers (see photo
gallery). On Saturday, we widened much of the top section, fixed the
drainage around a switchback and cleared out a lot of overgrowing brush on the
Reino / Potrero Ridge Trail it connects to.
For the full story and photos, read our blog entry on COSCA's
2010 spring trailwork.
April 17: State Trails Day in the Angeles
National Forest
Join the CORBA Trail Crew and other trail user groups for a day of trail
maintenance. Work will be on the Stone Canyon Trail. This trail goes up to Mount Lukins.
Details. April 23-25: Santa Monica Mountains Trails Days
This is a weekend event with CORBA, SMMTC and other trail user
groups with camping at Danielson Ranch in Point Mugu State Park. You can come in
Friday night and stay until Sunday or leave Saturday after trail maintenance.
Some people just come in for Saturday. There will be a barbecue and raffle on
Saturday evening. Informational flyer and registration form coming soon. Details.
General
News
Aquatic Snails Infest Santa
Monica Mountain Watersheds
New Zealand mudsnails have taken over four watersheds in the Santa
Monica Mountains and are spreading fast, expanding from the first confirmed
sample in Medea Creek in Agoura Hills to nearly 30 other stream sites in four
years. For the full story, read our blog entry on mudsnail
infestation in the Santa Monica Mountains.
MBU Volunteers take Advanced Skills Clinic
On March 20 CORBA hosted a special session of our Mountain Bike
Skills Clinic program. CORBA president and skills clinic instructor Mark
Langton offered this session to Mountain Bike Unit volunteers and class of 2010 recruits.
The class was held in the beautiful setting of Malibu
Creek State Park. Sixteen MBUers participated.
For the full story and photos, read our blog entry on the
MBU Skills Clinic.
Rwanda Fundraiser Ride is Saturday, April 10th
These 5-, 25- and 50-mile fun rides are to raise funds and build
awareness for Project
Rwanda. The entry fee is $50, or $25 for the 5-mile fun ride.
For further details, view our blog entry on the
Rwanda Fundraiser Ride.
Bike Night at the Hammer
Grab some friends and pedal on over to the Hammer Museum at UCLA for a bike-centric evening of
food, live music, film, and fun. Enjoy free museum admission, a screening of Pee
Wees Big Adventure, a screening of bike-related short films, performances by
Dobrega and Fusion, a vegan food bar, free bike valet parking by LA County Bike
Coalition, and surprise special guest! Presented by the Hammer Student
Association (HSA) in conjunction with artist Lisa Anne Auerbach. Details.
Griffith Park Neighborhood
Council Elections
The Greater Griffith Park Neighborhood Council (GGPNC)
held elections for 10 available seats on March 20th. The results
are unofficial until the end of this month, but is appears that
the entire Los
Feliz Forward ticket won the election. Ron Ostrow, one
of the apparent winners in District "B," has assured CORBA
of his commitment to
road cycling and willingness to talk about mountain bike issues. For more, view our
blog
entry on the GGPNC election.
Calabasas New Millennium Trail Boulder Update
The boulder that slid onto one of the switchbacks of the New
Milllennium Trail, as reported last
month in the eTerraTimes, has been removed. See the blog
entry and photos.
Angeles National Forest Update
On March 17th, CORBA volunteers attended a meeting with ANF Volunteer Coordinator
Howard Okamoto. We received some encouraging news. While the theme
of the news is good, nothing is definite, and planned dates may change if we get
another round of storms or inclement weather.
Right now the forest closure remains in effect, unchanged since it was first
imposed after the fires. However, the FS hopes to open much of the forest to
the public in mid to late April. The area that will definitely remain closed is
the Arroyo Seco Canyon, roughly the area from Switzers to JPL, between Brown
Mountain and Mt. Lukens. For more, view our blog
entry on the Angeles NF Closures. SoCal League Into Second Year of High School Mountain Bike Racing
The Southern California High School Mountain Bike Racing Series follows up on a
highly successful inaugural series with a five-race season that is attracting
considerable attention from high school students across southern California. 80 percent growth is
seen as the 2010 Racing Series kicks off at the beautiful Vail Lake Resort near Temecula on March
14. For more, view our blog
entry on the SoCal Interscholastic League.
Report on the 2010 National Bike Summit League of American Bicyclists National Bike Summit 2010, March 9-11 in Washington,
DC. The Summit was a great experience. 700 + advocates, 75+ of whom were
mountain bikers attended. It was intense and exhausting, very well organized,
and extremely motivating. Days went 8 AM-10 PM.
Major announcements included:
1. Google unveiled its new bike routes on Google Maps. It’s customizable. (Point and
click on the route to change it to your needs.) Google wants feedback. If
you’ve got it, click on “report a problem” to suggest routes, correct errors,
etc. They’ll check out your comments and route should be changed in 30 days.
Their algorithms tried to avoid traffic congestion and hills
2. Bikes Belong announced a new initiative to bring ordinary cyclists to
advocacy. They’re trying to get one million bike advocates signed up. Take the
pledge at http://www.bikesbelong.org/peopleforbikes View the rest of this article in our
blog entry on the 2010
National Bike Summit.
Los Robles Trail in Thousand Oaks Crosses
Private Road
A section of the Los Robles Trail in Thousand Oaks crosses over a private dirt road,
an extension of South Ventu Park Road in Newbury Park.
Actions by trail users such as stopping vehicular traffic or traveling away from
the path of the Los Robles Trail as it crosses the private dirt road are
illegal. Failure to respect this private property could affect future public
access to the Los Robles Trail. View the complete story in our
blog entry. Support Rails to Trails
ACT Act would improve trail, walking and biking
networks around the country: “Active Community Transportation Act of 2010″ Introduced in the U.S.
House of Representatives. Read
more on our blog.
New on the CORBA Website
Recreational
Rides
For a list of upcoming recreational rides, please visit the CORBA
Calendar.
Free Mountain Biking
Skills Clinic
Saturday April 3rd is the next skills clinic.
The  CORBA free skills clinic is held on the first Saturday of
every month at Malibu Creek State Park.
Mountain biking is a lot like tennis or skiing. Just a few minor
adjustments in technique can make a huge difference in your
control and proficiency. If you want to get better faster,
you need to know the fundamentals of mountain biking technique.
Whether you're just getting into mountain biking or have been
riding for years, you'll learn some valuable tips from our Introduction
to Mountain Biking skills class that is offered each month.
Check out our Skills Clinic
web page for all the information. After the clinic, see photos
of your new skills on the CORBA web site that you can share
with your family and friends!
 Follow
CORBA on Twitter
We have set up an account with Twitter to help keep people informed
of the latest developments in our trail advocacy, recreational rides and trailwork days. Follow
us on Twitter at twitter.com/CORBAmtb.
Support
CORBA
Join or Renew your membership today on our membership
web page. Join Our Team! Do you have any ideas about mountain biking recreation in the
L.A. region? Would you like to apply your skills and manage projects
that contribute to the sport and lifestyle that you love? Is there
an advocate in you? We are recruiting motivated individuals who
work well with others. Send an email to info@corbamtb.com
or come
to a monthly Members Meeting to find out more about what we do and how you
can help. Check the calendar
for the next meeting.
Other simple ways to
support CORBA
(Click on the links above to get more details!)
CORBA
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