Two San Luis Obispo trails were renovated Sunday Oct. 10 by the Central Coast Concerned Mountain Bikers (CCCMB) to improve safety and accessibility to users.
A group of appromimately 30 CCCMB workers and volunteers worked on the Morning Glory and Shooters trails off of West Cuesta Ridge Road from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. to prepare the trails for winter.
CCCMB is a nonprofit organization devoted to promoting, maintaining and developing sustainable trails in San Luis Obispo County. Director Greg Bettencourt helped start the organization in 1987 when he and a group of mountain bike enthusiasts restored the Montaña de Oro State Park bike trail to keep it open to mountain bikes. CCCMB now works all over the county to maintain commonly used trails.
“At CCCMB we want to make more opportunities for mountain bikers in San Luis Obispo,” Bettencourt said. “However, these trails are also used by hikers and equestrians, so we communicate with other groups to make the trails multi-purpose.”
CCCMB cooperates with cycling organizations in San Luis Obispo as well as groups that promote hiking and equestrianism to ensure trails in San Luis Obispo County are accessible to bikers, hikers and equestrians.
According to Bettencourt, CCCMB has around 25 core members, 50 members regularly involved and a few hundred more who volunteer once a year from around the county. CCCMB volunteers work approximately 2,000 hours on trails every year, according to the CCCMB website.
Bettencourt said the Morning Glory and Shooters trails are two of the most popular trails in San Luis Obispo County and undergo significant wear and weather erosion throughout the year, leading to the need for maintenance. The trails run through land bought by the city of San Luis Obispo in 2000, and CCCMB works on the trails to keep them environmentally sound and fun for all riders and hikers, Bettencourt said.
On Sunday volunteers met at the base of the trails to sign in and go over the rules for the day. The volunteers were split into teams with a crew leader assigned to give directions. Sunday’s work was primarily done to clear drains on the trail so when the rainy season begins the water will easily run off, Bettencourt said.
Kelli Schonher is CCCMB’s Education Committee Chair and trains crew leaders on the technical details of building and maintaining a trail. Schonher said she moved to San Luis Obispo from Los Angeles six years ago to find a community she could become a part of and found that CCCMB was a great way to be active.
“I felt like I was making a difference as a part of CCCMB,” Schonher said. “At first I just wanted to be part of the hands-on work on the trails, but after going to the meetings I realized they were really fun and I decided to get more involved.”
Several members of the Cal Poly Wheelmen Club also attended the workday. Club president and biomedical engineering junior Joshua Marcum said the club tries to send members to every CCCMB workday.
“Cal Poly students use these trails a lot and we try to support CCCMB whenever we can,” Marcum said. “What they do keeps us able to ride and they work hard to keep trails up for everyone. Wherever they go, we try to go too.”
CCCMB is supported and sponsored by many local businesses and cycling groups. The SLO County Bike Coalition does advocacy work for CCCMB with the San Luis Obispo city government. Executive director Dan Rivoire said CCCMB has done a fantastic job communicating with the community.
“Our organization’s mission is to encourage active transportation, especially on bikes,” Rivoire said. “We’re incredibly impressed with CCCMB’s efforts in promoting similar recreation.”
CCCMB also cooperates with local government to coordinate their projects. Doug Carscaden is a Cal Poly alumnus and the Supervisor and Ranger at the City of San Luis Obispo Parks & Recreation Department, as well as an assistant director of CCCMB. Carscaden said the Parks & Recreation Department fully encourages CCCMB to pursue projects like trail workdays.
“Over the last four or five years the CCCMB forces have quadrupled, and it’s a testament to the people involved and the work they’ve done,” Carscaden said. “Groups like CCCMB have so much passion and energy — there’s not a single bad thing about them.”