Last week we took part in an awesome and ground breaking (pun intended!) event. Tuesday through Friday marked a Shimano sponsored, IMBA taught, LCF hosted trail building clinic for our folks and other major trail protectors in our area. The IMBA instructor took two waves of committed individuals through the latest in sustainable, cross use compatible trail building methods...
...and then out to the field we went to apply the latest learnings. All walked away with invaluable knowledge on making our trails the best, information that will be taught forward to anyone willing to grab a McLeod and join in!
At the midpoint of the training, we also had an informal summit gathering where LCF, IMBA and OCMTBA were able to articulate to a number of government, conservation and land management authorities the power of our commitment, collaboration and communication in accomplishing the goal of protecting and expanding our open space access.
In the words of David Wiens at IMBA "Shimano really got the ball rolling as they wanted to offer in-depth trail education to some of their employees. That led to conversations and planning with Hallie at LCF and with David at OCMTB. From that, four days packed with trail education and conversations were pulled together that included land managers, elected officials, advocates and other stakeholders. There is a ton of interest in trails in Orange County, particularly for mountain biking. The heritage for riding trails there goes back to the very beginning and with more people and more interest all the time, it puts a premium on thoughtful planning and management. An element we all think is important is to think about the trail system in Orange County in terms of 25, years, 50 years and more. How can we protect trails and mountain biking in the Orange County area for future generations, also working toward improving the conservation of the natural resources and the quality of the trail experience for all user types."
Thank you to Shimano, IMBA and LCF for making this event happen. Building and maintaining our trails correctly is a win for everyone, hiker, equestrian, biker or bird watcher - we're all in this together!