Trail News May '98 Next Meeting: Wednesday, May 13th, 6:30 PM, at the Community Rm behind the library

Codfish Falls Trail Hike - Saturday May 2nd
This trail is one of our best, especially at this time of year, when the water falls and the wild flowers are abundant. The trail starts at the bridge on the North Fork of the American River at the bottom of Ponderosa Way. Since parking is limited near the bridge we are carpooling from the Todd Valley Fire Station at Happy Pines (meet there at 8:30 AM). The hike is about 3.5 miles round-trip and is not difficult, although the trail is narrow in spots and only suitable for hiking. Bring water, snacks, sunscreen, etc. This should be a great outing. Bring your family and friends!

Lost Trail Connections?
The week after the Tevis Fun Ride a locked gate was put up on Old Miner Rd which is a dirt road that connects Oakwood Ln to Todd Valley Rd. This blocks a nice route that was used during the fun ride between the Todd Valley Trail (historic WST) and the Western States Trail through Peachstone. The route had been flagged before the ride and all of the flags were also taken down. The owner of the gate expressed concern about liability.

The trail between Spring Garden Dr and Ponderosa Way was also blocked by new wire this month. We are not yet sure who put up the wire and why.

A 30 acre parcel of BLM land on the right side of Melody Ln has been sold to the owner of a neighboring parcel. This parcel includes the "race track" and other trails used primarily by equestrians who live in the neighborhood. The new owner said that since all the land in the area is (now) private there would be little possibility of keeping these trails open.

All of these situations involve trail connections through private land where easements are not in place. Any negative incident may trigger the owner to try to shut down the trail. We can try to talk them into re-opening it and to dedicating trail easements which will relieve them from liability concerns. Unless they want trails, it's a very hard sell. Many people are uncomfortable with strangers going through their property and problems with motorcycles, dogs, hunters, theft, vandalism and trash can discourage even the most altruistic. We are lucky to have so much public land on the Foresthill Divide, but it is increasingly hard to keep the access points and connections between trails that are on private property open.

Monte Verde Estates Update
The Monte Verde Estates development will be going before the county planning department on May 14th, 9:20 AM in the Planning Dept at the DeWitt center. We have requested that trail easements to allow for connection to the Foresthill Divide Loop Trail and the historic Western States Trail via McKeon-Ponderosa Way be provided for in the project. If you are able to attend this meeting to support the request for trail easements, please do so. We are losing trail connections rapidly as development occurs and our best chance to create a trail network is to actively work with the planning department and developers to get easements in place.

Foresthill Divide Loop Trail Progress
The FATRAC mountain bikers have been working like crazy to get this trail done. They have done all of the heavy dirt work with the trail cat and are now working on smoothing out the trail by using an ATV to drag a screen over it and working by hand around rocks and trees. They will be working on Saturday, May 2nd, 9 AM at Drivers Flat Rd. and Saturday, May 16th, 9 AM at Upper Lake Clementine Rd. For now State Parks is asking that bikes and horses stay off the trail until it seasons a bit. It is just too soft and you will sink in and create erosion problems. Hiking is OK.

Upcoming Events

• May 2nd - Codfish Falls Hike, Foresthill Divide Loop Trail Work day
• May 3rd - Wildfire on the Divide Day, FDMS
• May 9th - Sugar Pine Nature Day
• May 16th - Foresthill Divide Loop Trail Work day
• May 23 - 25th - Camp Norm (Western States 100 Run training weekend)
• June 6th - Melansons' CA St. Night Training Run
• June 27th - Western States 100 Run
• August 8th - Tevis 100 Mile Ride

Agenda for May 13th, 6:30 PM

1. Call To Order
2. Treasurer's Report
3. Political Action
     - Monte Verde Estates Update
     - Foresthill Community Plan - Trail map dessert night
     - Mammoth Bar Update  
     - Update on trail closings
4. Trail Maintenance
     - Foresthill Divide Loop Trail
     - Upper section of Todd Valley Trail
     - Clean Foresthill Rd.
     - Trail Scouting Reports
5. Outings
     - Equestrian Fun Ride - date to be decided
6. Old Business
     - Codfish Falls Hike Review
     - Tevis Michigan Bluff Traffic Control
7. New Business
     - Melansons' Night Run - aid volunteers requested
8. Open Forum