Redding, CA: Subaru/IMBA Trail Care Crew works in Whiskeytown National Recreation Area

NPS Staff, including Park Superintendent Jim Milestone (in tie), strike a pose with Jill and RMB leaders Carl Drake and Bob Boecking.
Safety first! A fire line of volunteers demonstrate a safer way to get tools across the raging stream.
RMB volunteers work to soften the backslope. A near vertical backslope and narrow tread were forcing users to the soft outside edge of the trail. Equestrians simply could not safely bring their horses along this stretch of trail and were subsequently making social trails to avoid this stretch. It's important that a trail be safely navigable by all users for whom the trail is open.
Hardy volunteers dig a shelf on which a rock wall will rest to improve an existing unsustainable switchback turn. Riders and other users were causing erosion as they attempted to navigate the steep, tight turn on loose soil. Without proper drainage, signs of water erosion were beginning to emerge.
This switchback was reconstructed to make it more sustainable and better to ride. A small retaining wall was constructed on the downhill side, the backslope softened, and an insloped gutter constructed at the back of the turn to provide drainage.
It wasn't all work! RMB members led the Crew on a great ride at Whiskeytown, including a short hike up to the spectacular Brandy Creek Falls.
The Crew gets in a ride on the Clikapudi Trail with club leaders. The trail follows the contour around part of Shasta Lake, in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. Redding riders enjoy easy access to trails on public lands managed by NPS, USFS, and BLM.

Granite outcroppings, cascading waterfalls, and sunny skies greeted the Subaru/IMBA Trail Care Crew as they made their way to Whiskeytown National Recreation Area (NRA), just outside of Redding, CA, February 2nd-6th.

As the first of twelve Trail Care Crew visits to National Park Service sites in 2006, developed through IMBA's Memorandum of Understanding with NPS , the Redding Mountain Bike club (RMB) seized the opportunity to make the weekend one in which the mountain bike community could be proud. Whiskeytown's spectacular natural resources and diverse trail opportunities have made it a popular destination. As traffic increases on multi-use trails with highly erosive decomposing granite soils, Park Staff and RMB have recognized the need to make trail improvements to reduce erosion. To that end, the Crew's workshop focused on designing, rerouting, and maintaining trails to reduce water- and user-based erosion while enhancing the experience for hikers, bicyclists, and equestrians alike.

Land managers and trail enthusiasts showed up in droves to spend their Saturday learning about trailbuilding. Representatives from 4 federal agencies (NPS, USFS, BLM, and Bureau of Reclamation) joined riders, runners, and hikers for a three-hour classroom presentation and discussion followed by an afternoon field project designed to reinforce many of the topics covered during the morning session.

While the weekend's activities focused on trail projects at Whiskeytown, RMB leaders were eager to give the Crew a fuller taste of what Redding had to offer. With trail assessment and rides at three federal properties, the Crew learned how RMB and land managers from the BLM, USFS, NPS, and the City are working together to provide connectivity through public lands from downtown Redding all the way up to Whiskeytown. As evidence, a singletrack connector trail now extends from BLM managed Swasey Recreation Area into Whiskeytown via the Mule Mountain Trail, with agencies working jointly in the construction. These cooperative efforts among land management agencies and mountain bicyclists, combined with incredible natural resources, makes Redding well-positioned as a great place mountain bicycling Mecca.