In this issue:

1. Trail work event on Saturday, January 19th a success!

2. Basic Trail Maintenance Workshop

3. Protect our access – submit your comments on the Clear Water management
plan

4. Guided Rides to begin in early February

1. TRAIL WORK EVENT ON SATURDAY, JANUARY 19TH A SUCCESS!

We had a great trail work event on Saturday! We did a massive amount of
earthwork repairing the ruts and several switchbacks on Upper Holy Jim. On
Lower Holy Jim we built a retaining wall for a section of trail that was
failing and brushed from where the trail crosses the canyon to about ½ a
mile up. At the spot we were working on Lower Holy Jim building the
retaining wall for a deteriorated section of trail one trail runner and
mountain biker stopped to watch – somewhat amazed at our retaining wall and
how we devised the engineering.

The rest of the crews up on Upper Holy Jim installed 25 water bars, repaired
several damaged switchbacks and installed 12 or more grade stabilizers. The
rains expected this week will aid in the compaction of the earthwork and
give us a good indication of what areas may still need to be improved.

Thanks to our Upper Holy Jim Trail Managers Jeroen Bosboom and Mike Caffrey
for assessing this trail (as well as helping with this and past work early
this year) and to John Early and Chip Leopard for assessing Lower Holy Jim
and their past work on our back country trails.

Our next trail work event may be on Sunday, February 3rd. This will be the
last trail work event before the Pow Wow and we’ll be installing grade
stabilizers and fixing several areas on the Switchbacks on Holy Jim above
the falls. We’ll also be doing some minor brushing.

2. BASIC TRAIL MAINTENANCE WORKSHOP

Trail Maintenance for Volunteers
1 – Day Workshop
February 2, 2008

Sanctioned by the
Southern California Trails Coalition (SCTC)

A multiple jurisdictions and multiple agencies organization comprised of
representatives from Southern California cities, counties, state and federal
agencies working together with non-profit organizations and volunteers to
standardize trail maintenance and procedures.

Hosted by Orange County Parks & United States Forest Service

Workshop location:

Caspers Wilderness Park
33401 Ortega Highway
San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675
Saturday 8:00 AM – 3:00 PM

This 6.5 hour class at Caspers Wilderness Park will train park volunteers on
the basic elements of trail maintenance. This workshop will teach
volunteers how to safely, effectively, and efficiently maintain recreational
use trails. Attendees will receive a training packet and certificate of
completion.

* No fee for workshop
* Space is limited
* Boots/sturdy shoes and long pants required
* Bring sun protection
* Snacks & lunch will be provided
* You must apply by 01/24/08
* No walk-ins

To apply, contact: Park Ranger Ryan Cordero at 949-923-2208 or
ryan.cordero@rdmd.ocgov.com

Directions:

Caspers Wilderness Park is located approximately 7-1/2 miles inland from the
Mission City of San Juan Capistrano in Southern Orange County. To reach the
park, take the Santa Ana (5) or San Diego (405) Freeway to the Ortega
Highway (74) exit at San Juan Capistrano, Ortega Highway off ramp. Turn due
east, inland, along Ortega Highway and proceed 7-1/2 miles to the park
entrance.

CASPERS WILDERNESS PARK
33401 Ortega Highway
San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675

3. Protect our access – Submit your comments on the Clearwater Travel Plan

Dear single track, mountain bike and snowmobile leaders,

The deadline to comment on a draft winter and summer Travel Plan for the
Clearwater National Forest HAS BEEN EXTENDED!

The Clearwater Travel Plan is the first time a National Forest in Region 1
has attempted site specific implementation of their new (and unlawful)
de-facto Wilderness policy. The policy impacts mountain bike, single track
motorcycle and snowmobiles most! We need to get the word out to our people
— badly. The greens are engaged and fighting hard. Every comment counts.

Below are some quick cut and paste comments. Please forward this info to
your people.

Thanks!
Brian Hawthorne
BlueRibbon Coalition
208-237-1008 ext.102

PS for background info see http://www.sharetrails.org/alerts/?alert=753

SITUATION:

Idaho’s Clearwater National Forest has released a “Proposed Action” for the
summer and winter motorized and mountain bike Travel Plan. It is the first
time a National Forest in Region 1 (in northern Idaho and Montana) has
attempted site-specific implementation of their new (and unlawful) de-facto
Wilderness policy. The “Proposed Action” proposes removing all motorized and
mountain bike uses from “Recommended Wilderness Areas” (RWA).

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO:

Send a simple email comment to the Clearwater.
Here is a link to Clearwater’s Travel Plan webpage:
http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/clearwater/Projects/TravPlan/ClwTravel.htm

The email address is: comments-northern-clearwater@fs.fed.us

IMPORTANT:

Put “Comments on Clearwater National Forest Travel Plan” in the subject line
and be certain to include your name and address at the end of the comments.
A return email address is NOT sufficient! (FS often discards “anonymous”
email comments.)

Please personalize the letter by letting them know how long you’ve been
mountain biking, the benefits you see in it and the efforts you’ve made to
maintain our trails for all users. Copy the text below and paste into your
personalized email.

Lois Foster, Travel Plan Interdisciplinary Team Leader
Lochsa Ranger District, Kamiah Ranger Station
Rt. 2 Box 191
Kamiah, ID 83536

I would like to make the following comments on the Clearwater National
Forest Travel Plan. The comment is made using the “issues in the form of
questions” format. Please consider these questions in the Alternative
development and please also include a full discussion of each question in
the EIS. I also request the EIS include a discussion and brief analysis of
previous Congressional Wilderness designations so the public may understand
how the existence of motorized/mountain bike uses actually impacts
Congress’s ability to designate Wilderness. I also request that the
Clearwater provide a true range of management Alternatives, including one
“action” alternative that, at the very minimum, does not reduce the current
motorized and mountain bike opportunity.

Question 1)

In Montana Wilderness Assoc. v. U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. District Court
of Montana found that Congress required the Forest Service to strike-and
maintain-a balance between wilderness character and motorized/mountain bike
use use in WSAs established by that Act. Given that Congress envisioned
motorized uses in Wilderness Study Areas they established, what is the
Forest Service’s rationale for excluding motorized/mountain bike uses in
Recommended Wilderness Areas (RWAs)?

Question 2)

If the existence of motorized/mountain bike uses does not preclude an area
from being designated as an RWA, then what is the Forest Service’s rationale
for eliminating motorized/mechanized uses in RWAs?

Question 3)

What level of motorized or mountain bike use would disqualify an area from
being a RWA?

Question 4)

In the Eastern Wilderness Act, Congress designated areas Wilderness that
contained motorized/mountain bike uses, structures, maintained roads and
even sections of paved roads. Has the Forest Service studied the level of
motorized/mountain bike uses that actually precludes Congress from
designating an area Wilderness?

YOUR NAME

YOUR ADDRESS

4. GUIDED RIDES TO BEGIN IN EARLY FEBRUARY

We are awaiting the delivery of “Forest Service Volunteer” t-shirts to be
worn by our club guides for guided rides in the areas affected by the fire
closures. We are hoping to start the guided rides in early February.

We will be announcing the dates of the rides on our weekly news and the link
to reserve a spot on the SoCal Trail Riders Message board. We encourage
everyone to sign up in advance on the STR board so they can make
reservations as soon as the link is activated. Spots on the rides are
limited and will be given out on a 1st come 1st served basis.

To sign up on the STR board go to:

http://www.socaltrailriders.org/

Shimano is the Major Component Sponsor of the Warrior’s Society

Rock N Road Bike Shops and Sho-Air Racing are Major Sponsors of the
Warrior’s Society

Cytomax is the Official Fluid Replacement Drink of the Warrior’s Society

Clif Bar is the Official Energy Bar and Gel of the Warrior’s Society

The Warrior’s Society is a Blue Ribbon Coalition (BRC) affiliated
organization

The Warrior’s Society is a Tax Exempt Organization under 501 (c) 4 of the
IRS Code

“Far better it is to dare mighty dreams, to win glorious triumphs, even
though checkered by failure, than to take the ranks with those poor spirits
who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in that gray
twilight that knows not victory nor defeat!”

Theodore Roosevelt

www.warriorssociety.org

In this issue:

1. The Rwanda Ride wrap-up

2. Trail Work event on Saturday, January 19th

1. RWANDA RIDE WRAP-UP

From Doug Grant:

On behalf of our 50 Mile Ride for Project Rwanda organizing team, I want to thank you for making this year’s event really special. Because of your participation and support, we raised over $32,000 for Project Rwanda this year! And we had almost 100 more riders than last year – we had 343 fun-loving people out enjoying the ride.

We heard lots of great comments about the ride and about the new route. The fires and rains changed our plans a few times this year – so it was encouraging to hear that we may have put together a winner. Many thanks to Roger Toubeaux and Mark Nichols and the rest of our route planning team for all their hard work. And a great big thank you to Andy Brazelton and his terrific team of volunteers. They did an awesome job of feeding and encouraging our riders all along the route. Thank you, volunteers!!!
You’re the best!

I want to give a HUGE thank you to all of our event sponsors this year.

Over $10,000 in raffle prizes – including our grand prize Ellsworth Ride bike from Ellsworth and Mazda USA – plus tons of other prizes from every one of our local bike shops and bike industry companies. What a generous group!

PLUS we received a ton of support from sponsors such as Arrowhead Water, Bonk Breakers, Motor Tabs, Squirt Lube, Panda Express, Geoladders, Sho-Air, and Dr Julie Malley of Trabuco Hills Chiropractic – who all contributed to our success. Thank you also to Cooks Corner, our event hosts, for helping us all to feel welcome and for contributing BBQ proceeds to our cause. And a great big thank you to Mark Malatesta and Hoss Technical Gear for donating all of our cool event tee-shirts – we will wear them with pride this year!

Thank you Dave Sheek and Chris Miller and Mark Jacobsen for rallying such terrific sponsor support for our event.

Special thanks also to Joe Lopez and the Warriors Society Communications/Support Team, for donating their time, their talents, and their resources to contribute to the success of our event. Their “behind the scenes” efforts in radio and logistics support helped our event run safely and smoothly. Thanks also to the SOARA ham radio club for use of their repeater and frequencies.

We had Scott Kennedy Photoworks out at our event all day, and they took some great shots. Please check out their web site today, you’ll see yourself in living color (photos are organized by your bike number plate sequence).

Scott is donating a portion of his proceeds back to Project Rwanda – so order some keepsake photos today!

http://www.kennedyphotoworks.com/50mileride.com.html

We’re hoping to do this event again – there’s a lot of people that would like to see our 50 Mile Ride become an annual event. If you’d like to help us plan or volunteer for next year’s ride – please send me an email. We WELCOME all the volunteers and support we can get. Please also reply and let me know if you have any other suggestions or feedback. We’re new at this event planning stuff – and we want to get better at it every year.

Thanks again for all that you did to make our event successful. Have a safe and sane New Year, and we’ll see you on the trails!

Doug Grant

2. TRAIL WORK EVENT ON SATURDAY, JANUARY 19TH.

The Warrior’s Society will be having a trail work event on Saturday, January 19th. The location will be determined after we evaluate the trails after the recent rains.

The work will start at 8:00 a.m. and end at 2:00 p.m. with a free lunch afterward. Participants should bring gloves, water and food for during the work and a change of clothes and a beach chair for after the work.

If you plan on attending please RSVP by replying to this email.

Thanks,

The Warrior’s Society

Shimano is the Major Component Sponsor of the Warrior’s Society

Rock N Road Bike Shops and Sho-Air Racing are Major Sponsors of the Warrior’s Society

Cytomax is the Official Fluid Replacement Drink of the Warrior’s Society

Clif Bar is the Official Energy Bar and Gel of the Warrior’s Society

The Warrior’s Society is a Blue Ribbon Coalition (BRC) affiliated organization

The Warrior’s Society is a Tax Exempt Organization under 501 (c) 4 of the IRS Code

“Far better it is to dare mighty dreams, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take the ranks with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in that gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat!”

Theodore Roosevelt

www.warriorssociety.org