LCWP TnA Trail

Ha, the replies on facebook are funny (or would be funny if we weren't talking about hacking away at our trails). Someone claiming that every time mountain bikers are asked to be involved it's crickets. Hello, hard to be involved when you post a picture on Facebook of a dump truck full of rocks the DAY BEFORE YOU PLAN TO DO WORK.
 
Last edited:
I saw the Facebook posts, and this can't end well. I've only been down 5-Oaks once, and it doesn't look like I'll get a second chance. :thumbsdown:
 
For what it's worth, I replied to the Facebook post with some context from the trail forum they hosted back in April. It won't change what they do today, but I reminded them of the statements they made about 5 Oaks in that meeting, and that they had committed to keep us in the loop (hasn't happened so far - which is fine as long as nothing has changed since the meeting, but bobcats and dump trucks would be a pretty big change). Hopefully they don't do anything irreversible today, and maybe we'll have a chance to influence the direction of the work. (where's the little praying hands emoji?)
 
They just posted a couple of replies to Facebook along with pictures of todays work (done by hand)! They stated that the pictures of the bobcat and dump truck were from the work on Lizards 3 years ago, and admitted that the pictures were poor judgement that caused confusion! Their response on Facebook is a big step forward from some of the antagonistic back and forth that happened in the past, before we met with them in April.

Here are their two responses so you can read for yourself:

"We have been working hard on Five Oaks for the past three years to help to make it what it is today, and agree with you that it is getting to the point where only maintenance and some minor tweaks (to improve flow and increase sustainability) are needed. The pictures originally included with this post came from the work that an OC Parks contractor did on the Lizard Trail three years ago. They were posted in a moment of poor judgment and were highly misleading. We apologize for the confusion. Please feel free to contact our Restoration Program Director Alan Kaufmann at alan@lagunacanyon.org if you would like more information on our plans for this trail or others."

"We appreciate you withholding your judgment. No major changes have been made in our plans for Five Oaks that we discussed at the Forum. You are absolutely correct in stating that the original pictures in this post were confusing, misleading and not conducive to building a sense of trust with the mountain bike community and other user groups. They were posted in a moment of poor judgment, and we apologize for the confusion. We look forward to continuing our constructive dialog and hope you and others give us the chance to rebuild your trust in us. We will reply to you and others who have contacted us through email shortly."
 
Please check out the pictures of their work today (on their Facebook page), ride it, and let us know what you think. It'll be a while until I get out there.

Here's what they said:
"Pictures of the actual trail work that happened on Five Oaks today. Smoothing out some braking bumps and building a ramp to ease the transition off of a rock outcrop, all near the top of the trail. They used the truck water tank to wet down the dirt so that they could build with it, a technique we’ve been using to extend the effective trail work season."​

I'm a little curious about the "ease the transition off a rock outcrop" part, hoping that they didn't ease it too much. From the pictures, it's hard to tell. In their "before" picture, you can see where the base of the rock drop has eroded more than what I remember from when I started riding it ~5 years ago. I can see the need to bolster this from time to time, and it looks like that's mostly what they did and that there will still be a fun drop there. I'll be interested to hear what people think when they ride it.

Either way, any quibbles about that transition are very minor to me compared to what we were all afraid of and what they did to Laguna Ridge earlier this year. This seems more to me like occasional maintenance that will slowly erode away again into a bigger drop until it gets built back up again and the cycle repeats every couple years or so. If that's the case, then I think it's a win!
 
@MattB post link to FB / pics please, may go by tonight to see for self. It was darn socal silty last week, curious if damp could be nice tonight, but always cautious after trail work.. I have been caught by sudden oddly placed waterbars before after other work.
 
Jeez. glad they cleared that up. The photos don't look like they messed anything up.

BTW they also did some work on T&A recently as well. They smoothed out the the first right hander near the top and made that tight hairpin switchback on the upper section flatter. Both seemed to run better so far.
 
Okay folks I just rode Five Oaks basically nothing to report looks like they knocked down a few braking bumps heading into a few of the pavers

The picture of the one drop basic looks like they kind of swept out some of the silt and put about 2 or 3 inches of dirt there where was kind of con-caving ... still a drop

Where I thought they would do work kind of at the steps and roots where you go through the stream bed nothing done there still kind of effed-up / fun as usual.

I didn't stop and take pictures because frankly there wasn't anything worth taking pictures of.

Basically it rides like a did about 6 weeks ago.

Not sure if they're finished or not
 
Last edited:
bvader said:
Okay folks I just rode Five Oaks basically nothing to report looks like they knocked down a few breaking bumps heading into a few of the pavers

The picture of the one drop basic looks like they kind of swept out some of the silt and put about 2 or 3 inches of dirt there where was kind of con-caving ... still a drop

Where I thought they would do work kind of at the steps and routes where you go through the stream bed nothing done there still kind of effed-up as usual.

I didn't stop and take pictures because frankly there wasn't anything worth taking pictures of.

Basically it rides like a did about 6 weeks ago.

Not sure if they're finished or not
Click to expand...
Thank you, thank you, thank you.

LCF will be cleaning up their social media problem very soon.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top