news Riders Show Up to Develop Novato Trail Routes

Last Thursday evening, 35 mountain bikers showed how much they love bicycling when they chose to come out to a Trail Planning event at Bicycle Brüstop in Novato, rather than watch the tightly contested NBA Finals game. This gathering was a precursor to the Marin County Open Space Region 3 Road and Trail designation workshop slated for August.

At the upcoming August workshop, County Open Space staff will present a baseline trail system for preserves on the south, north and east side of Big Rock Ridge, along with Indian Valley. While people who want to ride bikes are not likely to gain much trail access in this initial step, it will trigger the ability to propose new trail alignments and connections. With this in mind, MCBC invited members and other mountain bikers who live in North Marin to help identify a vision for the future trail network in Region 3.

At the meeting, residents of Marinwood, Ignacio, Indian Valley and Novato learned about the Marin County Open Space Road and Trail Management Plan (RTMP) and then sat with detailed maps of the nearby preserves. On those maps people were asked to discuss possible trail alignments, form consensus and then draw a line on the map. Acknowledging potential hurdles such as habitat constraints, we wanted to capture the main features of what people would like to see in the region. Following that step, we asked people to pick their favorite alignment to help MCBC prioritize any future proposals.

We had two representatives from Marin Open Space at the meeting to help facilitate the workshop and Marin County District 5 Supervisor Judy Arnold (center in photo at right) showed up to take part in the exercise and interact with her constituents.

After a spirited and informational evening, we have a good idea of what people would like to see happen in the region as we prepare for the official workshops. Many members and riders who live near the preserves are now enthused to get word out to their friends, riding partners and neighbors. As we’ve demonstrated elsewhere in the county, when we show up and become active in the process, we continue to expand opportunities for riding.  If you were not able to attend this meeting but would like to be part of the effort in this area, please email Tom Boss. 

MCBC will announce the Region 3 meeting date as soon as the date is set. We encourage all to come out and help plan a better trail system in North Marin!