Banana Slug Round 1 Results

A Monumental Slugfest

Fifty five riders completed the Monument Loop between Jan 15-18 for the virtual edition of the Banana Slug Series. Though we did not have a a mass start, it was great to see so many groups overlap and share the great road conditions and pleasant skies along Bear River Ridge. Below are tabulated results based on Strava activities and email submissions. If anyone is missing, please let us know. The segment that we used for the results was an existing segment on Strava (full loop starting and finishing at the bottom of Wildcat) as the one that was created for the Slug appeared not to pick up any activities. We’ll have the bugs worked out for Round 2 which will be Butler Valley. Thank you to all that participated. We shall all ride in mass soon enough.

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2021 Banana Slug Series

With the current global situation and the uncertainty of cycling events in 2021, we will be conducting this year’s Banana Slug Series virtually. Riders have a four day window to complete the ride: Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday surrounding the second Saturday of the months February through June. January’s Slug Fest will be held the third weekend since it took us a while to get this going.

 Riders must be FULLY self sufficient. We will not be providing SAG support. Riders should be reminded to maintain social distancing from fellow riders not in their germ bubble.

Each ride will have a Host, Ride Contact. The Ride Contact will be responsible for compiling the ride timing from the riders. Ride timing will be accomplished through Strava for riders with that capability and any riders without Strava can self-record their rides and turn in their time via e-mail to the Ride Contact. For updates and route specifics, join the RCMBA Strava group (https://www.strava.com/clubs/rcmba) and stay tuned to our events page.

Round 1: January 15, 16, 17, 18 - Monument/Bear River Ridge starting and ending at Humboldt County Fairgrounds. Ride Contact is Steve Jones (ironorsteel@gmail.com)

Round 2: February 12, 13, 14, 15 - Butler Valley loop - Clockwise - Start and finish to be near the D St Neighborhood Center in Arcata. Ride Contact is Tim Daniels (twowhellintim@gmail.com)

Round 3: March 12, 13, 14, 15 - Lonestar Junction - Start at 3 corners - Climb Greenwood Heights - loop clockwise - descend on Kneeland. Ride Contact is Travis James (ptrav37@gmail.com)

Round 4: April 9, 10, 11, 12 - Dyerville Loop clockwise - Start and Finish at State Park Headquarters in Weott. Ride Contact is Lacey Comer (laceycomer@gmail.com)

Round 5: May 7, 8, 9, 10 - Tour of the Unknown Coast - direction optional. Start and finish at Humboldt County Fairgrounds. Ride Contact is Steve Pearl (steventpearl@gmail.com)

Round 6: June 11, 12, 13, 14 - Paradise Royale Loop, direction optional. Ride Contact TBD.

City of Arcata Approves Forsyth Trail Improvement Plan

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After months of collaboration with city officials, RCMBA has received approval to improve “Peanut Butter” and “Jump Trail” within the recently acquired Forsyth Tract of the Arcata Community Forest! Thanks to all the members that have been a part of this process, with a special thanks to Mark Andre and Julie Neander for going to bat for RCMBA, as well as all the other staff who got us here. To find out more about this project and to view the submitted plan, check out the Arcata Staff Report here.

On Saturday November 28th, the Humboldt Trails Council, Volunteer Trail Stewards is holding their regularly scheduled work day. They have chosen to collaborate with RCMBA and help us get started on Peanut Butter! We will be volunteering with their organization this time around, so the maximum number of people we can have is 20 people due to their organization's Covid guidelines. Once we establish our own working agreement with the City, we will subsequently coordinate our own workdays. Rees Hughes of the Volunteer Trail Stewards has built a very productive and successful organization and we are lucky to have them as a resource and we are thankful for them helping us kickoff this long anticipated project.

Sign up for the workday here.

Below is the information Rees Hughes of the Volunteer Trail Stewards sent out for the trail day. If you don’t get on the list this time around, worry not. There will be plenty more opportunities in the near future.

“Dear Wonderful Volunteers,

Good news! We are going to collaborate with the Redwood Coast Mountain Bike Association on our Saturday, November 28th work day and build new trail in the most recent additions to the Community Forest (the Forsyth and Lima parcels . . . see my map). We will be working on clearing the 'Peanut Butter Trail', a new trail designed for mountain bikes. In addition, we will be removing holly which exists in abundance in this area. There will be plenty of options for working off your Thanksgiving excesses. Eventually, as we can direct users onto the Peanut Butter Trail we will begin rehabilitating and naturalizing some of the many social trails that have developed here over the years.

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We are continuing to work using the COVID-19 protocol. All interested volunteers will need to RSVP (we will have a 9 am crew and a 9:30 crew). We will conclude at about noon. We will provide hand sanitizer, packaged snacks, and tools. Please bring your own water, gloves (we will have some extras), and face mask. We will maintain social distance throughout the morning and please don't come if you feel sick. As always, we welcome new volunteers as well as those of you who may have been away for a while. If you remember, please bring your water and gloves (I will have our usual supply of gloves). We will work rain or shine.
We are going to meet in the Redwood Sciences Lab Parking Lot and walk in from there. Our work site is a good 15-minute walk from Redwood Sciences Lab. Here's a map (go to the end of East 16th or 17th and turn left on Bayview and follow it to the end).


Thanks, as always and stay safe!