Los Burros, 8:00 a.m. Saturday/BV Progress

Saturday Morning Ride: Hey there everyone, hope you are having an excellent week. Last weekend our group ride had us out in the Buena Vista Saturday morning. We covered about fifteen miles and had a great group of riders. With Max the "wonder dog" out front most of the time, we were able to explore some paths a little less traveled these days.

Sheryl Teske rides past the "Dome Rock" in the Buena during the group ride on Saturday, April 11th.

This week, we will be making our first visit to Los Burros of 2026. Yes, Los Burros, that gem or a trail that everyone loves to ride, but most of us just can't visit nearly as much as we might like due to its distance from town. For anyone who hasn't ridden there, Los Burros is about a fourteen mile ride that features a fair amount of climbing, but also some screaming fast descents and a real nice flowy section around Wishbone Mountain that makes it worth the drive out. There's not much technical terrain in it, but intermediate MTB skills are recommended.

So . . . meet at the trailhead #2, which is directly off of the Vernon-McNary Road, about a mile north of the turn for the Los Burros campground. No, we are not utilizing the campground entrance anymore in order to avoid conflicts with the campground and the camp hosts that may already be there for the summer. We plan to launch at 8:00 a.m., so be there and ready to ride!

Buena Vista Trail System Near Approval: This week, STBVF and TRACKS received some very welcome news. It appears that we will likely receive a Decision Letter from the District Ranger within the next few weeks. That's important, because that is the document that will make the trail system official and will allow us to start building and putting up signs. It's been ten years since we started that effort, so yeah, we're just a little bit excited!

We really need a strong team of volunteers to help with trail construction this summer. The TRACKS trail crew works on Mondays and no doubt they will be spending many of those in the Buena this year. We also plan to have a little less formal building sessions on Saturdays or Sundays where we do some work as well. That said, we really need a strong showing of mountain biker support to help with these builds. We need help with really labor intensive things, like building bermed corners which makes the trails a lot more fun for riders.

If you can help at all with trail building, please contact Jason Moore at jason_moore_21@yahoo.com. We need a list of volunteers we can call on to help out, especially on weekends. You don't need specialized skills. If you can use a rake and can use tools to trim trees and shrubs, you already have the skills you need! Also, please join TRACKS! https://www.trackswhitemountains.org/join. TRACKS is the official trail maintenance organization contracted with the USFS, and we need you to be a member in order to work on the trails legally. By joining and signing up for trail crew, you'll get notices of TRACKS regular work sessions.

We expect work to start sometime around the first of May. Our first priorities are going to be to mark and sign the new Buena Vista Loop and to start building the new beginner trails, Rainbows & Sunshine.