Trail users join forces on Burlington Ridge

By Tim Omarzu

Not many people outside Nevada County know about the trails on Burlington Ridge, 20 miles east of Nevada City, in the Tahoe National Forest.

But one outsider who does know is Mike Dombeck, chief of the U.S. Forest Service.

One of the main reasons Dombeck visited the TNF two weeks ago, as part of a tour of California National Forests, was to see how motorcyclists, horseback riders and mountain bikers - sometimes enemies on the trail- are getting along and working together on Burlington Ridge.

"That's one of the reasons Mr. Dombeck was here, to ask us how the hell we were managing to do what no one else can," said Doug Smith, president of BONC, the Bicyclists of Nevada County.

BONC members, off-road motorcyclists who belong to the Nevada County Woods Riders, and horseriders in the Gold Country Trails Council are volunteering to build and maintain trails. The Forest Service provides materials and volunteers provide the labor. One thing the groups are deciding is how the narrow, rugged trails - which have been in existence for years - should be split up.

"What we're doing is working on managing some of the trails up there. Trying to separate the horses and the wheeled (vehicles)," Smith explained.

The cooperative effort is being helped along by Bill Haire, a recreation and lands officer for the TNF.

"It's a work in progress," Haire stressed. "Nothing's finished. We're still working on things."

No map yet exists of the trail system. But Haire is working on maps to post near trailheads. And a hand-out map should be available this spring.

A typical Burlington Ride trail will wind along an old road, then run along a defunct mining ditch, and then follow an old logging skid trail, Haire said.

"The trails are rather primitive. That's what everybody wants to retain, is the primitive trail experience," Haire said.

The riding can be rough, he said.

"They're not beginner trails ... and they're definitely not for everyone. It's not an area for speed. That's why it seems to work for mixed use," Haire said.

Actually, different users have been getting along for years on Burlington Ridge trails, said off-road motorcyclist Dick Wixon, of the Nevada County Woods Riders.

"We have for years," said Wixon, who credits motorcyclists as the trail users who first discovered the area. Off-road motorcyclists have helped maintain trails there since the early 1970s, he said.

"It's been kind of a private area, in a sense, because it's really only known to people in Nevada County," he said. Now, "it's been getting multiple use."

The trails are "fantastic. It's technical riding. It's not something you can jump and go full throttle and dig up the world." ooo To get there: From Nevada City, go about 20 miles east on Highway 20. Look for a sign, on your right, for Skillman Flat Campground. ThatÕs Burlington Ridge Road. Trails fan off from the road.