We’re helping make the Motherlode a safer, enjoyable place to ride a bicycle.
Tag: #lets ride
Ride & Walk 4 Art Sunday, March 19, 2023
Ride & Walk 4 Art is scheduled for Sunday, March 19, 2023. Please be aware that this event is subject to State and Local health department rulings and guidelines, and all public health safety protocols will be required.
Registration will open on Sunday, January 1, 2023 Save $5 per ride on early registration until February 28, 2023
Ride Walk 4 Art is a fun way to help Calaveras County public schools provide meaningful art instruction to our kids. You get a joyful, monitored, safe ride through beautiful Calaveras County and every dime of our profits is used to expose kids to theater, painting, drawing, literature and poetry.
Our kids need the arts so that they develop life-long creative skills that they will need to survive in our world. And this year, the need is even greater as school budgets have been slashed. Please help us keep the arts in our public schools.
Email: ccacinbox@gmail.com Post address: PO Box 250, San Andreas, CA 95249
Stay safe and well, The Calaveras County Arts Council
As a nonprofit that brings music and the arts to the Calaveras County community, the Arts Council needs your support. Make a gift today to ensure we can continue to keep the arts alive in Calaveras County at our website, calaverasarts.org, or contact us directly at 209/754-1774.
It’s Back Ride 4 Art Metric Century 70 mile ride
3 Lakes • 2 hill climb options • 5,500 feet elevation gain Choose-your-ride adventure with 2 out-and-back rides! Poloma and/or Stoney Creek Roads
Cyclists and walkers will enjoy the rolling green hills and rural roads of West Calaveras County during the Calaveras County Arts Council’s Sixth AnnualRide & Walk 4 Art on March 20, 2022. With three bicycle ride choices—30, 45, and 100 miles—or a 4.5 mile walk along the shores of New Hogan Lake—there’s something for everybody.
This year, organizer Rob Williams, chair of the Motherlode Bicycle Coalition, the organization that helps manage and coordinate the event, has freshened the popular fundraiser that supports the arts in Calaveras County schools. The biggest change is a new starting venue. The new site, the Jenny Lind Veterans Memorial Park in Valley Springs, offers many benefits. “It’s just a better site,” Williams said. “There is parking for over 200 cars. There are indoor bathrooms. And it starts and ends the ride at a safe neighborhood location. No one is crossing any highways to start the ride.”
I’d like to introduce you to the Motherlode Bicycle Coalition (MLBC) and invite you to BikeMotherlode.
Springtime in the Motherlode
The MLBC is an association sponsored by the California Bicycle Coalition Education Fund, a project of CalBike. We represent Mariposa, Tuolumne, Calaveras, and Amador counties. We have 23 members, with a five member volunteer board and a volunteer executive director.
Our mission is to increase safe roads for cycling, host bike rides and cycling events, and promote the Motherlode as a premiere bike-riding destination. We offer monthly group rides of varying degrees of difficulty, as well as bike-safety courses and family-oriented events.
MLBC also provides another important resource for bike advocacy at the MLBC Bike Valley to Sierra website, https://www.bikevalleytosierra.com
This website features the Caltrans and CalBike Bike Riding Tourism Report and Signature Bike Projects in San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Tuolumne, Calaveras and Alpine counties.
With miles of rural roads, beautiful scenery, and back-country trails, the Motherlode has always been a hidden gem for bicycle riding.
2018 Tour of California At Pardee Dam Bridge
Pre-pandemic, there were seven bike events that occurred in Caltrans District 10. While many of those events have been put on hold, three of these events are scheduled in 2022. We hope to see you there!
Happy holidays! The new year is just around the corner and it’s time to celebrate what the Motherlode Bicycle Coalition and our partners have accomplished during 2021, and what we look forward to achieving in 2022.
Last January 2021 we created a monthly bike riding calendar with bike events for the year and an advocacy agenda. Due to Covid, our monthly bike rides and events were cancelled but the Board met bimonthly by Zoom.
As we ride into 2022, our top priorities are to advocate for improved biking conditions on our public roads; encourage all residents—kids and adults—to ride bicycles for transportation and recreation; and to promote our region for road and mountain biking.
What We Accomplished
Membership and Partners
Our current membership is 23 members who represent biking in Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, Mariposa and Tuolumne counties. Our new bike business partners include all local bike and recreation businesses: Bear Valley Adventure Co., Bear Valley Bicycles in Arnold, Gateway Adventure Co. in Copperopolis, Mountain Pedaler Bicycles in Angels Camp, and Sonora Cyclery in East Sonora.
Welcome BearValley Bicycles in Arnold
Ride & Walk 4 Art
In 2021, the annual bike and walk event we coordinate for the Calaveras County Arts Council as a fundraiser to support the arts in Calaveras public schools had over 150 cyclists, despite it being a “no frills” event due to Covid restrictions and with a last minute change of venue from New Hogan Reservoir to the Valley Springs Elementary School parking lot. It’s true that when one door closes, another opens; our 2022 Ride & Walk 4 Art found a new starting point at the Jenny Lind Veterans Memorial Park in Valley Springs, with more parking and a better venue for our returning Chicken-in-a-Barrel lunch.
We want to thank our Coalition volunteers for their work to make Ride & Walk 4 Art a success. We could not present this premiere Calaveras biking event without them! An early bird registration discount of $5 at Ride & Walk 4 Art is open from now until January 1. Register at www.rideandwalk4art.com
Bike Riding Tourism Study Outreach Virtual Meetings
This was the final year of Caltrans’ Bike Riding Tourism Study that included numerous Zoom meetings with San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Tuolumne, Calaveras and Alpine Counties to discuss bike riding safety, destinations, road conditions, and public and government support. The final report for Bike Valley to Sierra was completed, sent to Caltrans District 10, and has been shared with all local transportation agencies.
Community Outreach
Thanks to funds from the CalBikes Education Project, we’ve continued to expand our website, www.bikevalleytosierra.com to include news about cycling in the Mother Lode, surveys to our members, and even videos!
MLBC Logo
The logo design process is always a long journey. We continue to solicit ideas; a few designs are included in this letter for your feedback.
Park Tool Grant
We submitted a $1,000 Park Tool Community Tool Grant to be awarded a bike stand and tools for bike service support at our events. Winners of the Park Tool Grant will be notified in January 2022
Bikeway Trail Projects Recommend in Bike Riding Tourism Report
Sierra Railway Trail
We assisted Cole Przybyla, Tuolumne County Innovation and Business Director, submit to Caltrans an Innovative Concepts Proposal to complete an engineering plan for a Bikeway from Jamestown to Sonora. This proposal was not selected for the first round of support. However, it did spur a meeting with Caltrans District 10, the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, the Tuolumne County Transportation Council, Tuolumne County Public Works, and the president and vice president of the Sierra Railway, and resulted in a commitment by Caltrans to assist in submitting an Active Transportation Plan in their 2023 cycle.
EBMUD Pipeline Trail
We presented the Bike Valley to Sierra Signature EBMUD Pipeline project to the seven member board in late November. The president of the board discussed the project with the EBMUD General Manager and wrote to us, saying “What a great idea!” A meeting coordinated by the San Joaquin Council of Governments, the San Joaquin County Bike Coalition and the Motherlode Bicycle Coalition is scheduled for mid-December to discuss our next steps.
EBMUD Mastodon Prehistoric Bikeway
Death Ride Rest Stop Team
Nikki Grimes led a team of volunteers at the Lake Alpine Turn Around at the 40th Death Ride. And then, the Tamarack Fire cancelled the ride. What you might not know is Nikki and her team were at Lake Alpine bright and early, ready to stamp rider bibs and assist riders.
Alpine County Chamber of Commerce Recently Shared…Watch for Special Death Ride New Years Eve Announcement at the links below.
We participated in the California Dream Ride in October 2021. This virtual ride allowed us to feature local bike riding infrastructure, safety issues, and popular cycling destinations. We raised $140 that supports the CalBike Education Fund which allows us to operate as a bike advocacy organization. The fundraiser is still accepting donations. Use this link to contribute:
Finally,
The first Caltrans District 10 BIke and Pedestrian Advisory Meeting is scheduled for January 12, 2022.
Sonora Cyclery
2022Plans andBike Riding
MLBC Membership Drive in May 2022
Tuolumne and Calaveras Bike Rodeos May 2022
Safe Route to School Day October 2022
2022 Monthly Rides Calendar Weekdays/Weekends Published in January 2022
Read my magazines on Flipboard @robwilliams3994
Blog motherlodebike.org
Ride along with us on Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, or the Motherlodebike website to stay updated on our latest news
Twitter @MLBCRob
Facebook, Motherlode Bicycle Coalition and Bike Valley to Sierra
The MLBC Board is hosting monthly bike rides in Central Foothills and Sierras. Ride details and more information to be published soon! Join us and explore the Motherlode!
A popular bike route from Angels Camp are the roads often used in the annual Mr Frog Bike Ride held in April. (Map below shows start in Murphy’s) Begin your ride from Mountain Pedaler Bike Store and ride through the hilly neighborhoods of Angels Camp above Greenhorn Creek golf resort. Ride through historic downtown Angels Camp before heading up Highway 4 to the small Gold Rush Camp Vallecito. Its Union Church is a California Historic Landmark. Leaving Vallecito descend down to Parrotts Ferry bridge on New Melones Lake. Return to Highway 4 and head back to Angels camp. Your ride will make a giant loop back through Angels Camp and up to Murphys via Murphys Grade Road. Ride through downtown Murphys and return up French Gulch Road, a favorite local backroad lined with oak trees and hayfields, then back down Murphys Grade Road into Angels Camp.
There are several local restaurants for post ride lunch or coffee at Starbucks.
Route Options from Angels Camp
Dogtown-Calaveritas Out and Back, 28 Miles, Rolling hills and few steep climbs
Dogtown to San Dominican to Stevenot Winery, to Murphy’s
Old Gulch to Michael and Cave City
Why it’s the best
Some of the States most scenic Gold Rush Rural Roads are a short drive from Central Valley, Sacramento and Modesto and 2 hour drive from most Bay Area communities.
How to get there
West Calaveras County offers an never-ending supply of hill climbing in the Foothills, just a short drive from the Central Valley, Sacramento and Bay Area.
From Stockton take CA Highway 4, for 30 miles to Angels Camp
From Highway 49 take Highway 49 to Angels Camp
Best bike shops in Motherlode
Jackson Family Sports 275 CA-88 Jackson, CA
Mountain Pedaler Bicycle 352 S Main St, Angels Camp, CA
Sonora Cyclery 13867 Mono Way Sonora CA
For more information: Call The Motherlode Bicycle Coalition Co-Founder Rob Williams, 209-531-5844 or email rbwilliams72@gmail.com. Check Meetup: Valley Springs Cyclists
The Motherlode Bicycle Coalition is a fiscally sponsored project of the California Bicycle Education Fund and in Partnership with the Golden Chain Bike Club and Sponsored by Mountain Pedaler, Jackson, and Sonora Bike Stores.
