www.montereycountynow.com APRIL 10-16, 2025 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 21 head to work and bicyclists getting a quick workout to take advantage of the weather. John Beardshear of Salinas pulls up in a GMC Suburban full of tools in the back and a sign on the tailgate that reads “Trail Crew, Volunteers at Work” and adorned with the MORCA logo. He pulls up to a gate that blocks Old Reservation Road to vehicle traffic and proceeds to unlock it before driving in and parking. Today is a trail work day, as most Tuesday mornings Beardshear and a crew of volunteers head out to various trails at the national monument to give them some needed care. It’s a group Beardshear refers to as the “OGs,” or the “old guys” or “gals,” depending on who is available. Being a weekday morning, it’s usually retired folks, as younger generations may be busy with family and work commitments. On this particular morning, Beardshear is joined by two others— Ralph Beer and Mike McGirr. Even though the group size is small (which varies week-by-week, sometimes it can be as many as a couple dozen) the work is no less important. Especially on this day, the crew is heading out to the 70s trails, including Trail 76, where riders from the Sea Otter Classic will be pedaling through. Stored in the backs of their vehicles are shovels, shears, gloves and other tools, making the volunteers wellequipped to tackle the day’s work—poison oak grows along Trail 76, which needs to be cleared, as riders certainly don’t want to brush up against it while they’re competing. The crews also need to clear the trails so they can drain easily and withstand rainstorms, so as not to form ruts or muddy pits that cause long-term damage to the terrain. Beardshear, as the trail crew leader, says he determines which trail needs work based on his frequent rides at Fort Ord. He is familiar with the landscape, having ridden here for about 26 years, roughly two decades of that time as a MORCA volunteer. It’s a never-ending process on the 14,658-acre property. “It’s like painting the Golden Gate Bridge—by the time you’re done, you have to start over,” Beardshear says. When asked what his favorite trail is at Fort Ord, Beardshear is quick to respond: “All of them.” He adds that he knows where to go based on what type of ride he wants to go on, from the technical (at least by Fort Ord standards) to the casual. After a 55-year career in the computer industry with desk jobs, Beardshear says he relishes the opportunity to be outdoors in his retirement. McGirr has been with MORCA for 11 years, getting involved after he happened to run into volunteers while riding on the trails. “It’s rewarding to ride a trail that you worked on,” he says. Beyond the Tuesday meetups, MORCA also organizes monthly Saturday trail work days that draw larger groups of volunteers of all ages. It’s this type of dedication that keeps the trails maintained for the countless riders that enjoy them every day, especially important for the big four-day weekend when the Sea Otter Classic takes place every spring. Jeff Frost, senior event manager of the Life Time Sea Otter Classic, says the goal of organizers is to leave the monument’s trails in better shape than they found them. Not that they were in bad shape to begin with—quite the opposite. Frost credits the work of MORCA and the Bureau of Land Management for the constant upkeep of the trails. Still, they’ll have their work cut out for them once the Sea Otter Classic wraps up. “There’s 6,000 athletes racing bikes,” he says. “That’s a lot of tires moving dirt.” Frost has been with the Sea Otter Classic for 35 years, and has plenty of experience with trail maintenance and route planning—“We learned from our mistakes pretty early on,” he says. “We’ve gotten better every year.” Fixing ruts is the number one job when it comes to preparing a trail, he says, as the sandy material of the dirt makes it susceptible to forming ditches when the rain falls. If the rut runs across the trail horizontally, it’s typically OK to leave it—as long as it’s not too wide, a rider’s tires will roll right over it. It’s the ruts that run parallel to the trail that need to be remedied. You don’t want a cyclist to roll into one of them at a high speed, as it’s a sure-fire way to take a tumble, Frost notes. It’s also imperative that such problems on the trail are fixed; otherwise riders will just roll around it and create a parallel trail, which in turn damages the natural landscape. “We never want to be responsible for that,” Frost says, as organizers have a plan for alternate routes in case of last-minute rain damage (a final decision on route changes is typically made on the Monday before the event begins on a Thursday). “We’d rather just avoid it entirely and select another trail.” Race routes are never used for more than three years in a row, Frost says, noting that 2025 marks the end of a three-year cycle. Planning for the 2026 A bridge installed along Trail 47 in Fort Ord National Monument in late 2023, thanks to the Monterey Off Road Cycling Association, allows Sea Otter Classic athletes to cross over a drainage ditch. Mike McGirr of MORCA examines his tools as a volunteer crew prepares to head out to the trails on a Tuesday morning. COURTESY OF MONTEREY OFF ROAD CYCLING ASSOCIATION ERIK CHALHOUB
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