On Saturday, 16 members of the St. Francis High School Mountain Bike Team joined 50 other high school mountain bikers for a hard yet rewarding day of trail work in the Angeles National Forest on a segment of trail that was damaged during the Station Fire.

Under the guidance of local trail advocates Banner Moffatt and Stephen Messer of the Concerned Off Road Bicyclists Association (CORBA), the students were divided into smaller groups to perform specific tasks such as brush clearing, trail widening and route relocation. Thanks to the students’ contributions, the trail system in now much safer for cyclists and hikers.

Saturday’s work was performed on a popular mountain bike trail behind JPL called Upper Brown. The students used their mountain bikes to ride six  miles to the trail work area with some students and coaches using trailers to tow up the equipment and hand tools needed to complete the job.

Despite temperatures reaching 90 degrees, the students put in almost eight hours of work and their efforts made a major impact on the quality of the trail.

The St. Francis High School Mountain Bike Team is currently in its fourth season of competition in the SoCal High School Mountain Bike League.

Contributed by Coach Lee BIRD