BETA Bicycle-Equestrian Trails-Assistance

BETA ~ Bicycle-Equestrian Trails-Assistance

BETA Bicycle-Equestrian Trails-Assistance BETA Trail Report

The BLM and BETA have a 16-year long partnership on the Fort Ord Public Lands and National Monument, where BETA members occasionally assist county EMS operations while out on the BLM trails. BETA members are all trained in First Aid and CPR; a few BETA members have advanced medical training. BETA members wear bright orange uniforms and patrol Fort Ord trail systems on foot, horseback and mountain bike.

Click for more info from... www.BLM.gov

Current Fort Ord Weather

Live Weather Picture
Click for Up-To-Date Weather Information

Friends of the Fort Ord War Horse Day
Saturday May 18, 2013

Visit and Learn Here

July 18-21, 2013

Visit California Rodeo Website

Some Tips for when You Bring Your Horse to Ft Ord . . .

Click to Visit Horse Tips for Fort Ord

Band-Aid First Aid Guide

Please Click Here for a Printable Band Aid First Aid Guide(pdf)

The view from Marshal Point Six Zero

www.SeaOtterClassic.com

BETA Patrol

BETA 16, Pam helps mitigate parking lot conflicts at Creekside Terrace during a recent patrol.

Monumental Wildflowers

Click for a short pdf of Fort Ord Wild Flowers

Creekside Terrace Grand Opening Anniversary

Park Responsibly

If you Park in the Equestrian Lot (unpaved), park in a manner that provides safe entrance and exit by vehicles with horse trailers. Please be careful to not block the lanes.

Creekside Terrace 7th Anniversary last March

Fort Ord Detonation Update

The Army will be hauling soils on certain sections of Parker Flats Road and Eucalyptus Road weekdays from 7:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. Please be very aware of this truck traffic which will continue through August 2013.

Updated daily

Click HERE for Information - www.FortOrdCleanUp.com

Special Attention for Cyclists: If you ride your bicycle in the vicinity of the Bureau of Land Management Headquarters, please review the website above for a link to a map of the hauling route.

Grand Opening!

Announcing Badger Hills

Congressmen, County Supervisors, Top BLM State Level Officials, Reservation Manager, Rangers, Technicians, Teachers, School Children, the Press, Volunteers and Guests were all there and all participated. The event was a raging success. Built to help handle the Creekside Terrace visitor overflow, Badger Hills is taking on a new life of its own. With sweeping vistas, challenging trails and even an intermittent creek and a restaurant, this new Fort Ord access point will quickly make its mark.

On Highway 68 across from the Toro Place Cafe
N36 35.124 W121 42.776

Visit a Photo Show of Toro School Children Opening Badger Hills

Fort Ord's Newest Trails and Trail Improvements

Photography by BETA 7

Rave Reviews for the reroute of Fort Ord Trail Forty-Nine

BETA Members have recently visited the newly reworked trail forty-nine. This is what they've said...

"The new T49 is a super nice trail. Great job and hats off to the trail builders!!" -BETA 7

"...lots of hairpin turns, switch backs, twisty turnery curves, a lot of little up and downs, and 1/3 of the trail is under canopy which is very nice. It’s very much worth the trip to the middle of Fort Ord."

"I rode the new Trail 49 for the first time - what a great mtn biking trail! It's banked beautifully, the turns are constant radius, and the surface looks like it's going to hold up. Good job!" -BETA 26

"EQUESTRIANS: consider hiking or biking this trail before you take your equine on it."

"This trail is about a mile long and the quarter mile off Look Out Ridge has no place to move off the trail for bikes, either coming up or down. And this is the type of trail that the good cyclists are going to ride FAST."

Announcing Trail 35

Fort Ord's Newest and Arguably Best Trail

Thank You to Eric, Denny, Tom and the BLM Crew for all of your Hard Work.

"The new T35 is super fun with lots of little roller coaster type hills." -BETA 7

The Gem of Engineer Canyon lies between Manzanita Road and ECR just down No Name Trail (T32) from Sandy Ridge

Offering up some of Ft Ord's best views from the confluence of Manzanita Road and the new Trail 35

Sandstone Ridge

Above the Crescent Bluff

Fort Ord Public Lands Day

Guided Hike into Fort Ord Back Country Range Area - Trail Work Groups Saturday October 27th

BETA Members; James, Jim and Ralph pause to consider the historical aspects of Public Lands Day

Historical remnants still found in the Fort Ord Backcountry

Bruce enjoys the festivities (and the lunch) of Public Lands Day

Scott, PJ, and Donna and friends hit the open trails
Wanna Ride?

Spectacular Fall Day View of Creekside Terrace and points East

...as viewed from Sandy Ridge Road.

Do you know that One family, the Hennekens, lived near present-day Henneken Lake and Henneken Ranch Road for over 20 years during the 1880s until 1901 and maintained a ranch operation at the site until the 1930s.

...And, that Jacks Road is named after David Jacks who was a powerful attorney and land owner in the Monterey area who also operated various dairying operations - creating the popular variety Jack cheese.

Visit the BLM's Ft Ord History Webpage

Visit BLM's BETA Page

The Bench at the Dead End...

BETA 7's Recent BETA Patrol Photograph... which is straight out of a "Spaghetti Western" for bikes.

The Bonus Bench
June 6, 2003

Click to Visit the Last Known Photo of the Bonus Bench 6/11/2005

Visit Fort Ord Benches

Found by BETA 26 while out on a recent Bike Patrol on Fort Ord

"It's the most exciting thing that I've ever run into on patrol; I NEVER see suspicious teenagers or even bobcats." - BETA 26

Read about Fort Ord National Monument in this Spring issue of San Francisco Chronicle's SF Gate. BETA is mentioned near the end of the article...

Visit SF Gate

The Creekside Hawk

This Coopers Hawk, along with his handler, Tom Tognietti, owner and trainer at T*Muscle Training Company and Gym in Salinas was spotted at Creekside Terrace during a recent BETA Patrol.

BETA 9 and BETA guest, Susan encountered the Hawk, "Mr Alice Cooper" during the hawk's training session. In addition to the hawk, we were informed that Tom keeps other birds of prey including falcons and various other hawks.

Heard of the Headless Horseman...?

How about the horse with no rider?

BETA 7, James came across this unusual situation recently while visiting Ft Ord's Creekside Terrace.

Out on a ride from Laguna Seca to Creekside. Thought I would share a most unusual incident. Came across a horse with no rider, no one leading it either. Just walking the trail all by itself and nibbling on the grass at its leisure. It was saddled up and all.

Owner failure? Two hikers were holding back with sweet things to say. Owner was walking another horse and had no worry leaving this one 50 yards back. She whistled for it and it soon casually walked back to Creekside all by itself.

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

April 20, 2012

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FORT ORD NATIONAL MONUMENT
- - - - - - -
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION

Click to Visit Presidential Proclamation

Sergeant MacDonald

...visits the site of the grave of warhorse Comanche whom he rode while in service to our country.

SGT MacDonald bought his mare, Comanche, at a BLM mustang gather and rode her twenty-three years in official U.S. Army functions. She was the last ceremonial horse at Fort Ord, until the colors were retired in 1993 and the base closed. On her death, the Army accorded SGT MacDonald the distinction of permitting her burial on a hill overlooking the old parade fields, beside the concrete troughs built for war horses. Comanche's grave, marked by a picket fence and display case, is a landmark for riders, bikers, and hikers.

Comanche was truly a calvary horse as she participated in many parades here on Fort Ord as well as throughout the state of California, Arizona and Oregon. She started in the late 1960s for the last graduating class of basic trainees then in 1970 on the Main Parade Field, Drill Sargent Field, and Fritsche Airfield for every commanding general incoming and outgoing - the 9th calvary, the 10th calvary, Basic Combat Support Brigade, Cook and Bakers School, and Air Brigade. She paraded in the city of Marina, Seaside, Pacific Grove, Salinas, Santa Cruz, Watsonville, Castroville, San Jose, King City, Paso Robles, Redding, Palm Springs, Reno, Redwood City, San Juan Bautista, Soledad, Gilroy, Morgan Hill, Walnut Creek, Ashland and Medford Oregon, and Yuma Arizona.

She won 1st place in most all off-post parades, and paraded in the Army Birthday Parade in 1976 on the Main Parade Field.

N 36° 38.668 W 121° 45.410

Visit A Sgt MacDonald pdf

Please remember this... Brown Trail Marker = Fragile Trail.

Avoid for 24 hours following inclement weather.

Wild Turkeys spotted on Ft Ord near Mudhen Lake

BETA Seven, James spotted this Bobcat recently while out on BETA Patrol.

BETA Hikers, Equestrians, and New Cyclists... You are invited!

Click Above to Sign Up!

Rides Every weekend... weather permitting.

Teach your friends and family to ride a Mountain Bike here... you could not find a better place to start.

A bit of pre-ride orientation...

...and a bit of post ride frivolity.

Mighty BETA Patrol Dog, Cairo, leashed and looking for his next assignment.

Inclement weather and wet trails influenced BETA 16's decision to forgo an equestrian patrol and to venture out on patrol as a hiker. With her faithful K9 companion, Cairo, BETA 16 hiked the trails above Creekside Terrace on this damp mid-winter day.

Beta 25 Prepares Cisco for a BETA Patrol ride.

After establishing radio contact with BLM HQ Beta 25 and Cisco spent 5 hours riding the Fort Ord trails on BETA Patrol this midwinter January day.

U.S. Secretary of Interior, Ken Salazar visits Fort Ord
Secretary Salazar launches a Ft Ord BETA Fashion Craze...

"I saw a Bobcat!"

BETA President Krista

U.S. Congressman Sam Farr

Ralph and the Mrs.

OMK... Our Man Kevin

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar ended a visit to Monterey County on Friday with a call to President Barack Obama to designate Fort Ord as a national monument.

Click above to view a news video of Secretary Salazar's visit to Fort Ord

Ken Salazar Wiki

Mid Winter Hike around Mudhen Lake and environs results in some striking Ft Ord vistas.

First Aid or CPR Training?

American Red Cross

Are you current?

Anatomy of a First Aid Kit

Visit American Red Cross

Download a Printable Band-Aid 1st Aid Guide (pdf)

Meg's Rock.

Do you Remember...
these Ft Ord Trail Names/Numbers?

Remember when Three Sisters was known as "Trail 10?"

Remember when Lookout Ridge was known as "Trail 11?"

Remember when Merrill Road was called Trail 7 or "Dead End Road?"

Is it spelled "Henniken's" Ranch Road or "Henneken's" Ranch Road?

Which map is right?

Click on this link to see a 2004 BLM Map of Ft Ord

August 2004 Ft Ord Map (pdf)

Toro Creek Rages at Creekside Terrace Bridge

An otherwise dry creek bed takes on a new "persona" after heavy March 2011 rains swell Toro Creek.

BETA ~ Bicycle-Equestrian Trails-Assistance

Fort Ord BETA

Welcome!

www.FtOrdBETA.Org