Preparing the trails for Sea Otter Classic’s 6,000-plus bikers is a never-ending process for volunteers.

Trail 47 is a popular path in Fort Ord National Monument among bikers, hikers and equestrians alike. The single-track makes for a quick loop, and like every other trail within the monument, the views are a thing of beauty.

It’s one of the few trails that go in and out of the Laguna Seca Recreation Area, and as such, it’s an important component of many races that make up the annual Life Time Sea Otter Classic.

In recent years, the trail was notorious for its drainage issues at Couch Canyon, causing a culvert crossing to fail. To avoid the sketchy crossing, cyclists and other trail users would instead go around it – but this proved too damaging.

The erosion in the area got so severe that in 2023, the Sea Otter Classic rerouted its cross-country course away from this area.

Enter the volunteers from the Monterey Off Road Cycling Association (MORCA).

The group of mountain bike enthusiasts have worked for years to maintain the 86 miles of trails within the former U.S. Army land. They were awarded an $80,000 grant from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which manages the majority of the monument’s land, to secure a 50-foot fiberglass bridge manufactured in Pennsylvania.

More than 500 volunteer construction hours later, the bridge was installed over the drainage ditch by the end of 2023, and in 2024, Sea Otter Classic athletes crossed over the new span for the first time.

For two decades, MORCA volunteers have quietly maintained Fort Ord’s trails, despite their visually loud, but immediately recognizable, bright orange shirts. Coming off what they describe as one of their most productive years ever, MORCA has plans to capture and sustain the enthusiasm for cycling locally all year-round, not just when the Sea Otter Classic rolls into Laguna Seca.

IT’S JUST BEFORE 9AM ON A WARM TUESDAY MORNING at Fort Ord National Monument’s Creekside Terrace Trailhead near Salinas. The parking lot is nearly full, with hikers getting a morning walk before they 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 well-equipped 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 event is already well underway, with first official meetings set to begin on May 1.

“We’re already way ahead on 2026,” Frost says, adding that when he first started, planning didn’t start until just a few months in advance. “Now it’s a full 12 months.”

IN 2024, MORCA VOLUNTEERS donated the highest number of hours in its history at more than 1,400, says the organization’s Vice President Peter Berridge.

Fresh off the debut of the new bridge at the end of 2023, last year saw another significant improvement for Fort Ord National Monument visitors, courtesy of MORCA.

Thanks to its donors, MORCA raised $13,500 through the 2023 Monterey County Gives! campaign to install porta-potties at the 8th and Gigling Trailhead near CSU Monterey Bay in Seaside. These units were placed in 2024, and since then, the group has raised another $16,000 for the ongoing maintenance, with an agreement from the County of Monterey that it will build a permanent restroom at this trailhead if MORCA can raise the annual maintenance fees for three years.

MORCA’s annual Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day, which is slated again for the fall, continues to grow in popularity – and it helps the organization fulfill one of its core goals: introducing children to the world of cycling.

MORCA maintains a large presence at the Sea Otter Classic with a bicycle obstacle course for kids, which it also brings to some local elementary schools. That course will have a bigger footprint at Sea Otter Classic this year, Berridge says.

“It’s a huge hit, and it’s busy nonstop,” he says. “Ultimately it helps get more kids on bikes, and that’s our goal.”

At this year’s Sea Otter Classic, MORCA will be encouraging attendees to participate in its “Sustain the Ride” campaign.

“When Sea Otter is over, the slalom course gets bulldozed and the downhill course closes to public access,” Berridge says. “All that community energy from and for mountain biking, and all the tourism and economic stimulus generated from mountain biking, dies overnight.”

Among the campaign’s goals are to keep up maintenance of the trails (Beardshear says more volunteers, especially of the younger generations, are always welcome to join and help out the OGs). The nonprofit appreciates donations of time and money to help its work in improving the trails and facilities, Berridge says.

It also aims to create a dedicated space in Monterey County for the mountain biking community. As spectacular as Fort Ord National Monument is, its trails are meant for multiple types of users to enjoy – so you won’t see any mountain bike-specific features such as banked turns or jumps.

Over the past year, MORCA rallied the mountain bike community to advocate for bike trails at the Old Capitol Site in Monterey, but in February, the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission recommended a park with only hiking trails and no bike access – whenever the city has the money to build it.

“Even though it wasn’t the outcome we were hoping for, we’re better off for it,” Berridge says, noting that their efforts showed “how strongly greater Monterey desires bike trails and bike-specific features.” He adds, “Moving forward, we are highly motivated to continue that bike park initiative.”

Looking to the future, Berridge says he’s excited about the potential of working with Friends of Laguna Seca, which assumed management of WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and the surrounding recreational area in August, and notes that early discussions are underway for MORCA to be involved in South County.

“We hope to continue to keep that momentum going, getting more kids on bikes, getting more people on mountain bikes and creating more mountain bike trails, ideally close to home,” he says.