Have you ever met a person whose spirit leaves an indelible mark on your soul? A man with a self-actualized nature, humbleness, and kindness that garners respect from all that meet him? Craig Randall, fondly remembered as the Bike Monk, was that person for Tucson's mountain biking community. One of the original trailblazers, he pedaled his way into our hearts with his shop Lone Cactus, and through his integral work on the trails we ride (like Fantasy Island). His infectious love for mountain biking radiates through the stories we share, as we honor his legacy and the immense impact he had on our community.
This episode is dedicated to the memory of Bike Monk. Thank you Craig, for all you did for our community. You will be missed. Rest In Peace.
Fantasy Island Tribute to Bike Monk : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcZLubXSNyI&t=578s
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Have you ever met a person whose spirit leaves an indelible mark on your soul? A man with a self-actualized nature, humbleness, and kindness that garners respect from all that meet him? Craig Randall, fondly remembered as the Bike Monk, was that person for Tucson's mountain biking community. One of the original trailblazers, he pedaled his way into our hearts with his shop Lone Cactus, and through his integral work on the trails we ride (like Fantasy Island). His infectious love for mountain biking radiates through the stories we share, as we honor his legacy and the immense impact he had on our community.
This episode is dedicated to the memory of Bike Monk. Thank you Craig, for all you did for our community. You will be missed. Rest In Peace.
Fantasy Island Tribute to Bike Monk : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcZLubXSNyI&t=578s
Listen to Mountain Cog
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Other Podcast Sites
Socials
Instagram
Facebook
Email
mountaincog@gmail.com
This is the time where we normally tell a dad joke, like right at the beginning of our episode, but I'm going to save the dad joke today and we're not going to do that today.
Josh:So it's Sunday night here on the on the mountain cock podcast and we're here, I think, with a unique topic. We're here to. So recently, here in Tucson, we've lost, you know, one of the pillars of our community, of our bicycle community, someone that has had such a huge impact on our community here. His name is Craig, the bike monk, randall, and we're here with, with three of his, his, his, his oldest friends, who got ahold of us here at mountain cog and said, hey, we'd like to do a tribute to the bike monk, and so that's what we're going to do today. We're gonna, we're gonna have a conversation, we're gonna, we're gonna learn about Craig, and and if you don't know who he is, you're gonna learn a lot about him. And if you don't know who he is, chances are you've you've been impacted by some of the things that he's done for our community. So I'm going to start just by letting our guests go around here and introduce themselves, and we'll start with you, mark.
Mark Flint:Okay.
Josh:I'm Mark Flint, mark Flint, and you've been on this podcast before. I certainly have.
Mark Flint:Right on.
Josh:It's good to have you here again, sir, good to be back Right on, and you, sir.
Steve Roach:Yes, I'm Steve Roach and a long time mountain bike mountain biker and known Craig for known of Craig and had so many experiences with Craig for so many years.
Jon Shouse:Great to be here.
Steve Roach:Well, it's good to have you.
Jon Shouse:John and I'm John Schaus and I'm here happily to have called Craig a great friend over my life.
Josh:Yes, and I just John, was giving me grief earlier for having his wife, jody, on, but we haven't had John on yet. So, yeah, we'll get John on and you'll hear all about John in the future, so, hey, so so I know Craig by reputation and the things that he's touched and the things that he's done, and you know, I lived in when I was, when I was early in my career. I lived in in Rita Ranch and so rode like every single day at Fantasy Island and was big like in 2010 with the Save Fantasy Island kind of effort, participated in that. So I know him through those things and through those trails, but I would love to kind of learn a whole lot more. I think our listeners would as well. So so maybe you guys can get a start us and tell us who, who Craig was, who Craig was to you and who he was to the to the community here. Go ahead, man, get started. I'll start.
Jon Shouse:Yeah, just, you couldn't meet a more genuine person than Craig, and I think we can, just that's. That's. The heart of this whole thing is he was the most sincere and genuine person, regardless of being the business owner and trying to. You know, his job was to fix your bike and to and to sell you something, but he was just. That's not why he was doing it. He was doing it for the love of it, and that's all there was to it.
Josh:So who was he? What did he do? What did he do for the bike community here?
Jon Shouse:He created a place in the early days of mountain biking. It was just rag tag all over the city, all over the county. There weren't trails, so to speak, back then, but his shop was like a little core in the community. You went to the shop and and you were greeted there and you met people there and you sat on the couch and you had a beer and you read magazines. And you know you didn't go there to buy something although you did but you went there because you knew we're going to run into somebody that you're going to ride with in the future.
Josh:And he had shops that were called the bike monk. Was that always an innovation? Low, low, low cactus yeah.
Steve Roach:And so somehow all of us have a story of how we found ourselves in low cactus. I remember being at a early restaurant early in the early days the Dakota Cafe on Tank of Verde and the bartender were talking mountain bikes. And again, you're just. You know, it's a great conversation in the early 90s and before you know it, craig comes up in the conversation and at that time you know the boutique parts that you would be coveting for and all the CNC machine stuff and the TNT and all that that was being made also in Arizona. All that stuff would come up in conversation. And then this bartender that you know I can't recall his name at this point and he said you've got to meet the bike mark and you've got to see this lone cactus shop and that was his first shop. That, I think, was his first shop that he set up here was in research loop off of like 20 seconds just south of 22.
Jon Shouse:Right, right next to where BlackRock Brewing is, right on First reference.
Steve Roach:Yeah, so it was just this cool. The minute you got in there you were like this is like this little oasis of all the stuff, all the fetish bike parts. And then there's Craig and he's you know this, I think he, you know, officiated himself as the bike muck and it was immediate that you're in the presence of this really calm, really kind of very cool guy who was completely dedicated to what was the emerging mountain bike.
Josh:He really was a bike muck.
Steve Roach:He was the bike muck and the clone cactus was a shop and he had Spike, his little cactus, out front which you would always say a prayer to when going in, and Spike would kind of follow him around to the different shops and eventually, when we would do our rides on Tuesdays and Thursdays, we would end up at his place over on Stella, out by Fantasy Island, before Fantasy Island was even like a thing, and Spike would be planted there. So Spike was also part of the so what is Spike?
Josh:Spike is a little Swarov, sorry yeah.
Steve Roach:And so he was like the mascot, you know, the cat, the lone cactus, that kind of.
Josh:but he was a real Swarov wasn't like me, he wasn't like a sculpture.
Steve Roach:No, it was this real Swarov that had its own little living space and he would sort of travel around. So that was part of like the early mythology with with Craig was, you know, spike and Craig and that whole piece with the lone cactus. So there was all that kind of thing happening as well. But the community that would gather around the shop and eventually would migrate from one location to the other. As we talk about the different locations, that's where things you know before things were really organized as they became with with the official organizations that emerged with Mark and Tucson.
Steve Roach:Then Craig was really. He was like the hub of what was happening in that emerging culture at that time he got it started, so so.
Josh:So what's the? What's the history of the shops, right? What's the history of the lone cactus, like it started on on Research Loop and then then where'd it go from there?
Jon Shouse:Started on Research Loop, then went to over by Jethro's on Broadway and Kamino Seiko. Okay, so kind of midtown.
Josh:Yeah, east, still East, yeah, still East yeah.
Steve Roach:And then went midtown, like then it was country club and somewhere country club and Grant he was he would come in. He came into Bob's Bargain Barn which was like a summit hut kind of camping gear place and they had a certain part of the store that he set up camp in and he would build like a you know a little corner that would have his style, with you know his woodworking, and just have his little crib there where he'd work on bikes and it just always had a kind of kind of vibe to it that he would try that would travel with him.
Josh:So he did woodworking as well. That was one of his passions, yeah he came from San Diego.
Steve Roach:I know his early days from when he worked construction and he built, you know, a lot of houses in Miramesa in San Diego and can migrated eventually to Tucson from San Diego. But you know, he was, you know, deep into the, into, the sort of say, the beach community culture and riding bikes and that sort of thing. San Diego, just the lifestyle of that.
Mark Flint:Well, he'd been a surfer too, and one of his phrases is, I think, is mountain biking is surfing the earth.
Steve Roach:Oh dude.
Josh:I think that might be the name of this podcast.
Mark Flint:Biking is surfing the earth. That's a good one.
Josh:I'll just remember that, right, I'm gonna write that down while you guys are talking. So okay, so where did it go after it was in Bob's Bargain Barn?
Jon Shouse:I think then, like Mark said, it was in that little almost shack and that was his thing. It was always a very small, comfortable, like you know. He'd never wanted like the the giant performance bike superstore type thing. He always wanted to feel like you were coming into his garage at his house, exactly, you know, like he was welcoming you to his house, not to his business.
Josh:And did he have employees that worked at these shops or was? It just him Always, just always great, that's it.
Steve Roach:Yeah.
Josh:And did people call him Craig or did they call him the bike monk? Like where did he go by? Both, Both and it was. Was it monk or was it bike monk? Did you just call him monk?
Jon Shouse:Monk yeah, Pretty much, but I think like I don't think I ever called him monk. You know what I mean. I can't think of ever yeah.
Steve Roach:I knew him before the monk thing sort of took off, so it was always Craig or dude or something. It was yeah.
Mark Flint:For me it was Craig, and then later on Mr Bike Monk, but but his to piggyback on what John was saying about his shops. He was. He was not into the high end either. You know. I mean, if you're a high end clientele, that's fine, but that's not what he was looking for. And he wasn't looking to make money. And one of the things I remember is that I would have him do some work like repair a shock or something, and he'd say, well, that's five bucks, greg, you can't even pay your rent here, take 10. You know, I mean, how many times you've gone into a bike shop and said, no, I need to give you more money? But that's the way Craig was. He was not. It wasn't about the money for him.
Jon Shouse:Wow, yeah, and in I now I'm a bike mechanic as well and I like to emulate him, because he, he was a mechanic, but he treated like a piece of every bike was a piece of art to him and he was. He was molding that piece of art into what he thought it should be. Right, you know, not just going Okay, this needs to be torqued to 8.9 Newton meters, or else you know, it was working on bikes was, was an art form to him. There's a lot of love to it.
Josh:Yeah, and it didn't matter to him if it was a $10,000 bike or $200 bike, he was just no, every bike. Every bike was the same.
Steve Roach:And he'd help you to dial in on what was really right for you all the time. Yeah you wouldn't get caught up in. This is really. It's really cool, but it's not really functional or it's not going to hold up for it. For you, the based on your size or your style of writing.
Josh:He wasn't trying to upsell you just trying to get you back out on the trail, never upsell you.
Steve Roach:And he, I mean he brought in lines like he had Mountain Cycle early on and voodoo.
Jon Shouse:Yeah.
Steve Roach:Maracuda, Maracuda. So we were.
Josh:Steve, turn that mic a little bit, so it's facing you. You can. You can actually angle it down and we can cut this part out.
Mark Flint:Okay, got it. That's better Okay.
Josh:It's a unidirectional, so it'll pick it up better if you're facing it. Okay, sorry guys, keep going.
Jon Shouse:Oh, I don't even know where we were.
Steve Roach:He doesn't upsell us, yeah, his line of bikes and and that was part of his philosophy so the like the Broadway shop. He also again, he would have like the corrugated, like he'd make a little display in there that look like you're out and sitting in front of a bar and then you have the bikes lined up and you have a couch and then you'd have videos playing with you know some extreme sports stuff going on. So you always had that feeling like you were also coming into a place that created that kind of community where you would hang and you people and eventually, as as more as Fantasy Island started to become public and real and that I mean the story. I mean I remember Fantasy Islands. You know the creation story of that was that Chuck Boyer was.
Josh:Really we have you guys spoken with, we haven't had Chuck out yet, but he's Chuck's passed away now, but have you have you talked about his son? Yeah, junior.
Steve Roach:I'm not aware, but the legacy of Chuck Boyer with Fantasy Island and he'd go out and I just remember the stories of him dragging his heel around making the first aspects of what would become right single track there, and then Craig and myself and Chuck and some other of the community I'm not sure, john, were you on some of those early building pieces to we get out there very early in the morning and hide our cars really far away and seek out a fence and then start building and carving out what became the evolution of.
Josh:we all work on it. Yeah, what do we call? We call these social trails, right, they started out as social trails you taught me that term.
Steve Roach:last time you were on social trails, but like trails.
Jon Shouse:Yeah, Craig was actually the one that that named it Fantasy Island.
Steve Roach:Exactly.
Jon Shouse:Because once we kind of got that first loop in and was was long cactus, the first loop long cactus was the first loop but we went out there and and Chuck wanted to call it the Long cactus trail system. You know he wanted to call it Long cactus trails and so we went out. When it was finally completed was a Tuesday night. We left from Bob and Deb's place.
Steve Roach:We always did those rides from there.
Jon Shouse:Yeah, and, and, and we finished and we're sitting at what now would be the picnic table area. Yeah, I used to be at two barbed wire fences that you had to hop over to get in and out. Yeah, and, and Craig goes. This isn't Long cactus man, this is freaking Fantasy Island.
Mark Flint:Dreams come true? Yeah, that was.
Jon Shouse:That was exactly what, and that. So that's where the name Fantasy Island came from. And you know we were just right there, just right there, that one Tuesday night ride, and there's, there's maybe what five of us there. Yeah, I mean it wasn't like nobody.
Steve Roach:We were protective of it then and we were keep it quiet because it was still on the back in there and you couldn't you know you're riding or not a motorcycle or mountain bike and yeah no one would see you and you're just sort of stealthly going in there and having this amazing ride and getting out at sunset and then we're right up the street and then we're at Craig's place, there again with you know, beers and tequila and all it's funny how you refer to spike like he's a person.
Jon Shouse:He is a person as much of a person as any of us were at that point.
Josh:Where did spike survive? Where is he now? Do you know anyone know?
Steve Roach:hard to say yeah he's got to be at Kathy's yeah he's probably on the hill, just you know regal and tall, you know hopefully right there on Stella down from fantasy.
Mark Flint:Yeah, one of the other things that happened early on with fantasy and it. I could be wrong, but I think it has a lot to do with bike monks. Influence is a lot of. There was a lot of dumps out there, just old trash dumps, and people were making really cool art installations out of it alongside the trail and I maybe you guys know how exactly that started, but it just I got the sense that he must had something to do with that or people did it because they thought he'd like it. I don't know.
Jon Shouse:I think everybody just kind of started. It was in the early days, everybody that was going out there. Like I said, at one point, there had to be 10 people that knew about it. You know what I mean from the Tuesday night rise, sure, and everybody was taking ownership of it.
Josh:So, and it was success has many fathers.
Jon Shouse:It was too hard to get all the trash out right. So instead of getting all the trash out, you just tried to make some. It look cool. You know what I mean like making it.
Steve Roach:make it a sculpture, yeah there would be, like these, totems out all at different points, and it junctures where the trail might split off, and then you would have some kind of conglomeration of rusted out parts and things that were the Christmas tree. Yeah.
Mark Flint:Christmas tree yeah.
Josh:There's a car out there too.
Mark Flint:Yes, yeah, and that somebody put an old bike frame on the rack on.
Jon Shouse:Rudy and I are the ones that took that old bike and put it out there and then somebody stole the bike. Really, yeah, it's like it was like an old rally, three speed or something, just you know, I hope someone's riding it.
Jon Shouse:I actually got back to the back to life, like we poked holes in the roof and then cut the rim and round the rim through the roof so it wouldn't blow away. But then somebody like went out there and you know, that's the really sad thing. I don't know if the last time you wrote it, but like all those sculptures are gone, you know, I mean, people have taken them. The only thing that's really left of that original kind of you turning trash into something is on on Bo's loop, about halfway through, there's that shelf on the side that has all the old stuff piled on it. Yeah, like those were everywhere out there, really, yeah, and now that's probably the last remaining.
Mark Flint:You know thing relic from that.
Jon Shouse:Relic from that.
Mark Flint:Yeah, there was the old, like an old chase, backyard chase, along with no furniture, no cushions on it. And then it was somebody had like a ski leaning up against a like a little one of those chests that you were talking about or shelves that you're talking about, so you could, like it looked like somebody had gone skiing, take their skis off and and relaxing in the Shays lounge.
Josh:The last time I was out there, there was a whole bunch of broken bottles and someone had like made like a mosaic in the ground with all the shards from the broken bottles. I mean someone had spent many, many hours out there taking those broken glass pieces and making it into an art design. It was super cool. I mean, it's exactly along that vibe like take trash and make it something awesome, right.
Jon Shouse:Right, and it would be great. You know that that would be awesome if that kind of thing came back. You know what I mean. Just not, you know, and it's weird, like leave it where it is, you know it's. It's kind of upsetting when you think about it. You know, because it was. It was really kind of one of the unique things about the early fantasy island.
Josh:Yeah, so so what are we advocating for here? Make more art installations with the trash that's still out there, or bring more stuff out, no, no don't, don't bring more stuff out.
Jon Shouse:Make it, make it. There's still enough out there, trust me. So. But you know, I think, just going back to it's not just about fantasy island, it was about the community that Craig created through. You know, in the early days it was like these were the days when you had to wait for the magazine to come out so you could see the next cool thing. And then you could go to Craig's and there was that, paul's Ross the derailer on his shelf. Yeah, just in the magazine. You know what I mean.
Jon Shouse:It was like you could touch it and feel it and and spend $200 to buy it. Yeah, you know, but but that was, you know, the community, that Tuesday night ride, the Thursday night was always over at Reddington. And he had that hidden bottle of tequila tequila at the top of Reddington and you'd come screaming back down in the dark, back when the lights were. You know no better than a flashlight. Yeah, but. But yeah, steve was the one always on that downhill because he is insane descending.
Steve Roach:But then we'd go to Chouie's from there and there was the whole. I mean it was, you know, it was Tuesdays, thursdays, and then we started doing MBA racing, yeah, and then you have Sunday. So it was a continuous lifestyle for many, many years.
Josh:What years are we talking? So I first came to Tucson in 99. I think it was when I first got stationed here and I started riding. I think at that time. Like, what time frame are you guys talking about?
Jon Shouse:So Fantasy Island officially open April 20 1999. That's when it was like kind of let the cat out of the bag Jesus.
Josh:I probably had just rolled up on the scene when it opened.
Steve Roach:Yeah, how many years leading up to that, we were riding it for three, was that?
Jon Shouse:mid 90s yeah, mid 90s, yeah, yeah.
Mark Flint:I think, I was on it in like 98.
Steve Roach:So before Fantasy Island was the, and I was trying to recall it, we have a name for the Pantano area out there, no, across from a pinnacle, you know, I mean not pinnacle, but Tucson McGraw's yeah to.
Jon Shouse:So fantasy, if we want to call it that fantasy island. But it had a name. It was called like like the pit or the, something like that.
Steve Roach:I've been wrecking my brain for the name of that. But we've developed that and that's the first Tuesday night spot that all of us would gather.
Josh:That doesn't exist anymore.
Jon Shouse:No, no, there's houses and mapped out completely. So that was basically across from Tucson McGraw's, Okay Kind of Pantano wash to Escalante back to Old Spanish Trail. Exactly, and that there was a big trail system back in there.
Steve Roach:Really, yeah, wicked, and we put a you know a loop that we would all know and we'd get out there at that six o'clock after you know work on Tuesday and hit it like a racetrack and just everybody's finding their pace, but we're I mean, we're hitting it. You know that race pace riding through there and then again, you know all roads lead back to Craig's crib there, yeah.
Jon Shouse:And that's when, when they started putting houses in there. That's when Chuck when he goes. I remember back in the 60s we used to ride motorcycles over in this area, yeah there was some motocross features, some jumps and back in there.
Josh:Was the BMX track already there when you guys started the one? That's like right across the street from the entrance.
Jon Shouse:Yeah, yeah, that's been there for a long time.
Josh:Forever, okay, huh, so, so, so and then and then after so, after he shut down the loan cactus shops, he had something that he just called the bike monk that he did maintenance out of. I Ran into some of that online. You guys familiar with that at all, or?
Steve Roach:that was the little. Yeah, I mean he had that shop. I mean. So we went from Bob's bargain barn in midtown, then the next shop was this little crib there where now trader Joe's is sitting on Campbell and Craig. When Joe's came in there and then he said, my shop was sitting just about where now the bike rack is in front of trader Joe's right. So he can never go there now without thinking about and that's where his shop.
Josh:Was that? And they were?
Steve Roach:these little bars. They were these really cool little Shacks that were there and apparently at one point there was the legend with the lore of that was one of them was a little Bar and that you know, lee Marvin spent a lot of time here and he would be there getting sauced up. Or there was a bar right out, kind of in front of where, right where Joe's is, there was a bar, and so there was all those sort of stories that would go on around that I don't know who Lee Marvin is guys.
Steve Roach:Okay, he was a famous actor from the 60s.
Josh:Oh see, cat, I'm too young. I'm sorry, I see the movie cat balloon.
Steve Roach:Yeah, so in any case, there, you know. So then from there. Then the next shop was on 22nd, the little shop there next to Kind of Reed Park or something, remember that little, oh, that show.
Mark Flint:Yeah, yeah, that was in a well, I think it was a converted motel. Yeah, sort of hotel room was like some kind of little small.
Steve Roach:Oh, that's a huge clothing or a yeah.
Mark Flint:Yeah, there was a used clothing in one of them, right, yeah, and it was a very small, but again it was really comfortable. I spent a lot of time in that one.
Jon Shouse:Hmm, and then he went to think of Rudy guest wrench. Right, yeah, well, he was working out there along the all along, that was yeah, but then I think they let him actually turn the shop there where they worked their bikes that he was actually, you know so was he the, was he the mechanic out there for take over? And lead led rides and all that kind of stuff.
Mark Flint:Yeah, yeah, yeah and then in 2007 or eight I think a 2006 was when I started working for Pima County on the as a trails program coordinator and we had a trail crew and he became a member of that trail crew I can't remember exactly what year within a couple of years of that, and might have been Right close to from the get-go Okay, but I spent a lot of hours building trail with him and he was so great to work with. I mean, he just he, he always, you know, I don't think he would do anything he didn't love doing and you could, just I Could sense that with him and even like I don't know when, the last time I saw him on a trail was maybe two years ago, I don't know and he also worked on. One of his favorite trails to ride was was the sweet water Trails absolutely.
Josh:Oh, did he help out there? He did. Oh, he was on the crew that built it.
Jon Shouse:Yeah, oh, wow, yeah, yeah, that's the last place I saw Craig. Was it sweet water?
Steve Roach:same with me on a ride just out of the blue to on a right.
Jon Shouse:That's crazy, that that's the last place we all saw yeah, so perfect.
Mark Flint:Yeah, and it was one of those. For me it was like I light up when I would see him. You're just happy to see this guy and he'd get off and you talk for a while, you'd hug and then hey man, great to see you, dude, and off you'd go and it was just this totally complete spiritual experience.
Steve Roach:That's the word right there with Craig, yeah, and he, craig was. I did a lot of NBA races where he and I would ride together Uh-huh and for quite a distance and he's, you know, he was really cool to drive and travel with because you could just be with Craig and you didn't feel obligated to be talking all the time.
Josh:Yeah, what you mean, that's a nice, I mean it's a good feeling where you can just be.
Steve Roach:You know, and we listen to music, of course, and yeah, but then you could just. You know, he was just that kind of guy that you could just be in the zone with and and what was you know shared was cool, and then there could be long miles where you're just you know in that place and what kind of music did listen to? Do I listen to? What kind of music?
Josh:did he listen to? Yeah?
Steve Roach:He listened to blues and classic rock and, okay, you know really like and roots kind of music and so we shared, you know we a lot of great music. You know Road trips and we had some big big road trips, some couple of you know really kind of legendary. The biggest one we were heading up to Moab and the van had big problems and we made it as far as flagstaff and so Like 15, 10 guys in this van.
Steve Roach:Oh no, big van and we loaded it down with like a big trailer with way too much of everything, including, you know, costco sized Coolers with Coronas, and up them in the van, just conked out by the time we got up there. So we just said, well, here we are.
Josh:And then, so here you know so you just did the, did the trip and in Flagstaff and right road in flagstaff.
Steve Roach:Just reorganize the whole thing and you know again with Craig, sort of like you know, at the center of it being the, you know the quiet focused you know, dude there, you know it was very cool.
Steve Roach:This is another one of the many endless. How did you guys get home? They eventually brought in another. It was a large, very large van. You know I could get ten guys plus a trailer and Rod Krieger you know I had. He worked at Costco at the time, he was part of the drive and he would, you know, help load it up and load it down and but then we got down past Through the vortex at Pinnacle Peak there and the van crapped out again.
Steve Roach:Oh, no way that it was pretty legendary by the time we got back. But that was just all. You know more. And then we finally got back that's when we were still at his shop on Broadway, and so it was this. You know just this. Another one of those stories that gets written into the books. We still talk about, even now, the folks that have been calling me in the last week and a half since Craig passed work. The stories are all emerging back again.
Josh:Yeah, I, you know, earlier today I was watching, I was doing some research on Craig and I came across the video from, I think, 2012, when you guys put up Like there was kind of a statue or sculpture, you know, dedicated to both both, I think, chuck and and Craig for the work that they had done on. Fantasy Island and I think that sign is gone. Now it is yeah and I'm wondering should we like redo it? What do you guys think about that?
Jon Shouse:we can get a hold of Lee. I mean he built it in the first place black.
Josh:Well, built it None any idea like do you remember the sign of? Any idea like what happened?
Jon Shouse:to it Same thing that happened. Everything else out there got stolen for scrap metal, I'm sure.
Josh:So if we do it, we're gonna have to like put it in with concrete or something at least make them work for it If they're gonna take it again, right?
Jon Shouse:Yeah, absolutely, but no, I think that's a great idea to redo it Absolutely.
Mark Flint:Yeah.
Jon Shouse:I've been trying to get a good picture of the original sign out there. Yeah, the map of the whole right and get that Recreated on that white one that had the different color.
Josh:Yeah, it was like. It was like kind of carved in.
Steve Roach:The trail was carved in a Router, built it in and we had named different features. Uh-huh, throughout all these different features.
Josh:Yeah, no, I mean, that's how I learned the trail was from those from that sign right when I first went out there. On that video and I actually sent you a link to it on on Instagram you guys are standing next to that You're? I think you're on the video. I'm pretty sure it's your voice taking the video in the rain. Was that you? I Just been so long. They said John, so I definitely sounded like you, so I think it was yeah.
Josh:And. But you're standing next to that sign, and so you could take a screenshot from that.
Jon Shouse:Oh, I have pictures. Oh, yeah, I got. I got some good, because it ended up at Jim's house. When it got, somebody knocked it over and painted all over it, so he took it and was gonna redo it, but it had been termite eaten and was dry rotted.
Steve Roach:So was that jam, who lived right down the street from there.
Jon Shouse:No, this is Jim Domenico.
Steve Roach:Okay.
Jon Shouse:Another old timey person, samba guy. Yeah, yeah, samba guy, yeah, he's still.
Mark Flint:I haven't seen him in a while, but I'm sure he's out there writing just some last week out here in the vortex.
Josh:Yeah, so in that video that I saw from 2012 it sounded like, like like monk was moving out somewhere towards Safford.
Mark Flint:Yeah, he'd bought some land out there and I think his dream was to build a place and stay out there, and they never moved there, but he spent a lot of time there. And that was did he actually build a place out there?
Jon Shouse:No, they had a little trailer out there on the property. It's solar, super cool, you know lights and little sculptures everywhere and right yeah, it's actually between air Vapai and and Mount Graham, kind of in that valley there.
Josh:Oh, so you have to kind of come on 91 and then turn left and go kind of out that way, Bonita bonita and then head, like you're heading up to the, to the Apache, you know the back door and air Vapai.
Steve Roach:Yeah, it's up in there, Interesting. They call it bare bones.
Josh:That was the name of his place.
Steve Roach:Bear was the name is still there and still in the family and Kathy's talking about there. She's gonna, they're going back out with the kids and Kathy was his wife Is that right? Why if girlfriend?
Jon Shouse:were they married, or I think they were at the end.
Steve Roach:Oh, so that she was a Just you know, those guys went, I remember when they met and then they just you know, it was like the perfect intertwinement of Just the love of writing and just the freedom and she was right.
Josh:She wrote as she rides as well, or wrote Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, oh, very cool, huh. So what else can you, what else can you tell me about? About Craig? What other good memories, what other good stories you guys have the story and you just reminded me about doing the enemy.
Jon Shouse:Remember the year we all did the NBA series together and travel all over place. Remember the trash dump race? Oh my god, up under Kearney, up in Kearney, right. So we went out and pre-road and we called it the trash dump race because they literally use like old, abandoned refrigerators as course markings to go around. And we all get back after the pre-ride and we're like this is that we're not gonna race tomorrow, we don't care what. So usually the all the drinks got broken out the next day, got broken out the night before the race because everybody's like we're not doing this, this is dumbest thing ever. So we ended up cleaning up all the alcohol we had and then he went and did the race and then Craig gets up in the morning.
Jon Shouse:He's like no, we're all doing it. I don't care how bad the course is, and I think did you end up? Somebody ended up winning that day Like I can't remember who it was at you or some. I can't remember that that much of it.
Steve Roach:I remember that when we were where we were camping at all night long that train was coming through. That was that was hauling the mine tailings tailings out of there. Yeah, the whole thing was just like a nightmare.
Jon Shouse:You know like a mad max kind of.
Steve Roach:Yeah, but ended up one of the one of the crew, one of the crew won that the race.
Jon Shouse:The next day After we were all like, no, we're up to like three o'clock in the morning or something like that, and then up all night because of the train going back and forth.
Steve Roach:That was absolutely surreal, though, that yeah whatever that was there the whole whole trash dump race landfill, but you know he was always just like Zen.
Jon Shouse:I mean I also put it. You know what I mean. It's like he didn't get, I mean, and he didn't have a you know as former business owner and stuff, he didn't have a great business sense. He did it out of the love of it and that's probably why he ended up moving so much. You know what I mean. He'd have to go find the next best rent by you know, and things like that.
Josh:He was just trying to keep the lights on.
Jon Shouse:He was just trying to keep the lights on, you know, and, like Mark said, you know, oh yeah, that's five bucks to do that. I'm like, no, like you can't do it for five bucks, you know that's. But but that was correct, you know you.
Steve Roach:Just he was there and and he persevered for so, so many years and you'd have the big box. You know, performance come in and go.
Josh:Yeah, because performance at that time was huge, right, and there was several of them in Tucson, right, and but he still had, you know, his.
Steve Roach:The core audience was, that was his core group of, you know, of the tribe as we would call it.
Josh:I think Was it primarily mountain biking, or did he service all kinds of bikes?
Jon Shouse:He serviced everything, but mountain bikes were like his passion. I don't think he ever owned a road bike that I can recall and all the time I knew him you know it was it was, but he had that tandem for a while, full suspension Ventana. I think it was a Ventana, yeah.
Steve Roach:Well, he would. He would do you know can only to State Park and amazing stuff. They would go out.
Jon Shouse:Yeah, yeah, fright 50 year on a tandem.
Josh:We had. We had Sherwood on from Ventana, sherwood Gibson who, who was the owner of Ventana. He actually works for Raytheon now. Yeah, so it was super interesting to to hear all about him and we talked about that tandem when he designed it and all that kind of stuff. So go back and listen to that episode.
Jon Shouse:Yeah, but you know, just genuine is the only word that comes. You know, when it comes to Craig, he like even the Fannis Island stuff. He part of them. I sure wanted it called Fannis Island because he didn't want like any notoriety from it being called bone cactus and related back to a shot.
Steve Roach:He's very, very humble and very, you know, just had that feeling about him all the time, just, you know, not wanting to be in the center of too much attention. But the result of that was that he was the center, he was the hub of this, of this community, at the time when it was really emerging. You know, when the sport was it was blowing up. I remember going to the cactus cup at Pinnacle Peak when Tomak and you know everybody's there in Craig and all you know the whole that time when there was bikes, so many bikes were selling and the sport was blowing up, really just incredible. But to have that quiet kind of that quiet core in the middle of that where we felt, you know, there was a kind of a safety there, you know. And but I was thinking as well, there was this film that came out in 95 called Smoke, and it was with Harvey Kytel and he had this smoke shop in Brooklyn and that was Craig's.
Steve Roach:I mean, he loved that film and he referenced it. You know quite a bit and I looked it up again tonight and if you just the listeners out there and for us, just look at it, you know, put it in and read the what it's about. And it's about this shop where all these different cast of characters come in and there's just every kind of people but they're all there and they're all sharing this common, connected love and this feeling and that's and that really reflects so much about what Craig, the pride he had with Lone Cactus and how it just can. You know, wherever it was, it didn't matter, because it was really the spirit and the energy that he carried with him and what would draw us to all these different places, and so that was really a great as a film of great metaphor and he connected to it. We talked about that a lot now.
Steve Roach:He kept referring to that feeling of the community that would come into that, that small shop. And then, just again, you're meeting all kinds of people from all walks of life. You know the Raytheon people and every walk of life would come in there. So that was always cool to go in and meet people and then eventually we're doing rides. You know they're jumping in on our rides. You know, three days a week we're going down to Gardner Canyon or Elephant Head or all those tracks, those riding destinations that were also getting added into the expanding list of really cool places in our, you know, beautiful valley here, Tucson, you know right up, you know you're right out, you know you've got the Arizona Trail and you know out here and yeah, we've got Arizona Trail and the Vortex Trails and all kinds of stuff out here.
Josh:I didn't even know. I've written here forever. I didn't even know that the Lone Cactus was a bike shop. I've written Phantasyne and Lone Cactus Trail a thousand times. I had no idea.
Jon Shouse:Yeah, so interesting. It's kind of funny. You know Steve's talking about the community thing and I think people now with technology, where it is, you just don't, you can't comprehend what it was like. Then you know what I mean, and that's not, that's nothing. But like his little Lone Cactus shop was the Facebook for the mountain bike world. At that point, like you went there to look at the thing and Steve would write on the dry erase calendar hey, I'm riding Gardner Canyon. We're meeting here at seven o'clock if you want to come come.
Jon Shouse:Yeah right, and that's you know. Even in the early days of SDMB, there it was basically a listserv based thing. You know what I mean. It's not like now where there's all these groups and all you do is hit a button in it. You know you had to. You had to go to the shop. Craig would of course be there welcome you or complaining about something. One of the two.
Mark Flint:Either way, it was awesome Both.
Josh:Both.
Jon Shouse:And then you'd look at the calendar and see, you know, if somebody had thrown something up on the calendar or you know, or Craig's, like yeah, hey, we're riding, you know we're, we're gonna go try to ride Shiva, you know, or we're gonna go. So this is crazy, we're gonna go try to find Chimney Rock. Do you know what Chimney Rock is? Is?
Mark Flint:that in Bayota. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jon Shouse:Like, like or we're gonna go try and find Milagrosa Now. Nowadays Milagrosa is like a super highway with the bikes that they are now, but back then it's a gnarly trail on the bikes from 1998.
Josh:And you couldn't find you couldn't find the trail.
Jon Shouse:There was the tree at the corner, but you'd go back and forth six or seven times and there'd be like eight of you trying to find where you turn to get on Milagrosa back in those days.
Steve Roach:Yeah, no, no, no iPhone with GPS getting out of there.
Jon Shouse:Yeah, it was a it was a completely different, a different thing, but Craig was the and for no better term the, the Facebook yeah Group for for mountain biking in Tucson, truly.
Josh:Were you guys using that raise mountain bike book. I remember why I first came here. Yeah, cosmic raise, cosmic, cosmic raise, that's that's how I found all the trails using cosmic rays.
Jon Shouse:Yeah, I mean, there were the. You know, back back then cosmic was stealing our rides and putting them in his book, but that's, that's neither here nor there. You know, he did. He didn't know enough about Tucson riding to come down here. He was Flagstaff guy, you know. I didn't know that so yeah, so he knew Flagstaff and Sedona, but he'd come down here and ride with the lone cactus crew to get and then map it out and put it in the book, right?
Jon Shouse:You know what I mean. So it was kind of like, and that's not meant in any negative way, shape or form, but you know, so we were. You know. You ask if we were using the book. Of course we'd use the book if we go Sedona, but if they were coming down here they'd use us to build the trails To build the trails.
Steve Roach:And I wrote the book at that point.
Josh:You guys wrote the book that I used to learn the trail, so I should be thinking you guys. Yeah, exactly, thanks very much.
Steve Roach:So that was, that was all part of the community. That that you know, you just were excited about he created it.
Steve Roach:Right yeah, that you, just you know again just can't, can't even like find the you know the, the words for how amazing, like what, the way John was explaining at that time in the culture around that, because we were so immersed in it. I mean the doing three, four rides a week, sometimes, Wow, and religiously, I mean for years. You know you'd really have a hard time if you had to miss one. I know I did. I mean I was really into that discipline and and the adventure and just it was a great balance between you know other parts of your life.
Steve Roach:But just you know I remember being out at Fantasy Island when 9-11 happened and we're out there that day. It was a Tuesday and it was freaking quiet. I mean all the jets were down, everything was like and we're sitting there and there was a guy from India who was talking about Osama bin Laden and he was like going off about, he already could see that was coming. And we're out there with like eight people the day of 9-11 at Fantasy Island, wow, and, and you know Davis Mothin was just completely I mean it was surreal the feeling. But you're there on on sacred ground, you know, and we're there with Craig and we're just like having that whole another one of those life moments at Fantasy Island, you know, significant, wow, yeah.
Josh:It's amazing that, even with all the development that they've been able to, I think I think it's secure at this point. Do we know?
Jon Shouse:The main trail says so let's just say Drexel South. Okay, Drexel North, excuse me, is now a city park, a city open space park.
Josh:So everything but the bunny trails, basically, and the associated.
Jon Shouse:Yeah, now if they put a road through, if, if Harrison ever goes through, that'll take a pretty significant chunk. Hadn't thought about that, but I don't know if they're ever gonna put Harrison through the base. Doesn't want it to go through.
Steve Roach:I mean so close to the, to the perimeter of the base there.
Jon Shouse:Yeah. So I know the base doesn't want it to go through, so chances of if the base doesn't want, chances of Tucson doing our pretty Slim, you know what I mean. But but basically, from Drexel South and and that was the save Fantasy Island thing, you know, everybody complained we lost this trail, we lost that trail. But so, just to go back, I was kind of the one that was in charge of that red shirt brigade, the safe fantasy island thing, yeah. So, and then we spent two years writing a plan, which actually one that American trails trail plan. But the plan was based on the people who bought Sorot trails, bought the whole Sector and then donated it back. Oh wow. So Everybody who's complaining about there being houses there, they don't realize that those houses paid for you to have what's left of the trail system.
Jon Shouse:Yeah, so be happy that we've got so so don't bitch about the resolute being gone and and the fire loop being gone, because if they, they got paid for Everything else got paid for by those trails being gone. Yeah, and it was all. It was all in the plan.
Mark Flint:So there was some funny stuff about the development of that system too that I Think about now that you've kind of reminded me of John. One was, you know, the over-under. Yeah, initially that didn't have the top that you rode over.
Jon Shouse:Somebody had ramp. You had to jump it and there was a sign that said jump or die jump or die, and so there's a gap jump.
Mark Flint:So I called Chuck Boyer and I said you know, Chuck, somebody could get hurt and ensue. You know it's maybe. You know that's not a good idea. I have that out there.
Jon Shouse:So then they put the great but then the point is, who would they sue at that point? You know what I mean.
Mark Flint:It's kind of like cuz, it was just a wild thing, but yeah but was also though I don't know if you remember this, john, but there was kind of a hill and Couple people decided to put a dual slalom course going right across the trail, right across Boselieu. I remember that that was like that could make some interesting. Rex, you know you're riding the trail. Two guys are racing dual slalom.
Josh:Is that like when you come down off after the shaft or whatever? Was it right down there, or where was it at?
Mark Flint:I think it was. I can't remember exactly where it was, but there was a hill. As you're riding Boselieu towards the the west, it would be the hill coming down from your left.
Jon Shouse:Yeah, it was the. It was the one with the switchbacks going up it. Yeah yeah, and it was as you're descending off the side of that. It came from the other way, across the Okay, across the trail, as I recall.
Mark Flint:But there's some sort of crazy well west stuff out there that they over under.
Steve Roach:I was just speaking with the another. One of the legendary Tucson guys was Brian Barr that we call lion Brian and it's like it's not because of his long hair and it's sort of, you know, has that kind of there was always one more hill, just one. It's only that's just a few more miles. So it's ly ing Found out, you're about seven hours in, just over the hill bro, just just one more hill, so but he was.
Steve Roach:We were speaking the other day about Craig memories and also Kathy and you know the great team they, they were and still are and you know, and but she, they were riding the tandem and she's, you know, tall. She's, fairly, you know, I don't know not quite six feet, but she's tall and she was on the back of the tandem and, yeah, and they were doing the over under and she was on the back on a tandem.
Steve Roach:They were doing the over under yeah, and she got her bell rung in there, you know, on the I can imagine, because she got yeah. Yeah, you know the rake of the length and all that, so she definitely had some neck. You know issues going on for a while after that.
Mark Flint:Chuck. Chuck Boyer hit that too. He was just coming down towards and somebody yelled at me, lifted his head up to look and see who it was and and really rung his bell. Yeah.
Josh:I hit my head, done that one time, and I don't ride underneath it anymore. I just it's been it's been pretty cleared out now.
Jon Shouse:You have to work to hit your head on it now. Yeah, it's tucked down in there.
Josh:It's all eroded out over time, right and here's it.
Jon Shouse:And since we're just talking about fantasy and and what went on there, the you know, now it's called the burrow pit loop. Yeah right, but it was the borough pit loop, because that's where they borrowed the dirt for the dump. So borrow, borrow.
Mark Flint:And then borrow somewhere along the line it got switched to burrow Like yeah bro but it was actually the borrow Interesting, borrow pits kind of a construction term, and I guess, yeah, people didn't know that, so they thought almost, oh, they must be saying burrow, yeah, interesting.
Jon Shouse:Yeah. So then some, at some point it got put on. You know, the map is the burrow and it's never. You are, yeah, and it just never changed. But that's had no idea. There's all kinds of little things like that. You know I mean so.
Mark Flint:Yeah, I want to just kind of circle back to more more lately with the month because I think about him. I Think about him a lot, especially since it's passing, but yeah, I always would think about him and one of the things that I think of him as a truly you know, you hear about self self-actualized people and gurus and stuff and he really lived that. He was you, you got what you saw with him and it was very real, there was and, like I think you guys were saying, humble and kind he was. He was that kind of person to me. He was like someone I'd like to be more like, to have that total Congruity with you know who you are and what you do is is always in line, you know, and that was something that I just really admired about about him.
Josh:He wanted me, he wanted to make, he wanted you to be a better man. He inspired you to be a better man. Yes, yeah, I'm gonna get there.
Steve Roach:Yeah, and he just had this operating system. That was steady. You know, I can really never remember any. You know real drama really you know, I mean, he would know he would have opinions and get riled up About things in his degree of getting riled up about things, but it was still. The heart rate was way down, you know, that was that's why also the rides, all the rides we would do together, you would just, you know, it was just, they were blissful, you know we just it's just super reliable, no drama, and because you know, you know you'd be out somewhere in the deep end of wherever, yeah, and you break a chain or something's going on, and then Craig just kind of rolls over.
Josh:Just solves it.
Jon Shouse:Yoda there. Ficking out, it's all good and and something about him on the ride and I'm not saying the Tuesday night rides and and that stuff weren't fast and competitive, but something about him being there took away any a type personality Disorder of the ride totally that you know what I mean like calibrated the ride at that.
Jon Shouse:Yeah, like you could go out and and and have fun and and and go hard and race each other or whatever, but something about having them there you knew that it didn't matter, Like the egos were just him being in the room, so to speak, kept the egos in check. Interesting. Like, without saying anything without saying anything, without doing anything, just something about him being there.
Steve Roach:Yeah, his presence had that presence.
Jon Shouse:You can go as hard as you want, but this is still about having fun and being together.
Josh:No one want to disappoint the monk.
Jon Shouse:Kind of yeah yeah, they weren't invited back.
Steve Roach:Yeah, they just there'd be different folks that would come and go and they would go, and it was again no real drama. It just kind of had its natural order of playing out. You know, and if you know the coolness and the awareness and just the non. Really it was a non-verbal kind of frequency. They were all hanging out there and you're there, you know, in full support of everyone.
Josh:Right.
Jon Shouse:And then you've got again Craig there kind of you know how do you, how do you call Craig the antithesis of an alpha male? Yet like had everything, like the best kind of alpha, the one that's not in your face, the one.
Jon Shouse:That's the one that just brings you together, because you want to be like him, you want to be with him, you want to care like he cared about everybody, right, right, and he was. He was definitely the leader of the group, no questions asked, but he was the leader because he was kind and cared deeply about every person that was there, whether he knew you or he didn't know you. Wow.
Steve Roach:And I think that what you're explaining really speaks, and with Mark working close with Craig, and that he would have that kind of devotion to these trails that we will continue in our. You know, the legacy of those trails will continue on for however long.
Mark Flint:You know the earth is over there, you know it's sweet water.
Steve Roach:but is I just get a sense that that dedication to building those trails and knowing how much you know how cool they are and how they will continue to, you know just the perfect flow and the momentum and all the whole dynamics of the trail system? I think that was another piece with Craig that was really like his service to you know his love of the sport.
Josh:I mean it's a legacy, right. I mean I mean you know in shot a lot, it'll be around for generations and generations It'll get to enjoy, you know, what he helped create.
Mark Flint:Oh yeah, and he was. You know it's thinking about that. You know, trail builders yes, at least a couple of us in this room will say can be really passionate and disagree about how or whatever, and there would be some discussions like that among the trail crew and he just had this sort of quiet way of getting everybody on the same page without saying to get on the same page. You know it was. It was pretty cool to be a part of that.
Josh:So the, the, the passionate disagreements. For those that are uninitiated, this is like you're out there trying to figure out which way to go or what feature to incorporate, and different of difference of opinion of what we should do and Exactly.
Jon Shouse:Yeah, that never happens. Yeah, never happens.
Mark Flint:There's a lot of work in the last 10 minutes right, a lot of that probably worked out also at Fantasy Island.
Steve Roach:I mean just the that sort of you know, the way things organically evolved out there and the way we would.
Jon Shouse:We learned. We learned what not to do at Fantasy Island. Yeah, what do you mean? Let's be realistic about it.
Mark Flint:Yeah, I mean like fall line, like.
Josh:Yeah, it wasn't a professional trail.
Jon Shouse:We 100% honest. Fantasy on is probably the worst built trail in the Western United States, but everybody loves it. It's fun and that's why you have to be out there.
Jon Shouse:That's why we're here keeping it going. But but back in those days we didn't. It was, it was all about the passion of it. Nobody Steve didn't know anything about trail building, I didn't, chuck didn't, craig didn't know. It was just like oh, oh, let's go down. It'll be really fun to come ripping down this and then come ripping up the other side and do that. You know what I mean. I mean, I don't know about what would be.
Steve Roach:Yeah, there was no erosion studies or what, what direction this and that's going. There was just Chuck in the beginning dragging his heel around there and and Craig, you know navigating through and us coming in at with the early, at like five in the morning. You know helping these guys, you know, to trim out the, the yeah, the sky, it was all hand done.
Josh:Is it all hand done? No, no, machines, no, no, no.
Jon Shouse:And it was. It was back then. The machine was a rake at the most, I mean, and generally it wasn't even a rake, it was just okay. We're going from there to there. So there's five of us and we'll write back and forth 400 times and then there's a trail.
Mark Flint:I remember giving Chuck Boyer a McLeod. I think SDMB got him one and he was like you could have. You could have given him a new car and he wouldn't have been more happy.
Josh:So McLeod is a trail building to one side and Ho and rake. Ho and rake on the other side, kind of about that big. I got one in the in the garage.
Mark Flint:I didn't know. That was well 10 inches wide, okay.
Jon Shouse:Yeah, but you know, and and I think that's how Craig kind of did everything Like he didn't know the rules to do it, so he made it the best he made it the best he could and invited you to be part of it, yeah.
Steve Roach:Absolutely.
Jon Shouse:You know, and that's the, the trails are perfect. You know, example of that. We made the best you could come out and love it as much as we do. And that was his shop, that was his life, that was the community he created.
Josh:So, yeah, did Craig have kids?
Jon Shouse:Yes, yes.
Josh:He had a daughter, daughter and then obviously Kathy. We got about five minutes. Maybe you guys could give any, any, any thoughts or things you want to say to to Kathy or his daughter, to kind of sum up your, your thoughts and feelings about the monk. You start with you, mark.
Mark Flint:Yeah, um, I'm just glad he walked this earth at the same time I did. You know, it was a gift to me every minute I spent with him.
Steve Roach:Yeah, and Craig and Kathy, you know they just there was just a frequency that they were always at, it was joyful, it was connected. Like Mark said, you know we I mean I ran into both of them. That's the last time I saw Craig. We were both out at Sweetwater upon one of the ridges, just an idyllic day, just that. That feeling of everything we've talked about here is just right there, right present. The joy of that. When Kathy called me the day after Craig passed, I mean she was just and she was so there, they were so connected and she was so there for him through the whole process as well, right up through his, you know transition into the great single track in the sky there.
Steve Roach:So I'm just, I feel we're all blessed by those guys being together and the you know, the love and the energy that they created together ongoing will continue in our community and we'll continue to. You know, we're going to plant some also some, some rides together with Kathy and keep keep the flow going in that direction as well. So we're we're better off all of us to have been experiencing what Craig has opened up for this community over all these years.
Jon Shouse:And I think Steve just hit the nail on the head, so to speak. We're all better off for having known Craig and Kathy both, and there's really not much more to say than you know. We're all better after having known him and whether he was trying to, on purpose or or anything, he made you a better person just by being around them.
Josh:Well guys, mark, steve, john, I want to thank you guys all for for coming out this afternoon. You know it's super apparent to me that every mountain biker that that comes in rides and Tucson or rides and Tucson on a regular basis is. It was a debt of gratitude to the monk, even though, you know, many of us didn't know him and I can, I can definitely see the impact that he had on y'all and, and you know, second hand, third hand, I felt that myself and super gracious, super, super appreciative of y'all coming out here and sharing your thoughts and we'll get this out there for the community. Any final thoughts you guys want to share? Yeah, all good, all good, all right, guys, let's thanks to you, man.
Steve Roach:Thank you for creating the opportunity here to share what really needs to be shared, and beyond the community that knows Craig, but the community of the future. It's important to to keep that.
Josh:Memorialize it for sure. What?
Steve Roach:you're doing there. It's big.
Josh:Yeah, you guys take care, thank you, thanks, okay, hmm, you.