Mountain Cog
Mountain bike podcast that will make you laugh and learn. Featuring a wide range of passionate guests.
Mountain Cog
094 - Building Better Mountain Bike Communities: SDMB's Approach to Trail Advocacy and Engagement (Guest: Ruth Cañamar, Vice President, SDMB)
The latest episode of The Mountain Cog Podcast features an in-depth discussion with Ruth Cañamar from the Sonoran Desert Mountain Bicyclists (SDMB) about transforming Tucson's mountain biking landscape through community-driven initiatives. The conversation highlights the successful recent Poker Ride event, which brought together various cycling groups, bike shops, and community members for a day of non-competitive riding and socializing at Tucson Mountain Park, demonstrating the power of inclusive community events in mountain biking.
Ruth shares her personal journey into mountain biking and her role in expanding SDMB's reach through various programs, including women's skills clinics, trail maintenance workshops, and partnerships with local organizations. The episode delves into important discussions about making mountain biking more accessible and the vital role of volunteer-driven advocacy groups in maintaining and developing trail systems. Listeners gain valuable insights into the behind-the-scenes work of mountain bike advocacy and the importance of community engagement in trail development.
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Sonoran Desert Mountain Bicyclists (SDMB)
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brother, you sold me a new set of carbon wheels. Yes, yeah, my first set. That my big ass is tried out. And uh, on the first ride they blew up. Yeah, is tried out. And uh, on the first ride they blew up. Yeah, I believe it, I blew him up on the first ride, yep. So I called the manufacturer and I said, hey, I blew up my tires. You know what they told me? Good for you. They said, uh, we can't help you, sir, not, not in this department. And I said, well, why not? I said well, those types of things are handled by our spokes person.
Dane:It's just awful. It's such a long joke for just to. There's so many jokes in there, there's a lot of jokes. Like you blew them up. Hey, good for you. What pressure did you put them? At you know or something like that, you know, but uh, okay, yeah, all right, we need better dad jokes. Well, bring some. I know I keep forgetting, I was just looking some up and then I'll fumble them. But yeah, I don't know how about some mom jokes?
Ruth Canamar:We should have a contest. Oh, is there a thing? Is there such a thing? I think they'd scare you a little.
Dane:Oh, yeah, now I want to hear mom jokes.
Ruth Canamar:Do you have a mom joke for us, ruth?
Dane:No, not any appropriate ones, I would love it if the people that listen, who have some of our social media, give us some cool. If you've got good dad jokes.
Josh:Actually, I do have a handful of people that send me dad jokes from time to time it's usually like meme cuts. I get that once a month or twice a month or something.
Dane:There's got to be better ones than we come up with. Anytime I Google something, I'm pretty disappointed.
Josh:Listen, man, I thought my spokesperson one was pretty good.
Dane:Come on, I don't know it's a unique bike one. You know, my favorite one Is the chicken one. No, I mean yeah, but no, it's the microbiologist one. Oh, dave Slagan, I remember that one.
Josh:The Dave came up with it, you know why that was so good is that. He was like it was the end of the podcast.
Dane:He delivered it really well too. It was so perfect.
Josh:I was like I wasn't expecting it. I knew kind of halfway through oh shit, he's on the joke right now.
Ruth Canamar:I do have a question, though. Go for it. What's your question? I mean, somebody asked me he's like, who wrote that intro? It's awesome, isn't it?
Josh:Oh my God, here we go, god damn it to you guys.
Ruth Canamar:I've been set up. I've been set up, oh man, that's no more.
Dane:I'm telling you, dude, you should have been famous, oh my God.
Josh:It's not going to come from this podcast, I can tell you that. All right, so it's Thursday night, where the hell did our winter go.
Dane:We didn't have one. I think we had a day.
Josh:Yeah, it was cold. I was putting my air conditioning on in my house. I'm like Jesus. It's February 2nd or something.
Dane:We got one day of rain.
Ruth Canamar:A day About 20 seconds. Yeah, it was crazy.
Dane:I hear next week maybe we'll get some rain, that'd be cool.
Josh:It'd also be good if we got some snow up in the mountains. I'd love to do some snowboarding somewhere yeah, yeah it's.
Dane:Uh, yeah, I'm, I. I hope it's just a late, uh, a late winter, late winter, because at least we'll get. The desert needs it. So, yeah, we need the rain for sure. Yeah, we really do.
Josh:But uh, we are here on a thursday night, here in guru bikes, the world famous guru bikes. We're hearing that guru is becoming more famous, infamous, infamous I'd like to think that the Cog podcast had a little bit to do with that. Oh, heck yeah. And we are with Ruth. Ruth, you guys say your line. I'm going to try it. Then you can tell me if I screwed up, because I'm just going to go straight up like white boy, like pronunciation, right. So Canamar, no.
Ruth Canamar:Say it.
Dane:Not even close, dude. That's not it.
Ruth Canamar:So the N has a tilde.
Josh:A tilde.
Ruth Canamar:And that makes it ñ, so it's caña.
Josh:Caña mar, caña mar.
Dane:Oh God, I'm going to butcher that. I've already butchered it so much. Caña mar.
Josh:Caña mar Caña, mar, okay, I'm close.
Dane:He's got multiple languages and learns. I'm just going to be awful, I'll be like Rocky Mountain Ruth.
Josh:Ruth rides a Rocky Mountain instinct but Ruth is the vice president of the Sonoran Desert Mountain Biking Association here in Southern Arizona and Pima County and you might remember we have had different members from SDMB, the Sonoran Desert Mountain Bikers, on multiple times. So I think, going all the way back to episode 52, we had Nat Gordon, who's the current president of SDMB, talking about the restoration work that he did on Mount Graham and that amazing Graham Cracker ride, kind of in eastern Arizona. It's 17 miles, 6,300 feet of descent. If you like big mountain riding, it's a little raw, it's a little scary, it's a whole lot of fucking awesome.
Dane:A lot, it really is. It's a whole lot of fucking awesome. Yep, yeah, so a lot really. Yeah, it's a good oasis in the summer.
Ruth Canamar:So and I can say that I've ridden, you've ridden the whole thing, you've ridden the whole thing, the whole thing yep, not all at once, but thanks to matt and thanks to dave slagle, they, uh, they definitely said I could do it, and and I'm uh proud to say that I have done the graham cracker. But in nice sections.
Josh:Do they have snow?
Dane:right now.
Josh:Oh, you know, I don't even know. I'm guessing they'd be similar to lemon. I think there's a video stream from the, because Mount or University of Arizona has a telescope up there right. And so I could check and see from there. I think they have a webcam. You can look and see if there's snow, but I hadn't heard. But, ruth, thank you for coming and spending an evening with us thank you, pretty exciting tell us a little bit about you. Tell us a little bit about stmb. What's on your mind?
Ruth Canamar:what's on my mind? Well, um, stmb, um, well, uh, stmb is a non-profit organization, um, and we are geared to get more people, uh, on bikes, on mountain bikes, on our wonderful trails here in southern Arizona, and our mission is to build and maintain those trails and to do that, you know, with people that enjoy being outdoors and that understand that we try and do this, you know, with this much, you, this much environmental sense, where we're really trying to not impact what's out there. There's a lot of archaeological sites that we have here and we want to protect those and we want to be cognizant and educate people on those, and we just want people out enjoying our trails.
Ruth Canamar:Okay, yeah, so my goal your goal why I I came on.
Josh:Yeah, why did you come on?
Ruth Canamar:Not because I'm a bad-ass mountain biker, but I am.
Josh:Yeah, you rode the Graham cracker. You're a bad-ass mountain biker.
Ruth Canamar:I think so, and I met. You know who I met?
Josh:Who'd you meet?
Ruth Canamar:Lacey, my wife, your wonderful wife.
Josh:Yes, on Mount Graham. Yes, was that when she went and rode, when she did by herself or when we were there together? Do you remember?
Ruth Canamar:I don't know if you were there, but you went with her. She was riding up the Swift Trail, is that?
Josh:right, okay, yep, swift Trail, yep. She stopped to say hello and you know, she's my little spirit animal, she's awesome, she's awesome, she's a honey badger, for sure.
Dane:She don't care. I do identify as a honey badger, because I don't, you know what.
Ruth Canamar:I'm saying but anyway, I definitely started riding at the age of 52. No shit.
Josh:Wow, 52. No shit.
Dane:Wow, wow, macro.
Ruth Canamar:So I don't know much about bikes. I just know that when I get on a bike, it makes me feel like a 12-year-old kid, and so the bike has gotten me through a lot of things, and I'm going to have a big birthday.
Josh:Yes, Happy birthday, by the way, Thank you. Are you going to do your birthday Miles? I'm going to have a big birthday in a week or so. Are you going to do your birthday Miles?
Ruth Canamar:I'm going to be out at the 24-hour Well, kind of yeah, so I don't know what I'm going to do with my you know I don't really try and think a lot about it, but I'm very grateful to a mountain bike that is actually, I think, reversing my age and making me maybe a little more fun, as my daughter likes to say, like, get the stick out of your ass, I'm all about work.
Dane:You can't have a stick in your ass and be on a saddle, exactly.
Josh:You could, but it wouldn't feel good.
Ruth Canamar:So mountain biking has brought that fun and beer to my life. So I definitely, you know, enjoy my bike so much that I decided, you know, to join SDMB. And about three months after I joined SDMB I became an executive board member and you know it's just been the best thing I've done, I think, since I've moved here.
Josh:That's awesome. So when did you join? When did you join the board and when did you become the VP?
Ruth Canamar:I'll tell you, I went to my first poker ride, um, after I did some trail work and uh, I, uh, you know, read about the poker ride and I thought, well, I don't race. But somebody said, well, it's not a race, race it's a ride yeah it's a fun ride.
Ruth Canamar:So I, I went with, uh, with some folks, uh, the dirt divas, you know and uh, we had a blast. And then I, after I finished, I I went out and looked at the merch and I saw dave slagle and lisa slagle and they recruited me to join sdmv and um. That was in january and I think in March of 2001,. I joined SDMB and by May I was uh, that had to be 2021, uh, 2000. Oh yeah, cause.
Josh:I was like if you were 52 in 2001,. Girl, there's something wrong. I was like you're looking awesome 2001 is actually when I moved here when I moved to the old Pueblo.
Ruth Canamar:But no, it was 2000,. Yeah, 2021. Yeah, okay, and so yeah, and then I just kind of go all in. You know, if I'm going to be a you know part of this group, I'm going to just jump on in.
Dane:Have we talked about the poker ride?
Josh:No, but that would be a good thing, cause that's one of the things I want to talk about.
Josh:So, um, a few weeks ago, um, mountain cog went out and Dane also was out there with guru Um, and we kind of we helped out and I think maybe, uh, ruth can talk us through like what, what we did and how we helped out. But it was just this amazing ride so like, so like organized social ride, um, with with giveaways and it was free to the public and it was just amazing. It highlighted a lot of the local businesses. Like everybody had a smile on their face. Um, that's what I remember is just everybody had a smile on their face.
Josh:Um so maybe tell us a little bit about the poker ad like what's it like to ride that?
Ruth Canamar:Well, um, it got me to uh to join SDMV.
Josh:So that's how fun it is, so it's a good thing.
Ruth Canamar:But I'll tell you, it was right after COVID, so people were hungry to come out and ride.
Dane:Yeah.
Ruth Canamar:And that time I think there was about 75. No, I think the year before it was 75. And then that year there was about 100 people or so or 120. And it was just so much fun, you know, and you know I just I fell in love with it and and then, as soon as as I could volunteer with it, you know, because Dave Slagle is the events committee guy, so he's like hey, I need, I need some help with this. And so I jumped on board and the next year I decided, well, I'm going to coordinate these stations and I'm going to be, you know, I'm going to run one of the stations. So Anna Noble, you know, she helped me, she was injured. So we had, I had my vuvuzelas I don't know if you know what those are- I don't, so what is that?
Ruth Canamar:When soccer, I don't know we had the, you know, back in 2014 or so, when the US was, you know, winning, you know all of the soccer right, you know, and they were using in Colombia or somewhere the bubuzuelas.
Dane:Oh yeah, the big, the like. Are they like trumpets, like plastic trumpets, just the plastic ones? Yeah, you know, yeah.
Ruth Canamar:So we ordered those. That's awesome and we used to take them to the football games at CDO and they were banned.
Ruth Canamar:And then all of a sudden they were banned, but I used to sit with the kids and we were like, ooh you know, and so anyway, I still have those, I took those and I still take them to every poker ride now and I think people know that station, you know, because you know they hear the noise and I also, you know, bring other things to the station and so, anyway, so, and then that year, I think you know, we increased the numbers and then this past year, I decided that, you know, we should probably invite not just, do you know, not just have SD&B board members running the stations, but you know, really this is about the community and and and the bike shops.
Ruth Canamar:And you know, torca was out there, you were out there. We had um, uh, tj from El Tour, um, you know, um, and, and it was so much fun cause they want to, you want to give back to the community. We do, and this ride is a social ride. We don't charge for it because this is our way to get back to the community to say, hey, let's come out, have fun. You know it's the end of the of the of the year and the beginning of a new year. Let's, let's do what we'd like to do best. And and I'm telling you, every bike shops get upset if we don't ask them to donate.
Josh:Yes, they do. Sorry to any shops that didn't get asked.
Ruth Canamar:Exactly, and a lot of shops are like, oh yeah, what did?
Josh:guru give you yeah, so that.
Ruth Canamar:So there's a competition there. So it's nice, because then you just pay five bucks for a raffle ticket. All that money, it's a, it's a fundraiser as well for us. You know, um, we have food trucks, you know, this year we had brian vance and and yeahance yeah with Jersey Girl With. Jersey Girl and we have.
Dane:Pizza Place at Family Pizza and it was great Jaime's out with the Peddler on the Path.
Josh:Peddler on the.
Dane:Path. Coffee With coffee. Shout out to Jaime.
Ruth Canamar:And we just wanted this to be a community event. And we'll make a few dollars with the raffle, but it's more just to bring everyone together. And this year was great. Next year, dane, I think we want you to set up some, some things, some jumps for the kids because, we're no longer letting people park right up to where we start so that was I got yelled at yes, yeah, I know I was bringing the beard I got yelled at.
Josh:Can I?
Dane:can I say something? So I got called out on this one because, uh, the station ahead of me had a ton of stuff they were giving out I can't talk about on the air, and the station past me had, like margaritas or what did they have?
Ruth Canamar:Mai Tais, mai Tais.
Dane:And like grilled pineapple and everybody's like dude, you didn't have anything. I just want everyone to know that I had my normal coffee donuts and cookies. They just were so good that everybody took them all.
Josh:We had donuts and candy at home, yeah.
Dane:But like Jennifer Campbell had like, did she have the Lays she had a bunch of stuff too.
Ruth Canamar:No, I think that's Leo Armory with Joni Dean, and that's who I don't know. It was close between her station and my station.
Dane:Next year. I've got to get my game on. Let's just put it that way I can't show up with just Starbucks coffee, donuts and cookies anymore. I gotta, I gotta, step it up.
Josh:So let's talk, like from the rider perspective, because we've talked a lot about it.
Ruth Canamar:But like folks like don't even know, like, what a poker ride is. Like, yeah, what is a poker ride? Well, um, you know, you buy, you, you, you don't buy after you get. You get a uh, a scorecard, scorecard yep, next year, hopefully we're gonna go electronic you know nice that'll be easier for us because it's a lot of counting yeah um, and, and, if you don't know, I don't know anything about poker, so I don't do any of the counting or anything.
Ruth Canamar:But anyway, you get a card, you go to all the stations and then you play your best. You know the best.
Josh:So there was what 18, 12?.
Ruth Canamar:No, we have 10. 10 stations 10 stations.
Josh:So basically I so we should explain what a station is. Go ahead, yeah, go for it.
Dane:So a station is yeah, go for it. So a station is on the trail. Somebody has set up a table or whatever. I mean I did it with Mike one year and we didn't have a table. It was just us in a couple of chairs, and that was the first year, second year and it basically along the trail. People set up and then they have a deck of cards and they're that's called a station. So like it's gotten elaborate now because we I had a.
Dane:I had a, I had a fireplace and like armchairs last year. But yeah, so that's what a station is. Okay, go ahead.
Ruth Canamar:Yeah, and so the goal is, you know, I mean you can go just to five stations and get your five cards, or you know, some people are pretty competitive, you know, and they'll ride quickly and get their cards and then they'll come back and then hang out with some of you know some of the stations are cooler than others, but yeah, so we try and have something some treats for you and some photos. You know, I have like cut out cards of you know, playing cards and people you know take the pictures on there. But anyway, they just have a, you know, have a friendly competition with each other and it's not just about mountain bikers.
Josh:We have runners yeah, that was crazy. Trail runners.
Ruth Canamar:Yeah, the trail runners helped out.
Josh:They volunteered at your station, station 1. Yep.
Ruth Canamar:Caitlin, yep, caitlin. So we're really trying to make this not just about mountain bikers. Anyone who wants to hike or run can come out and participate.
Josh:You come back at the end.
Dane:Well, so first you go to station, to station. And when you go to the station you pull a card out and then they write it on your card, and so each station you're going to you're getting a different card, a club's hearts, spades, whatever, and then the number I gave so many sevens away. It was the weirdest thing, Like we kept taking bets on.
Josh:If I'd pull a seven out, like I probably shouldn't admit this, but we had one card in our deck that had a black mountain card cog sticker in it no way on it and it was. It was the ace of spades and and like it was so funny when people would come up and be like what's that black card? I'm like I don't know, and to see how many people would actually take it. It was about 50-50. I think, we gave out a lot of ace of spades at the Mountain Cocks stand.
Dane:We didn't do anything weird, I just was keeping track. It was like sevens and eights or something. I can't remember what the two were, but there was two in particular. We started writing it down was so so common. Yeah, it was really weird. So statistically it was. It'd be fun if you did statistics, but uh, probably not, never mind and then, like a lot of local businesses and bike companies, donated swag yes not just swag, but like good shit.
Dane:So to finish the ride. You get your card filled and then you get back to the start and that's where you're talking about everybody starts telling food trucks and the prizes and music and like uh, we had al was doing some of the djing oh yeah yeah, and giving out the prizes, but yeah, so, um, so we have a lot of volunteers that help us with the counting, with, help us with all the swag.
Ruth Canamar:You know and just, and, and you know, as you win, board members get to walk you, to go get your your prizes. So that's fun, um, and yeah, so you get to hang out. So it's really an event. We start about seven, you get back at noon and then we normally end up around 2 pm. So come prepared, bring your kids. We're really wanting to, you know, have families that can come.
Dane:I think we had nick yeah, nick brought his kids, his kids and my daughter and your daughter was out there, and so they had a different route.
Ruth Canamar:and then you know it it was just, you know, really fun, lots of fun. And and I actually was at Sweetwater this weekend riding and I had a group of riders and they said you know why? Why can't, why can't you do this twice a year?
Dane:Well, we were thinking the same thing you know, I think we should.
Josh:And yeah, or a variant of something you know like.
Dane:I just I, you know the party uh, a group ride. It was really fun. No racing, yeah, it does it's. It wasn't about egos you know, it was really fun.
Ruth Canamar:What about a?
Josh:scavenger hunt at McKenzie how do?
Dane:you do a scavenger hunt in the desert very carefully okay, go get a rock.
Josh:You're looking for a rock screw you for poo pooing my.
Dane:I'm just saying that's probably why I don't do scavenger.
Ruth Canamar:It's the most dangerous scavenger hunt yes, it is.
Josh:If you get bit by a rattlesnake, it's your fault. It's in the liability form, right, I wonder?
Dane:if you could do like a geocaching one, like where you have to hit certain points and then write down on your card what's in the geo and then put it back and then go. That'd be kind of cool.
Josh:It can be a sca like what did you find? Or something like that, so they don't have to be digging around and or trivia Like you know like you could do something play on like green tree, you know.
Dane:Find a green tree, you know.
Ruth Canamar:It's called a palo verde.
Dane:I know, but that's that's what I mean, something I don't know, palo verde, it's just, it's fun. You know the idea that it's not a race, the up and coming thing. I think a lot of people are getting tired of races. I, racing can be fun. My daughter started racing. I think it's really fun. Uh, we've got the. Uh, anna and a lot of the the East siders are are getting into racing. Um and Cynthia is doing great, you know. So there's a bunch of people out racing and it's fun.
Ruth Canamar:They have a team for the 24.
Dane:Yeah, I know, at 24 is next, not this weekend but next weekend, and so racing is still fun, but I think that party and that you know not taking it so serious you know, let's just all get together and have something organized to ride our bike.
Ruth Canamar:It's more than just a ride, though.
Josh:Yeah, it's more than just come out and ride.
Ruth Canamar:It's about community and I think it was so nice to see all the other bike shop owners, the TORCA board members, that were there. It was just nice A time that we all get to chat and get ideas about what else we want to do in this community and it brings everybody together.
Dane:A lot of the people kind of get in their own groups and do their own thing, but it brought everybody together. I saw the Lemonheads, I saw the Addicts out there, I saw SDMB and Torca, like you said. I see El Pueblo and Lighting.
Josh:Divas. These are all like either advocacy groups or social ride groups that are throughout our local area.
Dane:here we usually hang out in their own little cliques, but everybody came together for it. It was really cool. You see the downhillers, you see the cross-country runners, you see the cross-country people. You know everything. So, it's really cool.
Ruth Canamar:And the little kids and the kids. Don't forget the kids.
Josh:They felt like they were, you know just rocking and rolling, nick with his daughter on that pole behind I know, so funny she's like charlotte, charlotte, yeah, yeah, she's a trooper man.
Dane:I'd like to put a gopro on there and just see how much she bobs around, because yeah I got a bone to pick with you on your picture taking, by the way, oh why she put a picture of you and me hugging oh yeah, yeah, everybody loved it I know, did you see? I was standing on the curb the bromance.
Ruth Canamar:Yeah, that's. My favorite part of that is I'm like look, I was standing on the curb.
Dane:The bromance yeah, that's. My favorite part of that is I'm like look, I'm standing on the curb so I can reach. That's so funny.
Josh:So what was it like to organize it though? So that's kind of like what the event was like, but what was it like to organize it If you're? You know, like 30% of our listeners in Tucson most of them are outside of Tucson. If other folks are thinking about putting this together, like give them the playbook, like how do you set this up?
Ruth Canamar:well, um, I think one have a great board, that uh we are? We're a bunch of slackers.
Ruth Canamar:We use a slack app to communicate we do, and so we, we get to communicate there. Uh, really well, we zoom um and and we just, you know what makes it easy is like all of the, you know, like literally the bike shop, bike shop saying, hey, you have poker, like we have something to donate. So that makes it a lot easier. Because we know we're always asking and everyone's always asking. But you know it's it's it that made it a lot easier. And just, you know, really reaching out and having new folks, like having TJ, you know from from El Tour, you know it's just nice to have him there. Having Torka out there, tour, you know it's just nice to have him. They're having Torca out there. You know, having Mario from Tucson, I mean, yeah, you know, and he's got some great ideas. He wants to work with us, with the kids and stuff. It was just I, you know these are all because of that I'm meeting more people.
Ruth Canamar:So to me it's just I just get like just so excited about it. Doesn't feel like volunteer work, you know, because I have a, really I have a full-time job and then I have another real time job after my job.
Josh:And.
Ruth Canamar:I like this one a lot you know, but I just it makes me like really talk to you know I'm really an introvert. I know it's a lot of people don't know that, but I so it. It really, you know, makes me get out and talk to people.
Dane:One of the things.
Ruth Canamar:I said when I joined SDMB is like I's like I don't ask for things, I don't like to sell things. I can sell an idea, I can bring people together, but I don't want to call Dane and say, can I have a bike to raffle?
Josh:I don't like to do that.
Ruth Canamar:It's tough, but there's good people on our board that do that really well, but for me, I think that's what makes it easier, but it is time consuming, yep, you know, and just having I mean I think this is the third one I've worked on, and so it just makes it, you know, a lot easier, and I'm good about saving everything and organizing everything on our Google Drive, so I think that makes it a lot easier, but yeah, I mean, if anyone has a question, definitely call me.
Josh:It starts with having the course mapped out right oh yeah, you got to know like you got to have a facility that's got like ample parking, which you know.
Ruth Canamar:You guys picked tucson mountain park, which was awesome, yeah yep, and, and that that's another thing, working with the, with, with the tucson mountain park, the, the pima county, the city of tucson, getting the permits, yeah, so, so it's gotten easier for us to get the permits, um, and then we have, you know, people like people like Kent, who's on the board, who likes to, you know, map out the ride and pick out the stations, and so, you know, everyone contributes to it. But, yeah, definitely you do have to make sure that you have those permits. Another thing that some people, if you want to put something in your community, we do have insurance, we have to have insurance to put these rides on. And I know some folks ask, like gosh, you know, why do you? Why do you have a membership? Aren't you a social, you know, riding group?
Ruth Canamar:it's the opposite, it is you know, we, we have a membership, it's 40, it's 40, and you get a lot for the 40, and one of which is having insurance. So you know, and the city and the county, they all have insurance, but we also insurance, we have to have insurance to put something out. You know, organized like this and it's hefty, it is hefty.
Ruth Canamar:So your $40, I know people say well, what does the $40 go to? Well, it pays for that. It pays for our you know website. It pays for you know the pop-up. It pays for you know the tools the tools, the tools that we are for you know we do we do trail building. We have a uh, a trailer that we store this. So that's where some of your money is going, you know, so that we are able to, you know, get to our.
Josh:You guys don't have a paid executive director at this point. No, no, every single person is a volunteer.
Ruth Canamar:Exactly, we had one for a little bit and that was Evan, and Evan did a. You know, I mean, he's awesome, people know him. Um, he, he didn't feel that. You know that it was. You know it was a good thing. You know, I think he he, he you know, thought the money should stay with the organization and he just did it for a little bit as a paid executive, but he was the president for STMB for a long time and did a lot for this community.
Dane:I think he did a lot and I've said this before, I feel like he did a lot for the Tucson. I think he earned his money, cause it wasn't a lot, you know it wasn't like it wasn't his. It wasn't his his main job or anything but that was a high, that was.
Josh:That was like a high point for like new trail development in Tucson. Right there's a lot of trail systems that got built and put in place during the time that he was an executive director. I have to imagine that that was a big part of it.
Dane:It's the fact that he had, you know, he dedicated more time, he used the money that he was getting and actually used it. You know what I mean.
Dane:Like he put it towards the goal and that was. It was noticeable, and so I was always happy about that, like I. I like evan he's a great guy and I've been happy with that. I anytime you have a bunch of volunteers there, you know that the fact that they're volunteering they're amazing people like their hearts are in the right place and they're trying to help, but they also have to pay their bills and they've got all these other things and it's like hard to split their time and everything and no matter how good they are, it's hard to put a ton into something.
Josh:Wouldn't it be great if Evan came back to Tucson? Is he coming back? I can't, I can't, I can't publicly say that.
Ruth Canamar:Wouldn't it be great if?
Josh:he was.
Ruth Canamar:And that's you know. I mean, I think our board is made up of, you know, a good number of people who are also retired, are immediate in a past, president Kirk, he, you know he he's an archeologist as well, so he was really knowledgeable. He is really knowledgeable and because of all of his work, I think and and not you know, knowledge of you know how to work with the land managers, how to work with the mayor of you know, say, or Valley, you know. You know that that really is something that is needed because a lot of us don't have the time to go meet. You know at the hours that these folks can meet or go ride and take them to some of the sites you know that need to be preserved, and so having people who have the time to do that during regular working hours is awesome, and having the knowledge and just you know, able to tell our story and say you know, it's not just about mountain biking.
Ruth Canamar:I mean, I know we all want to say, it's all about mountain biking but there's just so much more, you know, with riding your bike, building community and having something that's sustainable. That's going to be there for years and years and years. You know.
Dane:People don't look at like what's behind the scenes, what it takes to get everything done.
Ruth Canamar:It's boring sometimes.
Dane:And they kind of sometimes, you know, get gripey you know like about stuff, because they're not really thinking about all of the cogs in the background that they can't really see. And they're just like why don't you do more rides? And you're like wait a minute.
Josh:Just the amount of work that goes into just trail maintenance, like brushing, a brushing trail system.
Dane:I mean.
Josh:I've probably I mean I've probably put a hundred hours in this.
Dane:Well, that's one layer. You go next to the layer like Ruth's talking about. You need to make sure you have insurance, you need to make sure you have tools. Then the layer beyond that you need to go, get permits and make sure the person who's just doing the trail maintenance may only see the first layer. And there's so much more. And our advocacy groups are I've said this before they're the ones doing all of that, and the biggest thing that we can do as riders is appreciate it Like that's the least you can do, right.
Ruth Canamar:And become a member.
Dane:Becoming a member is the next level, right? So appreciating it, then becoming a member, then member then getting involved, then volunteering and then kind of leading something. Those are all the, the layers that you can do as a as a rider to help out and there's so much.
Ruth Canamar:And you know pima county has an awesome trail, um, uh, building and maintenance course and lacy did it. You know, I did it recently and uh, saw our torca guys out there as well, and and that is a requirement that the county has If you're going to work out there, you know, and so you have to have someone who is certified and then you can lead a group and and it's it's just neat, you know, just to learn, you know how to work on a, on a. I mean it's it to me, it's physical, it's it's neat. You know, my favorite I'm this probably the smallest always person on the on the trail crew.
Ruth Canamar:But my favorite is the pick manic you know?
Josh:Oh, that's my favorite. That's your low, low center of gravity.
Ruth Canamar:And it gives me a pick, like a giant, giant pick, and it's heavy, but you know you don't have to use exert a lot of you know, it looks like, you know it looks pretty cool. But as a short person, you know, or it it? It really gives me more bang for a buck. And believe me, at Mount Graham when we were hiking up and down like two, three miles in, it was not the easiest tool to, but I love it Like don't touch my you know, that's my favorite.
Josh:That is my least favorite tool oh really, Is the Picmatic.
Dane:So we did the trail maintenance out at Sweetwater. And every time I take Jilly out there or Turner like I ride that section and I go see that I did that. And that's the thing about trail advocacy, you know, and maintenance and building, and all of that is like it's amazing how much it means to you. Down the road when you contribute, you look back and you're like I did that. I never did that before.
Ruth Canamar:I rode the trail and just was like well, that's how poker was because the first poker I had, just you know, I decided, you know that I was going to do trail work because of my neighbor, uh, max shemwell who passed away but he was gonna.
Ruth Canamar:I was supposed to volunteer with him and he got, he was ill and uh and he couldn't. So I promised that I would do it and that's what I did and I I met neil out out there and I met Evan before I even joined STMB and I worked on on the portal in in uh in the Explorer and when I did, uh, when I wrote my uh first poker and my only poker, I'm like, oh my gosh, I worked on that.
Dane:I worked on that. It really was. You know, it gives you such a great feeling. I I really stress that everybody who rides a trail should go out and do it at least once. Uh, once a year at the minimum, and then, uh, when you get that feeling, you'll get almost addicted and want to do it more.
Josh:So your favorite tool is the picmatic. What's your favorite tool, ding?
Dane:uh, I like the mcleod um I super versatile really you can do so much with it. I like to move dirt, I like to dig dirt. It does both. I, you know, I think that's my, my favorite. I've chopped down little bushes to get them out of the way with it. You know, probably not in the nicest way, but it was therapeutic.
Ruth Canamar:Well, and I I do want to shout out, and now that I'm thinking about trail work, evan, you know I talked to Evan and I and cause I was the only woman that went in, you know, for my first, um, trail work day and I said you know, evan, I really want to have a day out here with just women. You know, can you, can you do that for me?
Ruth Canamar:And he goes, yeah, and we did it, and we had like 15 women to come out and it was just so much fun, cause you know I want women to not be afraid of mountain biking or trail work, cause it's fun and and it's just, you know you get so much pride out of doing the work and you know, and you're going to learn a lot, and not just for trail. But you can do some of this work at home, you know, if you want to garden, but I mean I'm building trails at my house, yeah, yeah and and so anyway, I mean, we do have those days um uh set up.
Ruth Canamar:You know where we can have, you know, trail days that are just for that where women can come out right we have some social rides that are just for women and some trail days that are just for women. We have some skills clinics that are just for women. We can get into a little bit more if you want.
Dane:Yeah, I love the uh, so I don't know. We you know, josh and I have talked about this before how we really want to see more women get into the sport. We want to do whatever we can to support that. I do feel like it's working not us in particular, but I feel like I see way more out there. It could be because I'm riding a lot with my daughter, uh, I don't know.
Josh:Sometimes it could be because I'm looking for it, but it could be because homegrown is kicking ass and jody is kicking ass.
Dane:Yeah, there's.
Dane:There's all these people we've got like some women's clinic stmb the dirt, the dirt divas at old Pueblo, Like there's, I just feel, like Tucson will lady shredders, the lady shredders there's. There's so many more organizations than there used to be, Cause I remember a Varney who does lady shredders, I believe. Um, she used to do the bell joy ride and that was the only one that I remember at that time. You know, One that I remember at that time, you know, and I mean when I was racing downhill, we had stickers on our bikes that said ride like a girl. And because we would ride with like a couple of the pros and I used to just envy that I could be as fast as Melissa Buell, you know. So it's just it's grown because back then there would be one girl at South mountain that we would ride with. And I go there now and I see them all over the place and I just I do see the progress, which is great.
Ruth Canamar:And that's why that was one of my my motivations of joining SDMV is because I bought my first mountain bike when I turned 52, uh eight years ago, wow and um and I did notice.
Josh:There's no way. You were 52 eight years ago. Yeah, there's no way. She's just totally pulling your leg. That's bullshit. I do not believe that.
Dane:She just turned like 50. Yeah, yeah, right.
Josh:Well, that bike does. I'm not trying to like be nice, seriously, I will be 60 years old.
Ruth Canamar:Shut the front door.
Dane:You know what Between her? And Bev and a lot of ladies that I've ridden with it's mountain biking keeps you young.
Ruth Canamar:I think so. I really do, I think so I think, that you know, there you go.
Josh:I think so, Ruth. I was putting you at early 40s.
Ruth Canamar:Oh, thank you. Honestly, I'm not trying to.
Josh:Dane, I was putting you at like late 60s.
Ruth Canamar:Hey, if I shave this off, I look like a shaven 60-year-old. I don't even know where to go with that. I'm just going to leave that alone. Yeah, I'm going to just skip over that. No, really it's true. Sorry, yeah, sorry, nate I didn't even know that that was perfect.
Josh:I just push buttons, random buttons.
Ruth Canamar:But when I came on the board and you know, when I was out writing, you know, I did see, you know, just more males, not not a lot of women, not not a lot of people of color either, you know, and I'm like, ok, well, you know, that's the thing is that I'm going to to get on this board and I'm going to make sure that our board is more representative of our community, and I think we have four women on the board now.
Josh:Yep.
Ruth Canamar:That's awesome and so it's a great board and one of the things I'm doing to I write with Fuga Fuga on Sundays. Once a month I go out there.
Josh:I don't know what Fuga is.
Ruth Canamar:Fuga is Familias Unidas Ganando Acesibilidad, which is Families United Gaining Accessibility, and it's in Ward 1, and that's with Lane Santa Cruz, and so one of the things that they're doing is trying to get more people on bikes.
Josh:Okay.
Ruth Canamar:And riding less, driving, okay, and having you know people riding, you know, downtown. So one of our goals is to help get people who are riding downtown to also have an easy access into Tucson Mountain Park. You know, and so we are working with, you know, different groups and and so I decided you know I'm going to go. This is a group of people that don't normally mountain bike, um, and, and some of them do, and so I'm like, you know, I mountain bike and I want to see more of you people mountain biking, you know, and riding your backyard. You know this is, this is a mountain. You know these mountains that I ride an hour to get here. You know, you, you, you should be, you know, using your mountain bike so we can get mountain bikes to you.
Ruth Canamar:And so we have ideas that we want to work with some of this. You know, with with Jody um, with with girls and with young, you know, um, uh, kids, you know, after school, maybe, with with Mario, with Droopy, I think he's one of the leaders of of the ride um, and, and he's a teacher and he has an after-school program for mountain bikes. So there's so much that we can do and and I'm just so excited I'm like I'm all over the place. I definitely want to just work with everybody in town. Adaptive bikes, you know? I mean that's that's another group that I'm interested. So there's so much to do. We want more people in the community to join sdmv, because we have different tasks for you, different jobs, different committees that you can be on. We just want more people on bikes. Less people driving, more people on bikes. We'll be happy.
Dane:We saw an adaptive bike at Sweetwater. Remember that we did. Yeah, that's Greg. I just saw him on Saturday and we've been in communication he was awesome.
Ruth Canamar:And you know who's really an expert too, is Jody.
Josh:Oh yeah expert too, you know, is jody. Oh yeah, so jody partners with sdmb, so she runs our. So we're talking about jody bart. Jody bart, she's been an endurance, she's been a guest on our podcast before go go grow, girl, grow, yep yep and uh, she just does great for the community and she's just such an awesome person.
Ruth Canamar:But she definitely, you know, wants to, to, to work with us, not just with, you know, um, girls and and young and the youth, but also with adaptive bikes. So that's another thing. Hopefully we'll be seeing a little bit more of from SDMB.
Josh:That's a key part, so of our proposal for Colossal Cave, which is like flow trails. That's one of the things we're working on. One of the key aspects there is that it has green, blue and black flow trails and that the green and blue are set up to be adaptive and the climb trail as well. Um, the black, I don't know, and maybe greg can help advise us because I'm not sure about big drops and stuff like that, like how that works yeah but I think for sure on the green and blue trails we can.
Josh:We can make those wide enough and set them up for for adaptive um riders, um riders and and offer a whole new experience not just to all the mountain bikers in Tucson but to the adaptive riders in Tucson.
Dane:Yeah, it's the inclusivity is great. So, uh, it's bringing more people into the sport. I, I do love it. I feel like, uh, mountain biking in general is like that, like our personalities are kind of drawn to it and it kind of brings that out in our person.
Josh:Is that true? You think the bro culture is really attuned to that? I'm going to challenge you on that.
Dane:Yeah, so I I think there is always a little segment right, uh, of uh people that get in there, click and do their thing. I see it, you know, I see it with the groups in town. There's some that are more welcoming than others and, uh, there's always the kind of, like you know, you get the upper echelon of the speed. Demons. That kind of are, like you know, trying to, you know, jockey for who's the fastest or does the biggest stuff, or whatever. But in general, mountain bikers are pretty much say hi, they stop and help each other. If there's a problem there's, it's just a friendly atmosphere. If you show up at a parking lot in a city you don't know and it's a mountain biking parking lot, and you ask, hey, can I tag along? Most of the time they'll say yeah, and if they don't, it's a rarity, you know. But there's other cultures and other types of cycling.
Dane:You know whether it's maybe we do a lot of triathlons and I don't think triathlons are unfriendly in any way. They're really nice. You do a lot of triathlons. No, god, no, if you see me running, you should start running. Can you dig it? No, but we help a lot of triathletes and I love triathletes. Triathletes are super hardworking. They're really dedicated, really goal-orientated, they set goals and they go for them. But a lot of times I see that they train by themselves. They do it on their own, maybe to fit time or what have you, but they're real dedicated to that training. And then road bikers there's all kinds of spectrum on that too. You have the loop riders to the amateur pros and the wannabe pros and then the actual pros.
Dane:And we get all that in Tucson because of our amazing road biking opportunities opportunities if you've ever ridden up mount lemon on a road bike and, uh, you're sucking wind and kind of hating life because that's how I feel when I'm climbing mount lemon and you're your head's down and you're tired and you're focused on your breathing and you're just trying to make it 26 miles up straight up to 10 000 feet. If, If somebody waves and says hey, you may not say hey back.
Josh:And I'm just going to say the only reason to ride a bike up Mount lemon is to do a self-supported lemon drop. No, no, no.
Dane:It can be really fun. You know, I don't know if I've said this on the podcast, but we used to have friends that were hill climbers and they hated coming down Mount lemon on the road yeah it. And they hated coming down Mount Lemmon on the road yeah, it's sketchy. And we would do a key transfer. And so what we would do is we would drive up and park the car, they would ride up with a set of keys and then we would bomb down with a set of their keys, and then we wouldn't have to do a shuttle. No joke, I'm not kidding. And because they didn't, they actually I think there could be a shuttle service for taking roadies down, because they love the climb, you know, they love to get up, they love the exercise, they love the this is interesting, a reverse shuttle A reverse shuttle.
Dane:I've said this forever we need a shuttle company that starts at the bottom, drops off mountain bikers as they go, then hangs out at the top where they can pick up the road bikers and then drive them back down. Now a lot of road bikers love coming down at 45, 50 miles an hour, so, but there's a lot that don't. They don't want that, they don't want to be on their brakes the whole time, you know.
Josh:Yeah, it's scary. Yeah, it's definitely scary, so but yeah.
Ruth Canamar:Going back to this community. I mean, I think it's it's you know, it was the best thing.
Dane:Yeah.
Ruth Canamar:I joined old Pueblo and the dirt divas, and now the dirt divas have their own um, their own page on on um.
Josh:Facebook.
Ruth Canamar:Facebook, and so they don't get lost, they don't get lost in the shuffle and it's just grown you know, and and so there it's really given a voice for people who maybe wouldn't have posted a ride on the open, but they're now. I mean my friend, joanne from Canada, you know she's leading, you know some, some rides, you know, through Dirt Diva and website, you know, and it's, it's just really nice to see that. You know people are so welcoming. I mean, I'm not afraid, I'm not embarrassed, you know to to ride with. You know we start. We always say you know it's a no-drop, no-drop, and I'm telling you it is a no-drop group and some of the fastest riders that I've ridden with with Old Pueblo, you know, some days you just don't feel like being up at the front or you can't be up in the front like me, but you know and you can't even be in the middle group.
Josh:What's it like at the front?
Dane:I've never.
Ruth Canamar:The one time I was at the front you were on this ride. It was a night ride up at Sweetwater and I'm like I take blood in my mind and he's like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's just you, you're fine. I'm like no.
Josh:And it's like I was sucking.
Ruth Canamar:But I was behind Luke and the boys but I quickly went another direction after we got to the top because I thought I was dying but but, um, but anyway, I mean I, I, I just love that. You know, these are people who ride really well, but they don't mind saying let me session this with you or after the ride. Let's go back and do the you know. Let's go down lost arrow or up. You know a lost arrow and it's just yeah, sometimes.
Dane:Sometimes you got to shut the Strava off and just have fun.
Josh:You're a Strava hater.
Dane:I Strava hater, you know, I got Jilly. You got Jilly on it Mountain. Cog got Jilly on it, Mountain Cog yes, I got Jilly on Strava because she's racing now and so she is loving it Like we get done with practice, and I go pick her up and she's like let's go do another lap, you and me, and I'm like yeah, See her today, my 15-year-old.
Josh:Yeah, yeah, scanner today, my 15 year old. Yeah, yeah, he texted me from school. Dad, I want to do a mountain bike ride today. Nice, I was like yeah, doing like the happy dance and then you gotta get back out, okay I'll see if I can make that happen. I'm not sure. Let me check my schedule. I'm like. I'm like, dan, I can't do.
Dane:The podcast scanner wants to ride it's true I mean that's kind of the best feeling when you can share, you know your what you love with somebody else and they actually love it back and so that's the. I mean you can take that from just your kids to the whole community, and I think the mountain bike community tends to do that almost automatically. You know, there's definitely exceptions, there's definitely jerks in everything.
Ruth Canamar:But for the most part I think that the majority of the mountain bikers are really welcoming and they want to see people get into it.
Josh:You know and we have a nice segue to uh stmb's be cool campaign.
Ruth Canamar:Yes, part of our advocacy is that we we have been really, you know, working um in this community to instill just the bike, you know, a bike etiquette, you know, and it's really just don't be an asshole, you really just be courteous If you're going up or down. I mean we. There are rules of you know who who has the right away. But you know, you need to read the you know who's on the trail and get. You know, get, get off your bike and give them the right away. You're on a bike man.
Josh:You know right, cause they're cause they're doing more of the work right.
Dane:Here's my official. Rule is just be cool.
Ruth Canamar:Just be like seriously like be nice.
Dane:And if you're bombing down and some guy going up is like seize that and moves out of the way and lets you go, make sure you're thankful as you go by and say, hey, thank you. And same thing If you're going, you know, um up and somebody stops you know, uh, and gets out of the way so that you can go pie them. You know, just say thank you.
Ruth Canamar:You know, there's one more behind me, you know because they're being courteous and getting off of the trail, you know. And so, uh, it's always nice to be courteous, and you know, and somebody, sometimes somebody is rude and you, just, you know, have a great hike or a great ride. Yes.
Dane:Kill them with kindness. Kill them with kindness.
Josh:And you're representing Mountain, all of Us, all of us. You're representing all of us.
Dane:The bad apples kind of ruin it for everybody. And so if you are constantly just being nice and friendly and making conversation with hikers or you know whoever is out there, and I've seen a difference.
Ruth Canamar:I really have seen a difference. You know whoever is out there and I've seen a difference. I really have seen a difference. Um, you know in, in in everyone. You know from bikers to hikers to horse. You know questions. You know um trail runners, you know I mean, everyone is, I think, understanding that it is a multi. You know most of our trails. They're all multi-purpose um trails and we just need to be cool, don't be an asshole, and if somebody is a jerk, you can still be nice.
Dane:And because that makes them the jerk and you're not the jerk when you this is no joke when, when I tell I tell my kids this all the time, you know, when they go to fight each other, I'm like, look, if they're being a jerk to you and you're a jerk back now, you're both jerks. You know why don't you just stick to not being the jerk? They'll look bad and you'll know that you weren't the jerk, so, uh. So if somebody is like giving you a hassle on the trail, that does happen. You know, we've been on some hikes or rides with hikers that, uh, just didn't feel like we were supposed to be out there and literally told us we're not allowed to.
Josh:You know, and yeah you're like listen, we know the loss. Yeah, we're.
Dane:We're like hey the Rangers are right over there. Go ask them. But, uh, but if you react poorly back then they have more artillery. Yeah, just be cool. I like that. That's a great. Yeah, super simple. I got a hat that says be cool, be cool, yeah.
Josh:Okay, so I want to come back a little bit to the outreach and inclusion, like we've had on this podcast an objective for a long time, like since we even started it. Like before we put out our first episode, we said one of the things that we're going to try to do is help bring more women into the sport. And so, like two questions for you. The first question is let me get this question all the time Like what can men do if they want to get their girlfriend or wife or significant other or sister or whoever, to come out and bike? What should they do and what shouldn't they do? What do you think?
Ruth Canamar:Should I give you Jody's?
Josh:No, no, no, I want Ruth's perspective, because Jody's already told us twice twice, Get the fuck out of the way.
Ruth Canamar:No, no, no, I mean I think that you know, just don't try to. You know, mansplain, right, I mean, you've heard that over and over and and, uh, you know, just, you know, be a resource, be a resource and be inclusive. And and don't say, you know, I had one person you know say, hey, you know, I want to ride with you, Um, but I'm going to ride with the guys first, so I can, you know, ride fast and and then I'll, I'll, I'll, do another ride with you, and that really.
Josh:So this is a man saying that to his wife like let me go ride with the boys so. I get a real ride in and then I'll come down to your low.
Ruth Canamar:I mean, maybe you might have that in the back of your mind. Shit, I did that, but I know many women who can outrace a lot of you guys Well no, I'm married to one of them, just for the record.
Josh:I know that.
Ruth Canamar:And I think it's like, just watch what you say, you know, because it, you know, I think a lot of women, you know, are, you know, just wondering, you know, am I, am I saying the right thing? I mean, we say thingy, you know, in front of like, whatever it's like it doesn't matter, you're out there writing, you're doing a great job and and don't, and I think one of the things that I think that I've written with you know, with a lot of the guys with you know, with you know, nat up, and you know they weren't for Nat and Dave who said you can write, you know the Graham Cracker, you know I'm like I can't do that. You know it's like they just said, yep, you can. You know, I think, just be, you know, be positive, you know, just know that women can do just the same things or more than you can do just the same things or more than you can.
Ruth Canamar:And don't try and mansplain or don't try and or say things like that that are really you think it's funny or you think that you're not really saying something that's hurtful. But you know I didn't want to ride with that person anymore Cause it's like, oh, you're really telling me that when you ride with me, I'm not really pushing your limit, you know it's not fun and I don't want to ride with you anymore.
Josh:Okay. So we've got. We got to watch what we say, be cognizant of the words that we use. I I've developed after talking to so many different women and having so many different women on the podcast. I've developed this perspective that that I, if I, if I was in and it was my wife that brought me into mountain biking, by the way, but if I was, so I'm the, I'm the, I'm the inverse or the reverse, whatever, Um, but if I was in that situation that I would, I would try to advocate for my wife, for a significant other, to find other women to ride with, because I think, like that's where the power comes from. It's like women riding other women, like the, the, the female clinic, the women clinics they're just amazing, yeah, Like seeing them from afar, Like I've. I've gone up to angel fire with homegrown when Lacey was there, from women's clinic and just watching like the camaraderie and how they help each other. It's way, by the way, it's way different in a men's clinic.
Dane:Yes.
Josh:Yeah, it's like you suck.
Dane:Yeah Well, everybody's got their chest out Everyone's, like I can. We'll see you at the bottom. It's not like that. It is so different and that's the tough thing for me. So you said something you know, and I was like oh man, I just did that with Jilly because we're going up to pre-ride her race course.
Josh:She's faster than me, by the way, yeah you said you wanted to bring your e-bike so you could keep up with her. Yes, exactly, I can't keep up with her on my regular bike.
Dane:So we're going to go do the pre-ride and then afterwards we're going to go to this section of trail, this area called Hawes in Phoenix, and it's got a lot of technical and I like technical and jumping off and big stuff. And I told Julie I go, maybe if one of your friends goes you guys can go do the lower section, I can go jump off of stuff. But that wasn't because I didn't think she could do it, it's because she's on a hundred mil lightweight cross country bike and I'm going to be on 160 mil. You know all mountain bike and so and here here's Dick- yeah.
Dane:So here's the thing that my daughter said she goes, I want to do technical too, and so now we're taking two bikes, so she's going to ride my altitude while I ride my big bike, and so we're going to go do it, and so that's. I will tell you this and this is this is why I brought this up is because I sometimes I feel like I'm afraid to talk to women because I don't want to say something that that hurts them or makes them feel that way.
Josh:I mean, if I looked at like you, I'd be afraid to talk to women.
Dane:Well, you should.
Josh:I don't have to cause they run as soon as I see them, they run towards you.
Dane:But uh, what I really admired about my daughter is she just looked me in the eyes and just said I'm going to write technical. She, there was no, no hesitation. She's like, hey, I'm going to go to that and that's how you should.
Ruth Canamar:I mean, I've written Hawes. I read I wrote Hawes two weeks after I had surgery on your ankle or leg?
Dane:No, oh um.
Ruth Canamar:I had abdominal surgery.
Dane:I had an injury from the gym, but um and so I had a gym.
Ruth Canamar:I know stupid gym. I mean like trying to get stronger and I think I'm really strong, so I'm lifting weights that I probably a little too heavy for me, but anyway that's just the way I do things.
Ruth Canamar:But but you know, I had a couple of guys who said let's ride. And I'm like, well, yeah, you know, I went to the doctor. Doctor said, yeah, you're not going to hurt yourself, you know. You know, just go up and go up. You, just, you can do it. I'm like I don't know what I'm doing, but that's, that's how I just go.
Josh:I'm like okay pause is fucking awesome, isn't it?
Ruth Canamar:oh my gosh, you know it was it was awesome.
Ruth Canamar:But I, I can tell you, I mean I probably said a few curse words, you know, going up I can't remember the name of the trails right now, but one of them that you know it was, it was very technical one of them, but you know they didn't say like, oh, you can't do it, they just said you're doing it, you know. And so that's the thing is. It's just don't assume that just because it's a woman or a young woman that they can't do something. And and that's where I find that you know men, you know I want to say is that you know men can be the enemy there. You know they don't have to be, you don't have to be. And I think I've learned a lot.
Ruth Canamar:I I've been pushed up to the limits on my bike, you know, because you know somebody like Matt, you know who said you can do this or like Mike D, you know, I did a gravel ride up there at Mount Graham with my mountain bike and I was cussing them all the way and if Matt didn't have that gear, I don't know if I would have killed some people because I was not happy. But the down the downhill, you know, because he and I were on mountain bikes it was, it was so much fun when we'd go up. And then we, you know, I think I was going like 27 miles an hour and it was Lacey, I think, who you know. That's when I discovered that. You know, I don't even have Strava, but because of all trails, trail forks, I mean it goes onto the free Strava and so she gave me kudos and I'm like what is this?
Ruth Canamar:And I'm like oh, how fast was I going. So you know anyway. But but I, I just think that you know, women can do just, I mean everything or more than you can do on your bike, and and I think at this point, just treat us the same, you know, we're just, you're equal, you know.
Dane:I just liked my daughter's reaction Cause she did not take it as a boy girl thing, she took it as a like I want to go do that too, and I was like, well, and then I had to explain to her it had nothing to do with her being a girl or a kid or anything. It's like you have a hundred millimeters of travel. I don't want you to get hurt because your bike. So, I'm a bike cyst.
Dane:Is that is that a thing, A bike cyst. It's like like I'll judge you on your bike, like, yeah, you know, and honestly, I took her switchblade. She has a switchblade, a pivot that we take to the bike parks and she does that, and then it's in bike for you. And so I got her this lightweight pivot SL to race on. God sounds so Well you own a bike shop, bro.
Josh:Yeah, I know, it's okay, you own a bike shop.
Dane:It's like geez God. What is this guy doing? Anyway, I am poor.
Ruth Canamar:And I drive a 2001 van. But his daughter's got 14 pivots yes, exactly.
Dane:It's true, it's the typical like the van is not worth as much as one of the bikes. But anyway, um, long story short, she you know. Her reaction to it was hey, she didn't, she didn't take it a certain way, she just went straight to the I want to ride she knows you and she knows what's in your heart.
Ruth Canamar:Well, and I think you know she's taking. You know like these skills clinics are worth way more than you have to pay for them, because you know I've learned so much from Jody.
Josh:Oh yeah.
Ruth Canamar:STMB. She partners with us. We, we do put it, you know, and we're going to have some this spring.
Dane:And one of the things she says is don't ever say sorry, don't say sorry, yeah, don't say sorry. And just that changing that mindset early on. Yeah, say surprise.
Ruth Canamar:Yeah, that's what she says, and I think, like women of my generation, we have been taught to say sorry or like, oh I'm too slow, or you go ahead of me, and I think the young women that are finishing her course they're not thinking like that they're not and that's where we need to, you know, start.
Ruth Canamar:You know these clinics you know are important. I'm going to give a shout out to the Harris Foundation because we have a grant. We're going to write another grant and that's how we offset the cost. You know you pay 20 bucks for a class worth way more than that yeah.
Ruth Canamar:But the Harris Foundation, you know, pays.
Ruth Canamar:You know.
Ruth Canamar:The other part of what we pay the coaches and I think that's a thing is that being more supportive of these types of events in town, really having and not just, you know, women, I mean I think there are people underserved.
Ruth Canamar:You know kids, you know, and I think Jodi's working with those as well in the schools near Freedom Park, and I think it's just giving that confidence of you know I can ride the heck out of any bike, you know, or you know run them, you know these trails or what have you, and I think it's just that's a lot of work. You know that she's working on, not just on the bicycle, that's just an aside. They're going to learn how to do that quickly. It's just having that ability to have somebody who believes in you and doesn't treat you differently because of your age or your gender or the color of your skin. You know, and I think for men, if you want, you know really just, you know just the first step is just knowing that you know women have had to take a lot of you know being second class, you know in everything, in the industry, in any industry and jobs or bikes, and that you know that you guys, at least, are asking the questions.
Ruth Canamar:You know and just you know, just knowing that you might say something. You know that that, that you know somebody might say that's not cool and like you know, and you should be offended, yeah, you should care.
Dane:You should care that you said that and and and recognize it I. That's one thing that I think is is great about as we evolve as people is we get this kind of like a change happens and then a knee jerk reaction happens, which is usually us not wanting the change, you know, or not being upset about it in some way. And then you, you, the the true, higher, you know, echelon of people, sit back and go why. You know why, why don't I want that? Like what's why? Why am I so adverse to the change? Why can't I just why? Why is that bad? Is that bad like when you said you know, uh, you know, if you're including people you know, and you have a problem with the term inclusion, you know, in your vocabulary why did it?
Josh:why? Why we all want more people on bikes, man we want?
Dane:we want to include people.
Josh:You know more people yeah, quantity of scale, yep right, it's economics. Yeah, more mountain bikers the more trails and get and get a good bike.
Ruth Canamar:I think that was the other thing. Max, my neighbor, when I was, you know, it was a day I was going to go buy a bike and it just happened it started raining and my neighbor came back early from a ride and then Max was unloading his bike and he came over and he goes do you mountain bike? And I'm like I'm going gonna go to the Trek store, I have an appointment, I'm gonna go look at bikes.
Ruth Canamar:And they said, whatever you do, don't buy a bike, we're gonna work with you and I'm telling you, it took six it's because, because if you buy the wrong bike, you know you're gonna hate it and you know it was the best advice. And I'm telling you that that evening I had, you know, dinner with one of my neighbors. We talked bikes for a year and a half but it took me six weeks, you know, and I bought my bike with Steve at Bicycle Ranch. I love that bike, you know. They were great, you know. But we went all over this town, we took, we went to Tempe, we went to Scottsdale, we went to Phoenix. I found a bike out there and I bought it, you know, locally, and and still have that bike. I love that bike. But you know it, just somebody took the time.
Ruth Canamar:I mean, this guy's an engineer, you know, so he's really you know, he, it was like, it was like we had to go in order, you know, to go look at all of the different bikes and and and all that. But anyway, I mean it was just really nice Somebody took. You know, like the bike community is like oh, you're going to get the best bike for you. You know, and and it made such a difference, you know, and so I mean it's just a great community. So I think, definitely having the right bikes.
Josh:We know a lot of people with you know lots of knowledge. If you're trying to figure out what bike to get, get a hold of us and we will find someone. Either we will help you or we will find someone in your local area that can help you navigate that, because it can be a little overwhelming at the beginning.
Dane:Well, you know, I do a lot of research on the bike industry and and one of the things that the bike industry has got a bad black eye from is is that kind of uh. I think what a lot of women feel uh comes from a lot of bike shops and I don't see it here. Um, I feel like our staff is really, really super aware of people, but I just hear stories like crazy and then I'll go to a different city and sometimes you'll, you'll see that yeah.
Dane:And um, and it's tough because I don't know where it comes from. You know Uh it doesn't.
Josh:It doesn't make any sense too, because like, like, okay, I'm not going to like service you or take care of you, well, because you don't speak my language, or you don't know all the infinite details. But like you're a fucking business bro, yeah, don't you want to sell a bike? I know so like shouldn't you service anybody that walks in and I think it depends on the you know.
Ruth Canamar:I mean if they are commissioned or something, because it's like, well, we're gonna take a lot of time to get this, you know that's true four foot eleven and three quarter size person. And so what? What my neighbor did is he called all the shops and he says you know, this is my friend, this is her size. You need to have an extra. That's why it took six, eight weeks to find my bike.
Dane:Yeah.
Ruth Canamar:Because most bikes don't have an extra small right, and so I'm telling you. So he called him and said you need to have a bike ordered, you need he goes, you know you need to cut the stem on the and they're like. And he says you want to sell a bike? And I wouldn't have done that because at one I didn't know anything about bikes.
Dane:You didn't know what it was.
Josh:I didn't know it could be done.
Ruth Canamar:He says you want to sell the bike. You know he says and you know what. So he, he knew what to say.
Dane:And so, and I'm you through that and helped you learn when, where, is the line.
Josh:Yeah, that is, that is the man's winning line, cause I can't figure it out Cause we are totally ignorant in this.
Ruth Canamar:I'm perfectly honest what I'm saying is like we I don't think women are completely want to shut you out. It's like you know, um, it is a sport that's, that's more male dominant Right. So and I knew that and and so you know it's. It's just not letting somebody say this is what you're going to get and and that was what he knew. I mean, and I think, if you know me, you know, you're not going to, just you know you know, buy a bike for me and say you're going to ride this, he'd, you know, made sure.
Ruth Canamar:He says that you know we're going to do our homework, what you're going to do, you know we're going to. Here's a man you know, and so he really, you know, made sure that I was, you know, make it ultimately making the decision. But he's like I've ridden my bikes, you know a bike, I'm 60. He says, you know, and I've ridden a bike since I was three, you know.
Dane:So you, you, you do have that knowledge that I didn't he got to know you and he, he, he presented things to somebody who knew as a friend, and I think that's important when you walk up to somebody you don't know, you shouldn't make assumptions, and there was definitely different.
Ruth Canamar:You know different shops were different. You know some were willing to just take all the time in the world to talk to me, but I can guarantee that's. You know some wouldn't, because I didn't know what I was looking for, you know, and so so I'm grateful for that. So I think that you know, as long as you're, you're a resource and not shoving a bike. You know that that, you think, is cool for this. You know he was there to help navigate and to you know, get the. You know I said this is how much money I can spend and, and this is you, know how much more did you spend over your budget?
Ruth Canamar:It had to have been at least a little bit more it was a little bit more because you know, yeah, I want you know because you know one, you know because of his experiences, you've got to have a tubeless and at that time the bike that it wasn't tubeless, you know, and so I had to pay a little bit extra, but you know, I mean it was, it was uh, you know, I mean it was great having him there. So you know, I think you know, be a resource, but you know, just don't try and we call those the, the experts.
Dane:Like in the sales, in bike sales, we call that your expert. So you bring in your expert and I try and teach the guys not in a great way, Like I'm not a good teacher, but I try and tell them, at least give them an example that you know. You want to talk to the expert, Remember who's buying the bike. You know, don't ignore the person buying the bike and just talk to the expert. You want to address both of them. You want to make sure. Sometimes the experts kind of take the wheel and kind of control everything, and as a salesperson we have to kind of navigate that territory because we're trying to help the person who's going to get the bike, but the expert is the one that's going to actually make the decision sometimes, and so it's a tricky thing, you know to do and I think you know, as a bike shop owner, I think you know that's, that's something, that that's important, you know.
Ruth Canamar:especially, you know we tried, like when we do the women's clinic and stuff, I say you know it's not scary to go into a bike shop, Cause you guys, you know, you know a lot of the bike shops here, especially in this town. You know you know, definitely it is a bike town and I think there's, you know there's a lot of cool women that are out there writing and and I think you know they, you guys, know better. Now, right, you know, don't, don't, don't try me.
Dane:You know, I gotta tell you I honestly, am like super aware, much more, since we we've talked you know, um, I think we talked earlier that I talked to my wife about it, because I I'm like, hey, I, I, really I I consider myself fairly very open-minded and very, um, sensitive to people and I really care about what, what affects them. And uh, she's like, no, I don't think they're talking about you. And I'm like, okay, so long as you know, like, I just want to make sure that, like you know, that's, that's coming across. And I think her reaction was what made me feel good is that her reaction was, I think, when you tell uh somebody, like jody's expression, uh, and you know, uh, what is it at a girl or yeah, she hates at a girl, right and um and she goes.
Dane:I think, when it's how you say, it is just way more important.
Josh:Every time I say Jodi, I say I had a girl, every time on the trail.
Dane:She knows I'm messing with her. Well, and it's, it's the attitude Like, if you like, when I'm, you know, praising Jillian, I'm like you did awesome, your, your race was great. You know my tone and my diction and my the way that I speak to her is of true admiration that she's setting goals and achieving them. Not that I was surprised that as a girl, she could do that, you know, and and I think that comes across, and so sometimes guys are pretty hard, like, like, like they don't have a clue and they say things and they don't understand.
Dane:I'm finding this out with my kids. They I keep telling my kids. They're like I said good job and I said you said good job. You know, I'm like it's, it's the way you say it and and I've some people don't realize how much they transmit of themselves through the way they say something, even if they say the right words.
Josh:So Ruth, what are you most excited about for the future of SDMB?
Ruth Canamar:Gosh, we have so many, so many projects come along. You know, we we have the a hundred acre park. I think Um so people should go online and and and comment. You know the, the, the city um of Tucson has a survey out there. Um, you know, uh, oral Valley also has a working group. We are, you know, we're, you know we're excited and partnering with and being on these committees and being there trying to help pave the. You know, the way for more trails, and these are like we were talking earlier about it.
Ruth Canamar:It's not you know it's not sexy, it's not fun to have to sit here and say you know you're going to wait 10 years for something, for something you know, but that's the way things get done.
Ruth Canamar:So just knowing that that the community is asking us, asking sdmb to be a part of and help, you know, guide what the land managers are doing, um, what, what you know, uh, you know the city of tucson is doing is, you know, I mean I think I'm excited that there's just so much that we want to do and that we can do, and that there's a lot of excitement that we're working, you know, partnering with, like Torca and other organizations to really, you know, um, you know, keep building and maintaining trails and just really putting things out in the community, like the skills clinics, like maybe bringing more um advocacy for, for adaptive bikes, um and um. So I mean I'm I'm just excited about gosh, all the different things that, that more advocacy for adaptive bikes, and so I mean I'm just excited about gosh, all the different things that we have ahead of us.
Josh:That's awesome. Ruth, thank you so much for coming and taking an afternoon to spend with us. Yeah, yeah, go ahead. Yeah, yeah, okay. So do you have any final thoughts for our listeners? Well, I just she was just like mouthing Josh, we forgot something. Tell us, we got to talk about something. You have a big raffle going on.
Ruth Canamar:We have a big raffle coming up. I want to invite people to go on the SDMB website and buy some tickets for a raffle for a Cannondale Habit 3 that was donated to us by Epic Rides. This bike was given or donated to them by Tres Amigos Tequila, so this year at the dedication we are going to have some margaritas, and so this bike was donated to SDMB so that we can help fundraise, and we have. We're very excited. We have an online raffle that we just launched yesterday and it's $5 ticket or five for 20, and you get to win this bike and you don't have to be a resident of Arizona. You just need to be here or have one of your friends buy your ticket here, but Tres Amigos will ship that bike to you. You can select the size and the color and so in all the proceeds, 100% of the proceeds go to SDMB. So go online and buy your tickets and help support SDMB.
Josh:Nice, awesome, thanks. We just did a little video promo while she was telling me that on the podcast.
Josh:So a little two for that. I'm trying to work on my workflow so it gets more efficient. How'd you like that Two for one? Well, thank you so much again, ruth. We really appreciate your time. We really appreciate everything you're doing for for the local community here. The trail advocacy, you know it's, it's thankless. The, the Sonoran desert mountain bikers it's all volunteers. Everything they do is volunteers. The passion, the passion, the hard work, the dedication. I've been blessed to be able to see a little bit of it behind the scenes and it just blows my mind everything that you guys are doing, and I really wish the community could see what I can see and how much work you guys are doing.
Ruth Canamar:Thank you, josh, for joining our efforts and really just helping us, giving us a lot of ideas and advice, and just being a supporter of our work and D has given us a lot of ideas and advice and just being a you know supporter of our work and and dane, thank you so much. I mean you know how much I love the shop and and you know how much I love my bike and and yeah, and you know and and my air conditioner is still still working and I haven't replaced it because we have also a good uh hvac guy thanks to you.
Dane:Yeah, that's awesome. Thanks a lot, Ruth.
Ruth Canamar:How hard was it? Not bad, it was kind of at first, you know, because I was listening, I'm like I don't, I hate my voice. I've hated my voice since I was a kid, so it's like yeah but no, then it was Cheers.
Dane:Can you dig it?
