Mountain Cog

113 - 500 Miles of Sedona Singletrack: An Advocacy Blueprint That Actually Works (Verde Valley Cyclists Coalition - VVCC)

• Josh Anderson & Dane Higgins • Episode 113

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Discover how the Verde Valley Cyclists Coalition built one of Arizona's most successful mountain bike trail networks in this episode featuring VVCC President Tracy Randall and board member Lars Romig. From Sedona's iconic red rock terrain to the emerging systems at Dead Horse and Blowout, learn how this advocacy group transformed contentious Forest Service relationships into productive partnerships that have created over 500 miles of mountain bike trails. Tracy and Lars share their journey from illegal trail building in the early 2000s to becoming a model for community-driven trail development, including their work on the highly anticipated Turkey Creek trail system.

Get actionable insights on building a thriving mountain bike community, from organizing trail work days that attract 50+ volunteers to establishing the Sedona Red Rock Trail Fund that secures funding for new construction and maintenance. Tracy and Lars reveal their strategies for working with land managers, incorporating technical trail features that keep riders engaged, and mobilizing their community to defend public lands against threats like the recent proposal to sell 3.3 million acres of federal land. Whether you're a trail advocate, mountain biker planning a Sedona trip, or community organizer, this episode offers a proven blueprint for trail advocacy success.

Check out the VVCC here: 

Verde Valley Cyclists Coalition (VVCC): https://vvcc.us/

Insta: https://www.instagram.com/verdevalleycyclistscoalition/

FB: https://www.facebook.com/VerdeValleyCyclistsCoalition

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Host: Dane:

So my wife loves pasta. Okay. And she always likes to get that like pasta with uh you know like made out of I don't know, beans or whatever.

Host: Josh:

It's not like she's trying to like cut down on carbs and be careful about what she eat what she eats.

Host: Dane:

And yeah, lentils or whatever. And uh, you know, she uh you know I said uh what is this fake impasta? Or fake pasta.

Host: Josh:

Fake pasta, yeah.

Host: Dane:

And she goes, uh yeah, it's an impasta. I didn't I never say that these are good. I never never wanted to joke that we said that these are good jokes.

Host: Josh:

All right, so it is Tuesday night on MCP. Feels like it's been forever since we recorded an episode, brother. I've been gone on the cross-country trip.

Host: Dane:

I was gonna say we're not gonna talk about it too much because I'm gonna do a whole episode of the code.

Host: Josh:

We'll do a whole episode on your cross-country trip up to Whitler and back.

Host: Dane:

But uh our scouting. Scouting. Scouting trip, that's perfect.

Host: Josh:

So but uh Tuesday night, and we are here uh with uh both Tracy Randall and Lars Romick. Tracy's the president and Lars, I believe it's a board member. You can correct me if I'm wrong there, Lars, of the Valley Verdi Cyclist Coalition. Welcome, Tracy. Welcome, Lars. How are you guys today?

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

It's it's the Verdi Valley Cyclist Coalition.

Host: Josh:

Oh, what did I what did I say? Valley Verde. Oh man, that's a that's on the other side of the context.

Host: Dane:

Verdi Valley. Sorry, did I do the intro again? I think we have a reputation of being pretty much online with this.

Host: Josh:

I was doing so good, too. I got I think I got your names right. Everything was perfect at the moment. It's a long day. It's a long day.

Host: Dane:

I just want to point it out real quick to get it out there is uh you guys are part of you know, Sedona is in your scope. So so when people are riding trails in Sedona, you guys are the ones that are helping with that and and doing that. Okay. Yeah, because that threw me for a loop. Uh is there trails in the Verde Valley? Like uh Cottonwood, yeah, Cottonwood and Verde, Mingus Mountain, Mingus and Bird, yeah.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

Clarkdale.

Host: Dane:

Oh, nice. So is that all on Trail Force? Montezuma Rimrock, like, yep.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

All of blowouts in Clarkdale, I think.

Host: Dane:

Oh, really? Yeah. Oh yeah. I gotta check that out. My mom is up near there and uh uh Prescott's right. It's a great central location for a ton of riding.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

Oh yeah, between Sedona, Prescott, Flagstaff, the whole Northern Arizona, you've kind of got almost everything. They keep talking about lift access at Snowball and it's uh someday in the future, maybe.

Host: Josh:

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I saw that they actually have a plan. I think for next year, is what I heard. I don't know of how true that is, but we'll see.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

I've I've heard sibler multiple times, but yeah, I'm with you, Lars. I've heard that before.

Host: Josh:

It's always next year. Yeah. I mean, Sunrise is riding real nice right now. If you haven't been up there lately, wow. Yeah. That moved away last year.

Host: Dane:

We were really surprised. Yeah, they're doing uh doing a lot of moving and shaking, uh, Globe's doing a little bit. I mean, everywhere is uh I think mountain biking in general is getting to be much more mainstream than uh it has been in the past, and there's more groups like this that are making that happen.

Host: Josh:

So where we wanted to start, and we kind of went over it a little bit, but maybe we can dive a little deeper. You know, you you talked about some of the different trail systems or areas in in in the Verde Valley. Um kind of give us a little bit more details here. Like, what's the flavor of the trails that you have? Like, what's the vibe to ride in in the Verde Valley?

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

You have old historical CCC cut trails on Megus Mountain that were built in the Great Depression.

Host: Josh:

Yeah.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

And you of course you have like legacy trails from the Jerome area, and then you have illegally built stuff that was social and adopted in the dead horse system, fully planned out stuff and the blowout system that was from scratch with like myself and Jason Williams for the President National Forest. And then Sedona, of course, has just got a long history of all kinds of just people running around there, socially illegally built, forest service built, um, and very rustic and rocky in nature. So you've got everything from big descents on Mingus Mountain all the way to really big cross-country rides, smooth to really rough, and then just the kind of iconic Sedona pieces.

Host: Josh:

So safe to say that like if you ride a mountain bike, and we are a mountain bike podcast, I know that your organization uh advocates for both road cyclists and mountain bikers. Or as we like to say, people that have fun when they ride and people that don't.

Host: Dane:

Uh that's a joke. It is a joke. Um, road biking is not a crime.

Host: Josh:

But safe to say that for every kind of level of rider, there's something in the Verde Valley for you to uh take advantage of. For sure. Yeah, so um okay, so four four different levels of riders. I'm gonna I'm gonna ask you where what trail should they start with? So we'll start with beginner riders. So beginner riders comes beginner rider comes to the Verde Valley, where should they start?

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

Blowout. Yep.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

Blowout I think I'd go. Blowouts in Clarkvale. It's one of the bigger, it's one of the newer ones. You know, there's not a ton of riding in Sedona that's beginner.

Host: Josh:

Okay.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

Um so there's some, but that's where I'd say Lars.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

I would I would agree just based on depends on the time of the year. Um yeah, and Sedona it has some, but it's very limited just in nature of like whether it's like stirrup lasso and all the stuff out at Western Gateway or I mean Bell Rock Pathway.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

Yeah. Dry Creek has some Long Canyon and and there's a little bit out at Dry Creek where I take people if they're still got moments of terror here and there though.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

Yeah, that's true.

Host: Josh:

All right, so if I'm an intermediate rider, which by the way is is what I am. Uh huh. So if I'm an intermediate rider, where should I start?

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

So blowout, dead horse, or dry creek, or like the VOC side, or even Adobe Jack Trails, we can kind of get into those zones pretty easily to kind of test things out.

Host: Dane:

If somebody's from Arizona and you were going to tell them where blowout is, where is it near, or what would they reference?

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

Like uh uh It's in Clarkdale by zip code, but it's very close to the Yavai College campus at the base of Mingus Mountain.

Host: Dane:

Okay, on the Prescott side or on the Sedonis side?

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

On the Cottonwood Clarkdale side. So on the east face of the mountain range. Okay, all right.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

It's a relatively new trail system, like what, last five years, Lars?

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

Yeah, I mean the very first part of it was probably five or six years ago, and then it's been slowly ticking away.

Host: Dane:

Is it closer to like Amingus Mountain Prescott like pine trees, or is it closer to like Camp Verde, like low scrub, like high desert, or more like Sedona?

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

It's more like uh have you ridden Dead Horse?

Host: Dane:

No, see the you you you guys have told me a bunch of trails that I didn't even know existed. This is perfect, yeah. Yeah, and so that's kind of why I'm drilling you.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

So blood is more like have you ridden the BCT?

Host: Dane:

Um no, and that's one of my plans. Uh from Prescott down to I don't know, uh what is it, Bumble Bumblebee? Bumblebee, yeah. Or down to the pie shop. Yeah, yeah, down to the pie shop. So yeah.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

Um, blowout changes, don't you think, Lars? Like the lower stuff, yeah. Very tame. And then, you know, as you get up higher and all the stuff at Copper Chief, it's still tame, but the the for the flora and everything's different because it's just such a higher elevation.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

Yeah, you're starting like the the base of the system is at thirty, thirty-three, thirty-four hundred feet.

Host: Josh:

Okay.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

And so it's kind of like sage rolling ridges, open desert type stuff. Not a lot of like mainly just prickly pear cactus.

Host: Josh:

Yeah.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

And then grass and stuff like that. And then it starts getting higher up. You get a little bit of juniper, and then as you get way up on copper sheaf, copper sheaf is starting to get up towards the pines a little bit up top.

Host: Dane:

Ah, sounds so cool. I I've never been there, and I want to go explore that area. Yeah. And one of one of the issues we have with Sedona is there's not much camping. And so we always, everybody says to go out towards that area. Right.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

So yeah, and there is more plans on Mingus. VTAP, the plan for Mingus. There is a bunch of planned XC trails going in up on top of the mountain that would be kind of like borderline us to PIMBA. Um, they were planned by Jason Williams from Prescott National Forest, and there's like some input from myself and also from some of the Pimba folks. Um, but that system is still, there's still a lot of time left to even build that stuff out. But that would have really good camping up high over 7,000 feet.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

So okay, so we haven't even talked about Sedona.

Host: Josh:

No, no, so I know that's awesome. So we're still.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

Our Verde Valley friends will be happy. We're not just talking about Sedona.

Host: Josh:

It's so funny. My wife told me.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

That's kind of on the back burner a little bit until we get some other stuff done with the VTAP plan with President National Forest.

Host: Josh:

Uh-huh.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

But we did get a permission, preliminary permission, and there's not an official easement place yet, but from the Silomangini family to connect the 106 trail to the top of Higher Learning and have a blowout, which will enable us to have a 4,200-foot descent all on single track, which would tie into Cottonwood's pathway system that was going to go down Del Money Wash. And they've almost got all the hurdles connected to have it go down Del Money Wash, which you would then literally finish at Belfry Brewery in Old Town Cottonwood.

Host: Dane:

Oh wow, that's too cool. Is this any of these shuttleable? Yeah.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

Oh yeah. It's a page road at the very top.

Host: Dane:

Nice. Oh, that's now you're talking my language. Yeah. Yep. All right.

Host: Josh:

So to round out the question, we we got into a little when we got into the intermediate trails, everybody got excited. Yeah. Where would where should our rider, our advanced rider, start in the Verde Valley Sidon area?

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

Trail 28.

Host: Dane:

Is that the one I was doing?

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

Yeah, yeah.

Host: Dane:

Yeah, it was it was a no-joke trail. So it was it was short uh and fast, but uh but it was fun. You could do it a couple times because the pave rode up.

Host: Josh:

So how many do you guys have any idea how many miles of trail are in your universe?

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

Ooh, man. I'm gonna give you a guesstimate right now. Sedona is roughly 400 between official and unofficial. And then you've got about 25 in blowout and 25 in dead horse. And then unofficial. Yeah, so you can probably call that 35 with all the other blowout stuff.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

So there's 10 over at Rim Rock, if you want to count that.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

470. Yeah, probably call I can call it roughly call it 500 miles.

Host: Josh:

500 miles. Yeah. And this is natural surface, mostly single track trail.

Host: Dane:

Yeah. Wow. Wow. So what's the the there's a campground that I've heard about as is Dead Horse, I think. And there's trails right out of there. Because I've because I've had multiple friends say you gotta go camp there because the trails start right there. You can you don't even have to get in your car to go the trail, you just jump right on the trail. So that's part of your own. Yeah, yeah. So I keep hearing about this. This has got to be one of our destinations. What's the best time of year to hit these trails? Like uh because right now probably is not a good time. It's a hundred and ten, hundred and fifteen out there.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

So winter is still the anytime but summer, I would say.

Host: Dane:

Yeah. Yeah. Uh here we ride during the summer, but we do it at night or at four in the morning. So but uh Yeah, that's that's our only option. Or we go to Sunrise or Mount Lemon.

Host: Josh:

So okay, tell us a little bit about the V V C C We got a ton of questions, but instead of just us asking questions, tell us tell us your vision, your mission, what you guys are about. What are you excited about?

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

We're up to about 350 members. Um a big focus was growing the membership over the last couple years, which we've been pretty successful doing. Um and you know, we're very active socially, so we have lots of events. And you know, once a month we're getting together with some type of event with our membership. And, you know, the group is very active in a few areas. One is really supporting um the building and maintenance of trail work and advocating for more trails. Um, I'd say the group has gotten more and more advocacy-oriented, just partly what's going on in the world. Um and then also we have quite a big trail system build that's coming up. So you guys heard about that because Josh won the fork. So the club's gotten very active and in helping to raise money for that trail build. Um, there's also a lot of trail building that's going on around the Verde Valley that we're involved in, a trail called Circle Trail that's gonna connect this copper chief all the way through Camp Verdi and then back to Sedona. I think the mount is what, a hundred miles? Lars, that's gonna encompass.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

I'm guessing more like 135.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

Okay.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

It's uh it's a lot.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

What did I miss there, Lars? Lars has been here from the beginning, so yeah.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

I mean, I've been on the Lars, I was previously the president for four almost five years. And uh the club originally started with a couple other guys, like Randy Victory specifically. Um, Ian Wix and Daniel Plotichowski in 03. And uh I got involved a couple years after that as a younger kid, like kind of just a young punk wanting to make cool trails. And uh I've just watched it kind of go fluctuate back and forth from mountain focused a little bit. It's always been road, mountain, everything bike, but it kind of has walked back and forth with different missions for a long time. Has a lot of big wins from a lot of road infrastructure with bike lanes and better access in some of the parts of town to focusing on trail, Sedona stuff. The Sidrama years. I mean, there was a lot of stuff. I'm sure if you've looked up if you've looked up historical stuff, there's all the like illegal trail building years where there was a lot of light on that for a while. Um we spent a lot of time trying to get people kind of into the fold and work with the change in like regime we had in the Forest Service way back where we kind of had a a big olive branch extended by the management there. And so it's yeah, I mean it's it's a thick history for sure.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

Do you think uh some of your well one thing I just wanted to add there, because I've just because of so much stuff that's been going on recently, um and you know, the the threat of losing some of the public lands. Um it just struck me how Sedona is such a strong model that's a good example for other communities, and that you know, all the Forest Service, as we know, struggles with resources. And so this community really supports both financially as well as with lots of boots on the ground, volunteers coming out. Um, all those trails are because the community has really rallied with the Forest Service. You know, I think Lars mentioned it wasn't always like that. It was a little bit more contentious, but you know, since I've been involved, just the partnership with the Forest Service is a good model for communities.

Host: Dane:

That's nice to hear. I think uh a lot of the advocacy groups we talk to, it's usually a conversation about their struggle with the Forest Service or whatever land manager they're dealing with. And like, you know, in in San Diego they have multiple. One trail may go through like three or four different land managers areas, and then uh here we've got you know the changing of the guard at uh some of our Forest Service where almost wipes out all the work they did because they've now got to build that new relationship with that new uh land manager.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

So we we definitely had a fair bit of that for a while with different different guards and different staff members and stuff, and like in like 2010 or so, we had a change in staff, our rec staff officer, and she really kind of got the ball rolling. And since then it's snowballed into more and more good momentum. And then I mean, like Tracy jumped into really good momentum and has just kind of ramped it up to even better, I would say. Like, pretty amazing to watch her kind of work.

Host: Josh:

So, do you have some some best practices? Like what worked? Like, how were you? I I I understand you have to have a willing partner on the other side of the equation to work with you, but like what were the actions that you took? What were the perspectives or positions that you took to help enable the the positive place we're at today that's that's resulted in so much, you know?

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

I would say relationships. Like obviously we got lucky with a good person on that side that helped initiate some of that, but I think my big lesson over the years is just establishing good relationships and building trust with all these people at the land management, whether it's the forest service or the cities, and that just perpetuates more of it. And I think our culture reflects that now.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

That's I think it's also, don't you? It's just I think there's a lot of willingness also just to jump in and do the work. I mean Lars is very active in in doing a lot of stuff to help the Forest Service. I am, and there's other countless people in our club that are. Um and you know, there's a good funding environment. Um both Lars and I are also in the on the Sedona Red Rock Trail Fund, which is the nonprofit that does most of the fundraising in the area. Um, and so you've got, you know, like Lars said, good relationships, people who are willing to work, and then people who are willing to come forward and help raise money, because you know, if anything shows us today in the last few weeks, the Forest Service is gonna continue to struggle with money. So the community's got to step up and not complain, but fill in the gap because they just don't have the support.

Host: Dane:

Have you have you gotten corporate uh sponsors or or partners that kind of help with that, or is it all individuals that are contributing?

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

Yeah, the money for the trail fund comes about a third of its grants. So I'm on that committee. So writing grants, um a third of it comes from businesses in the community, Lars is on that community, on that um committee, and then a third of it's gonna come from individuals. So, like what we did um that you guys participated in for the Verde Valet Cyclus, that would have been considered individuals. Okay. Um, us as the BBCC went out and raised money and and um donated it to the trail fund who then gives it to the Forest Service.

Host: Josh:

So so can you double click a little bit on the trail fund for me? Because that's something we don't have down here, and is we're we're trying to um I work with SDMB and we're trying to kind of model ourselves after what you guys have done and and hopefully get going on planning and building and and and building out what we have here down Tucson, which it's amazing what we have. We want to we want to do more. Yeah. Um, but the trail fund thing was super interesting to me because we don't have that here. So like how did that come about? What is that? How does it work? Like, how how can we duplicate what you guys are doing up there?

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

No, yeah, I mean it kind of started with Jennifer Burns from the Forest Service. She kind of saw the writing on the wall with the lack of funding coming from way back when and establish this organization that's a nonprofit that does all these different pieces, whether it's grant writing, fundraising through individuals or through businesses through the community outreach. Um and it's not it's not in one specific user, it just helps the Forest Service with non-motorized trails. So it's focused solely on a non-motorized system and figuring out how to get the forest service better capacity to accomplish those goals to make more non-motorized trails, new construction, maintenance, etc.

Host: Josh:

So specifically focused for on the forest service, because well that's that's what what your land is basically around your area.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

Yeah, yeah. Luckily in the in and around Sedona is just Forest Service. There's like a tiny little scosh of of state trust land, but we don't have any infrastructure on it, we don't even mess with it. Okay, so all.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

And so is it And then it's volunteers in the in the uh you know, there's hikers on it. Lars and I would be mountain bikers. I think there's four mountain bikers on the in the on the board. There's four equestrians and the rest of the group's hikers. And you know, we are on these different committees, and you just work to try to raise money that's gonna be used for maintenance and build of construction of new projects.

Host: Dane:

And so though all of those groups are are collectively working at the same uh to raise money for for a fund. For a fund.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

Yeah, it's focused just on fundraising. There's no advocacy.

Host: Josh:

Yeah.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

So they're not in there trying to say, like, we want this trail for the hikers or we want this for the mountain bikers. It's just let's get money and make the capacity go up for the Forest Service so that they can accomplish their goals with addressing non-motorized trails. And then the forest service.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

So you're like, okay, today I have my money raising hat on. Now I have my advocacy hat on.

Host: Josh:

Um but that's cool because those things, those two topics can get conflated a bit. And so it's cool to have an organization that's only focused on advocacy and an organization that's only focused on fundraising. That's interesting.

Host: Dane:

So so when you guys raise the money, do you think that takes a barrier away from the forest saying no? It's like they can't go to, hey, there's no money for it. It's they've got to come up with something else if they're gonna say no. And so is do you think that's one of the success points that you have?

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

For sure. Yeah, I mean, like there's not there's not a huge problem with money. It's like we have our pipeline of work is hugely full with Turkey Creek and numerous other little pieces of maintenance stuff every year. So there's no shortage of work. The only reason we get no now is capacity of the staff.

Host: Dane:

Okay. Yeah, the actual forester of staff. Yeah. Yeah. And they have a certain level of supervision they have to be out when you're doing trail work and stuff.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

Depends on who it is. Like I a few of us have like not a lot of leashes on us anymore.

Host: Josh:

Yeah.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

But most of the work is um volunteer days where there's people overseeing the work and they've got a good span of control of people guiding the people doing the work.

Host: Dane:

Yeah, so there's no willy-nilly or craziness.

Host: Josh:

So best practices here, you said, you know, obviously the relationships are key. Understanding the constraints that your the part your partners on the Forest Service have and figuring out ways to help them get over those obstacles, right? And this trail fund is one of the ways that you do that. Boots on the ground helping to actually, you know, sweat equity into the trail.

Host: Dane:

Yeah.

Host: Josh:

Anything else?

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

We get good turnout at our trail at our volunteer days. I mean, I'd say we have a very active community of people that come out and care about the trails and help maintain and build them.

Host: Josh:

What would a typical trail day for you guys look like? Like like how like how many hours is it? How many people do you guys typically get? What does that look like for you guys?

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

Generally, that's like we usually have like an 8, 8:30 start, and we go until 12, 1230, um, have pizza afterwards or some type of food after that. And we might have anywhere from 25 to 50 people show up.

Host: Josh:

Wow.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

And a mixture of like we'll split everybody up into different groups, and like some people that are real ambitious and want to do heavy rock work, we'll split them off into groups, and then some people do like drainage and tread work with the soils, and then some of the groups will break off and do like brushing and limbing and maybe some signage work.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

And Lars actually brought a really cool tool to the group, which has been a poop a huge improvement in our maintenance days. It's called Caltopa. You guys may have heard of it, but we have several people on our bike club that use it, and then the Forest Service uses it. And when we see areas out on the trail that need maintenance, we mark it, take a picture, write what needs to be done, and then we all sit in a room with the Forest Service and kind of look at what we've been marked and work out okay, what what are we going to maintain? What are we going to fix this year? And it's kind of a a lobbying between everyone who's marked stuff and the Forest Service because they have stuff they'd like to get fixed. But super, it's like, you know, collaborating with your coworkers.

Host: Dane:

Yeah, and then this is open to any member or just the board members? Anybody?

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

Oh, no, this is the mountain bike advocacy group. And so, you know, basically, if you want to be in the group, you can be.

Host: Dane:

Okay, yeah.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

And then um You know, Lars tries to get a group, you know, you want a cross-section of advanced riders, maybe some newer riders, so you get different perspectives.

Host: Dane:

But um, I'm super jealous because right now wherever Lars is at is where I want to be. Yeah.

Host: Josh:

We're watching Lars' video. Damn you, brother. Thanks, man.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

He's showing us this really I assume you're in Colorado somewhere.

Host: Josh:

Yeah, I'm up at the Frisco bike park. Nice.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

Oh, cool, cool.

Host: Josh:

Looks very cool. So, okay, tell me a little bit more, Cal Topo. One of the questions I had was I I read about this this um Red Rock mountain bike patrol ops. Is that something you guys still do? The the mountain bike patrol?

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

Yep, yeah. So Marty Glinski, our other previous president, started the mountain bike patrol patrol. And uh he has Tracy has like 50 something members right now. Yeah, yep.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

Um and so they're really out there helping people, right? I mean, we get so many people that don't know where they're going.

Host: Josh:

Yeah. Okay.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

So it's just like out on the trails. If people have issues, like, hey, this is you know, giving them uh ideas of where they might want to ride, what's a good way to go. Um, you know, they'll help them if there's some mechanical issues or whatever. So that's kind of that group's mission.

Host: Josh:

And then the Caltopo thing is just like an app that everyone all of your members have on their phone and they're riding, they're like, hey, that thing's screwed up. They take a picture, they they geotag it, and then it goes back into the database, and you guys have record of all that.

Host: Dane:

Yep.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

I wouldn't say it's all of the members. I mean, you you do have to have some idea, like hey, this actually does need to be fixed.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

Yeah, there's gonna be some some vetting and training that goes in there showing people how to use it.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

It's not like, oh, I can't get up this rock feature, please just move, you know. Yeah, or there's some weeds over here.

Host: Josh:

Good or the trail for me, because I'm not good enough to get over that.

Host: Dane:

So one thing I wanted to know is what do you is there anything mechanisms that you've used with your members to get them out to these trail days? Do you have like um is it just everybody there is really enthusiastic, or are there certain things that you guys have done to kind of get their stoke up more often, like maybe raffles or like to get pizza and things like that? What what causes them to want to get out and do so much? Uh that's one of the things that I think. Well, yeah, so so the reason I bring this up is I I think one of the things that we've heard from a lot of our advocates around here is that the lack of volunteers has been difficult. Getting the stoke up, getting people out there has been difficult. So is there something that you guys feel like is working? Or is do you think it's the vortexes? It could be the vortexes. It could be the vortexes.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

I I I honestly think we've done really good with social media on it.

Host: Josh:

Uh-huh.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

Um and I think that the the days are well organized. It's a it's a like a good amount of time, it's four hours generally. Um, and I think it the tr the work does it itself. Like once you go out and it's a good time to come out with everyone. I think people get like vested in the trail by doing the work, and then they just want to keep doing it.

Host: Dane:

Yeah, I that's how I feel.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

So we film the trail work days. So someone's in charge, Lars does them, I do them. We have some other members that like, and so we'll film the work we get done. So we're pretty we try to make it look pretty fun. So it's like, oh, yeah, look at what I missed. Well, I tell you for the listeners, and then we advertise what's coming next.

Host: Josh:

For the listeners out there, if you haven't done trail work, I gotta tell you, do it. Do do some trail, get with your local advocacy group, get go do some trail work. And here's the reason why, because every single time you ride by that section, you're gonna look at that and you're gonna be like, I I did that.

Host: Dane:

Yeah, yeah. I do it all the time. And I'm just like, I I there was a long break where I didn't do anything because I was so busy. Lately I've been making an effort not only for me, but to get my kids out and get them into doing it so that it's starts early. And I keep showing them and we'll go ride that trail, and my kids will be like, I worked on this trail, and they you can see it, they love it.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

So I I think the other thing we do too that's it ties directly into what you're talking about, is we've gotten to where a a chunk of our work is like making the trail more fun.

Host: Josh:

Yeah.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

And so we'll get projects that we figure out that we want to do that kind of adds a little bit of spice or like adds a little fun feature to it. And that stuff really connects with people, I think. They come out and they get to like be a part of building something cool on the trail, and then they go out and they ride it, and it's really fun, and then it kind of like that spreads organically through the community, and then people want to be a part of it.

Host: Dane:

Okay, I got it. I gotta say something controversial that's maybe controversial. Here we go. So when you say that, Lars, are you talking about you maybe put in a feature like a maybe a rock roll or a little drop or something like that that that um may spice up the trail for some riders? Is that kind of what you're you're talking about?

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

Yeah, I mean we we put in big drops.

Host: Dane:

Yes. And so I just want that really. Can you say that one more time? Well, yeah, I mean I put in big drops on the trails.

Host: Josh:

You have a you have a land managers that are accustomed to that and and you guys have developed that relationship and that rapport and they understand that. And we have we have to work that out with that's one of our barriers with all land managers.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

Yeah, and I think like the one thing you just to give the success story on that piece is like you really have to be able to eloquently sell the reason why you address the user experience for all spectrums of the user. Yeah. From the beginner to the advanced and all everything in between. And how do you make that system design in a manner that has all those features kind of spread throughout it in a good manner? And that's you just have to be able to sell that to that land manager. And then luckily for us, like we've had our guys, especially now with Kevin Cool, is like really gets that.

Host: Dane:

Yeah, that that probably helps a lot. That's your land manager contact that you have.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

That's our our our trails, our main trails guy.

Host: Dane:

Yeah, and does he ride? He rides. Nice. See, that's gotta be a big, a big help too, because it connects. Yeah, it totally does. Yep.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

So yeah, and then before him, Forrest Seville, which is now the trails guy in Flagstaff, also rode fantastic high-level rider. Yeah. So it's like, you mean we're kind of like a decade into having good riders in the composition.

Host: Dane:

God, can you see if you can get one of them to transfer down here?

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

People try to steal it all the time.

Host: Dane:

Because Flagstaff's been building good stuff too. Yeah.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

So they've been crushing it as well. Yeah, yeah.

Host: Josh:

We've we've we did Flagstaff last year and great trails. That full sale trail was a was a blast. Yeah. That was a good time. Um, all right. So as we're educating our listeners here, um could you help us and just maybe outline your experience in the steps that it takes and the time that it takes to go from idea to reality on a new trail? So so that so that the mountain bikers out there kind of understand like everything you guys have to do to make that trail real.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

Okay, so okay, Tracy, I take this. Oh yeah, you're you you know this. Okay. So it's you gotta start with patience initially, and you have to get the whole idea, and whatever the idea is, it's for the forest service, it's a proposed action. And you have to come up with the what and the why and all the ins and outs of how it's gonna impact the land, how it's gonna benefit the user experience. And then give that proposal to them and get them to put it into a proposal for public to put it out to public comment. And that whole process could take anywhere from like I would say a minimum, a very fast streamlined thing might take two to three years if you're lucky. Um, otherwise you're probably looking more like five or six years. But the the reason I say patience is like keep doing it, don't stop. Like keep figuring out that plan and hopefully you had a planning process that they have like pieces to plan further, but you still have to plan all those little details of each little section of trail so that the next year you have new stuff to go, so the pipeline is always full. And then once you kind of get over that initial like patience piece where there's not a lot of building happening, it's all advocacy and paperwork and like meetings and all that, like not so fun stuff that people don't imagine getting into. Then once you kind of get past that, then you're into the like the build every year. Like we there's no shortage of building for us right now. It's just like we can build as much as we want, really.

Host: Dane:

That's that's great advice because that's what we're hearing on Mount Lemon. Yeah. Uh they're they're they have their plan, they've been working on it. They're obviously have a little bit of frustration because they did have a change in land managers that they had to overcome. And then they they're in that patience period, but they have a plan and they're starting to that plan is starting to get to actually implementation, which is really cool. So we're seeing that crest further down in the valley, we're just starting the planning process. Yeah, down in the valley, we're starting it.

Host: Josh:

We've got some we've got some great ideas, and uh, we're gonna be going through that. Okay, so what's next? So so so what else? Funding, like biological assessments, archaeological assessments, all that.

Host: Dane:

How do you guys stay um how do you guys stay energetic about this?

Host: Josh:

Like uh it's a lot of time and effort.

Host: Dane:

How do you keep that going?

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

I I I mean I personally enjoy the process.

Host: Dane:

Yeah.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

I mean, yeah, I enjoy working with the Forest Service crew. Um and the group that's like our fundraising group and our bike club. It's just like people you want to hang out with. And it's just, you know, it's fun to see the results of your work too, and see the trails get built. Um, Turkey Creek's gonna be my first new trail system in Sedona. Nice. Um, and so it's just it's been cool to, you know, help push it to the finish line. And now we're in fundraising and you know, out there helping build the trails that have been laid out.

Host: Josh:

Tracy Lars, I had um an AI tool do several rounds of research on your organization and then summar summarize what you guys were. And and one of the things that the tool picked out was that your board was comprised of several retirees that brought a lot of really great professional experience that you could then leverage um to help you in your activities. Did they get it right, first of all? And what are those skills and which ones do you find most useful?

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

Well, Lars isn't retired, but I am. I mean, I ran an internet business for a number of years. So I mean I I've used a lot of my background with just Tracy has skills you can say, Tracy marketing and you know, just the internet, etc., to try to help the club and uh raise funds. Um Kevin Adams is Kevin Adams and Marty. Marty ran a business, Kevin was a sales guy. Um so we have a lot of people that had you know a lot of experience that are involved in the club.

Host: Dane:

And they and they're using that everyday experience to benefit the club, which is phenomenal.

Host: Josh:

And the fact that some are retired, in theory, have more time to dedicate, whereas is Lars is probably you know balancing bringing home the bacon with with building trails and advocating.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

He probably puts more time in than most though while he's working.

Host: Dane:

That's awesome. I I own a bike shop and I don't have time. Uh I don't I don't I wish I had the time to put in like I could. So but uh that's my biggest barrier. And that's what we hear most often is it's a time barrier.

Host: Josh:

So Tracy, I'd love to hear um or I'd love our listeners to hear. So so we all know that I think by now in in when this gets published, who knows? But you know, today on what is today, June 24th, we got some good news. Yeah. And what I'm talking about is that Mike Lee from Utah put into um the president's big beautiful bill a proposal in the Senate to uh sell two million acres of both Forest Service and BLM land. And you guys rallied in a major way. Uh so maybe you can tell us and the good news that we heard today was that uh Senate parliamentarian came back and said this is inconsistent with the rules of the chamber, so at least at this time and at this moment in time. It looks like it's off the table, but never count your chickens before they're hatched. Um we still got to stay vigilant. But I'd love for the listeners to hear like what you were telling us before, like the extreme measures you took to help advocate.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

Well, I mean, the that news came in and you looked at those maps, and it was just like, wow, this is the entire trail system that you know both Lars and I put a lot of time and energy into. Um You know, we had rallied our troops before. I mean, you rem I don't know if you remember not too long ago, the Forest Service were told they couldn't hire any seasonal employees. Um we ended up having a full staff of employees just by rallying our community. So I'd say we went through a drill not so long ago. So you know, I would give a lot of credit to we have a lot of community that's very active in the trail system. Um, you know, the mountain bike guides, Sedona Mountain Bike Academy, um, the bike shops, Thunder Mountain Bikes, Absolute, Bike and Bean, Verde Valley Bikes. Um I'm trying to remember who else. Am I missing someone? You know, we have influencers in the group, Joanna Yates, um, the bikes. Shout out to Joanna.

Host: Josh:

She's Joanna, Joanna and Phil have both been on our podcast. Nice.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

Yep. Our um Nate Hills is a member of our club. He rallied too. So I mean, we kind of put the message out there, and also um, I don't know Ashley, but Ashley goes hiking. He saw her stuff. We had collaborated with her before. So I don't know. We just kept pushing and I just kept brainstorming other ideas of like how do we contact people. I hope we made you know, I think that was a collective effort of lots of people.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

Oh, it spread like wildfire.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

It did.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

And social media is definitely one of the big bonus good features of social media is that between like all of the people in our club that were active and pushing that out there, and then between like you mean Ashley and me and some other bigger, bigger influencers that pushed it out, it got pushed out by mega influencers all over, too. That it just I mean, it was pretty much everybody's feed, even people like outside of your own algorithm.

Host: Josh:

Yeah, for sure. I mean, we we just recently did episodes with Jess the Maker and the Cali Rado Kid. I think both of them put out things to advocate for us.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

She did a good one.

Host: Josh:

She did a funny one. Yeah. And Tracy, I think you told us you actually called a whole mountain.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

I know Lars Bear probably doesn't even know this. Well, I'm on a road trip right now. Uh my husband and I made a goal to mountain bike in all 50 states. Nice. And so we're doing the last nine, so and they're all the upper Midwest. So I'm spending a lot of time in the car. So I called every um Republican senator as we were driving. 52 senators. So I just kept thinking, what more can we do? What more can we do? I mean, um anyway, I like I told you, people have told me it's it won't it's not done till this bill is signed, but it seemed like a victory, a bit of a victory today.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

Yeah, I mean, and I had reached out to Outdoor Alliance the last time, and they had said they was like the impact to the people up at Washington was huge. So how many, how much, how much pressure they felt from the the population.

Host: Dane:

Yeah.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

It's and this is again like everyone, whether you just like went camping a couple times in the past, but you cherish those memories because you're out on public land just having a good time in the forest, to people that recreate every day like us, like everyone loves public lands. I think that they're just like it was such a short-sighted bill that I think it just they just rattled the hornet's nest big time.

Host: Dane:

Yeah, and to just for layman's sake, I'm I'm just gonna kind of can translate a little bit. So basically, this bill was gonna allow for the government to require or require, require, okay, yeah, require to sell off two million acres in five years. In five years.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

Up to three point three. Oh, sorry. Thank you, thank you.

Host: Dane:

Up to three point three of our public lands, which would include like Forest Service and BLM. And so that would be and and uh what Tracy was saying is a lot of that land was actually around the Sedona area. They were targeting I think they were targeting.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

They were targeting areas close to population centers.

Host: Dane:

Yeah.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

Like if you look at Mike Lee's stories, he was putting out there, that's the whole point was to help with housing.

Host: Dane:

Yeah.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

And um they were targeting like population areas with adjacent public lands.

Host: Dane:

To to to create apartments or houses. Yeah. And uh they weren't taking into consideration things like Sedono, like where a lot of that land is not even really a great place to build an apartment, you know. And it's some of the most beautiful um land that we need to protect, you know. It's not the desert near Yuma, you know.

Host: Josh:

Don't say that. The Yuma people probably don't want that either, right? There's so much good trails in Yuma.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

It's kind of a sad thing, but I don't think this is gonna go away. I mean, because I I did have time, I got so fully invested in this. If you spend much, I mean, Michael, you tried to do this before. You guys probably know that. Um, and I just think he doesn't believe that there should be this much public land. He's not a fan of the Forest Service. Um, and so I don't I don't perceive this is gonna go away. No, but no, I think what we're gonna do. It's not gonna happen with this bill, but it's it's a little scary.

Host: Josh:

So we we need to put our our listeners and and their friends and their friends and their families and all their contacts on notice that we need to stay vigilant.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

Yeah, to stay vigilant on this coming back again, unfortunately.

Host: Dane:

Well, yeah, and and as we grow, you know, because the population keeps growing. And as population of mountain bikers or population of population of the world and uh we keep expanding and we keep um you know needing more space for for houses. You know, there's some basic truths to some things where we do need some stuff, but uh if you get rid of our open spaces and our recreation spaces, if you get rid of our places where we go to detox, where we go to relax, where we go to get away from from stuff, uh it's it's just not healthy, you know. And so there's a lot better ways to create you know more space. There's a in Tucson, there's this old hotel near the highway that has been um burnt down like three times, you know. It's in an area where it's decrepit, you know. And I feel like some people ignore that area and just destroying that hotel and building new housing there. There it's so much easier to plow some trees, you know. You know, so I i I'm glad that this is happening, that at least uh it's getting it's out there and it's not so sneaky, you know, being done where we know it notices.

Host: Josh:

Yeah, well, we noticed, yeah, by the way. I don't know when Mike Lee comes up for re-election, but we should pay attention to that too. Yeah. Um I know we're all over the place, and I apologize for that. One question I wanted to ask you earlier, um, the demographics of your riders. I'm I'm interested in in what kind of demographics do you have there from an age perspective, but then also like how many are locals compared to tourists?

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

Oh, I mean in general, like people just riding? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Host: Josh:

Like on your trails.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

Do you have a feel for that, Lars? I mean you know, the the population of Sedona is under 10,000. I think the whole Verde Valley is like in the 40s, 40,000. Um I think we have three million visitors come to Sedona. Wow. Um, not all those are folks who are mountain biking, but the visiting mountain bikers, I think, outnumber the local mountain bikers.

Host: Josh:

Um and they're better, and those visiting mountain bikers are all benefiting from, in a major way, from the work that you guys do. So is there an easy mechanism for those visiting um mountain bikers to contribute to VVCC in your efforts?

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

Sure. Um, yeah, you can go to you can go to the website. We have a donate button, vvcc.us. Um and then obviously the trail fund as well. I I'll always push them with our our bike club. So Sedona Red Rock Trail Fund has a donate opportunity too. The money of either will go to the same place. I mean, we're both giving money to the trails.

Host: Josh:

I freaking live to the back side of that roller. And then you guys, um, I would imagine in every bike shop in your area you've got a QR code where if I'm a mountain biker and I'm visiting, I can walk up there and and hit that QR code and donate.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

Yep. Oh, it's all I mean, they're over all over the trails.

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

All of the trails are the donor at our trailfront has these boards up with QR codes on them that people can scan. Um it's more just like straight trail, because again, it's not focused on hike, bike, or question specifically. It's just like, did you enjoy the trails? Like, yeah, scan here.

Host: Josh:

So I want to urge all the tourists out there, yeah, and I'm looking at Dane and me as well. Yeah, when we're there, to to take five minutes, and if all you got is five bucks, donate five bucks. Yep. And if you got five hundred bucks, donate five hundred bucks.

Host: Dane:

Yeah, yeah. I I mean it's it it can go away if we don't watch it. So, and that's that's the bad reality. So, and there's so many people that love it, and just because they don't live there doesn't mean they can't help.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

Yeah, so it was pretty um I don't know, inspiring though, to see how much the outdoor community got behind this. Um it was I mean, I thought it was cool. I don't know how much your, you know, each of your communities got involved, but it was just I thought it was pretty inspiring and it, you know, thank goodness we had a good, good win, short-term win.

Host: Dane:

Yeah, I I think the um the your the Sedona is like a destination for so many people, and it's seen as like, you know, on on par with a lot of like touristy places to go.

Host: Josh:

Yeah.

Host: Dane:

And uh for the world, you know, not just Arizona or not just the US. And uh, you know, that's an advantage it has, and you guys have been able to leverage that. Whereas Tucson, we're we're struggling a little bit because we're trying to get the people that are here to get more involved and do more. And then we're also trying to to show the world all of the potential that we have here.

Host: Josh:

Yeah, it's interesting. We have a million we have a million people here, and our advocacy group is uh is roughly the same size as yours. Yeah, yeah. I mean, if you combine the two together, the two major ones together. Yeah. Uh now we are just focused on mountain biking. Yep. Uh, so we're not also doing the road stuff, but um, I would expect our our we we should be much bigger than we are. Yeah, yeah.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

We need more throw a few parties.

Host: Josh:

Yeah, throw some parties. That's that's the key.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

Well, I also a lot of people join, just I mean, they people want to meet each other, they want to find folks they can go riding with. So, you know, we we'll have some. I mean, we have a monthly event. We have three larger events a year, um, and a big holiday party. And um the dues, and then we'll do some kind of raffle or something between the dues and the raffle that ends up paying for these parties.

Host: Josh:

Yeah.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

Um, and people love it. And that's what honestly, that's what grew the membership to a big, big degree. Just people socially getting to be able to hang out together. So when you say And it helps with our trail work because people see each other at the parties, and it's like, oh, do you go to trail work? You know, it it helped the trail work getting people just socially hanging out together.

Host: Josh:

They put a little pressure on each other. No dig, no ride, my friend.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

Come on, show up now, don't they, Lars? And Lars's bad Lars's betty show up too. Yeah.

Host: Dane:

Do you do you think the pressure is the key, or do you think because everybody knows each other, it's like they get to go see their friends at trail work?

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

Which do you think is some of that? Yeah. And then I do think, like Lars said, people there the trail work. I mean, I can only speak to what this is the only place I've done trail work, but I can imagine some areas that are not quite as interesting. Like it's kind of cool to get to lay rock and like figure out how to make a ramp. And you know, it's just it's neat. It's like, oh, cool, look at what we just built.

Host: Dane:

And then see a bunch of YouTubers riding it.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

Exactly. Have a bunch of video going, so it's it's you know, it's a little bit more than just like lopping and stuff, which yeah, it's fun.

Host: Dane:

Yeah, yeah, I like that. I like the fact that you guys get to build in a little excitement, a little bit of features, make it more like an amusement park. Yeah. And you're not just trimming back bushes, you know, which something's a lot of what we do here.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

One of one of the days that Lars came up with, which is pretty funny because I I always use this trail as an example of why we need maintenance. Um, we have a trail called Huckabee that doesn't get a lot of use. It's kind of one of the original trails. And Lars is always like, Huckabee is great. We we Tracy, we got it, so he lobbied for a couple a trail work day out there. And he had us, he had us moving these gigantic boulders in the oak creek so people could cross across it. But it was it was quite a funny day, just everyone out in the water moving around these giant rocks, creating kind of an artificial bridge across Oak Creek.

Host: Dane:

Yeah, that's awesome. Just that kind of feature is what people remember about trails. You know, just a regular trail with not a lot going on is just falls into, you know, out of your memory. But what you remember are, and if you think about any trail you've ever been to, you don't remember the flat smooth sections that are just nicely brushed. What you remember is the rocks that you had to pause and go over, or the the tough tech climb, or the drop, or you know, something like that. That's what people remember. That's how they describe the trail. Like, oh, where is this? Oh, it's you know where the drop is? It's just past that where the rocks start. Oh, I totally remember that. You can't do that if the trail's just nothing, you know. So you need that character. That's the character of the trail. So I love the fact that I'm jealous of the fact that you guys get to do that.

Host: Josh:

And I don't think that's as it's yeah, we just have we don't have that relationship yet down here, but we're working on it. Tracy Lars, maybe a couple more questions here, and then we'll wrap up. What are you guys most excited about?

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

What's what's coming up that you're jazzed about in the V V C C the whole Trinity Creek system, I'm super excited about because there's a whole bunch of really cool trail to get built in there from like just like we're talking about the little features that get put in there, there's some really cool natural features that already exist out there, and then we'll get to add in our own little flair to some of those. And uh a couple of them are almost like miniature hard lines, even.

Host: Dane:

Oh wow. You're throwing the gauntlet down there, brother. Yeah, that that gets me super excited. So how about you, Tracy?

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

I agree. Um I mean Turkey Creek as well, yeah. It was fun to go out and this was again, most most of my trail work to date has been maintenance, which I'm a huge advocator for maintenance, but um, it was fun to go out and to build some new trail. So I'm excited about next year, next season, and and uh the first trail was awesome, Del Sol. It's more of a cross country, but it was laid out so well that it's just a blast to ride through.

Host: Josh:

Nice, awesome. Do you have any final thoughts for our listeners?

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

Reiterate if they're excited to try to like get involved. And uh you mentioned it a second ago that no take a ride mantra, which I push the lead. But I also push it with the cavity. It doesn't mean just that you can dirt, like get involved in any way that you can, whether you have skills and whether it's like marketing or sales or physically moving off or any of that stuff, like start doing what you can do to contribute and put everyone together pushes the whole forward, right?

Host: Josh:

That's awesome. Yeah. How can how can our listeners find you guys on online? What what are your what are your handles? What are your what what's your website?

Guest: Lars Romig, VVCC Board Member:

So mine is like cycles collection is the the Instagram for the nonprofit. BBCC.us is the website. And then my personal list is a lot of Sedona content and all around the area is Mountain Mongo on Instagram.

Host: Dane:

Mountain Mongo on Instagram. Nice. And then I gotta look you up so you can show me some of the the beelines. The bee lines. Great, awesome.

Host: Josh:

Well, thank you so much, guys. We really appreciate um what you've done. We really appreciate your time this evening. Really appreciate all the work that you guys and your organizations are doing uh to build out in the Very Valley and keep those trails awesome and and grow them. I'm super excited to go. I've written up there a bit, but I've I'm super excited to go and hold more. Do we get to go check out like that? Yeah, a lot. We spent like a month up in in Sedona.

Host: Dane:

Yeah, for sure. Probably take that long or longer to ride 500 miles.

Guest: Tracy Randall, VVCC President:

Cottonwood and Jerome and the whole probably would take about a month to ride off the trail.

Host: Josh:

Every day, big ride every day. Nice. Man, that's awesome. Yeah. Well, thank you guys. We appreciate your time. We appreciate what you do. Thank you so much.

Head Shot

Dane "Suspension Guru" Higgins

Host
Head Shot

Josh "Magellan" Anderson

Host