Hey y'all! We haven't taken our temperature in a while and thought we'd check in with the community. Please use this survey (10 questions. Short and sweet)) this as an opportunity to let us know how we're doing and where we can improve. Please be a specific as you can on the questions that ask for it. The info will be used/considered for the Master Trails Plan. Thanks everyone!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SXBLNK3

Q1 work days are now scheduled and we'll have more details on where and meeting times as we tie up loose ends with the FS. Dates as planned are

• January 23rd
• February 21st
• March 21st

As we have been doing this past year. All participants must rsvp to vernieaikins@gmail.com to attend and space is limited to keep group sizes small. As always, plan on about 4-5 hours and make sure to be dressed appropriately. What to bring is below:

• Long pants. Jeans or work pants. No yoga pants or shorts will be allowed.
• Hat
• Leather gloves and
• eye protection
• 100oz of water
• Sunscreen
• snack

We'll provide beverages post work for attendees.

See you all soon!

YOU MUST RSVP TO ATTEND

We're getting back to work! We kicked off our return with a work day on Bug Spring and Prison Camp and got some awesome brushing and rock work done. The next work days are scheduled for November 14th and December 12th. All reasonable precautions will be taken to address mitigating the risk of Covid. We do have a few requests though to ensure the safety of others. Please sign the online waiver prior to the event. If you don't sign the waiver, you won't be able to work so please fill it out prior to arriving and please note that there is no cell signal up there so waiting till you arrive will not work. Link for the waiver here. In addition, please bring your own face cover. No face cover, no dig. In addition, we'll be limiting the work groups to 10 or less. Please check out the events calendar for meeting spots and times and see below for other "do's and dont's". See you soon!

Please bring:

• Long pants (jeans or work pants). NO SHORTS OR YOGA PANTS 
• Hat
• Protective eye wear
• Closed Toe shoes or boots NO SANDALS
• Leather work gloves
• Snack and at least 100Oz of water

We'll provide:

• Training
• Post work beverages
• Tools
• Hand Sanitizer

Finally some good news coming off of the mountain. The US Forest Service has opened a few trails on the lower mountain. Namely, Prison Camp, Bug Springs and the Bellota segment (east of the highway) of AZT . These are the ONLY trails that are open. ALL OF THE TRAILS above Bug Spring and many of the pull outs and facilitiee above Bug Spring remain closed. Please DO NOT push the envelope on riding trails above Bug Spring as a new closure order and enforcement efforts are still in play in the area marked by red stripes (see map). A violation could cost you a $5000 fine. A little patience will go a long way. If you have read this post all the way, thank you. Now go ride!! Cheers!

Here some "real world" consequences when people don't follow the rules either intentionally or unintentionally. When you go out into the woods, desert or any other public lands, please follow this simple rule, "Leave it better than you found it". And if you happen to stumble into a camp spot that is in disarray, do what you can to clean it up. Because if not you, then who? Check out the blog and discussion with Coconino FS officials here.

We feel like we have a responsibility to educate the public that mtbing is more than us showing up, riding and drinking a beer. There's way more to it than that and with COVID19 producing an influx of people looking to get outside and do something fun and healthy, we need to make sure we are being good stewards of our privilege. In that vain, we'd like to add a few things to those rules spelled out here from SD Mountain Bike skills that newbies should know. PLEASE SHARE!

1. VOLUNTEER-Volunteering a day or two a year to maintain trails helps a ton! Land Manager are strapped for personnel and resources so it falls on us to effect change.

2. DONATE-Volunteer groups like ours run on donations and grants so your donations, again, GO A LONG WAY. We're 100% volunteer so all of your contributions go to buy tools that directly help your trails.

3. KNOW WHERE YOU ARE RIDING- Ignorance of the laws and regs is not an excuse. Know what trails are legitimate and legal and which are unsanctioned.

4. PUT YOUR PHONE AWAY- If you are going to ride unsanctioned trails, please do not post pics and videos. In some cases, land managers will turn a blind eye (for many reasons) to illegal trails UNTIL you start posting pics and videos. Please do not do this. Drawing attention to illegal trails will force their hand and get them closed.

Stick to these fundamentals and our community will be better for it. #respectthesend #goodstewards #bethechange #nodignoride #trailsdontfixthemselves

A few more cool things to check out as it relates to mtb etiquette. Check out Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz's website at mbosc.org!

Lots of questions swirling around what trails are open as a result of the Bighorn Fire. As of tomorrow, August 2nd, the 50yr Trail system will be open. This ONLY includes the 50 Year trail from Catalina State Park to the Chutes. If you didn't know, the trails on the East side of the fence line including Upper 50Yr, Cowboy Slick Rock, Around the Mountain and Middle Gate and Baby Jesus fall on U.S. Forest Service Land and as such, are STILL CLOSED and will not open till Nov 1st per the U.S. Forest Service closure order. The FS closure for Mt. Lemmon order includes any and all trails on Mt. Lemmon and Redington Pass Area to the West of the Redington Rd (FS Road 371)

While the closure order is in effect, please do not "poach" trails. Per the order, violations are punishable

" as a Class B misdemeanor by a fine of not more than $5,000 for individuals and $10,000 for organizations, or by imprisonment for not more than six (6) months, or both (see 16 U.S.C. § 551, 18 U.S.C. § 3571(b)(6), 18 U.S.C. § 3581 (b)(7))."

Furthermore, any poaching works against our efforts and tarnishes our image as a user group which may have long term effects on trail opportunities that we are currently working on.

Please see attached pics of the map and official closure order. Should you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out! 

Update from the Forest Service from tonight's meeting: The mountain will REMAIN CLOSED through Nov 1st, 2020. We have already been in conversation with the FS over the last week on getting up there and helping with trail work to help speed up the reopening the best we can. As of right now, there is no official word on whether that is doable at this time though. For now, we wait and keep working at getting back on the mountain as soon and as safely as possible.

https://www.facebook.com/bighornfireinfo/videos/600813163902929/

The closure order also includes Catalina State Park and the all of 50 Year Trail System.

#CDOmg is ready to rock! Sent our #Bteam in to cut all the deadfall off CDO. 30+ trees got removed and now once again CDO is #treefree and top to bottom runs are being served up! #T2B Thanks to @homegrownmtb for their bike rack equipped SXS for the ride out! We have an overnight work weekend at the end of March on Red Ridge which will earn you 4 raffle tickets for the giveaway for a Specialized Carbon shred sled from our friends at @copperspokecycles ! #teameffort #alltimeallthetime #earnyourturns#nodignoride

Saw month is in the books with a few more trees removed off of lower Red Ridge. We thought we'd have to abort the mission after rolling the tire and burping the bead but Abe Froman's trusty preparation, provided us with a compressor and a minute to take in the scenery. Once we were back to work, we worked a terrible section of cat claw and over growth at the bottom. To quote Swan, "it was like 4x4ing and gardening all in the same day". We love it!! Thanks to our light and fast team this weekend of Bradley, Spencer, David, Swan, and Mike for doing their part and being a part of this adventure. Some of these guys have 6 raffle tickets to win the carbon sled from Specialized Bicycles and Copper Spoke Cycles from being at almost all of the work days this year! We have the March work weekend coming up so check out the event page for more details and please RSVP to vernieaikins@gmail.com to attend.