With the smooth radministration of the 2020 Peavine Maze maintenance project, we bumped from novice to amateur class in the grant project world and zealous for a bigger elephant to eat.

We figured that if Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship could organize 300 miles of new single track, we could certainly tack on a few extra miles of our own. How hard can it be?  Well... SBTS is also run by full-time pros, not a few people over a kitchen table and a Facebook group chat who are just winging it in spare time between our day jobs.

Luckily, SBTS's Executive Director Greg Williams and Trail Whisperer Kurt Gensheimer are letting us draft off their incredible experience and have generously made themselves available for all of our rookie questions.  For more information on their massive Connected Communities project, click here.

On a hot October day, Lacey, Donny, Greg, Kurt and Josh went on a "ride" to scout and GPS more segments of new trail.   Kurt is one of those annoyingly fit guys -- bullets would just bounce off of him.  He skips up these hills like a gazelle while Donny and I try to stay in his alignment for the GPS tracking, panting and whining like the 9-5 desk jockeys we are.  We're pretty sure Josh is thinking I'll never go on one of these RAD Rides again.  If you want to get in shape, forget the gym - go chase Kurt around fixing trails all day.

Walking with Kurt and Greg for a couple of hours and listening to their chatter back and forth about the science, politics and techy details of trail construction was fascinating.  Picking up on little nuggets of knowledge about gradients, drainage and other factors that influence sustainability, I find myself reading the terrain differently as I ride trails now.

This is the first set of what we hope to be many new trail projects.  While the original concept of this project was to connect to SBTS's nearest trails and the close by Tahoe National Forest's new trails, taking a look into where and how to do that presented many opportunities to build the bridges missing right in our own backyard as well.  The Maze itself is fairly isolated, and one way or another you always have to ride on some kind of crappy double-track road to get to it.  To us there's no better time than now to solve that problem.

The project is also intending to formally adopt the awesome trail running from the NV/CA border along the east side of Dog Creek Canyon and ending in Dog Valley (commonly known as the Erzberg Trail to many) as an official system trail designated for motorcycles only. From Erzberg we will make more fresh single track to the west reaching over to SBTS's developing trails. Portions of another existing user trail will be added that feeds into Erzberg as well.  The massive cardio workout described above will turn into a brand new trail that gives you spectacular views of Verdi as you weave down the hillside. And we also have a fun little mile-long section connecting the Maze to all these southerly trails in a way that bypasses the parcel of private property and skips Hawk Meadow Trail.

Then finally there's the new trail which will solve a major problem with accessing the Maze from Mitchell Canyon.  On the Scavenger Hunt ride, we had to send everyone down the awful Mitchell Canyon Road about 3 miles to get into the good stuff.... and then waive down every side-by-side coming past our staging area the rest of the afternoon to warn them to watch out for dirt bikes. We are so over riding that road back and forth to the truck all the time.

But this special trail ... I don't care who you are, it will make the heart of your inner white girl skip a beat with delight.  When you ride this trail in the fall, fill your camelbak with pumpkin spice latte for maximum enjoyment of the miles of foliage.  Get those #nofilter pics of your bike posing in front of the aspens for the 'gram. Live, Laugh, Braaap.

We are reluctant to publicize exact details and routes of the new trails at this time for many reasons, but mainly because none of the alignments are final and are subject to adjustment based on surveys (discussed below) and further improvements. We also want to maintain the virginity of the landscape so that when it comes time to build it will be unspoiled and that much better because of it. Routes will be revealed in time when they are approved and finalized. 

The benefit of doing things by the book is that it will establish the legitimacy of the trails and ensure defined two-wheel-only access recognized by the Forest Service.  As we have discussed before, it is extremely easy for a land manager to decommission an unofficial trail - a designated system trail, not so much.

So now that we've got you all hot and bothered about something new to ride, all there is to do now for now is sit tight and wait while we work this process the right way.  Keep following this blog for all the updates as we hit all of the planning and development milestones. 

Pulling this grant application together has been challenging and time consuming. As you probably expect, there's a few extra hoops to jump through and many more moving parts and variables. The process of expanding the Maze is a maze in itself, where every new piece of discovered information leads to a myriad of other questions and directions you need to figure out.

The first step in this project will be completing the various surveys required by the USFS specialists in conformance with their protocols for the area. We've made the connections with the Forest Service's archaeologists, botanists and biologists and have independent contractors lined up to perform the cultural survey, wildlife survey, sensitive plant survey and noxious weed survey of the trails we want to build/adopt.  While this summary sounds simple to throw together, there was so much back and forth that had to happen to get these specifics straightened out (still not done yet).  The lions share of the grant budget request will be for the cost of these surveys. 

Our understanding of what happens after we turn our surveys into the Forest Service is about as vague as our understanding of how Graham Jarvis does literally anything.  We know that the cultural survey in particular needs to be reviewed and approved by both the California and Nevada State Historic Preservation Office ("SHPO"), since our trails are on both sides of the border.  We know the Forest Service's specialists will review the plant and wildlife surveys and update their resource database.  And we know that all this reviewing/approving is the longest part of the process, and it's possible that we may get told to move a trail alignment 50 feet to the left here, and 25 feet to the right there.  We hear your skepticism as you read this -- but the Forest Service is on board with our plan and wants to see this project happen as well.

Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship will also be involved (and compensated from the grant accordingly) for their assistance and guidance with this process. That comment I made above about routes not being final - we want to leave this maluable to some of their trail whisper's creative expertise as time goes on and new information and ideas flow in over the course of Phase 1 of the project.

The ultimate goal will be to end up with the coveted "Decision Memo" from the Forest Service, which effectively translates to a green light to get your hard hats on and start up the skinny tractors.  

So what's the timeline on this?  We submitted a pre-application to the RTP program back in August and were encouraged by the committee to submit a formal application in response.  Our real application to the RTP program for this Phase 1 is due November 13th, and I'm on the gas every day doing the best I can with what little I know about this.  In mid-December we will have to give a presentation on why this funding this project is awesome for a lot of people and in line with Forest Service objectives, then hopefully find out soon thereafter if we are awarded what we've requested. On January 1, 2021, funding will be live. Our goal would be to complete all the required surveys by June 2021 and quickly pass the ball to the Forest Service... and hopefully have a Decision Memo in time to start construction in summer 2022.  Much to my dismay, pretty much all of these time frames and the deliverables are out of my control.  Everything in this post is my best, uneducated guess.  

This is going to be a huge learning experience and will enable us to hopefully become a trail-building powerhouse. We are buckled up for this journey, and have trails to maintain and upgrade in the meantime.

Dirtbikers don’t categorize the time of year by the weather.  Instead we use terminology like riding season, racing season, supercross season, and dust season. But we have a new one prominent in our world now, and that’s grant writing season.  

​There’s been some talk about the concept of this project all year long, ever since we learned about Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship’s amazing plan to construct 300 miles of motorized singletrack connecting 15 small communities in the mountains directly West of us from Reno. 

But now we aren’t just talking the talk anymore – we’re walking the walk, literally. Planning trail routes on natural ground requires some walking. It also requires a lot of phone calls and meetings with the Forest Service, professional trail builders and engineers.  With this project we wanted to learn from the best, so we are working directly with Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship’s trail whisperer, Kurt Gensheimer, who is both a dirtbike and a mountain bike rider and a singletrack purist.  The Forest Service is in full support and looking forward to our developments.

This project alone will get its own blog post with more specific details about the four new pieces of legit singletrack that RAD will develop to enhance the maze’s connectivity with Mitchell Canyon to the northwest, and more excitingly, southwest into California to connect with SBTS’s developing trail system – all without touching any doubletrack roads.
 
Phase I of this project will consist of completing the surveys required by the Forest Service and forming the official trail alignment and construction plans.  We will pursue funding from the federally-funded Recreational Trails Program for the significant portion of these costs, and a small amount of funding from the Nevada OHV Commission for the remaining costs required to be matched for the RTP program.  These applications are due mid-November and we are jamming to get everything figured out and written before this deadline.
 
#makeradtrails 

We put our RAD sign up with permanent concrete, so we’re committed now! 
 
Next year we will continue the maintenance of the maze trails, expanding out to a few trails that were not included with this year’s maintenance.  Several trails are so wide and whooped out that they are just low hanging fruit for unwelcomed 4-wheel access (we’re looking at you, #307).  On some of the more challenging trails (#301), we will preserve its technical nature and focus on narrowing and adding some additional features to satisfy the palate of the more advanced riders.  

​With regard to the #304 trail and its giant mud bog at the creek crossing that will swallow your bike (which currently has a temporary trail-fairy bridge), we had an extensive discussion with the Forest Service.  Due to the fact that this creek drains to the Truckee, the environmental costs and Forest Service engineer cost just to construct a legal bridge in compliance with Forest Service standards would cost upwards of $100,000.  Ridiculous.  Accordingly, the Forest Service has agreed to allow us to cut a new trail which stays on the other side of the creek to bypass this water crossing all together (still pending our submission of the exact trail cut location, which cannot be too far out of original alignment).

As a result of our commitment to maze maintenance, the Forest Service has asked us to pick the official classifications for these trails to assist with their update of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest.  This helps establish further permanency and protection of this trail system and we have the reins with deciding how the trails should be kept.  This is a major win for dirtbikers.
 
We will apply for continued funding from the Nevada OHV Commission, and potentially from the Yamaha program as well.
 
#keeptrailsrad #savethesingletrack

If you are a follower of this blog, you have heard us talk about our lack of ability to perform any trail work whatsoever on BLM land of Nevada due to the fact that the BLM hasn’t updated their resource database.  With this we had two options: We could grow old waiting around for Washington DC to prioritize funding for Nevada BLM updates…. or we could pick an area that we specifically want to see maintained and developed to our benefit, pursue the funding, and hire contractors to do the requisite survey work in compliance with BLM requirements.  

We met with the current representative of the Sierra Front Office in Carson to flesh this problem out and come to a solution. Focusing exclusively on the singletracks, we will fill in the gaps where the BLM lacks surveys. Ultimately, this will lead to a green light for trail maintenance and enhancement.  

Our main big picture goal is to address everyone’s complaint about his heavily used area: correct the trails blown out by the quads and side-by-sides and keep the singletrack single track. Additionally, the BLM authorized us to install signs at trail intersections to indicate that the trails are for motorcycle use in 2021. #win
 
Similar to the Peavine Maze Connectivity project, our funding strategy for this project will be to apply for an RTP grant for the bulk of the costs and a Nevada OHV grant for the remaining match costs.
 
#keeptrailsrad #savethesingletrack

​This project is designed to be a win-win-win for RAD, the OHV Commission and the public lands.  
 
In 2021 we will host quarterly OHV registration drives. Lacey has a perverse affection for tedious paperwork and is also a notary, so four times a year we will set up shop at a trailhead and help anyone and everyone with all OHV titling and/or registration matters (including VIN inspections) and send the paperwork in for you.  We understand that in most cases, it isn’t the nominal $21 registration fee which stops you from registering – it’s the paperwork hurdles (particularly if you purchased an out-of-state bike or have a title issue) and mailing it all in to the DMV for their scrutiny that is sometimes too much of a hassle.  These events will allow you to bring your situation to us and we will get it sorted out and done right there.
 
Remember, 100% of all OHV registration dollars goes to fund grant projects for RAD and other similar user groups who apply.  The more people who register, the more grant money is available for trail projects – simple as that. No secret motive there. Help fund more trail projects.

In addition, we are going to host two more major community clean-ups in 2021 (like the ones we did for Horizon Hills and Golden Valley) and also pay for the placement of a dumpster at Moonrocks on Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends to help reduce the waste occurring on those busy holidays. Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful will support our efforts with these clean-ups as well.  Giving back to the communities through these clean-ups in 2020 has really advanced the reputation of dirtbikers as good stewards of the free lands, and we believe it is important to continue this positive momentum and be part of the illegal dumping solution.

Of course, all of these projects are contingent on successful grant applications and there's no guarantees at this point.   But this is part of the real work it takes to build a bigger footprint, make a positive impact, and be the difference you want to see in your backyard. 

And we are still only getting started.
#theradmovement