Reno Area Dirt Riders
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RAD's Second Community Clean-Up: August 2, 2020

7/20/2020

2 Comments

 
With so much incredible support and success from our first clean up behind the Horizon Hills community, we decided to continue with our efforts to help other trails blighted with illegal dumping.
Yikes... here's the end of Estate's Road in Golden Valley...
Don't worry - we secured more dumpsters this time!

With support from Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful, Reno Salvage Co., and United Site Services, we are able to help another area where us RAD riders and other members of our community come to recreate.  We had over 100 people - riders and just local good citizens - show up and put in the sweat equity at our last event... and what a difference it made.

Sunday, August 2, 2020
8:00AM
End of Estates Road in Golden Valley
39°37’36.0” N 119°49’31.8” W

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Reno Area Dirtriders will have PPE such as masks, rubber-coated gloves and hand sanitizer available.  In order to comply with governmental directives, please wear a mask and be contentious of social distancing practices when gathering at the RAD tent. RAD and KTMB will also provide hand tools for volunteer use such as shovels, rakes and hand-grabbers.  Lastly, RAD will also be hosting food and drinks for all our hard workers.

What can I bring?  We have so many amazing people who ask this question.  We recommend that you bring your own sunscreen, hat and sunglasses. Bring your pickup truck or side by side to transport yourself and debris between trash sites and the dumpsters.  Old ratty tarps are extremely useful for sweeping up debris and dumping into a bag. If you have your own tools that you would like to use, great! If you have any heavy equipment you'd be willing to put to work, please email us ([email protected]).
As always, from the bottom of our motorcycle-loving hearts, we thank all of our members, volunteers, community and business supporters for their love and enthusiasm for keeping trails rad. 
2 Comments

Trail Work Begins May 18th in the Peavine Maze

5/9/2020

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​We are pleased to provide the update that we know all our RAD riders our waiting for!  The action is finally starting on the Peavine Maze trail maintenance and improvement project, funded by the Nevada OHV Commission.
 
The RADmins took Kevin Joell on a tour of our trails to really get into the nitty gritty of the work to be done. 
So. Many. Whoops.
[[And pictures never do their misery justice]]
But so much potential!
With a clear mission in place, Kevin is going to get to work on our trails starting May 18th.  From then 'til the end of June, we are going to be working the “300 trails” section by section.  You are going to see some lines being decommissioned in favor of creating improved lines which are more sustainable (and more fun), as well as some new blockages to help prevent abuse of the single track by people with more than two wheels.

We ask that everyone be respectful of this process while we make these trails better for all of us. Please watch out for people working over these next several weeks, and do not ride in such a way that interferes with the working being done.

Before you know it, you'll be enjoying rides here on smooth, flowy, whoop-free trails without the gamble of having your head being lopped off by a branch as you speed through.
​In preparation for this project and many more in the future, RAD gathered some hardy trail-working tools.  It was important for us to shop local for as many of these tools as possible – especially in this particularly tough economic time when our small businesses are struggling.  RAD purchased $1,000.00 worth of tools from Ace Hardware in Sparks. 
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Don Schmidt. PR Director, and hater of whoops and branches.

​The grant will reimburse some of our tool expenses.  However, this is our first grant rodeo and we had no idea what to expect.  With this naïve oversight, we realized our grant budget allocated to tools is really lien.  But we weren't afraid to suck at something new, and we now know better for the next grant application. When you know better, you do better.
 
RAD would like to get a lot more high-quality trail tools (specifically, more of these and some of these) and cordless sawzalls.  Any donations toward that end, as well as new memberships, are so helpful and appreciated.

What happened with volunteer days?

​With the coronavirus pandemic, we aren’t able to formally gather large groups of volunteers for one big burst of effort the way we did for the big February clean-up.  But unlike picking up massive amounts of trash, grooming these trails is not the best job for 100 people all at once.  Instead, very small, low-key groups of us will be spending a few hours in the cooler parts of the days spread out over the course of the next several weeks, and coordinated around Kevin's professional work.  

We're excited to have the commitment from some of our members who are devoted to being part of this. After February's big day, we know how fast our RAD riders can knock out jobs - it wouldn't surprise us if the manual volunteer labor got tackled in almost no time at all.

If you are interested in taking some ownership in the form of a few hours here or there, you can contact Richie, Don or Lacey on FaceBook, or email us at [email protected].  You can also support the Keep Trails Rad movement by donating to help us acquire more tools and spread the word about this project to educate other local riders who are unaware.

​
2 Comments

While you're sitting at home, read this!

4/9/2020

2 Comments

 
We miss all our RAD riders and hope that everyone is remaining safe and healthy during these unprecedented times.  We were very sad to cancel the RAD Rodeo, but don't worry - it will be on again when the national crisis is over.  We haven't cancelled the next member meeting scheduled for May 12th at Mi Casa Too yet... but we will see whether that decision is made for us at the end of the month.

We'd like to remind everyone that (currently) the Nevada Governor's Emergency Directives in response to COVID-19 do not expressly prohibit riding. Specifically, Directive #6 of the the "Stay Home Order", provides:

"This Directive does not prohibit individuals from engaging in outdoor activity, including without limitation, activities such as hiking, walking, or running, so long as the activity complies with all requirements of Emergency Directive 007, participants maintain at least 6 feet distancing from other individuals, and individuals do not congregate in groups beyond their household members." (emphasis added)

We interpret this to mean: Ride on, just be smart and respectful about it.

Perhaps you have heard that some popular riding areas are being shut down.  The BLM announced it's closure of Sand Mountain due to public health concerns, but specifically indicated that "visitors may continue to enjoy BLM trails and open space areas in other areas within the Carson City District while following the CDC's guidance for travel and protecting yourself."  Generally, the BLM land in our area of Nevada remains open for now. What this shows us is that enforcement is watching - and when they see that members of public are not following the social distance standards, they have no choice but to close down an area.

We can help prevent further closures (or worse: a new order specifically prohibiting OHV recreation) by simply not creating a situation which triggers a need for enforcement:
  • Park significantly further away from other trucks than you normally would at staging areas. If vehicles are spread out, it doesn't have the appearance of a group activity.
  • Don't ride in large groups. 
  • Don't congregate or hang out at the staging area before/after your ride.
  • Don't take excessive risks. While there is inherent risk of injury on any ride, during this particular time you should be a little extra cautious and ride within your comfort zone to minimize your odds of needing a trip to the hospital. 
In general, let's be part of the solution (not the problem) and continue to represent the riding community in a positive way.
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Some pats on the back

We got some cool recognition for our huge clean-up day. The Forest Service mentioned our partnership and our clean-up efforts in their March newsletter, and we received this letter from our Senator! The letter was totally unsolicited by us, and is an indicator that we are getting some significant visibility within our community.
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The Peavine Maze Project

Currently, we are moving ahead as planned with the Peavine Maze trail work.  At the end of April we will be out with Kevin Joell to evaluate the project after the passing of winter, and then the pros of Sierra Trail Works will get to work in early May.  

However, the Forest Service has advised us and other trail groups that we cannot host any sanctioned volunteer trail work days until further notice.  So, while the professionals can still operate, we have to cancel our May 2nd volunteer date.  We are going to hold onto the May 24th and 25th volunteer days for now and re-evaluate when it gets closer.

At the end of March, we submitted an additional grant application to the National Wilderness Stewardship Alliance to receive some Federal funding to supplement our existing State funding for this project.  This is a more competitive (national) grant program and only has a total of $200,000.00 to award. We aren't counting any chickens, but we feel our application exceeds the criteria and preferential guidelines set forth. It would certainly be a nice to be able to increase the budget to maximize the benefits of this project. Awards were originally scheduled for April 15th - however, they have extended their application deadline until the end of April to accommodate the COVID-19 crisis and we just have to sit tight.  

Support other trail work too!

The USFS - Tahoe National Forest will be submitting applications for funding for OHV projects, including the development of a new 24-mile single track trail. We're always in favor of more single track. They are requesting user support for their projects via public commenting, which is open until May 4th.

Public comments need to be submitted to BOTH the USFS-Tahoe National Forest and the OHMVR. **After you click on the comment link for OHMVR, the agency you want to select is on the 3rd page of the menu options: USFS - Tahoe National Forest. From there you can view and comment on their various projects.**

Please take just 5 minutes or less to click on those two links and submit a couple sentences about how you are an enthusiastic dirtbike rider in support of more trails and trail maintenance. Public comments actually do make a real difference.  If you don't believe they do, consider how other anti-OHV groups get their agendas pushed.  Speak up, because others certainly do. 
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Recap of the March 11th Meeting

3/12/2020

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We would like to thank all of our members and newcomers who came out to Revision last night to join us in a discussion of some important topics.  While I think everyone enjoyed the beer, the sound acoustics were certainly not optimal… sorry about that. Overall it was a great meeting and after presenting everything we did, it became real that RAD really is starting an effective movement. #theradmovement.
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If you were unable to make it, here’s what you missed:

Peavine Maze Project

We had a special guest speaker, Kevin Joell (Sierra Trail Works), who is contracted to do the heavy equipment work on the singletrack trails in Peavine, talk to us about his experience with trail building, the importance of user groups taking ownership of their trails, and what to expect as a volunteer during trail work days.  As a volunteer, you will be using some specialty tools to do finishing work (after the tractor has done its job), moving smaller rocks for structural support and pruning plants around the trails.
 
Based on Kevin’s availability for this project, the trail work days will be May 2nd, May 23rd and May 24th.  Due to the more complex nature of logistics, it is important that we identify the number of volunteers who will be present during each work day.  If you would like to help #keeptrailsrad and give some love to the trails you ride on, please
sign up here. 

 
If you received a long sleeve “RAD Volunteer” shirt at February’s clean-up day, please wear this shirt to the trail work day.  When you sign up for a volunteer work day, we will ask you to let us know whether you need a shirt or not.
We ordered 50 shirts for the first clean-up day - 100 people showed up and cleaned us out.
So we are ordering more!

Upcoming Fun Events

New Swag

At the meeting, the popular consensus was that the next round of RAD t-shirts would be navy blue with a white logo.  Hats and beanies were also requested.  Your RADmins are going to get to work on producing these and we’ll let you know once they are available and for sale!

Other OHV Interests

​We talked about the proposed Washoe County Public Lands Bill, which raises concerns of future access if we do not take the steps to legalize our trails.  I made a separate post explaining the issues and what RAD proposes to do about it here.
 
We also discussed Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship's current venture, the Connected Communities Project, in which they are in the midst of establishing 300 miles of new dirtbike-friendly singletrack trails connecting Truckee to multiple small towns in the Sierras, and Truckee Dirt Riders’ new trail which they are in the process of building to connect to SBTS’s new trail system.  You can read our summary about that here, and more impressive, detailed information from SBTS here.
 
These projects (and their funding) stop at the Nevada border.  RAD would like to make a connection from Reno to these epic new trails and partner with the efforts of SBTS and TDR. We are looking into having our 2021 OHV grant proposal be for funding the necessary NEPA investigations, planning and mapping of a new trail from Verdi to connect to TDR’s new trail.

We Need Your Help

​According to RAD’s By-Laws, RAD may have no less than 3 and no more than 7 Directors, who serve for a term of 2 years.  Directors are the people legally in charge of the entity, make decisions regarding the forward momentum of the organization, and do all this work for free (and good karma). Each year at the end of May, RAD is required to file a form with the Secretary of State reporting who the Directors are.  
 
There are currently two Director vacancies.  If you are interested in being part of the leadership team and are willing to contribute to #theradmovement, please reach out to a RADmin.  If we have any nominees, we will hold an election open to the general membership in May, in which a majority vote of the membership would elect you to the Board of Directors.
 
If that sounds like too much for you, but you still want to help out, we’ve established three new membership committees:
Events Committee 

​This might be for you if you’d like to see more RAD rides, training clinics, parties, fun things, etc., and you are willing to help with prep work for said events (e.g., scouting and marking ride courses, logistics and clean-up).
Project Committee 

​This might be for you if you are eager to help out with the current OHV grant project, you want to see more trail or other projects happen in the future, you are not as geographically illiterate as Lacey is, you have some useful technical knowledge/skills, and/or you can wrangle volunteers.
Outreach Committee

This might be for you if you are concerned about public land use issues, you want to advocate for dirtbike interests in the community, you would be willing to go to some public meetings when they directly affect local OHV interests, or you have friends in high places.
At the meeting, a handful of people signed up for various committees. By being part of a committee, you can incorporate your own ideas into RAD and help them come to fruition. The RADmins are here to provide support and guidance when needed.  But essentially, this way we can make more things happen for our members and ensure you’re getting what you want. 
 
If you want to be part of a committee, we will put you in touch with the other members who signed up for that committee as well.  With the events committee, you can plan and discuss amongst yourselves the events you want to do. With the projects and outreach committees, you will get some updated information from the RADmins on when and where effort is needed - which will likely be pretty touch-and-go.

Next Meeting

As a routine practice, we are going to hold member meetings every other month – on the second Wednesday of every odd number month. 

The next meeting will be on May 13, 2020 at 6:00pm at Mi Casa Too. 
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The Washoe County Public Lands Bill: Why It's Important to Legally Map Trails

3/12/2020

317 Comments

 
Donny and Lacey recently attended two public meetings as well as a follow-up one-on-one private meeting with a manager of Washoe County with regard to the proposed Truckee Meadows Public Lands Management Act.  The website containing an interactive map and more information on this bill can be found at landsbill.org.

In summary, this bill (if passed), purports to support the area’s population growth.  The area surrounded by red on the map below is the proposed “disposal area” – meaning that the parcels of Federal land (aka: BLM land) would be 
eligible for future transfer or sale in the future.
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BLM Land (dark tan); Unincorporated Washoe County Land (no color); USFS Land (green); City of Reno (light gray); City of Sparks (dark gray); Indian Land (pink and turquoise).
​Within this boundary, Washoe County proposes to acquire only a few handfuls of small parcels from Federal land for various infrastructure purposes, which are not areas of concern to us as dirtbike riders. 
 
What we are concerned about is not an immediate threat – but a future threat (regardless of whether or not this bill passes) to our favorite riding areas (BLM land in North Valleys and Moonrocks) if we do not act now to get ahead of the curve.
 
Let’s say in the future… 2 years from now; 5 years from now; 10 years from now… a developer wants to build near or on what we all commonly recognize as a riding area (or staging area thereto). If public land is transferred to another jurisdiction or private entity, and that public land contains officially mapped/identified public user trails, the transferee will be obligated to preserve access to those publicly designated trails.  
 
Well, this trail has been here for years and you can see it, so it's obviously a public trail... right? Just because a trail physically exists and is commonly known, does not mean the trail is legal or documented.  Transferees have to accept land with its current covenants, conditions and restrictions of record.  If our trails are not of record, then the transferee has no obligation to preserve our access thereto. At that point, it would then become an uphill fight with the developer (or whoever gets the land) to attempt to convince them to preserve an undocumented trail.
 
Currently, the Nevada BLM is decades behind with officially mapping recreational trails, which is referred to as a Travel Management Plan.  If you’ve ridden in some epic places like Moab, that is an excellent example of a travel management plan: trails that are preserved and designated for your braapy pleasure.
 
There’s a popular old-school rhetoric within our dirtbike community which opposes disclosing trails to public land managers, rationalizing “If we point out that trail exists, they will just close it!” and “This is the wild west! We have had all these trails for years without a travel management plan and there’s nothing wrong with it – just leave us alone, we don’t need one.”  We are here to tell you that this is an outdated and misinformed position to take in 2020.  We collaborate with public land managers – in fact, lots of them ride dirtbikes among us on these same trails. They are definitely aware they exist, and are in favor of making as many of them legal as possible.  
 
We are not protecting our trails by attempting to conceal them or by burning them in and assuming they'll always be there.  To the contrary, we are risking the future of our trails by not having them officially designated as “multi-use trails" by the land manager.  It is significantly more difficult to close access an established legal trail than it is to close access to an undocumented trail.  
 
Accordingly, we’ve been in touch with some local BLM managers to try to get this ball rolling and push to prioritize establishing a travel management plan in Reno's backyard and get our every-weekend trails on the map, legally.  If and when, at whatever point in the future they may be threatened, we will have some ground to stand on – literally.
 
This is not a quick process, and frankly it is going to take years to accomplish this with the BLM.  Ultimately, this is a longgggg race of the tortuous vs. the snail … Federal land transfers take forever… BLM mapping takes forever.  We are going to start our race now.  
317 Comments

RAD Conquers Its First Clean-Up

2/22/2020

7 Comments

 
#sorrynotsorry about how long the post is going to be, but all the feels are just oozing out about how awesomely, over-the-top successful RAD's very first cleanup day was.
We were floored when about 100 people showed up!! Our membership, together with several other incredible volunteers within the dirtbike community, cleaned up approximately a 5 mile radius.  We're guessing that approximately 465 volunteer man hours were put in to today's efforts.  FYI: the quota we had to meet for our Nevada OHV grant funding was 150 hours... we more than tripled that on our very first day.
This being our first rodeo... we had no idea what to expect and were just winging it, honestly.  Luckily, we caught the attention of a group who does know what they're doing -- the Desert Pigs.  These selfless, wonderful human beings who make up this group spend every weekend ... folks, every single weekend!!! ... cleaning up illegal dumping in the Dayton and Fernley areas.  When they heard about RAD's project here, dozens of them hauled out to Reno and helped with some challenging stuff, such as fishing TV's out of the pond and dragging cars out of tricky places.  RAD is extra thankful to them for their special support today.  We encourage you to donate to their cause - they run entirely on donations to fund their cleanup ventures in our desert. Here they are:
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This was truly a community effort.  Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful supplied the large debris box at our staging area, as well as various hand tools for our volunteers to use. Pine Nut Mountain Trail Association also lended us lots of tools to use. After this debris box filled up by noon, dozens of volunteers took it upon themselves to just take their pickups and trailers full of more debris to the local dump station.

So how did you take care of the big stuff?

 Some of the poster children for this event were the abandoned camper, the friggin BOAT, and some abandoned cars.  Well, it pays to have rad friends.

The boat was actually removed a few weeks prior to the cleanup day, when it came back as stolen property after a VIN-check.  The Reno Police Department removed the boat, as it was their case.

Plan A with the camper was to haul it to the Lockwood landfill.  However, upon further assessment, it was determined that it definitely did not have the structural integrity to survive a trip down the freeway.  So, with the help and special talents of Terry the Shed Mover, Reliance Grounds Management, and Thomas Precision Welding ... we epically demolished this trailer and stuffed it into the debris box. 
Then we had a white car wedged between a hillside and the pond - not an easy recovery spot! - and a red SUV. We made an agreement with the Washoe County Sheriff's Office that if we dragged them off the land and onto the end of the public road, they would arrange for a tow company to haul them away.
Tires were hauled away to various local tire shops who would generously accept them.
But there was SO MUCH MORE than that!  Our rad volunteers scavenged the area, determined to find every last bit of trash, restoring the land to the way it should be - pretty to ride by.
It was important to RAD to take care of our people.  RAD catered coffee and an assortment of breakfast pastries in the morning.  Thomas Sangster, owner of the Sparks Chick-Fil-A, generously donated a whole bunch of chicken sandwiches and fixings for lunch.  When we ran out of that, we went and got some pizza!
And here's just some gratuitous pictures of RAD people being rad...

We'd like to thank...

 First and foremost, we want to thank each and every one of our devoted members and volunteers for spending this beautiful Saturday being ambassadors of our sport and part of the solution. This is our little corner of the world.

We are grateful to the Nevada OHV Commission for the grant we were awarded, which will carry us on to the next phases of our "Keep Trails Rad" movement.  Today was a great example of how your OHV registration sticker money is going to work for you in your own backyard.  The commissioners are very insightful, helpful and easy people to work with.  In fact, a few commissioners were present today getting dirty at this cleanup.

Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful and Pine Nut Mountains Trail Association provided us with wonderful tools and resources to get us started.

Terry the Shed Mover, Reno Motor Sports, MotoSource and Big Valley Honda provided monetary support to help with lots of surprising little costs that we didn't think to work into our grant budget, because we are noobs.

Reliance Grounds Management and Thomas Precision Welding supplied some heavy equipment and special talent which was instrumental to today's success, and United Site Services generously donated porta-potties (another thing we didn't think to put in the grant budget. **facepalm**).

Sparks Chick-Fil-A catered lots of sandwiches for a nice mid-day break!

Desert Pigs provided some very special extra support, and are a wonderful new ally of RAD.

The support our little club is receiving from the community is so encouraging!!!

So now what...

On the 2020 grant project front, we will now begin gearing up for the trail work in the Peavine Maze.  We will coordinate a schedule with Sierra Trail Works, and let you rad volunteers know when the trail work days are.  We are certainly looking forward to having whoop-free and rut-free single track in RAD's favorite riding area.

But we aren't all work around here. Stay tuned for the next RAD member ride event (with a fun twist this time), and come to our next member meeting on Wednesday, March 11th at 6:30pm at Revision Brewery.
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3 Ways YOU can help RAD this week!

2/19/2020

1 Comment

 
We are often asked by our membership, "What can I do to help?" 
Well, since you asked, here is one thing this week and two more things!
 
1. Help keep trails rad and come to our clean-up day on February 22nd beginning at 9:30am.
 
Your RADmins are working hard behind the scenes to cut through all of the red tape and orchestrate the many moving parts to make this day come together and run smoothly and successfully.  

Check in with Lacey, our chaos-coordinator, first thing when you get there so that she can ensure that all of our rad volunteers and your extremely valuable time are properly documented. You know – that paperwork crap that she has a weird fetish for. Richie, your Vice President, will delegate specific tasks to make sure each element of this cleanup is adequately addressed. Please wear sturdy shoes, pants and warm layers. There will also be videographers there, so bring your good side! 

When:  February 22nd at 9:30am
Where: Trailhead at the end of Kiowa Way
Directions from Reno: Take 395 North to the Lemmon Drive exit.  Turn left on Lemmon Drive, and right on N. Virginia Street. Take a left on Seneca Drive.  Take another left on Kiowa Way, which will turn into a dirt road leading to the OHV staging area, where our tent and dumpster will be.
 
2. Contact our district House Representative and tell him to support H.R. 5797: Recreational Trails Full Funding Act of 2020.
 
The federal Recreational Trails Program (“RTP”) has directly funded more than 25,000 trail projects nationwide since 1991, using a "user-pay, user-benefit" model of the Highway Trust Fund to apply taxes on gas used by off-highway vehicles to support trails of all types. RAD can to apply for RTP grant funding for future projects. If you want to dive down a rabbit hole learning about RTP, you can find more information here: www.rectrails.org.
 
Last year, trail enthusiasts of all types celebrated when Congress instructed the U.S. Department of Transportation to develop a best estimate of the fuel used for off highway vehicles, the basis for funding the RTP. Earlier this month, H.R 5797 was introduced in the U.S. House to build on that success and, if passed, will improve and secure the future of RTP. It would require:
  • The non-highway fuel use study be repeated at least every five years;
  • The annual RTP funding to be increased from $84 million to $250 million, or to the new amount from the mandated study;
  • The adoption of new reporting standards for RTP projects to increase visibility, helping ensure motorized projects are getting their share;
  • The simplification of the Federal Highway Administration's management of RTP, including an increase in funding; and
  • The re-establishing of the original RTP funding formula to the states.
 
Mark Amodei is our local representative, and we want him to support (aka: cosponsor) this bill.  As his constituents, it’s our job to let him know that this is what we want him to do.
 
How to comment:  Call his office at (775) 686-5760 or send him an email: https://amodei.house.gov/email-me/ .  If you send an email, you do have to put in your contact information (this is required because they verify that you live in his congressional district).  Select “public lands” under the drop-down menu for Topic, and put H.R. 5797 in the subject line.

What to say:  You are of course encouraged to come up with your own personal comment with regard to this bill.  But if you’re not looking to reinvent the wheel and need a generic template, we suggest something along the lines of this:

“I am your constituent, an OHV trail user and supporter of the federal Recreational Trails Program. I am writing to ask you to support the Recreational Trails Full Funding Act of 2020, H.R. 5797, introduced earlier this month. Please get in touch with Rep. Welch's office ([email protected]) or Rep. Curtis's ([email protected]) to add your name to H.R. 5797 as a cosponsor. And be sure to vote in favor when this bill comes to the House floor. As your constituent, I'm counting on you to see that the RTP has every opportunity to flourish in the future.”
            
3. Sign up as a member, and get your friends to do the same! 

If you haven’t done so already, you can also renew your RAD membership for 2020 or sign up as a new member!  Or you can donate here.  **Disclaimer: we are a tax-exempt non-profit under IRC Sec. 501(c)7 - we are not a charitable entity – therefore, donations are not tax deductible to you.**
 
Membership dues and other monetary donations really, really help us build funds to support costs of maintaining and growing the club and putting on events like this, for which there are so many indirect costs. Additionally, grant funding is a reimbursement-based program, which means that RAD must first come out-of-pocket to cover project expenses for which we are eligible to receive reimbursement.  When you’re a brand-new club running on hopes, dreams and an itty-bitty bank account, stuff like this is challenging.  
 
Also, as a heads up, we are going to start holding regular member meetings at 6:30pm on the second Wednesday of every odd number month, beginning with Wednesday, March 11th.  Location TBA – stay tuned.
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Other trail projects going on that you should know about....

1/29/2020

3 Comments

 
On the initiative of our PR RADmin, Donny Schmidt, we met with the leadership of Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship and Truckee Dirt Riders to discuss our favorite topic: dirtbike trails.
 
If you like mountain singletrack riding in areas such as Downieville, and you don’t know who Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship is, then you should because they are the angels who have built over 90 miles of new singletrack and maintained over 1,100 miles of trails since 2003. 
 
Their current epic project is the planning and development of 300 miles of new multiuse (translation: dirtbike friendly) singletrack trail connecting the communities of Loyalton, Sierraville, Sierra City, Downieville, Quincy, Graeagle, Portola, Taylorsville, Greenville, Chester, Westwood, Susanville, Jonesville, Truckee and Reno.  How cool is that?
 
This massive undertaking beginning this year is estimated to take approximately 10 years to complete.  The project will be completed in three phases: (1) inventorying, planning and mapping trails, which includes coordination with all of the land managers and various communities; (2) completion of environmental studies; and finally (3) the construction of trails.  Greg Williams, the Executive Director of SBTS, estimates that the first two phases of planning and environmental assessments will take approximately three years. Yes, Greg and the devoted people of SBTS are in this for the long haul.  What a way to devote your life to making a difference and benefiting so many people who share the passion of trail riding.
 
The project will cost $9.1 Million, to be funded largely by California OHV grant funds and support by their community partners. In addition to the endless potential of braaapy bliss of having this trail system, the local communities will realize economic benefits as riders stop into town for resources like dining, fuel and hospitality. SBTS also anticipates job creation in connection with the maintenance of this trail system.
 
Separately, Truckee Dirt Riders have been working with the Truckee Ranger District by providing feedback regarding whats called the "East Zone Connectivity Project". This is a very large project initiated by the Forest Service to connect OHV trails in the Truckee area to create better, sustainable trail systems. One part of the plan is a brand new 70 mile motorcycle loop on Verdi Ridge that connects to the Prosser, Boca, and Stampede Reservoir areas and campgrounds. The plan should be in the public comment phase sometime in February 2020. They are also in the process of signing a trail adoption agreement to provide volunteer labor for maintenance on the existing dirtbike trails.
 
These are two great examples of how having a travel management plan through the local land managers (e.g., Forest Service and BLM) can mean great things for OHV users – like getting more access. 

We are going to continue to follow up on the progress of these projects, and do what we can to support them.

RAD can learn a lot from TDR and SBTS.  RAD and TDR are particularly interested in the development of new singletrack between Reno and Truckee.  I don’t know about you, but I would sure love to ride to Truckee, grab lunch, play on their trails and ride home on some sweet singletrack! Similarly, the Truckee guys can ride down to Verdi and check out our awesome distilleries and restaurants. Toward that goal, we have more meetings planned with the leaders of these two great organizations and look forward to collaborating with them.
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Lets keep our trails rad in 2020!

1/13/2020

2 Comments

 
Your RADmins hit the ground running in 2020, rolling out some plans to make this a rad year! Watch out as we fill up the calendar with projects, clinics and fun times for everyone. Rest assured, we are conscious of the MRANN race schedule and intend to plan around those weekends.           
 
It’s been so exciting to see the OG membership renewals and new member signups rolling in during these first couple weeks of January.  We are so honored to have this support and we recognize every single one of you.  Your membership dues allow us to have some capital to work with to get supplies for our projects and also give back to the members and other people who volunteer their time as much as possible.
 
First order of business this year is going to be our first clean-up day, which was one of the smaller objectives of our OHV Grant Project. We’ve identified the area above the Horizon Hills community off Kiowa Way north of Reno – part of our stomping grounds on USFS land at the base of Peavine – needs our help. 
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RADmins are coordinating with the Washoe County Sherriff’s office regarding the removal of the boat, camper and car.  Extra consideration also needs to be given to the proper disposal of the tires and abandoned vehicles. There's plenty of other debris that are a blight on the area, as marked by the points on the map. We are still ironing out all of the logistics and gathering our community supporters.  If you have any resources to share with us, please let a RADmin know about it.  
 
If you are super-rad and want to be a part of this solution, mark your calendar for February 22nd beginning at 9:30AM to help out!  Anyone who has any special tools or equipment which can assist with dragging that car up the hill out of the pond or dismantling the trailer would be incredibly valuable. RAD will supply some gloves, hard hats, safety glasses and other PPE, per Forest Service standards, and some hand tools - however, if you have your own PPE we encourage you to bring that. 

RAD Volunteers will receive a special long-sleeve “Keep Trails Rad” t-shirt.  In the morning, we will have coffee and breakfast pastries for everyone.  In the afternoon, lunch is being catered by Sparks Chick-Fil-A.  
 
Directions from Reno: Take 395 North to the Lemmon Drive exit.  Turn left on Lemmon Drive, and right on N. Virginia Street. Take a left on Seneca Drive.  Take another left on Kiowa Way, which will turn into a dirt road leading to the OHV staging area, where our tent and dumpster will be.
 
Circling back with Sierra Trail Works for the meat and potatoes portion of the grant project devoted to our singletrack, Kevin’s schedule proposes approximately 3-4 weekends of work beginning in mid-May.  Look for further updates with this schedule this Spring.
 
We’re looking forward to engaging with the community and getting the ball rolling toward making our trails a better place for all!
2 Comments

2020 Memberships

12/31/2019

1 Comment

 
RAD Riders,

As we close out 2019, we look back pretty impressed with what we have accomplished in only our first 7 months. As a club, we have...

  • Legally incorporated and applied for 501(c)7 status
  • Partnered with local businesses to secure discounts for our members.
  • Hosted fun rides and given away prizes
  • Applied, ranked #2 overall and received full funding for a grant to improve the trails in one of our favorite riding areas.

None of this would be possible without the support of our members. You are what makes RAD, rad!  We are asking for your continued support into the new decade to keep the positive momentum going.

Renewing members who have already joined us in 2019 will receive this year (and all years going forward) a 2020 membership card with the “OG member” star.  We know who you are – we know you believed in and supported RAD from the very beginning.

If you or some of your riding buddies are thinking about joining, there are lots of incentives:
  • Be part of a movement dedicated exclusively to the preservation and advancement of dirtbike riding in our area.  The more members we represent, the louder our voice is when representing our interests on issues which affect us.
  • Organized (and disorganized!) club rides.
  • 10% (or more!) discounts at many local retail stores and businesses where you’re already shopping anyway.
  • Exclusive opportunities for private professional training clinics from pro riders.
  • And more! We are always looking for ways to score perks for our people.

Membership dues for the 2020 calendar year are $20.00.  All membership dues, tshirt sales and donations are utilized for the expenses of maintaining the organization and for the benefit of our members, such as putting on events.  As always, all of your directors and officers receive zero compensation from RAD, and our books are open to you any time you have questions.

With our feet underneath us now, we aspire to put on a lot more activities in 2020 and double the fun!  We have the trail work in the Peavine Maze and a couple of clean-up days ahead of us, so we need to balance that out with plenty of braaap time.

*** HOW DO I SIGN UP OR RENEW? ***
Renewing or signing up for a membership is super easy -  under the "more" dropdown menu, you'll find memberships and options to chose from.  After completing your information you'll be automatically directed to a payment screen for your membership dues. Our new 2020 membership cards are being printed now, and we will mail you your card as soon as we get them in.

Lastly, we are always welcoming (and in need) of help and your input! If you want another scavenger hunt. If you would like to get together and throw water balloons. If you want to explore a particular area.  Let us know, and you can be as involved with the planning as you want!

Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for your support. Braapy New Year!

- Your RADmins
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