Mind the Track

If you’ve ever piloted your mountain bike on the trails of Jackass Ridge (now called Donkey Town) and Yogi Bear, and finished with an ear to ear grin, you can thank the @truckeedirtunion . Formed in April of 2020, the TDU is the only trail organization in Truckee specifically focused on enhancing and expanding rad trail experiences for mountain bikers. In its short 3 years of existence, TDU has already amassed a volunteer trail force 550 people strong, supporting a crew of #corelord community builders who’ve been digging in the forest for 30 years, putting Truckee on the map as one of the best towns in the American west for mountain biking. In episode 22, we sit down with TDU founders Matt Chappell (@chappawitz), Skye Allsop (@tahoemtbiker) and Greg Forsythe (@cyclepathsmtb) and talk all about the past, present and future of mountain biking and trails in Truckee, where TDU fits into this quickly changing town and how you can help get involved with the #singletrackradness movement. Get on the dumb end of that shovel, kick some rocks and put some love, sweat and tears back into the trails you enjoy every day by joining TDU on their next volunteer trail day. Show Notes: 2:30 – Introducing Matt Chappell, Skye Allsop and Greg Forsythe of Truckee Dirt Union.7:00 – The history of Jackass Ridge and Hobo Hill.13:20 – The history of hidden and illegal trails in Truckee and adopting formerly social trails.16:50 – How has TDU grown from nothing to 550 supporters in only three years?18:40 – Jackass Ridge and Donkey Town trail – a network that accommodates everyone from beginners and families to experts.21:30 – Who are the main builders for Truckee Dirt Union?22:30 – The history of mountain biking in Truckee.25:00 – The history of JP Trail – the first mountain bike trail in Truckee.28:20 – Why was TDU created?33:30 – Taking community builders creating social trails and bringing them into the fold so they can get paid for their craft.42:30 – What is TDU working on currently and into the future? Enhancing the Jackass trail network, creating more trails after logging operations are complete.45:45 – What can Truckee learn from what’s going on trails-wise in Bellingham, Washington?53:00 – The evolution of mountain biking and its impact on Truckee and Greg’s business, Cyclepaths.55:55 – Parallels between the founding of TAMBA and the founding of TDU.57:45 – What is going to happen with Martis Peak area trails?1:03:40 – How can people step up, support TDU and support mountain biking in Truckee?1:10:00 – Jonnie Benda – the shaper, the visionary for TDU trails. 1:19:00 – A couple more volunteer days before end of season on Jackass and JP Trail - @truckeedirtunion on Instagram and truckeedirtunion.org1:20:25 – What does Singletrack Radness mean?1:22:00 – What does Mind the Track mean to you?

In line with Episode 21 and its Fall theme, @pow_bot and @trail_whisperer chat (rant?) about a cornucopia of topics ranging from the possible arrival of a Super El Nino in Tahoe, looking back on summer’s favorite rides and new trails, the etiquette of riding illegal trails, Strava and social media, the season pass conundrum, Palisades Tahoe announcing parking pass reservations and overcrowding due to Ikon and Epic Pass sales, a 15 mph speed limit on trails in Truckee, a gang of Truckee kids on ebikes throwing apples at people and evading the law, Reno’s ranking by Outside as “happiest place to live in America”, remembering the legend of Robb Gaffney and more. Like most one-on-one episodes with the boys, this one gets a little ranty, channeling a bit of the Angry Singlespeeder (aka The ASS) in Kurt. The boys also ask listeners – what do you prefer to wear when riding, a hip pack or a backpack? Let us know your preference! 2:00 – Trail Running.4:00 – It’s Fall and it’s Snowing! Getting ready for winter. Trail Whisperer loves pumpkin pie. 8:20 – Ski Films – Do you watch ski films to get fired up for ski season?12:30 – Summer Recap – Lots of rain, never got too hot, no smoke.14:05 – Super El Nino is coming! Fall Tahoe weather is setting in. Early Winter?17:30 – What was your favorite mountain bike ride this summer?19:45 – What’s the etiquette of riding unsanctioned trails?22:00 – Strava and social media rant.30:00 – PowBot and 2NBen’s bear and bee encounter on JP Trail. 32:20 – Favorite new trail? Shark Bait at Sky Tavern and flow trail at Sugar Bowl. 35:40 – PowBot is almost 2 months into not drinking alcohol and he’s loving it.39:30 – Season Pass sales – PowBot buys Mount Rose, Epic Pass and Ikon Pass.41:50 – Palisades Tahoe announces parking reservations and pay for parking details.48:30 – Fighting for preserving the culture of Squaw Valley.49:20 – In memoriam – Robb Gaffney.51:40 – Outside ranks Reno as the happiest place to live in America. 58:50 – City of Truckee passes 15 mph speed limit on multi-use trails in town in response to an ebike gang of high school kids roaming Truckee throwing eggs and apples at people.1:05:00 – Focus on education, not enforcement. 1:08:00 – Sky Tavern fundraiser – Party in the Sky – October 14 at 10AM. Be there!1:08:40 – Sendy Send of the Week - @cascadeconnections – skiing POW in September. @amymo_11 winning the Enduro in Killington and @marcoOsborne92 taking 2nd in Enduro and 14th in the US Cup Downhill. 1:13:00 – Hip packs vs backpacks. What do you wear mountain biking?

In 2020, Harrison Biehl bought his first mountain bike and immediately put his mind in the track, progressively doing bigger and bigger rides. In summer 2022, he successfully completed his first “Everesting” mission - repeating the same climb until reaching 29,032 feet of elevation gain. As a fundraiser for TAMBA, Harrison tackled Stanford Rock trail on the West Shore of Lake Tahoe and completed the mission in under 24 hours. In the afterglow, tragedy struck when his close friend Joe Fazzio took his own life a week before Christmas. To honor Joe’s life and bring awareness to mental health, Harrison partnered with High Fives Foundation and launched the Pedal for Positivity. His new mission; “Trench to Everest” - climbing 65,099 feet - the elevation difference between the lowest point on earth, the Marianas Trench, to the highest, Mount Everest. Harrison did the ride on Old Highway 40 from Donner Lake to Historic Donner Summit on September 8-9 with a group of friends who rode by his side, completing nearly 60 laps in 29 hours. Recorded on Donner Summit at the site of the event, this is a heavy story of friendship, community, commitment, struggle and loss. 3:30 – During the latest brown pow cycle, Tom crashes his mountain bike hard.6:40 – Steven Kotler – Gnar Country – learning to become a park skier at age 53. 9:40 – Introducing Harrison Biehl – Everesting Stanford Rock, trenching Old Highway 40.13:30 – Another sign of a big winter coming – crazy squirrels. Another Hunga Tonga correlation.16:22 – Harrison Biehl interview recording on old Highway 40 on Donner Summit. 20:00 – Riding from the lowest point on the planet, Mariana Trench to the highest point on the planet, Mount Everest. 381 miles and 65,249 ft of climbing in 29 hours 42 minutes.24:20 – Completing massive rides with only three years of experience cycling. 26:30 – Everesting Stanford Rock trail on the west shore of Lake Tahoe, a fundraiser for Tahoe Area Mountain Bike Association.29:00 – Learning fitness, strength and training from Derek Teel of Dialed Health, who Everested Braille Trail in Soquel Demo Forest near Santa Cruz. 30:30 – Using the ride to raise funds for new mountain bike trails in Lake Tahoe, including the new Meeks Ridge trail. 37:00 – What did Harrison learn from the first big Everest challenge on Stanford Rock?39:45 – The backstory of the Old Highway 40 ride – in memory of Joe Fazzio. 41:00 – Living with loss and suicide, trying to make sense of those who take their own lives. 46:00 – The bicycle as a vehicle for blowing off steam, helping deal with the stress and loss.48:00 – Finding Joe on Donner Lake. 54:00 – Angry riding in the wake of Joe’s passing, starting Pedal for Positivity with High Fives Foundation. 1:04:00 – Riding Old Highway 40 from Donner Lake to Historic Donner Summit. 1:11:00 – Pro grade support from the folks at Paco’s bike shop in Truckee. 1:13:00 – Contribute to the Pedal for Positivity – highfivesfoundation.org/pedal-for-positivity/1:14:00 – Tom’s grandfather, Raymond Beckering and Robert Schuller, of Garden Grove Ministries, built the Tower of Hope in the early 1970’s; the first suicide helpline in North America – New Hope. 1:18:00 – What was harder, Stanford Rock or Old Highway 40?1:25:30 – Did Harrison ever think he couldn’t complete the ride?1:28:30 – What does Mind the Track mean to you?1:30:00 – Follow Harrison – @harrison_biehl and @pedal_for_positivity

In Summer 1983, Max Jones jumped on a strange new contraption called a #mountainbike and went looking for trails to ride around #laketahoe. There wasn’t really any singletrack until he discovered an abandoned flume line running high above the east shore of the lake. After a few failed attempts, Max finally uncovered the overgrown track, taking five hours to “ride” only four miles, fighting through brush and hundreds of downed trees. For the rest that summer, Max cleared the trail with nothing more than hand tools and dogged determination. 40 years later, thanks to Max’s efforts, the Marlette Flume Trail has become the most scenic trail in the world and a gem of recreation in Lake Tahoe. Max and his wife Patti have built a life and career around the Flume Trail, promoting the Great Flume Race for more than a decade, starting Flume Trail Bikes to shuttle visitors and opening Tunnel Creek Café to feed them at the end of the adventure. This is the story of Max Jones, a Mountain Bike Hall of Fame inductee, the resurrector of the Flume Trail and an early pioneer of ecotourism in Lake Tahoe. 1:40 – PowBot gets a new vanity license plate – MRDRPOW – on his murdered out Crosstrek. 3:45 – Experiencing technical difficulties with our podcast player while interviewing Max Jones.5:20 – Celebrating the 40th anniversary of Max Jones reopening the Marlette Flume Trail. 10:00 – The first “winter storm” on September 1; a Pacific Low coming off the ocean!11:30 – Rose to Toads TAMBA ride is going to get snow Labor Day weekend. 13:20 – SENDY Send of the Week – 11 year anniversary of Joyce Beckering’s passing – Tom’s mom. Incline Burger taking donations for victims of the Maui fire in Lahaina.17:00 – Max Jones interview at Tunnel Creek Café. 20:00 – The history of Max Jones’ family, a fourth generation Nevadan. His family was into ranching. The Settlemeyer family came from Minden, Germany to what became Minden, Nevada.23:00 – Max’s history as a rock climber and ski racer and the first generation of his family to be a recreationist. 26:30 – The Germans came into the Carson Valley after the Mormons left. The Germans weren’t miners, they were ranchers, so they raised cattle and fed the miners.29:30 – Max transitions from rock climbing to mountain biking, and picks up Ritchey as a sponsor and started racing.35:00 – How Max originally discovered the Flume Trail. 41:00 – Helicoptering all the old aluminum flume pipe off the trail. 45:30 – The Great Flume Race put the Flume Trail on the map for visitors. 47:25 – The spiritual power of Herlan Peak – a leyline from Lake Tahoe to Pyramid Lake.50:30 – Working with the Nevada State Park Ranger Mark Kimbrough in reopening the trail.53:30 – The original purpose of the Flume Trail – created for water in Virginia City during the Comstock Lode silver rush. 58:30 – Max’s first summer working on the trail, carrying a chainsaw and falling off the trail.1:03:00 – Max joins the Tahoe Rim Trail Association board representing mountain bikers.1:08:50 – Max started shuttling people in 1999 with Flume Trail Bikes. 1:10:30 – Flume Trail Bikes moves to the old Ponderosa Ranch site at Tunnel Creek and opened the cafe.1:12:40 – Max innovated a form of ecotourism that’s been sustainable for Lake Tahoe, shuttling 5,000 to 6,000 people per year, keeping extra cars off local roads.1:15:00 – Flume Trail Bikes might start running a shuttle for Cap to Tahoe trail, and building a new singletrack to Tunnel Creek from Flume Trail. 1:19:00 – Building a life and a career around the Flume Trail.1:21:00 – What does Mind the Track mean to you?

After the best winter and spring ever, the best summer in Tahoe ever continues its run with a return of rain and mind-blowing hero dirt. @pow_bot and @trail_whisperer go mano a mano and catch up on a variety of topics including crazy weather and its relation to the Hunga Tonga volcanic eruption, nature’s signs of a big upcoming winter and the chances of an El Niño season, the “Amish bike” versus the Rumspringa (e-bike), an epidemic of bears getting hit by cars in Lake Tahoe, the migration of a wolfpack into the southern Sierra Nevada, preparing for 150 miles of new singletrack north of Truckee and an audience poll: do you wash your bike after every ride or do you just ride it dirty?1:30 – Hero dirt in Tahoe in August! The encyclopedia of brown pow.3:45 – Pow Bot gives Trail Whisperer a D.I.A t-shirt. Director of the Dirt Intelligence Agency.5:00 – Trail Whisperer flagging new trail out by Boca, finding an old crosscut saw.7:00 – Working for Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship and the Connected Communities project.10:00 – Ground truthing new trail using a clinometer.11:30 – The Verdi deer herd and their migratory paths.13:00 – Brief uninformed history of Truckee – Gray’s Crossing and Coburn Station.14:00 – Hurricane Hilary drenches southern California and Nevada.15:00 – Donate to Maui Strong to help people who lost everything in the wildfire.18:30 – The Hunga Tonga volcanic eruption and its effect on weather in North America.23:30 – Are Lake Tahoe and Reno going to have an El Nino winter?24:40 – Nature’s signs of a big winter coming29:00 – Lake Tahoe and an epidemic of bears getting hit by cars. 31:30 – The brain check – like a chain check, but for tourist brains.34:00 – Pro Tips – Do you ride your bike dirty or do you wash your mountain bike regularly?40:00 – The Amish bike aka muscle bike aka push bike vs the ebike aka the Rumspringa46:00 – Riding Martis in mid-August after 3 inches of rain. ALL TIME CONDITIONS.48:00 – Pow Bot takes a break from drinking alcohol.51:45 – The deeply ingrained culture of mountain biking and alcohol consumption.53:00 – Tyrolian Downhill – originally called the Chinese Downhill. 58:00 – The migration of a gray wolf pack into the southern Sierra Nevada.1:05:00 – Sendy send of the week goes to Nate Arnold and Keegan Swenson at Leadville. 1:11:00 – Pow Bot skis pow on Mount Elbert on May 5, Mount Hope couloir, A-Basin and Loveland Pass. 1:14:30 – Shout out to Matt Garrett – heal fast!

Generations of Reno kids learned to ski at the local ski hill, Sky Tavern, including our guest Yale Spina, a legendary ski aerialist and stunt man who is now the Board Chair of Sky Tavern. First formed in the 1940s through the efforts of Marce Herz gathering up children in her station wagon and driving them up the shoulder of Mount Rose, Sky Tavern has become an institution for local youth ski development. Our discussion with Spina about the past and future of Sky Tavern and his trajectory in life is both fascinating and inspiring. Steve Wentz of Momentum Trail Concepts, who Spina regards as a Picasso of trail building, also joins us to talk about all the exciting developments at the new Sky Tavern Bike Park. We cover a wide range of topics including family lineage, youth development, leadership, commitment to community, adaptive cycles, making rad trails, night skiing and leaving a legacy.

As one of America’s top-ranking Enduro World Cup racers, Marco Osborne has always put his focus on adventure and having a good time, as evidenced by his #senditrandy moniker. But when Marco was sidelined off the bike for 18 months with nerve issues after a serious bike wreck, his desire to be in the woods led him to discover the challenge and thrill of archery and rifle hunting. In Episode 16 Tom and Kurt dive into Marco’s youth, how the mentorship of Mark Weir got Marco into bike racing and how hunting helped Marco stay active with a positive mindset despite not being able to ride his bike, let alone race. We open the first 30 minutes of the 90-minute chat with Marco about our recent adventure riding the Toiyabe Crest Trail in central Nevada.

After a wild couple of weeks in Lake Tahoe, @pow_bot and @trail_whisperer catch up on their adventures of riding the new Capital to Tahoe trail linking Tahoe Rim Trail to Carson City, a recap of all the festivities and shenanigans of the @downievilleclassic and celebrating the Fourth of July weekend in Lake Tahoe, which also included some unfortunate national media attention around the public trashing of beaches at Zephyr Cove. Trail Whisperer continues to search for a volcanologist to explain the Hunga Tonga eruption and its link to weather, Pow Bot dives deeper into the issues with Palisades Tahoe charging for parking, the lack of public transportation in #laketahoe and #truckee and the need for a shitshow traffic forecaster much like a snow forecaster so people know when the mobs of skiers will be coming to Lake Tahoe. Rate, review and subscribe to #mindthetrackpodcast on Apple and Spotify. Supported by @sendy_app.

After a four year hiatus, the granddaddy of all mountain bike events, the Downieville Classic, returns in grand fashion on July 14-16, 2023, celebrating its 25th anniversary, and there’s no better person to interview than the man who started it all, Greg Williams. Not only is Greg the founder of the Downieville Classic, as well as the founder of Yuba Expeditions bike shop, but he’s also a co-founder and executive director of the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship. In this episode all about Downieville and the history of the Classic, Greg shares his roots growing up as a kid spending summers along the North Yuba River, discovering old mining trails on his mountain bike that he showed friends, eventually turning into a guiding and shuttle business that shared the magic of Downieville with thousands of people around the world. Greg is full of wisdom and hilarious stories, but he’s also a heartfelt human who cares deeply about his friends, family and the event that’s transformed Downieville from a place that hated mountain bikes to a place would be nothing without them.

Recorded right after the Summer solstice, @pow_bot and @trail_whisperer catch up mano y mano for the first time since episode 1. Tom and Kurt cover a cornucopia of topics including a recap the best Spring ever in Lake Tahoe,  riding electric dirt bikes in South Lake Tahoe, volcanic eruptions and their effect on weather, Kurt’s new job with the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship, the Toiyabe Crest Trail in central Nevada, Palisades Tahoe charging for parking, worker shortages and their effect on business in Truckee, ebike to ski missions in the eastern Sierra, getting caught out in severe thunderstorms, quickly melting out snow levels in Tahoe and the return of the Downieville Classic.