How was that breakfast? Pretty awesome, right?

Thanks to all of our Bike to Breakfast Sponsors!
Free breakfast isn’t the only benefit of riding during Bike to Work Week, you can also win fabulous prizes!

Stay tuned to http://www.flagstaffbiking.org and https://www.facebook.com/flagstaffbiking for details throughout the week! Be sure to keep logging your commutes!

Make sure to come out for a cruiser ride with Jack and Martin and/or the Ice Cream Social tomorrow! Scroll down for details!

Tuesday’s Raffle Prize Winners

(If you won, you should be getting a certificate emailed to you shortly to redeem at the locations below.)

Savvy Cyclist Bike Safety Class at FMC -TONIGHT, 5:00 – 6:00 pm

Class will be held at the Flagstaff Medical Center  – McGee Auditorium.
Our “Savvy Cyclist” commuter safety presentation by Martin Ince from the league of American Cyclist. We will be providing free raffle tickets to all who participate. A candy apple Red cruiser type bicycle will be given away to one lucky winner at the end if the presentation.

Jack & Martin’s Excellent Adventure Cruiser Ride — Thursday, starting at 5:30pm

Meet at the downtown Flagstaff Public Library parking lot for a leisurely loop on the Flagstaff Urban Trail System. Bring your friends, and your helmet! All riders are welcome! We will end the ride at the Ice Cream Social.

Ice Cream Social, Bike Games & Crafts- Thursday, 5 – 7pm

This will be super fun for everyone! Join us in the parking lot of San Francisco de Asis at Humphreys and Cherry.  We’ll have ice cream and toppings, fun bike games for kids of all ages and more! Challenge your bike skills! Thanks to Safe Kids – Coconino County for putting this event together.

Golden Sprocket results still tallying!

We are still waiting on some reporting from a few schools, but we do have some results! Marshall Elementary and DiMiguel Elementary have been locked in an epic battle for the 400+ category for the past couple of years! This years results were closer than ever. Marshall had 175 out of 552 kids riding for roughly 32% participation. DiMiguel just barely edged into the lead with 220 out of 665 kids, for 33% participation!

In the 200-399 category, Haven Montessori had 25% participation for the win.

So far, we have recorded over 650 kids riding Tuesday, with more results pending! Thanks to all of the students, parents, teachers and staff who helped to get folks out and riding!

Thanks for riding to work over the past couple of days!

When you log in, your entry is counted as another person for whom bike paths, bike lanes, signage and other facilities are necessary! This helps to guide local transportation policy!

Also, when you log in, you are eligible to win fabulous raffle prizes!

Stay tuned to http://www.flagstaffbiking.org and https://www.facebook.com/flagstaffbiking for details throughout the week! Be sure to keep logging your commutes!

Help us to encourage others to commute and log their commutes as well!

The winners of Monday’s raffle prizes are here!

(If you won, you should be getting a certificate emailed to you shortly to redeem at the locations on the page linked above.)

Today was Bike to School Day!

Hundreds of kids rode to school today, and we are awaiting results of the Golden Sprocket Award! We’ll post these on our Facebook Page as soon as we have them, and update you in tomorrow’s email.

Flagstaff Biking Organization, Coconino County Safe Kids Coalition and Coconino County Parks and Rec also co-hosted our first-ever megarodeo at Ft. Tuthill today! Several schools made a field trip visit to Ft. Tuthill to learn bike safety and handling skills. Thanks to all  of the volunteers who pitched in to help keep kids safe and riding bikes!

Keep riding to school throughout the week and keep logging those rides to be eligible to win raffle prizes. Click the link here to log your rides to school: https://gnome.wufoo.com/forms/bike-to-school-student-commute-entry/

Tomorrow is Bike to Breakfast Day! — Wednesday, 6:30am -9am

Bike-friendly businesses around Flagstaff are once again sponsoring Bicycle Breakfast stops this year. Check to see which stop is along your route, hit one or hit them all! Coffee, juice, muffins, bagels, and other breakfast treats will fuel your commute. Click the map below to help route yourself past some free foo and coffee! Click the link below for locations!

http://flagstaffbiking.org/bike-to-work-week/free-breakfast-stop-map/

Savvy Cyclist Bike Safety Class at FMC -Wednesday evening, 5:00 – 6:00 pm

Class will be held at the Flagstaff Medical Center  – McGee Auditorium.
Our “Savvy Cyclist” commuter safety presentation by Martin Ince from the league of American Cyclist. We will be providing free raffle tickets to all who participate. A candy apple Red cruiser type bicycle will be given away to one lucky winner at the end if the presentation.

We already have reports from Marshall Elementary of over whelming participation with bikes locked to about anything that a cable will fit around!

Here is a photo of one of their bike racks, courtesy of Principal Coe:

Flagstaff Biking Organization, Coconino County Safe Kids Coalition and Coconino County Parks and Rec are also co-hosting our first-ever megarodeo at Ft. Tuthill today! Several schools made a field trip visit to Ft. Tuthill to learn bike safety and handling skills. Thanks to all of the volunteers who are pitching in to help keep kids safe!

Once we have counts of all of the bikes in the racks at the local schools, we’ll be able to award to Golden Sprocket Awards to the schools with the most participation!

Make sure to Log your commutes throughout the week!

It is really important to log your commutes! We have made it super easy. Just click this link and enter your commute. When you log in, your entry is counted as another person for whom bike paths, bike lanes, signage and other facilities are necessary! This helps to guide local transportation policy!

In addition, for spending just a few seconds each day this week logging in, you’ll be eligible to win awesome raffle prizes!

Worksite Coordinators, don’t forget to do your daily Worksite log-ins as well!

Lowell Observatory “Mars Hill Challenge Ride” is Today!

Mars Hill Road …. yep, you probably know it, the paved ½-mile winding climb from Thorpe Park to the scenic overlook and then up to Lowell Observatory that beckons cyclists to pit their aerobic prowess against its steep 10-12% grade.

As a regular BTWW work site participant, Lowell Observatory is sponsoring the “Mars Hill Challenge Ride” again this year as a featured event.

Ride anytime between 9:00am and 5:00pm, we challenge local cyclists to bike up Mars Hill to the Lowell Observatory Steele Visitor Center and experience first-hand what Lowell BTWW riders contend with all week long. The reward?  A FREE “2 for 1? guest pass to Lowell Observatory to redeem at your leisure along with a refreshing bottle of water. Just show your bike helmet to the front desk greeter in the Visitor Center when you reach the top. For directions and questions, contact Kim Morris: kim@lowell.edu or 233-3240.

Tomorrow is Bike to Breakfast Day! — Wednesday, 6:30am -9am

Bike-friendly businesses around Flagstaff are once again sponsoring Bicycle Breakfast stops this year. Check to see which stop is along your route, hit one or hit them all! Coffee, juice, muffins, bagels, and other breakfast treats will fuel your commute. Click the map below to help route yourself past some free foo and coffee!

Breakfast stop map & Sponsors

***MAKE SURE TO LOG YOUR COMMUTES! CLICK HERE!***

***STUDENTS, LOG YOUR RIDE TO SCHOOL HERE!***

Even if you are not part of a registered Worksite, it is really important to log in! Those numbers also help show support for cycling initiatives, AND YOU CAN WIN SOME AWESOME RAFFLE PRIZES EVERY DAY THAT YOU RIDE AND LOG IN!

If you are part of a Worksite, if you and your coworkers have the highest percentage participation of any work place in town, you can win an awesome commuter for your offices, thanks to our Worksite Challenge Sponsors:

Giant Via 1
Work 2 created by Specialized

Join us in celebrating the importance of cycling to Flagstaff~!

The Bike Bazaar is from 8:00 until noon on Sunday at Heritage Square!

8am – noon

• 11th Annual Human-Powered Parade (Prizes will be awarded).
• Bike & Gear Swap Check for availability day of.
• $10 Helmets for kids
• Mountain Lion – Bike / Bus Demonstration
• “Fender Blender” Smoothies
  
• Iron-on Transfer Station! Bring your favorite garment to get FBO tagged.
• Exhibits on commuting safely, local bike events and programs, and bike art
• Parade starts at 11am, staging at Heritage Square near alleyway

Kick-off Commuter Ride from City Hall through town back to City Hall — Monday morning, starting at 7am. Ride will start at 7:15.

Come join local elected leaders, officials, and hundreds of your friends for a short “commuter” ride through downtown to finish at City Hall for a free breakfast. Hundreds of cyclists sharing the roads make a statement. A brick for display in Heritage Square will be given to a community member that has gone above and beyond the call of duty for cycling in Flagstaff.

Breakfast provided by Peace Surplus.

PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR A FULL SCHEDULE OF THE WEEK’S EVENTS!

Join the Worksite Challenge! There are two ways to win free stuff, including a bike!

• Register your Workplace in the Worksite Challenge! If you and your coworkers ride at a higher ratio than any other work place in town, you can win a free bike for your offices!
• Log your commutes! Every day that you log your commutes, starting at 12:01 am on Monday morning, you’ll be eligible to win some outstanding raffle prizes donated by local businesses!

Log your rides to school and you can win prizes too!

Just like the Worksite Challenge, students can win raffle prizes for logging their ride to school, and the schools with the best participation on Tuesday, Bike to School Day, will win the “Golden Sprocket Award”!

ALL LOGIN FUNCTIONS WILL GO LIVE AT 12:01 AM MONDAY MORNING AND WILL BE EASILY FOUND AT HTTP://WWW.FLAGSTAFFBIKING.ORG !

Thank you to our generous sponsors!

Thank you to all of our sponsors! Click the graphic below for a complete list, including Breakfast Stop sponsors, Worksite Challenge raffle prize sponsors and more!

The kick off to another fun and productive year of building and maintaining our trails!

We will be continuing work on Segment 26, (.pdf map of the Flagstaff Loop Trail with segment numbers here), which should shortly be completed thus making a continuous link between JWP Boulevard and Campbell Mesa!

We encourage everyone to attend and assist in the implementation of this amazing trail.
For more information on the Flagstaff Loop Trail, see here.

What to bring and other details:
Map here!

Directions:

From the intersection of Highway 89 and Country Club, continue east on Country Club to Old Walnut Canyon Road. Turn Left on Old Walnut Canyon Road and continue for roughly 1 mile to bear right onto a two-track road through a gate. We will have signage here and signage to guide you to the location. High clearance 2 wheel drive is recommended.

All Trail events start at 8:30 am and conclude with lunch at 1:00 pm unless otherwise noted. Coffee will be served between 8:00 am and 8:30 am, and snacks, beverages, tasty lunch and FUN are all provided.

Sturdy closed-toe shoes, long pants, sunscreen, water, and head protection are required. Hardhats, gloves, tools, and trail work instructions will be provided. Children under 18 must be accompanied by a parent/guardian.

Thank you to our sponsors!

For more information on this trail day event, contact: looptrail@flagstaffbiking.org

From the Flagstaff District:

“After donating 880 hours in a single season, long-time Coconino NF volunteer Ron Daufenbach has announced that he’s ready to hang up his Volunteer Hat… sortof. Instead of the 40+ hours per week he’d been donating to the Flagstaff Ranger District, Ron will volunteer for only a few hours a day. This is Ron’s idea of “retirement.”
Meet Ron Daufenbach: He’s a 75 year-old retiree who has been dedicating his time to maintaining and building trails on the Coconino NF.  When he retired in 1994 from the phone company he became full-fledged Forest Service Volunteer, but he’s been a fixture on Flagstaff RD trails since 1987. He fixes steps, cleans and replaces waterbars and brushes-out the trails so they are usable by the public. Ron also helps plan and oversee the District’s weekly volunteer trail work events, managing up to 60 people from beginners to veterans. Regular trail goers often compliment Ron’s efforts and look forward to meeting him on the trail.
Ron is also a member of the district Trail Crew, and always matches efforts of his crew mates. Sean Murphy, Trails Coordinator for the Flagstaff RD says, “He’s such an inspiration. We’ll often see him with the trail crew out-working and out-hiking men and women less than half his age!”
His love affair with trails began in 1977 when Ron transferred to Flagstaff Arizona from the mid-west and began hiking the Flagstaff trails with his son. That year he saw the Radio Fire devastate the east side of Mount Elden impact several well-known trails.  “When I saw what the fire did to the land and the trails, I knew I wanted to start taking care of things,” Ron said.  “I feel my service makes me a part of the land and I get a sense of pride from the work I do.”
When he’s is not sharing the local history with hikers or carrying waterbars up the mountain, he will gather suitable downed branches and whittle hiking sticks. For the last ten years he has taken approximately twenty hand-made hiking sticks to the Mount Elden Trailhead on the Fourth of July, free for anyone who wants one. “I haven’t had to take any sticks back yet!”
Ron was recently nominated for the Lifetime Service Award. In the nomination letter submitted by the District’s Trail Crew Foreman, Michael Anderson, his crew mates describe him as the man who “brings to work every day a respect for the Forest Service mission, 110% effort, a great attitude, and a vast array of skills that make him an asset all aspects of project work.”

We are in favor of this project as it will prevent damage to the forest and trails as well as the community of Flagstaff. Catastrophic wildfire has already caused impacts to one side of Mount Elden/Dry Lake Hills and the San Francisco Peaks that lead to devastating flooding in the communities north of town. A similar fire on the other side of the hill would be a tremendous loss for Flagstaff and our trails and woods!

We do have concerns about how this work will be performed and we have asked that the trails are treated with the utmost respect while thinning and other forest treatments are performed.

Read our comments below, and see this link for more info on this project:

http://www.fs.fed.us/nepa/nepa_project_exp.php?project=40631

Erin Phelps
Project Leader, Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project
Flagstaff Ranger District
5075 N. Highway 89
Flagstaff, AZ 86004
Comments-southwestern-coconino-flagstaff@fs.fed.us
Sent via electronic mail

Dear Ms. Phelps-

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project.

Background

Flagstaff Biking Organization (FBO) is a group of cyclists who came together to “promote bicycling as a safe and attractive means of transportation and recreation in Northern Arizona.” Our initial project was to put on a Bike to Work Week for our community in May 2002. Building on the success we started to expand our efforts to keep people informed of cycling related issues and galvanize support for better and safer facilities, trails, and trail access. We have a successful and ongoing 10+ year relationship with the Coconino National Forest, Coconino County and the City of Flagstaff, including a Memorandum of Understanding to work cooperatively to provide for non-motorized trails opportunities in the Flagstaff area. Please see http://www.flagstaffbiking.org for more information on our organization.

Most of our members recreate in the Forest surrounding Flagstaff. Our members will be directly affected by the results of this analysis and its subsequent decision. Please consider our comments as generally representative of our 200 + paid members’ concerns.

Importance of trails to the Flagstaff mountain biking community

Mountain biking is one of the most popular activities in the Forest surrounding Flagstaff! It is precisely because of the quality of the trails on the Forest that this is so. The popularity of these trails is not only evidenced by the high number of mountain bikers riding on them on any given day, but also by the large amount of stewardship dedicated to the trail system by cyclists in in the greater Flagstaff area.

As a direct result of this use and stewardship many mountain bikers feel a high degree of ownership over the condition of the trail system. We have spent the past decade developing a partnership with the Flagstaff District, which has helped to foster a sense of “involvement in the process” with most mountain bikers in the area. In order to facilitate the continuation of this goodwill, it will be important to treat the trails affected by the FWPP activities with the utmost respect.

As important as it is to do a thorough job in addressing Forest health issues that could lead to catastrophic fire and flooding that could result in the destruction of these trails and the community of Flagstaff, it is also important that these activities impact the trails as little as possible.

We support this project!

We support the City of Flagstaff and Coconino National Forest in their initiative to protect both the City and the surrounding Forest by proactively executing this and similar forest health projects.

The Schultz fire and resulting flooding demonstrated graphically how much damage can be caused by overly dense forest. The Schultz fire not only caused destruction and loss of value to private properties, it caused significant negative impacts to our trail system, which is just now beginning to recover.

We recognize the urgent need to adjust to the changes inherent in thinning and prescribed burns in order to prevent the much greater impacts of catastrophic wild fire.

Suggestions for consideration in the Draft EIS

The Proposed Action States:

“Harvesting activities would avoid forest system trails, if possible. If it is determined necessary that a trail must be used as a temporary road or skid trail, then the trail would be restored to USFS standards post-treatment.”

We appreciate the intent to restore trails post treatment, however we strongly object to the use of any system trail that was originally purpose-built as a recreational single-track trail for “temporary use as a road or skid trail”.

Many of the purpose built single-track trails on the Flagstaff District were hand built by volunteers. Purpose-built single track inherently possesses characteristics that cannot be restored once converted to road. Examples of this would be close proximity of certain trees and rocks, and the radii of turns. Although it may be possible to restore a converted single track trail to “USFS standards”, it would not be possible to restore all of the important characteristics that made the trail desirable before conversion.

We understand that some trails are located on old road beds, and these routes are preferable for re-use as roads for this project. We understand that this may be the best option in some situations, but we suggest that this should be avoided if possible.

We ask that any trails located on old road beds that are converted to temporary roads are given the utmost care in their conversion back to single-track, and that adequate funding is allocated to accomplish this restoration to the highest standard. We have been witness to poorly executed attempts at this process before. As some of the trails that might be affected are among the most valued in the Country, namely the Arizona National Scenic Trail, we feel that that this process warrants a high level of attention to detail.

This stated, we also recognize that it may be expedient to collocate road beds along the Flagstaff Loop Trail alignment that we have proposed for inclusion in the forthcoming Mount Elden Dry Lake Hills Recreation Planning, (MEDL), as this proposed alignment would be for Class 4 trail which would benefit from a wide road bed type corridor.

Similarly, we recommend that the District consider any other opportunities to utilize either clearances or impacts that result from the Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project in the analysis and/or implementation of trails in the forthcoming Mount Elden/Dry Lake Hills Recreation (MEDL) Planning as appropriate.

Please try to coordinate the implementation of the FWPP activities with the MEDL Recreation implementation as much as is feasible. There may be aspects of MEDL that are more urgent, and if at all possible we would like to see FWPP projects scheduled with this urgency in mind. This coordination to expedite aspects of MEDL will help to keep certain people in the mountain bike community engaged and enthusiastic about working with FBO and the Forest Service.

We appreciate the other language in the Proposed Action that recognizes the need to impact trails as minimally as possible in both the long and short term through prescriptions for “feathering” thinning activities, involvement of the District Trails Coordinator, etc. Please reflect as much direction to this effect in the DEIS as is possible.

Specifically, we would appreciate attention being drawn to the impact to scenery caused by marking trees with spray paint for thinning. It is our understanding that the marked trees are the ones that will not be removed. If this is true, please consider providing direction that these marks face away from trails and roads. We are frequently asked about these marks. People definitely see them as an eyesore.

The Proposed Action states:

“Special-Use Events Coordinated efforts would be made with sponsors of recreational special-use events (i.e. running or mountain biking races) to minimize the impacts of such proceedings within the project area during forest restoration activities.“

This language is confusing. We would like clarification.

On this issue, we would hope that the language would reflect the desire to accommodate and continue to allow Special Use Events during this project, even to extent of adjusting operations to allow an event to occur. As an example, most Special Use Events occur on weekends. If contractors would be working only on weekdays, perhaps equipment and slash piles could be left in such a manner as to not interfere with events.

Thank you again for this opportunity to comment. Please feel free to contact us should you have any questions regarding this input. Please include us on any further action on this proposal via email, trails@flagstaffbiking.org and US Mail, Flagstaff Biking Organization, PO Box 23851, Flagstaff, AZ 86002.

s/Anthony Quintile

Anthony Quintile, for the Board of Flagstaff Biking Organization

Flagstaff Biking Organization has hired IMBA Trail Solutions, (with a matching grant from our IMBA Regional Rep, Patrick Kell, thanks Patrick!), to build a plan and budget for the Ft. Tuthill Mountain Bike Park!

Flagstaff Biking Organization and Flagstaff Gravity Riders will be coordinating a public meeting, with IMBA Trail Solutions and Coconino County Parks and Recreation Staff in attendance, to gather input on what sorts of specific features are most desired by riders in the area. FBO/FGR will be making a shortish presentation and then we will be working on some exercises to get input on what specific features everyone would like to see at the Fort Tuthill Mountain Bike Park, and in what priority.

Take our short online survey here!

AND…

Join us on Wednesday, April 24th, 7:00 pm- 9:00 pm, Coconino County Supervisors Chambers, 219 E. Cherry Ave.

Please spread the word!

For more information, call Anthony Quintile @ 928-526-7704 or email him.

This planning and subsequent action is primarily to reduce the threat of catastrophic forest fire in the Mount Elden/Dry Lake Hills area.

From the GFFP:

“In Nov 2012, Flagstaff city voters overwhelmingly approved Ballot Question #405 – The Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project (FWPP).  The purpose of the FWPP is to reduce the threat of high-severity wildfire and subsequent post-fire flooding into the city and the Lake Mary Reservoir from the Dry Lake Hills and Mormon Mountain areas, respectfully.

Currently, the Coconino National Forest is preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to evaluate and disclose the effects of treating these National Forest lands.  The City of Flagstaff is a Cooperating Agency in this effort, and is actively participating in the project’s development, analysis, and eventual implementation.

The Greater Flagstaff Forests Partnership (GFFP), on behalf of the City of Flagstaff, would like to invite you to an informational meeting about the FWPP on April 10, 2013 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Coconino Center for the Arts (2300 N Fort Valley Road).  The meeting will be informational in nature and specifically about the FWPP effort. This meeting is focused toward the various recreational user groups of the Dry Lake Hills area; you are being invited based on your interest/use in the area.  This meeting will provide basic information about the project, including timelines and goals, and seek to answer questions and gather feedback for the City which will be incorporated into the planning process.

Currently, the Forest Service is in the process of developing a Proposed Action (PA), which is anticipated for public release in mid-April 2013.  Additional public meetings will be held periodically throughout the FWPP planning process.  More information about the project is available in the attached document and on the project website: http://www.flagstaffwatershedprotection.org/

We look forward to seeing you there.

Anne Mottek Lucas

Greater Flagstaff Forest Partnership Board Representative

mottekconsulting@infomagic.net

928-310-8102″