News

I would like to thank everyone who helped out raising money at the SRRTF booth this past weekend at the bike festival. During the three day period, $6,754.00 was raised just from the SRRTF crew engaging with the festival on goers. We will also have revenue from the efforts of the VVCC festival booth, online revenue and various vendors making donations.

My sincere THANK YOU to Dan Blaettler, Bonnie Miller, Deb Gens, Lela Montefort, Marilyn Paul, Stephanie Giesbrecht and Liz Sweeney for volunteering your time at the booth.

Woohoo! Bonnie's running the donation on the card reader.

As the festival was winding down on Sunday March 8, 2020, Jason Contino with Adidas 5.10 made a $438.00 donation to SRRTF to help care for our red rock trails. Thank you for your support!

On Wednesday January 29, 2020, Keep Sedona Beautiful held their annual award ceremony. This year, SRRTF Director and Trail Keeper, Mike Raney received an award for Community Service. 

Mike accepting his award

Mike with his award!

SRRTF Board Members Congratulating Mike

Additionally, the Sedona Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Bureau, was also honored for Sustainability.

Congratulations Mike and Jennifer!

Click here to view Scott Buffon's AZ Daily Sun article that references the SRRTF's efforts in Sedona.

Courthouse Butte trail was one of the four trails submitted to RRRD earlier this year as “small projects” to be addressed. I’m happy to share pictures of repairs and enhancement work recently completed to the north section of this trail.

A couple photos show crushed rock as the surface, it was covered with the dirt top fill the following day. 

                             

A big Thank You to Forrest, the RRRD crew and volunteers, great job!

Earlier this year, committee member Pam Milavec requested sections of Transept Trail be reviewed to see if improvements could be made to create a better flow for bike riders. On November 26th Forrest Saville of the RRRD accompanied committee members Jennifer, Pam, Phil and Joan along the Transept Trail.  As explained by Jennifer, Forrest and Phil, the design as a "black diamond" trail is to leave the natural rock outcrops and narrow tread, to create a challenging ride for advanced bike riders. Forrest assured us that erosion on the downside of the trail would be repaired as needed.

   

2019-2020 Red Rock District Non-motorized Trail Crew

Front Row From Left: Maya Rugg , Kyle Robb, Forrest Saville, Adan Garcia

Back Row from Left: Matt Barnes, Leslie Geiss, James Godwin, Brett Newcomer, Jamie Nickel, Noall Hillyard, Kenny Quillan

In late October 2019, the Red Rock District fielded its largest ever season trail crew of 10 members. The crew, led by Kyle Robb and Forrest Saville have a goal to maintain 300 miles of non-motorized trails in the District this season.

Federal appropriations on cover 13% of the crew's annual cost this Federal fiscal year. The City of Sedona (12%), User Fees (11%) and donations to the Sedona Red Rock Trail Fund (SRRTF) (62%) cover the bulk of this crew's cost. Additionally, the SRRTF will be fielding two eight person youth crews from the American Conservation Experience in Flagstaff starting January 8, 2020. These youth crews will be working for eight weeks to help finish construction of the Western Gateway trail system.

Thank you for your support of the Sedona Red Rock Trail Fund.

SRRTF Director Joan Bouck

Project Places Priority on Non-Motorized Trail Experience for All User Groups

Shortly after its completion in early 2018, local equestrian and SRRTF Board member Joan Bouck noticed that the north end of the Rector Connector Trail near Bell Rock was not suited for equestrian use, even though the trail was open to equestrians, due to the trail's design over rock ledges. Joan also noticed a trend in that some multi-use trail segments, including old ones that are revamped and new construction, fail to achieve a multi-use design. While a very small percentage of the total available trail mileage, this trend was having an outsized impact on the quality of Joan's experience and she was sure she was not alone in this belief.

Joan shared her concerns and before you know it, the SRRTF created a committee for "small project" projects. This committee's purpose is to identify, assess and support small projects to ensure that our local non-motorized trails are suitable and enjoyable to the widest scope of user-types and skill levels. The most obvious small projects examples are: rock armoring that is too tight and thus becomes powdery and slippery…causing users to avoid it and create an alternate line; brushing that prohibits horse passage; and segments of trail that are too steep and are inconsistent with the rest of the trail, causing equestrians/bikers to have to dismount.

"Trail design and construction methods here in Red Rock have evolved and improved SIGNIFICANTLY in the past decade" said SRRTF Director Jen Burns. "The District used to just make trails point A to B, not really even thinking about the user!!

Now a real effort is made to have well designed trails. However, we need to keep pushing the evolution, and not backtrack either. There are quite a few challenges and opportunities I think, to improve the situation" Burns added.

When notified of this effort, RRRD Ranger Nicole Branton stated "taking this proactive approach to addressing how we might have inadvertently built to exclude some users is just another example of the kind of leadership that the SRRTF takes in our community. Not only will it help us be even better (and more inclusive) in the future, but it shows real compassion and professionalism."

The Small Project Committee is tasked with developing a process to create the best and broadest user experience on our non-motorized trails. The process will be limited to small projects on trail segments that fail to achieve a multiuse design. The process shall address:

• The types of small projects the process will serve taking into account the RRRD process of review, to include determination of cultural clearances and necessity of additional planning or assessment, if any.
  
• How user experience small project needs are identified – preferably crowd sourced – from existing local resources/capabilities.
  
• How small project needs are accessed on paper and field evaluations are conducted.
  
• How small project solutions are agreed to, documented and prioritized for the identified need.
  
• How small project solutions are recommended to the RRRD for work schedule inclusion.
  

Currently, this committee consists of SRRTF Directors Joan Bouck, Stephanie Giesbrecht and Jen Burns as well as local trail designer Phil Kincheloe. Since SRRTF committee membership is open to the public other committee members are Marty Glinsky, Pam Milavec, Don Kling and Linda Schermer to make a broad representation of trail users. The SRRTF sought passionate local hikers, equestrians, mountain bikers and outdoor enthusiasts who would like to make the difference with our local trails to join this committee in its important work.

On November 8, 2018, 24 volunteers descended upon the Cultural Park to break ground on the Western Gateway Trail System in the first volunteer trail work day of the 2018-2019 season. Those volunteers constructed .14 miles of trail and cleared far more.

All in all, the RRRD scheduled 27 workdays with the last one ending right where we started at the Cultural Park on April 25th. Two work days were cancelled due to the Federal government shutdown and two due to snowmaggendon. Of the 23 workdays that were held, 19 involved building the Western Gateway, another officially opened the Transept Trail in the VOC, followed by workdays at Adobe Jack area, Boynton Canyon and Mund Wagon/Huckaby.

Workday sponsors included the Verde Valley Cyclists Coalitoin, the Friends of the Forest, Sedona Chamber of Commerce, Absolute Bikes, Keep Sedona Beautiful, Enchantment Resort, Wildland Trekking, Over the Edge Sports, and the SRRTF/REI.

550 volunteers contributed over 2,200 hours and constructed 7.88 miles of trail, maintained another 18.5 miles, adopted .6 miles and rehabbed 2.13 miles. 

A huge thank you to the volunteers, sponsors and RRRD! Photos courtesy of the RRRD.

The 2019 Sedona Mountain Bike Festival (March 1-3) was a huge fundraising success, due to the tremendous combined efforts by the Sedona Red Rock Trail Fund and the Verde Valley Cyclists Coalition. Final figures show a total of $22,635 was raised through our raffle giveaway, individual donations, a generous donation from 5.10 Clothing, and Festival beer sales & tips. This was more than double the amount raised at last year’s Festival. The raffle was the biggest winner, bringing in almost $16,100 in donations. More than $21,000 worth of donated prizes were gathered by the SRRTF and VVCC Festival committees. The accompanying picture shows some of the delighted raffle winners and a list of the prize donors.