Latest / Go Wildly Podcast / Ep. 10 | The Singletrack Mind: How a Childhood Obsession with Bikes Built a Life of Adventure & Purpose

Transcript

Ep. 10 | The Singletrack Mind: How a Childhood Obsession with Bikes Built a Life of Adventure & Purpose · Go Wildly Podcast

• 0:00
  If you're shutting down the nonprofit, like can we just have
• 0:03
  it? Like, can we adopt it?
• 0:05
  He's like, Oh my God, yes. Like it's actually really hard
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  to shut down a nonprofit. Morality for me is like carrying
• 0:12
  a saw and clearing. Like hit the very first thing I
• 0:15
  could hit on my bike, fell on my ass and bruised my tailbone and
• 0:19
  was like, that was sick. Dude, you're going to have to
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  fucking RIP me from this bike because I'm not going anywhere.
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  And like, earliest trail building that I did was actually
• 0:29
  down in Costa Rica chopping up Guayaba trees.
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  And then I was like, I was like eating guayabas off these trees.
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  And then also like building ladder bridges and jumpy like
• 0:37
  carggling wild Turkey and riding mountain bikes the next morning.
• 0:40
  And just like it was a crazy time.
• 0:46
  Welcome in welcome in everybody. This is the 10th episode of the
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  Go Wildly podcast. Yes #10 two digits baby.
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  OK. Today we are hanging out with
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  Larry Sussman, longtime mountain biker, former racer, total
• 1:02
  gearhead, and now an all in trail steward.
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  Larry grew up chasing single track in Nevada City, CA and
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  bikes have been the common thread tying together his
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  childhood, career and community. We talked about how that early
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  passion, everything from his first job to the way he shows up
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  to the trails today. No longer racing, just riding
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  now for the soul of it. It's a story about passion,
• 1:26
  growth and keeping the wheels turning.
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  Here it is, everybody welcoming Larry.
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  So we ended. Up just buying a house right
• 1:35
  down the street from him in Grants Pass and I've driven
• 1:37
  through Grants Pass a couple times and then like oh I wonder
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  if I could live here but we hadn't really explored around
• 1:43
  here. I know that when we were in
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  contract on the House, we hiked Cathedral Hills and we're like,
• 1:47
  that's pretty sweet. And it was a mile from there.
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  And we're sold and we're like, yeah, we'll move here and make
• 1:52
  it work, whatever happens. And so.
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  And then you came into the bike shop.
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  Yeah, well, no. And then my parents were living
• 1:58
  in Costa Rica at the time and asked me to house sit for them.
• 2:01
  So for three months, I was living in a cabin in Nevada
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  City, shoveling snow and dealing with power outages.
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  And Sierra moved into the house all by herself and like, moved
• 2:10
  the bed and couch and whatever and like, got situated and she
• 2:14
  came into the bike shop and said, hi, I like to ride bikes.
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  I need friends and made a bunch of friends for me so I moved
• 2:22
  here three months later and she moved here like you were.
• 2:25
  Instantly in the crew. Yeah, exactly.
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  I think the first they. Were all like, oh, we've heard
• 2:29
  so much about you you're finally.
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  Here, Yeah. He's like the boyfriend who
• 2:32
  doesn't go here kind of. I'm.
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  I moved here like on a Tuesday and I think that Friday we drove
• 2:39
  to Bandon for Shawn's birthday and I and we did that big ride
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  and that's How I Met all of our friends and like Vance and
• 2:44
  everybody. Like that was literally like,
• 2:47
  boom, OK, like community done. And then from there, like you
• 2:50
  guys have been like the core like, because when we moved
• 2:53
  here, we didn't know anyone except for Ryan.
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  And then she just went on the bike shop and met all of you.
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  And then that's like gone down these different trails.
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  And now I like know so many people.
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  And every time I go into town, I see someone I know, I saw you in
• 3:04
  town like yesterday or something driving down the street.
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  I was like, hey, that's a Prius. So like, I just love that small
• 3:10
  town feel. And yeah, we've been super happy
• 3:13
  here. The outdoor recreation is
• 3:14
  everything for us. And we're fully sold on Grants
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  Pass and we're committed and we've put roots down.
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  So it's. I love that and I love you guys.
• 3:23
  Like I instantly felt I know that like I was saying in the
• 3:27
  beginning, I don't know much about you guys and as a like
• 3:30
  core, like we haven't, you know, like me and like we should
• 3:34
  double date. We should go on like a double
• 3:35
  date and just like hang out. But like whenever I get Sierra
• 3:38
  alone or you alone, it's like, boom, like you guys are on my
• 3:42
  fucking wavelength with life and like chatty, like there's no
• 3:46
  struggle in conversation, you know?
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  And like conversation, it's kind of an art form to be able to
• 3:52
  like keep it rolling, keep the conversation flowing and like
• 3:56
  have that back and forth. That's why I think I'm just
• 3:58
  like, really connected to Ellen as well.
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  Because she's amazing at that. She's.
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  Really good at combo, yes. And I'm just attracted to that
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  because I can talk and I like her.
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  Story is amazing too. Well, we might get earned.
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  It last time I saw her and I didn't know any of her story and
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  her story is so insane you could write a book about it like.
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  Well, we'll make a podcast episode about.
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  That we'll get Ellen on. She was one of the first people
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  to like, I sent her the podcast. She did not know I was doing a
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  podcast. I when we went to their house
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  for the full moon party, I was just pretty much just talking
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  about real estate with her the whole time.
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  And then she sent me a message the next day and she's like, I
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  would love to like, one day do a project with you.
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  And I was like, oh, Ellen, like, that's so like, thank you.
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  She's like, I don't know if that was weird or upfront.
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  And I'm like, no, that's how I operate.
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  Like, that's why I like, put it out there.
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  Yeah. And.
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  That's how we ended up here was I just hit up Heather and I was
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  like, hey, I think we should do something together.
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  I love that. Also, I love your hat.
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  I didn't see that on there. I wasn't, I just put it on so.
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  That's awesome. Thank you.
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  And I sent her so I didn't tell her what I was up to, but we had
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  been working on this hard. I mean, this was just like last,
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  not this full moon, but last full moon and.
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  That's a time period of measurement.
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  Yeah, yeah. Well, they had the full.
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  I know. I know, I'm just joking around.
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  And. And then we went out and
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  recorded the next day. Yeah, we had to double, double
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  header, yeah. And I just like randomly I was
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  like, I'm gonna send this to her.
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  This chick is cool. And she was like, Heather, what
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  the hell? That was amazing.
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  I'm she was listening to it like right then and it was like she's
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  like, this is super cool, like fucking kudos and anyway.
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  She's awesome. So yeah, yeah, I.
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  Love that? Well, we're so glad that you
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  chose Grants Pass to put down your your new roots.
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  Where what Like what got you into biking?
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  How did this? And.
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  The bikes, yeah, the bikes have been this thread of your life
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  and taken you so many places, literally and figuratively.
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  How did that even begin? Yeah, that's that's such a great
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  question. I think that's kind of the core
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  of everything and everything happens for that reason.
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  Have you guys heard of the butterfly effect?
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  It's like this idea that if a butterfly flaps its wings 100
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  miles away, a storm cycle might change and there could be a
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  hurricane or something like that.
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  So little tiny inputs create massive outputs that are all
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  directly related. Chaos theory.
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  I think for me, biking has been a huge part of my life and has
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  been freedom and resilience primarily and kind of goes back
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  to where I grew up and how I grew up.
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  So I grew up in Nevada City, CA. I would say it's the best place
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  in the world to grow up riding a mountain bike.
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  It's one of the coolest places to ride because it's very
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  connected. There's tons of irrigation
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  canals that are all open, no gates that you can use to
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  connect places and single track. And I would ride like we lived 5
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  miles outside of town kind of out in the boonies.
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  And I would ride a mix of like dirt roads and trails to my
• 6:54
  friends houses. And I didn't get my driver's
• 6:56
  license until I was 18 1/2 because I would just ride my
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  bike everywhere on trails in the woods.
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  So bikes have been kind of like this Ave. for freedom for me,
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  grew up in a really small house that my dad built and it was
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  like 1000 square feet. And we're a family of five.
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  And I wanted to not be in that house.
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  And so I would just get on my bike and I'd ride down the
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  street to the first speed bump and.
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  Then all right, quick battery switch brake.
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  While I'm switching those out, let me put you on to something
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  really cool and that is the Southern Oregon Trail Alliance
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  or SOTA with AT for short. And they're the folks out there
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  keeping some of our favorite trails beautiful, clear and
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  ready for adventure. But what I love most about SODA
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  is their mission. It's literally in the name
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  alliance. They bring people together,
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  other trail orgs, volunteers, locals, businesses.
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  It's all about community and working side by side to care
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  about the places that we love. They've kicked off a new group,
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  Trail Run Day, and they've got some super fun ideas for future
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  trail events and I love that. So whether you want to swing a
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  tool, going to run, or just throw a couple bucks their way,
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  it all makes a difference. Follow Southern Oregon Trail
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  Alliance on socials, get involved, donate, and let's keep
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  these trails wild, rugged, and open for adventure.
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  All right, we are back to it off.
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  Each other and telling the story.
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  Which I did think about you in Sierra I.
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  Totally agree, but I sometimes need her to be there to like
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  fill in some of. The details, We can do that
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  again. Yeah, you'll nature.
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  One yeah or do heard like her story is cool too like there's.
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  We could do her separately and then have a like.
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  In a year or something, yeah, we.
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  Come back together with a couple, Yeah.
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  Where are they now? Right.
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  OK, so. Small house, small 1000 square
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  foot one in the family of lives. Yeah, 12 acres in the woods,
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  like fully, fully, just out there in the boonies.
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  My job was like a hermit before he ever had kids.
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  And so, yeah, we were just out there like kind of on our own.
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  And I started just riding bikes just like crappy little bikes,
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  you know, just riding down the street and I'd take the tires
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  off and just ride the rims down the down the street like gravel
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  roads and stuff. Like it was weird.
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  But in 6th grade I think the the big shift for me with 6th grade
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  2009 which. 1000. Dates me heavily.
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  The opposite because we were like 10 years older.
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  Than yeah, exactly. We graduated.
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  That's what I'm. Saying that I'm so young, but
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  yeah, so I'm in 6th grade in 2009 and there's something
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  called Bike Shop and it was the bicycle recycle project.
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  It was actually an elective at my school where we would take
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  donated bikes, repair them and donate them to the homeless.
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  And so that was a super cool program.
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  It taught me how to work on bikes.
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  I remember the very first class I learned how to adjust ball
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  bearings in a bike hub. And I still do that to this day,
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  like in that little finesse that I learned in that class and all
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  those little skills I still use to this day because I run
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  Shimano hubs and they have ball bearings.
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  And so that got me into working on bikes, but I still wasn't
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  into mountain bikes yet. But my homeroom teacher and I
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  should shout out for the record, Steve Davis, Rich Looney and
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  Kurt Stevens were kind of the three people with that bicycle
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  recycle project who really helped me learn how to work on
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  bikes. They were all professional bike
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  mechanics and really just taught me everything I know helped me
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  build my first real mountain bike that had like good brakes
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  and actual suspension fork and took me mountain biking and just
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  kind of opened this door for me. And, and there was like a little
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  bike club and we started going on like group rides out on those
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  irrigation canals. And I just fell in love with
• 10:37
  mountain biking. And around that time, mountain
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  bike films started coming out. So like the collective Roam and
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  seasons where these mountain bike films about mountain bike
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  racers and free riders doing massive jumps and a bunch of
• 10:51
  like Whistler segments. And I saw that and my eyes got
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  big and I immediately like took that DVD home, watched it, went
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  outside, gone on my bike, like hit the very first thing I could
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  hit on my bike, fell on my ass and bruised my tailbone.
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  Was like, that was sick. And then I was just fully hooked
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  after that. And that was like, I was living
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  vicariously through these DVD's of mountain bike videos and just
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  dreaming of like the day that I could go to Whistler.
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  And, and that just became my passion.
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  And I was always an obsessive kid.
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  I like, I could name any single car driving down the street at
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  the time. Like back then, cars didn't all
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  look alike. So, and I would read the car
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  magazines and I just, I knew everything about cars.
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  I knew everything. What's really?
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  Funny is that I have a secret love for cars as well.
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  Not like working on them, but just cars.
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  Yeah, and I have literally said that to myself and practiced on
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  a road trip of calling out cars by headlights.
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  Oh, I love that. Yes, that's funny.
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  Yeah. They have faces that you can
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  recognize. It's just.
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  Like looking at people, the Dodge Ram, yeah, that's not
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  easy. That's not a Ford F-150, no.
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  That's like a 2007. To 2012 election.
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  I find that's so impressive because I am not like that
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  whatsoever. But I was on a drive with my
• 12:01
  ex-boyfriend and he was able to do that.
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  And I was like, like, he'd be like, that's a, that's a Ford,
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  whatever, blah, blah. And I'm like, hmm.
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  Then we get up close to him like fuck, you're right.
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  You have to like read the name on the back to.
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  See what it is? Yeah, it's.
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  Like I can't do any of this. That's so cool.
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  I'm a I'm a know it all too. I love that.
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  When there's like a post where there's like security camera
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  footage and they're like, looking for a suspect, Yeah.
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  And it's like the blurry picture of a car.
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  I'm like, oh, I know what that is like.
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  I see people respond like that. I'm like, yeah, how?
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  Oh, dude, that's my favorite thing.
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  I just want to be like signed up for like CSI car spotting and
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  then just like tell you what model car and what year and
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  what's wrong with it too? Because like you can kind of see
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  sometimes like, oh, it's missing a hubcap or the grill's broken
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  or this lights out and details. I'm a details guy, so I was
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  always in the details and learning how to work on bikes,
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  just being fully detail oriented.
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  And that was kind of that that big push into mountain biking.
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  And that really became my identity was just bikes and, and
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  mountain biking specifically because that was just like the
• 13:02
  trails were there. I had the trails in the town
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  that I used to get to my friend's houses and.
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  Did you have anybody riding with you?
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  Like when you got into mountain biking, you were just like so by
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  yourself essentially. I used to ride like down the
• 13:15
  street with my dad and he would kind of go on like these little
• 13:18
  three mile rides and so I'd go with him for that.
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  And then when I got into mountain biking, I went on like
• 13:24
  a couple of group rides with my like, school.
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  But very quickly after that, I finished 6th grade and my
• 13:32
  parents decided to move us to Costa Rica.
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  And so I had to say goodbye to that bike shop that was like
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  this community of friends that I had and all these riding buddies
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  that I had and moved down to Costa Rica, which I'd been going
• 13:46
  down there for a long time. My mom's from there and stuff.
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  But at the time we thought we were moving there permanently.
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  So you're like 12. Yeah, exactly.
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  I'm 12 and this is my formative years.
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  And I didn't speak a lick of Spanish.
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  I could say Hola and Peravia, and that was about it.
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  And so went down there and took my bike.
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  And I remember being at the airport in Sacramento and I had
• 14:05
  my bike in a box and they, they were like, oh, it's oversized.
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  Like it can't go. We, we won't allow it on the
• 14:12
  plane. And I was just like, dude,
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  you're going to have to fucking rip me from this bike because
• 14:18
  I'm not going anywhere. And like, by the grace of God,
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  like they saw that I was like so serious that I was not going
• 14:24
  anywhere. And they're like, OK, we'll
• 14:25
  like, let it slide. My dad like slipped him 100
• 14:27
  bucks or something. And like, I got to take my bike
• 14:29
  to Costa Rica. Without that, I don't know where
• 14:31
  I'd be, but so and I got to take it with me the day I moved
• 14:36
  there. Like it was my luggage.
• 14:37
  It wasn't like we shipped it down later.
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  So the second I landed that bike was like the only tie I had to
• 14:43
  home and my old life and this like new lifestyle and identity
• 14:48
  that I'd built for myself. And I worked on it myself.
• 14:51
  And I, you know, I was changing flat tires all the time.
• 14:53
  I was always getting flat tires. And it was this like symbol of
• 14:56
  freedom and actual machine for freedom because if I didn't have
• 15:00
  the bike, I was stuck at home. I was stuck at my family's
• 15:02
  house. I like, I had to go wherever my
• 15:04
  parents wanted me to, but with the bike, I could just go
• 15:06
  anywhere. And the more I rode, the further
• 15:09
  I could go. So I just started like, you
• 15:11
  know, when you play video games, not that I do play video games,
• 15:14
  but I've seen that when 1 plays video games, you explore this
• 15:17
  map and there's like dark areas and as you explore them, they
• 15:20
  light up. I just started like exploring my
• 15:23
  map. And Shawn and I talk about that.
• 15:25
  We refer to it. We just made the correlation.
• 15:28
  We think that in our brains as we like explore.
• 15:31
  So we went up to the Green Springs and we're like, oh, it's
• 15:34
  a new like little path unlock, yes.
• 15:35
  Map yes, and that road is so sick by the way, that Green
• 15:38
  Springs highway is amazing. Anyway, yeah, so I just started
• 15:42
  exploring and we moved down to Costa Rica and I went into 7th
• 15:46
  grade there, had to learn Spanish.
• 15:48
  It took me about 8 months to learn Spanish and then about a
• 15:50
  year until I was speaking like such native fluent Costa Rican
• 15:54
  Spanish with the slang and all the curse words from school that
• 15:58
  they all thought I was like born there and stuff.
• 16:00
  It was really cool actually. Where in Costa Rica were you?
• 16:02
  I was in San Ysidro to hand it out.
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  So like the southern zone on the Pacific side.
• 16:06
  And then we actually ended up moving and living in a little
• 16:10
  tiny town called Pacuarito, which is like on the highway
• 16:13
  from San Ysidro to Dominicale. And Dominicale is like a really
• 16:16
  popular place where a lot of expats go.
• 16:17
  So I was about 1/2 an hour from Dominicale and then.
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  Probably Dominicale's one. Of my an hour from Manuel
• 16:23
  Antonio. So really beautiful place.
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  Spent like an entire summer going to a new beach every day
• 16:28
  and like did a ton of riding. Still need to go to Costa Rica.
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  Together, that would be. That would be the double date.
• 16:33
  That would be the double date, yeah.
• 16:35
  That'd be. Yeah, good, Sean down there.
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  I'd be so sick. We need to yeah like that'd be
• 16:39
  so sick just cuz I have a little bit of ties there not like well,
• 16:43
  yeah, I guess you've. Spent a ton of time down there.
• 16:45
  Yeah. No, it's an amazing place and I,
• 16:47
  I love it. I still have gone back and my
• 16:49
  whole mom's side of the family is down there and cool.
• 16:51
  There's a lot of people down there who I really love and a
• 16:54
  lot of friends. Like, I immediately moved down
• 16:56
  there and I started making friends, riding bikes and going
• 16:59
  to the bike shop and I've always done this.
• 17:01
  There were already other mountain bikers and.
• 17:04
  It was not like big mountain bike scene, but there were
• 17:07
  bikers and there were people who like bikes and it was.
• 17:10
  Locals or expats? Locals, yeah, all locals.
• 17:13
  Like I didn't really have like any expat friends ever down
• 17:17
  there. I was fully immersed, you know,
• 17:18
  so it was all locals, but. But I went in the bike shop.
• 17:22
  Luis Ramirez is 1 and he like he used to race like European road
• 17:26
  bike races and stuff like he was an old racer and let me like
• 17:29
  work on bikes in his shop like for free.
• 17:32
  And I was just like hanging out. I was just a shop gum like he
• 17:35
  didn't have me as an employee. I was just like there and I
• 17:37
  would just be like tinkering and stuff.
• 17:39
  So that was super cool and started doing rides and just
• 17:42
  exploring all over. And Costa Rica is an awesome
• 17:44
  place for for riding a bike. It was it's what you would call
• 17:47
  gravel now like there, but there's never any single track
• 17:50
  trails, but I would just ride like super gnarly rutted out
• 17:53
  dirt roads with like big dips and you know, just.
• 17:55
  Like a giant trail. Yeah, it's just a giant trail,
• 17:58
  tons of lines and and then all the hills are stupid steep
• 18:02
  there. So I got like pretty Dang fit
• 18:05
  and I would just ride and I would, I'd leave the house and
• 18:08
  going back to the question of like, did I have anyone with me?
• 18:11
  No, like I would just go by myself and I had like 1 water
• 18:14
  bottle And when that ran out, I would just stop into a house and
• 18:17
  ask them like, hey, can I fill up my water bottle?
• 18:19
  And then I would just like ride to the next town or whatever.
• 18:23
  And I absolutely loved it. And it was like that bike was a
• 18:27
  Schwinn Mace. It was like blue and yellow.
• 18:28
  It was like that tie that I had to like my old life in Nevada
• 18:32
  City. And it gave me all this freedom
• 18:35
  and I started building trails. So we had about 6 acres of
• 18:38
  property and it was all like jungle.
• 18:39
  And I would cut down trees with a little bow saw and then I
• 18:43
  would like limb them up and then build like I'd dig holes in the
• 18:46
  ground and I'd # these posts in. And then I'd build like these
• 18:49
  North Shore style, like ladder bridge jumps and drops and like
• 18:53
  all this cool stuff. And so that was like kind of
• 18:55
  maybe the earliest trail building that I did was actually
• 18:58
  down in Costa Rica chopping up Guayaba trees.
• 19:02
  And I was like, I was like eating quiet hours off these
• 19:04
  trees. And then also like building
• 19:05
  ladder bridges and jumps and and just like trying to shred, you
• 19:08
  know what any. Cool tie between like you were
• 19:12
  building trails at a very young age in Costa Rica and now you're
• 19:16
  building trails now. Pretty much, yeah.
• 19:18
  It's been a. Really highlighting the
• 19:20
  importance of nurturing young interest and things we talked
• 19:24
  beyond that. You never know what kind of
• 19:27
  impact you're gonna have on a young person like these
• 19:31
  teachers, these, yes, mentors, mentors and like mechanics in
• 19:36
  6th grade who they probably had no idea that you would be here
• 19:40
  today running a trail alliance and building trails and still
• 19:44
  biking. And yet they just were welcoming
• 19:47
  and supportive and encouraging and like directed the trajectory
• 19:53
  of your life. You never know what kind of
• 19:55
  impact you're going to have on a young person and how they're
• 19:57
  going to how it's going to inform the way that they live
• 19:59
  the rest of their life. I.
• 20:01
  Fully believe that I just kind of followed this passion I had.
• 20:04
  I was like I said, I had an addictive personality and I was
• 20:06
  very passionate. And I mean, Kurt is still one of
• 20:09
  my best friends in my life to this day.
• 20:11
  And I, I, I just love how much history like he's seen me from
• 20:15
  being a young child to now. And, and it's pretty amazing.
• 20:20
  Like bikes. Bikes gave me all of the
• 20:24
  relationships I have, all of the travel I've ever done and my
• 20:28
  entire career up until this job right now, I've always worked in
• 20:32
  the bike industry. This is, this is the first job
• 20:34
  that I've ever worked outside the bike industry that isn't
• 20:36
  somehow related to biking, which is actually kind of crazy.
• 20:39
  So it's, it's a very common thread.
• 20:41
  And yeah, lived in Costa Rica for a while and then I
• 20:44
  complained enough. I really missed, I really missed
• 20:47
  California. I, I struggled down there.
• 20:49
  I was really homesick and I didn't fit in, and I made some
• 20:55
  friends and I had some really cool experiences and I still
• 20:57
  love Costa Rica, but there's nowhere else I'd rather live
• 21:01
  than the United States. So we managed to come back and
• 21:07
  came into high school in California and.
• 21:11
  That you did all of middle school in Costa Rica.
• 21:13
  Pretty much like 7th and 8th grade, so 2 1/2 years.
• 21:16
  I actually got two really long summer vacations, which is super
• 21:19
  cool. I, I moved down there like at
• 21:22
  the end of summer vacation here like in August or whatever of
• 21:26
  2009, but then I only went back to school in like February
• 21:29
  because that was their summer vacation.
• 21:31
  So I got like a ton of time off then and then I did 7th and 8th
• 21:34
  grade and then when I finished that, I had like summer vacation
• 21:36
  there and then I came back here for summer vacation and then I
• 21:39
  went into 9th grade. And so I like, I actually played
• 21:43
  it, played it pretty nice there. It wasn't any of my own doing.
• 21:46
  That was my parents just dragging me along.
• 21:48
  Again, I had to go where my parents went unless I was on my
• 21:51
  bike. So came back to the United
• 21:54
  States and went right back to that bike shop.
• 21:57
  So I would walk from the high school about 3 miles down to the
• 22:01
  middle school on the highway just after school to go to that
• 22:05
  middle school's after school program and like help teach
• 22:09
  younger kids how to work on bikes.
• 22:10
  Go back to where you got your start and give back.
• 22:13
  Exactly. And then and then help them
• 22:14
  build bikes. And then I built another bike
• 22:17
  and, and started riding that one like way more because I had this
• 22:22
  base of fitness coming from Costa Rica and this exploration.
• 22:25
  And I was back in my homelands on my home turf and started
• 22:28
  riding around and then got connected with with some folks.
• 22:32
  Don Hoffler and Eric Newtman were the coaches of the mountain
• 22:35
  bike team at the time. And, and some of my friends in
• 22:39
  my classes were part of the mountain bike team and they were
• 22:41
  doing these races and, and I was like, Hey, that looks like fun.
• 22:43
  And so I managed to tag along with one of them to a race and
• 22:48
  signed up for my first ever mountain bike race.
• 22:50
  And I was racing with all these kids who were on the mountain
• 22:52
  bike team and they were all training all the time.
• 22:54
  And I'd never done a race. I didn't know anything what to
• 22:58
  do. I'm like riding just, you know,
• 22:59
  skate shoes and, you know, like normal shorts and just like just
• 23:04
  a newer kid to mountain biking. But I had this insane fitness
• 23:08
  from just using my bike to go explore everywhere that I ended
• 23:11
  up winning that race on accident.
• 23:13
  I just like followed my friend for three laps and then at the
• 23:16
  end I was like, he's going kind of slow up this hill.
• 23:18
  I guess I can pass him and then just like.
• 23:20
  Was it what an enduro race? It was a cross country race.
• 23:23
  So I got into cross country at the very beginning and, and it
• 23:26
  was this fitness and this exploration and that was kind of
• 23:29
  the thing. And so that that came so easily
• 23:32
  to me that I was like, well. I'm good at this.
• 23:34
  I really like this. And so I signed up for the
• 23:36
  mountain bike team and started racing cross country during high
• 23:39
  school. So did a three years of cross
• 23:42
  country racing in high school and the Norcal League, the NICA.
• 23:47
  And that was also incredibly formative.
• 23:49
  I think that's that's where I made like a ton of friendships
• 23:53
  during high school and made friendships with like other kids
• 23:56
  who went to other schools and stuff like that.
• 23:59
  And, and that really like showed me racing and, and give me like
• 24:03
  a competitive spirit and all the stuff.
• 24:05
  And it was it was an incredibly cool period.
• 24:07
  And then after that went off to College in Reno, which is only
• 24:11
  about an hour and a half away from Nevada City.
• 24:13
  So I didn't go too far and got into collegiate racing and
• 24:16
  collegiate racing is everything. So in one weekend you can race
• 24:21
  cross country, short track, dual slalom, super D and downhill.
• 24:26
  And so I just signed up for all of them and I would race them
• 24:28
  all and I loved it. And Reno's really where I like
• 24:32
  started riding gravity and going to bike parks and riding with
• 24:36
  people who are a lot better than me with technical skills and
• 24:40
  hitting jumps and just like doing more aggressive riding.
• 24:43
  Before then, I was just like all about peddling.
• 24:46
  But when I moved to Reno, I started doing that kind of
• 24:48
  gnarlier riding and that. The Nessie riding like.
• 24:52
  Yeah, it was sick. And I ended up going to like
• 24:54
  nationals a couple times and that was super cool and just
• 24:57
  traveling for mountain biking and.
• 24:59
  Never get sponsored and. I got like small little
• 25:02
  sponsorships here and there. Yeah, I, I never like to like
• 25:05
  flex that stuff. Like, you know, I can tell you I
• 25:07
  got like 15th and nationals and I was blah, blah.
• 25:10
  And like, I was sponsored by this and that.
• 25:11
  But it's like it was just whatever.
• 25:13
  I was doing it for fun. It wasn't like I wasn't going to
• 25:15
  do it for a career. Like, I, I knew that I needed to
• 25:17
  find a job, but I just did it for the love and the
• 25:20
  friendships. And collegiate racing is the
• 25:23
  coolest because it's mostly just a party in the woods with a
• 25:27
  bunch of other college kids and you're sleeping on people's
• 25:29
  couches or camping. And I made so many friendships,
• 25:33
  like to this day, anytime I travel somewhere like I know
• 25:35
  someone in whatever town and I've slept on so many couches.
• 25:40
  But now we like constantly make sure that we always have a spare
• 25:43
  guest room for people to come crash and and that happens a
• 25:47
  time. You guys have a lot of guests
• 25:48
  that come. Through yeah, we have a lot of
• 25:49
  guests and we, we also go visit a lot of people and so it's
• 25:53
  really nice to keep those relationships and, and some
• 25:55
  great, great friendships. Came out of collegiate racing
• 25:58
  and, and really just like, yeah, learning skills and and a ton of
• 26:02
  travel too. Started going to going and
• 26:05
  riding internationally, like going to Canada and stuff like
• 26:08
  that for riding and that was that was really formative.
• 26:12
  When you finally went to Whistler, yes.
• 26:16
  Was that just like I fucking made it?
• 26:19
  Pretty much it was the culmination of everything.
• 26:22
  Because for the longest time I remember riding that Schwinn
• 26:26
  bike and like dreaming about being in Whistler and having a
• 26:30
  cool bike and like being a being a real mountain biker.
• 26:33
  And, and then when I went to Whistler with my friends and I
• 26:37
  got to ride like all these trails that I'd seen in the
• 26:39
  movies, it was it was, yeah, it was amazing.
• 26:42
  And that trip was actually a super crazy trip talking about
• 26:45
  weed. But but yeah, it was, it was
• 26:51
  pretty incredible to the point where I started going to
• 26:53
  Whistler like every year for a while there.
• 26:54
  And I've taken a couple of years off, but I'm planning to try to
• 26:57
  get up there this summer again because it's there's no other
• 26:59
  place in the world like it where you can ride that much vertical
• 27:01
  and that level of trail. Yeah.
• 27:04
  Well, let's get into a good little that I feel like that's a
• 27:07
  decent segue to get into like like the your most pivotal kind
• 27:12
  of like that changed the changed your compass a little bit like a
• 27:16
  big core memory experience that you want to share.
• 27:19
  Oh my goodness. Yeah.
• 27:20
  This is something I've been struggling with because I have
• 27:22
  so many, of course, and I don't know which angle to take it on.
• 27:26
  Like there's like the trail building, there's the working on
• 27:29
  bikes angle and there's the like injuries angle, which is kind of
• 27:35
  a dark side of the sport that we don't really like talk about
• 27:40
  very much so. Maybe we could well, what what's
• 27:46
  calling you to talk about? Because we'd, I don't know if
• 27:49
  we've really gotten into the Southern Oregon Trail Alliance
• 27:52
  much. We could you could tell us
• 27:54
  something with that or something along the trail building core
• 27:58
  memory. And then we can on the way back
• 28:00
  out, we can shout a little bit more about soda and like what
• 28:02
  your plans are and stuff. Sure.
• 28:04
  Oh, do we got? We got some E bikers zoom and
• 28:07
  you can tell they're E bikers because they can talk while
• 28:09
  they're climbing. Yep, cool.
• 28:13
  Yeah, so a couple trail building anecdotes, I'll, I'll, I'll give
• 28:16
  you is when I moved back to California after Costa Rica, I
• 28:22
  made a bunch of friends mountain biking and, and one of them had
• 28:27
  a like a little bit of land behind his house and he had a
• 28:29
  little skid steer. And so we started working on a
• 28:32
  pump track and building a pump track in his yard.
• 28:35
  That was his farm again. Hi Do.
• 28:42
  You know these guys. No, I haven't met them.
• 28:45
  Do you need to? Do you need to go make friends?
• 28:47
  Recruit them. Good.
• 28:49
  How are you guys You're. Good.
• 28:52
  You're good. They're busy and we're busy.
• 28:54
  Are you guys building trails? What's up?
• 28:56
  Were you building a part of the trail?
• 28:58
  Yes. Sweet builds.
• 29:02
  All of that, all of these. What's behind you?
• 29:03
  Sick. Cool.
• 29:05
  Thank you. Doing God's work, Yeah.
• 29:06
  I'm not religious though. But you still doing God's work.
• 29:09
  And God's country up from. The gate down there, No.
• 29:11
  No, we came up the Summit Trail. Yeah, I'm getting.
• 29:15
  Do we have a what? Oh, I'm gonna give him a
• 29:18
  business card. Oh nice.
• 29:22
  Oh, I have a couple stickers for you guys too.
• 29:24
  Yeah, look. We're, we're actually filming a
• 29:26
  podcast and right now we're interviewing the director of the
• 29:31
  Southern Oregon Trail Alliance. So trail builder.
• 29:35
  Yo, what's up? Larry.
• 29:36
  Nice to meet. You this is our podcast.
• 29:38
  And then I'm. I own bike craft and yeah, she's
• 29:42
  the owner of Bike Craft. Yeah, I.
• 29:45
  Like the like the kids bike. Like bike craft, the bike shop.
• 29:47
  The bike shop downtown Or not downtown, but I guess it is,
• 29:50
  yeah. Check out our podcast, it'll be
• 29:52
  on an episode coming up soon and hear about.
• 29:54
  Real building and something awesome.
• 29:56
  It's hard to put yourself out there and.
• 29:57
  Absolutely, Yeah. Thanks for your work but it.
• 30:00
  Just, you know, I've had to get over that.
• 30:02
  Just be like, yeah, I own a bike craft like, yeah, you.
• 30:04
  Know. I'm gonna have to get over that
• 30:08
  when it comes to. You too, you too, man.
• 30:10
  See ya somewhere down the trail. I'm.
• 30:13
  Gonna have to get over that for real estate you.
• 30:16
  Gotta. Put your.
• 30:17
  Dude, it's huge. That's one of the big things
• 30:18
  holding me back is like that self marketing, like that's a
• 30:21
  lot. Yeah, it's a huge thing.
• 30:22
  You have to be. That's why I'm hoping all this
• 30:24
  kind of just does it. Right.
• 30:25
  Yeah. And then that way you don't have
• 30:26
  to be so, like, annoying about it, like a lot of people have to
• 30:30
  be, you know? Yeah, Yeah.
• 30:33
  If it's cool, you're not annoying.
• 30:34
  No, no, I'm just joking. I'm just joking about.
• 30:37
  Just joshing. Look at that.
• 30:38
  Cute. Dude that thing is so cute.
• 30:40
  Little mini truck. I love it.
• 30:41
  Little K truck so rad. All right, time check.
• 30:44
  When do we have to walk down? It is 453, so we need to be in
• 30:48
  the parking lot in 1/2 an hour. But also like I could, I could
• 30:52
  ditch you guys and you guys could keep talking if you needed
• 30:55
  to. OK.
• 30:56
  All right. Or we can, we can make it quick.
• 30:58
  All right, right. So we are on kind of a trail
• 31:01
  building segue and then into soda.
• 31:04
  Yeah, I'll wait until the truck leaves on a really good Yeah,
• 31:08
  put some diesel trucks. Just simple distractions.
• 31:12
  Sick. Yeah, so I always loved trails,
• 31:17
  right. I joked that I had a single
• 31:19
  track mind. I just loved trails and that was
• 31:21
  kind of, they were the avenue for me to go explore and that
• 31:25
  was really the best. Being on a road was just some
• 31:27
  way to get to a trail. But started building the pump
• 31:30
  track in the backyard of my buddies house and he lived in
• 31:33
  town. So I'd ride down to his house,
• 31:35
  go do a mountain bike ride and then ride to his house and then
• 31:37
  work on the pump track all day and dig and dig and dig and then
• 31:40
  ride home. And so there was weeks that I
• 31:42
  was doing like 100 miles a week just riding to his house and
• 31:45
  doing mountain bike rides and digging and just constantly
• 31:48
  sending it. Yeah, just getting crazy on the
• 31:51
  trail building. And that was high school and
• 31:53
  then in college I built a trail in Reno that no one really rides
• 31:58
  because it's kind of janky. But it was, it was the style of
• 32:02
  riding that I liked at the time, which is like hiking trail flow
• 32:05
  and like super awkward and like kind of tight, but like super
• 32:09
  rocky and steep. And, and I named it Berry's
• 32:13
  Enticer, which is kind of a, a play on a couple of things.
• 32:18
  Barry is my belligerently drunk alter ego.
• 32:22
  So back in college when I was like drinking a bunch of the
• 32:25
  bike races, yeah, Barry would come out and I would just be
• 32:28
  like super crazy. And this is how I made like a
• 32:31
  ton of friends of like Humboldt and Chico and all these.
• 32:33
  Places they know you by Larry or Barry.
• 32:35
  Yeah, cuz I would just be like gargling Wild Turkey and riding
• 32:37
  mountain bikes the next morning and just like it was a crazy
• 32:40
  time. And so that was that was like a
• 32:42
  big part of my identity at the time.
• 32:44
  And, and then as I was building this trail, I just kind of like
• 32:49
  scratched in this line on the slopes of Mount Rose out in
• 32:51
  Reno. And I found a snowmobile in the
• 32:54
  woods and we dragged it up onto this boulder.
• 32:57
  And the trail goes like right under this boulder.
• 32:59
  And there's like a snowmobile like up on this boulder.
• 33:01
  Sick. And so that's kind of like where
• 33:02
  the enticer thing comes in because Larry the enticer is
• 33:05
  that like, are you silly? I'm still going to send it like
• 33:10
  snowmobile ripping guy. So berries and Tyser was like
• 33:12
  the name of this trail. And that was a big project.
• 33:16
  I remember being at the top of that trail in the winter,
• 33:20
  skipping school to go build and literally like chipping ice out
• 33:27
  of the dirt, Like having to like cut into the dirt and like chip
• 33:31
  the ice to then move like frozen blocks of dirt out of the trail
• 33:35
  And like build berms out of basically icy garbage, dirt and
• 33:39
  rocks. And just like a super gnarly
• 33:42
  trail building adventure that I took on myself.
• 33:46
  And I had a couple of friends help me out, a couple like I had
• 33:48
  maybe like 2 trail work days. But then all the rest of it was
• 33:50
  just like me going out there putting headphones in and just
• 33:53
  like building this trail for me for the style of riding that I
• 33:56
  liked. And to this day, I don't think
• 33:58
  anyone else rides it like. Do you ride it when you go back
• 34:01
  to Reno? Do you ride it?
• 34:03
  I haven't ridden it no in a while honestly.
• 34:05
  I need to go see if it's still around.
• 34:07
  The one of the big issues we ran into at the time was the trail
• 34:11
  came out into the county park and that county park was like
• 34:13
  super anti mountain bike at the time.
• 34:14
  And they were like ticketing people and dropping trees across
• 34:17
  trails. And when I built the trail, like
• 34:20
  someone came and put like 100 sticks across the bottom of it.
• 34:23
  And then I'd like have to find my own way out.
• 34:26
  So it's, it was like kind of tough to build at the time.
• 34:30
  Yeah, it was, you know, it wasn't a legal trail building
• 34:33
  project. But I think that's a good segue
• 34:35
  into my new trail maintenance kind of mindset.
• 34:40
  And I think that moving from Reno, NV, where it's mostly just
• 34:46
  sagebrush and tumbleweeds and like, our idea of trail
• 34:50
  maintenance is like, oh, no, there's a tumbleweed in the
• 34:53
  trail. And then you just, like, ride
• 34:54
  through it and it splinters apart.
• 34:56
  Like here, every winter a million trees fall in the woods
• 35:00
  and. Does anybody hear it?
• 35:03
  Exactly. They hear me cursing when I come
• 35:06
  up on them and I'm like, what the heck, There's this tree in
• 35:09
  all across my favorite trail. And so that kind of taught me
• 35:13
  like the value of actual trail maintenance is coming to a place
• 35:17
  where we don't have a huge population.
• 35:19
  There's an even smaller population of actual trail
• 35:22
  users. And then the population of
• 35:24
  people who do the trail maintenance is even smaller than
• 35:26
  that. So there's a lot of miles of
• 35:28
  trail, but not a lot of maintainers necessarily.
• 35:31
  And listening to one of your previous podcasts with Rihanna,
• 35:34
  she was talking about the moral, like necessity to pick up trash.
• 35:40
  And I just love that. That really resonated with me.
• 35:43
  And I think that morality for me is like carrying a saw and
• 35:47
  clearing trail. And if there's a stick across
• 35:50
  the trail, like moving it or if I see a beer can, I guess that
• 35:53
  is the picking up trash. Then throwing it in your pack,
• 35:55
  you know, just like trying to keep the trails open and moving
• 35:58
  here, realizing that trails don't stay open by themselves.
• 36:01
  In Reno, you can just scratch a line and down a hill and then
• 36:04
  now you have a trail and it's like it's going to be there no
• 36:07
  matter what. But here it's it's like the
• 36:10
  grass and the poison oak grows so fast.
• 36:12
  You have to brush the trails back.
• 36:14
  You have to weed eat, and tons of trees fall.
• 36:16
  So I started realizing that there were trails that I liked
• 36:19
  riding that needed maintenance. And I didn't really know who
• 36:23
  maintained them, but I'd heard about this organization called
• 36:25
  SOTA, or Southern Oregon Trail Alliance.
• 36:28
  And I went to the bike shop one day and I was like, hey guys,
• 36:31
  like I want to get involved. I want to volunteer to do some
• 36:34
  trail maintenance and I have a couple ideas on trails that need
• 36:37
  work. Who do I call for that like?
• 36:40
  We're like, we don't know we did, but it's they were not
• 36:43
  doing anything they. They just, you know, life had
• 36:45
  gotten busy and the the organization had been founded in
• 36:48
  2017. But in the last couple of years,
• 36:52
  like life had gotten busy. Zach had had twins, like they,
• 36:56
  they just had other life priorities and kind of had
• 36:58
  shifted away. And so at the time, I remembered
• 37:00
  Dakota called Zach on the phone and was like, hey, Zach, like I
• 37:04
  have someone here in the shop, like he wants to help out, what
• 37:07
  do I do? And I remember Zach was like,
• 37:09
  yeah, no, I'm actually in the process of shutting it down.
• 37:13
  Like tell him to go hit up our VMBA or something.
• 37:15
  And I was like, well, if you're shutting down the nonprofit,
• 37:19
  like, can we just have it? Like, can we adopt it?
• 37:22
  He was like, Oh my God, yes. Like it's actually really hard
• 37:26
  to shut down a nonprofit. And he's like, totally.
• 37:29
  So he was incredibly helpful getting all that transferred
• 37:32
  over. And then I just, like, asked a
• 37:34
  bunch of friends to get involved, and we put together a
• 37:36
  new board of directors and adopted this nonprofit about a
• 37:41
  year ago now. Yeah.
• 37:43
  And John's on it. And we've been doing little
• 37:47
  things here and there. Poor Sean, he needs one job.
• 37:49
  I know I need to. I need to relieve him of the.
• 37:51
  Burden, every time he comes home from a meeting, he's like, I
• 37:55
  just wish I could do more and it just saddens me, but he will.
• 37:58
  We have a plan, but a year plan. OK.
• 38:00
  So next spring, hoping to be on one and then he can like, yeah,
• 38:04
  have more free time to walk around.
• 38:06
  That poor guy, he's been grinding so hard.
• 38:08
  It's been, yeah, I've been seeing it first hand.
• 38:10
  He's he works so hard, but. We love Sean.
• 38:15
  We love Sean. Yeah, yeah, He's such a good
• 38:17
  guy. We love you, Sean.
• 38:19
  He won't listen to this. In any case, so yeah, took took
• 38:24
  that thing over and had no experience running a nonprofit
• 38:28
  or trail stewardship. I'd, you know, I'd seen people
• 38:30
  do it, Sierra. 'S had a little bit of like
• 38:32
  organizational background. Yeah, so she, like, ran her own
• 38:35
  business since she actually started a youth cycling
• 38:38
  nonprofit back in the day. So she actually does have some
• 38:41
  experience, and she's just way smarter than me.
• 38:43
  So like, anything I need help with, I just ask her and then
• 38:46
  she helps me. So it's pretty figureoutable if
• 38:50
  you have someone like that with you.
• 38:52
  My great partner. Yeah, I can like use a saw and a
• 38:56
  shovel, but I'm not like the paperwork guy necessarily.
• 38:59
  She's paperwork. Yeah.
• 38:59
  She's smart. So yeah, like I said, I'm the
• 39:02
  dreamer. She's the integrator.
• 39:04
  So I dreamt that we could take this thing on.
• 39:06
  And then she's been making it happen really like behind the
• 39:08
  scenes. So it's a, it's a big deal.
• 39:11
  Like she, she does a lot and, and it's been a huge
• 39:14
  undertaking. Luckily we inherited a couple of
• 39:17
  things like chainsaws and a few E bikes with trailers and a
• 39:22
  bunch of tools. And so we kind of fell into this
• 39:25
  like perfect setup where we have a bunch of assets like resources
• 39:29
  and tools to do the trail maintenance.
• 39:31
  And we have this like brand with a logo and an Instagram
• 39:35
  following and a Facebook following.
• 39:37
  And we just went viral on Facebook on a reel about April
• 39:40
  fools and had like 500,000 views all over the.
• 39:43
  World. Oh, congratulations.
• 39:45
  It was kind of weird like which? One was that.
• 39:48
  It was the April Fools. There was one where I said that
• 39:50
  land managers were making everyone carry a saw to use the
• 39:54
  trails. And then it was like
• 39:55
  controversial, you know, so that people are freaking out.
• 39:58
  I'm sure I watched it. It's like a.
• 40:00
  It's like a time lapse video of me, like taking my saw off my
• 40:03
  dirt bike and cutting a tree and then putting it back on my dirt
• 40:05
  bike and riding away. And it just like, I think I have
• 40:08
  completely viral and people from like Australia and everywhere
• 40:12
  were like commenting on it. And half the comments are like
• 40:15
  outraged at this new thing. And others are like, oh, this is
• 40:18
  awesome. And then there's a few that are
• 40:20
  like sick dirt bike and say it's just, it's really funny.
• 40:22
  But but yeah, we've been really trying to build community and we
• 40:26
  came up with like a new mission statement and a new vision.
• 40:29
  And our our current mission is we're working to develop a
• 40:32
  community of stewards to maintain, restore and build epic
• 40:37
  trails in Southern Oregon. And then our vision is well
• 40:40
  maintained trails that bring people who love the outdoors to
• 40:43
  our area. And so it's, it's pretty
• 40:47
  awesome. And, and yeah, it's been going
• 40:49
  incredibly well. Like things have just been
• 40:51
  falling into place. We've had a lot of community
• 40:55
  support, like tons of people know about us already or heard
• 40:57
  about it before and are happy that we're bringing it back.
• 41:01
  And then the coolest thing we have going right now is this big
• 41:05
  project out in the Applegate Valley.
• 41:07
  So Mule Mountain Trail. Last year we were shuttling with
• 41:11
  some friends and I'd seen it on a map and I was like, I want to
• 41:14
  ride this trail. It looks sick.
• 41:15
  It's like a Black diamond trail. It descends 2500 feet over 4
• 41:19
  miles. It looks awesome.
• 41:20
  You can shuttle a truck to the top of it, like let's go ride
• 41:24
  it. So I drove the shuttle that lap
• 41:26
  and Sierra and a couple of our friends rode down the trail and
• 41:29
  they were hiking threw buck rushed with their bikes over
• 41:32
  their heads trying to get down this trail and they like
• 41:35
  couldn't make it down it. I was sitting at the bottom of
• 41:38
  it for like forever waiting for them.
• 41:41
  So they get down. They're all like scratched up
• 41:43
  and dusty and like I'm like, hey, how was the trail?
• 41:45
  Is it sick? And they're like, no, it's
• 41:47
  terrible. And I'm like, what?
• 41:48
  No, like, come on, like I wanna I wanna ride at the lap because
• 41:51
  I drove this last one. They're like, no, you do not
• 41:53
  want to ride this trail. You can't.
• 41:55
  Yeah, you can't. And I was like, please, like
• 41:56
  you. I got to see it.
• 41:57
  I got to see it. And so they're like Nah, Nah,
• 42:00
  it's not good. So I went out there a different
• 42:02
  time with her and we started just like cutting our way into
• 42:06
  the trail. It had been overgrown for years.
• 42:08
  It used to be a pretty popular trail, like back in the early 20
• 42:10
  tens. But in the last few years, some
• 42:13
  issues with like access to the trail, there's no legal easement
• 42:18
  at the bottom of the trail. The trail goes through private
• 42:21
  property before it hits the road and there's not an actual
• 42:23
  trailhead. So the Forest Service can't like
• 42:26
  legally say that you can go use the trail, but it is there.
• 42:30
  That's just been forgotten. So we had to like cut our way
• 42:33
  through the buck brush and the poison oak just to get through
• 42:36
  the trail and worked out there with her one day and then took
• 42:40
  some friends out last spring, about a year ago to this day
• 42:44
  actually, and, and opened up the trail quite a bit and got it to
• 42:49
  the point where you could ride down it.
• 42:51
  And it's just been like on my vision board of like this is the
• 42:57
  coolest trail in the Applegate for me.
• 43:00
  It has incredible views, like epic views, like better views
• 43:05
  than the East Applegate Ridge trail.
• 43:08
  But it's not flat. It goes down.
• 43:10
  So it's like it's pretty amazing.
• 43:12
  And in October of last year, I found out about this grant
• 43:18
  program called 2 for the trails. It's Athletic brewing is a non
• 43:22
  alcoholic beer company and they give away $2,000,000 every year
• 43:26
  for trail projects. Wow.
• 43:28
  So I was like, that sounds pretty cool.
• 43:30
  I should apply. And so I just wrote a grant
• 43:32
  application and, you know, drawing on the experience of
• 43:37
  college and writing things and putting together pictures and I
• 43:40
  used to do like little write ups and stuff and just like made
• 43:43
  this proposal. It was like, hey, we want to
• 43:46
  rebuild this trail and I'm getting chilly.
• 43:51
  I got to put my jacket on real quick because I'm going to be
• 43:53
  like, shivering. Yeah, I have like a few minutes
• 43:55
  left. OK, OK.
• 43:57
  Yeah, Breeze is coming in hard. Yeah.
• 44:01
  Thank you guys for the for the break here.
• 44:05
  Yeah. So I wrote a, wrote a grant
• 44:09
  proposal and submitted it and they awarded us on.
• 44:14
  Your neck. Oh, thank you, they awarded us
• 44:16
  some money. How much money do you guys get?
• 44:19
  We got $8000. Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 44:21
  Which is a huge deal. Like, I've never, I've never
• 44:25
  just been given anything like that, you know?
• 44:27
  So that was a pretty big deal for us.
• 44:29
  Yeah. And again, we're a small
• 44:31
  organization. We inherited a bank account with
• 44:33
  like 1600 in it, which was awesome, you know, better than
• 44:37
  nothing. But trail maintenance does cost
• 44:39
  money and tools are very expensive.
• 44:41
  And like we just had a chainsaw that we needed repaired and it
• 44:44
  cost $400.00. Insurance is like $400.00 a
• 44:48
  year. Like these things do add up.
• 44:50
  So being able to get this grant really opened up the ability to
• 44:56
  rebuild this trail. So we've been going out there.
• 45:00
  I think we've done 3 trail work days so far.
• 45:04
  This Saturday is going to be the 4th this year.
• 45:07
  And we've just been beaten back to brush and cutting brush.
• 45:10
  And then we're actually hiring out to a forestry contractor and
• 45:15
  they're going to come out and do the bench work for us.
• 45:17
  So they're going to basically like cut a fire line and widen
• 45:21
  the trail, like cut the dirt back.
• 45:23
  And so that's going to be epic. And that's, that's happening
• 45:25
  this Saturday. And if all goes well in a week
• 45:29
  from now, we should have an absolutely like ripping trail
• 45:31
  brought back from the dead like completely.
• 45:33
  So yeah, it's a, it's a big deal for us.
• 45:35
  It's our first, like, big major project where we've like kind of
• 45:38
  adopted a trail and really worked on it.
• 45:41
  And it's not like we're building it because it is there and it's
• 45:45
  historic too. It dates back to the 1850s.
• 45:48
  But yeah, it's like it's barely. There what is it used?
• 45:50
  For SO it's called the Mule Mountain Trail because in the
• 45:54
  Rogue River Wars, when they're fighting off the natives here,
• 45:59
  mules were pulling howitzers up the trail and the mule slipped
• 46:03
  off the trail and fell into the Creek.
• 46:06
  And they had to wait all winter for the gunpowder to dry before
• 46:10
  they could keep going. And so that's why it's called
• 46:13
  Mule Mountain Trail. And I I joke that the trail
• 46:16
  hasn't gotten any better since that mule slipped off of it all
• 46:19
  those years ago, so it was probably a native trade route
• 46:23
  before then and maybe used for mining as well.
• 46:26
  There's also some cattle grazing up there that happened, so I
• 46:30
  don't know the exact history of it, but it's in a network of
• 46:32
  trails. It connects to the Charlie Buck
• 46:34
  Trail, Baldy Peak Trail, Little Gray Back Trail, and it's an
• 46:38
  absolutely beautiful location. So.
• 46:41
  Can't wait to check it out. Yeah.
• 46:42
  We're really excited about it. Yeah, we'll have to come back
• 46:44
  for a Part 2 with you. Yeah, there at that trail and
• 46:49
  highlight showcase the work that that SOTA has done.
• 46:53
  I'm super excited, yeah. But we are.
• 46:56
  We are at our time. No worries.
• 46:58
  So that's great. Great wrap up as we get.
• 47:02
  Really. Cold.
• 47:04
  Oh my God. So thank you for that rundown of
• 47:09
  your life, and thank you. Guys, I can't wait to get more
• 47:12
  into it. Yeah, later I.
• 47:14
  Feel like we could talk for an hour.
• 47:16
  Oh man. We'll take you on the river.
• 47:18
  Yeah, that would be fun. Still float.
• 47:20
  Can we do a paddle board even? Yeah, dude, just like a chill
• 47:23
  paddle board. You guys showed me the
• 47:25
  Applegate. Dude, have you paddle boarded
• 47:26
  the Applegate? I've literally only been on the
• 47:28
  Applegate like one time 15 years ago.
• 47:31
  Applegate floating the River Gate River.
• 47:33
  That too, yeah. That it's up.
• 47:36
  I was like. Dude, it's like single track for
• 47:38
  power boards. Yeah, it's so cool.
• 47:40
  I'd love to, definitely want to. It's we've talked about this a
• 47:43
  lot that it kind of blows me away that I've lived here my
• 47:46
  whole life on the river, wow, on the Rogue River.
• 47:50
  And I've experienced this much of the outdoor adventure
• 47:54
  offerings of Southern Oregon and the Rogue Valley.
• 47:57
  And there's so much I'm so excited about in doing this
• 48:00
  podcast is yeah, where is myself?
• 48:02
  To my own backyard. It's a lifetime worth of trails
• 48:05
  and rivers and everything. Hiking.
• 48:08
  Yeah, let's pack our chairs. Beautiful.
• 48:10
  Do you want to do the wrap up on the walk back down?
• 48:13
  If that works for your editing structure.
• 48:16
  Or we could do it really quick right now.
• 48:18
  Yeah, our final, our final question, our final.
• 48:20
  Question is, when you expire this earth, how do you want to
• 48:26
  be remembered? Wow, that's a great question.
• 48:31
  I think a legacy of caring for trails would probably be it.
• 48:35
  I think having having people remember that I cared and maybe
• 48:41
  inspiring people to do it themselves too.
• 48:45
  It's pretty easy to do. Like I, you know, I didn't
• 48:49
  really understand anything about using chainsaws or trail
• 48:52
  maintenance before I got into it, but picked it up pretty
• 48:55
  quick. You know, you can just carry a
• 48:56
  folding saw in your backpack. And I think, yeah, if I, if I,
• 49:01
  if I were to pass away before my time or at my time, yeah, I
• 49:06
  would just want people to remember the impact that I had
• 49:08
  on on the recreation opportunities that that they are
• 49:11
  then able to have. And kind of kept the trails
• 49:13
  alive. Because there's so many trails
• 49:14
  that are historic but date back to the mining days and stuff
• 49:17
  like that, that are just lines on a map now, but have fully
• 49:20
  disappeared. So I won't.
• 49:23
  I won't live. As long as I need to to keep
• 49:26
  them open forever. But if I can keep them open for
• 49:29
  a while, maybe someone else can in the future.
• 49:31
  Cool. Love that.
• 49:32
  And then how can people find you, Larry?
• 49:34
  Yeah, I'm pretty hard to get a hold of.
• 49:36
  I try to not be super on the social medias and I don't really
• 49:40
  answer my phone if you call me. So you're.
• 49:42
  Probably out on a trail. Yeah, I'm out.
• 49:44
  I'm outside of cell service, but I'm out.
• 49:47
  I'm out doing the thing, going wildly, going wild out on the
• 49:50
  trails. But the best way to get a hold
• 49:52
  of me or to follow along on the journey is follow Southern
• 49:56
  Oregon Trail Alliance on Instagram.
• 49:58
  We're also on Facebook at SO Trails and we're working on a
• 50:02
  website at southernoregontrails.org.
• 50:05
  So that's that's the main project right now.
• 50:07
  I'm also doing a whole bunch of other stuff, but you have to
• 50:10
  catch me on the trails to to hear about it.
• 50:13
  Awesome. We, we want to do that.
• 50:15
  Thank you for joining us on this trail and guiding us along the
• 50:18
  trail as we come up here and along your life.
• 50:24
  Reddit film edited and produced by Heather White and Emily
• 50:27
  Brillant. The Go Wildly music is Rainmaker
• 50:30
  by Jared Masters. Special thanks to Larry Sussman.
• 50:32
  Recorded on location at Dollar Mountain trail system in Grants
• 50:35
  Passport. Thanks for listening.
• 50:37
  Please follow, like, subscribe, and of course share.
• 50:39
  New episodes drop every Friday. Remember to rate and review.
• 50:43
  Find us at Go Wildly podcast everywhere.