026 - Cowboys ride mountain bikes and build trails too! (Neil Stitzer)

Mountain Cog

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This week the boys are joined by Neil “Cowboy” Stitzer, the current Trails Program Coordinator for Pima County, Arizona. Cowboy helps to manage the design, build, and maintenance of 150 miles of amazing trails throughout Southwest Arizona. He is an accomplished mountain biker himself and has a wealth of knowledge about all things trails-related. During the episode he walks us through how trails are conceived, funded, land-acquired, designed, ground truthed, cleared for biological & cultural assessments, built, and maintained. Early in the podcast he highlights a few of the new machines he uses to build trails (the Sweco 480 Trail Dozer and John Deere 17g Mini-Excavator). Bonus - at the end of this podcast - the boys read a script written by OpenAI’s ChapGPT engine about “why all mountain bikers should donate either time &/or money to trails advocacy”. Come on down to listen and learn from Cowboy AND get a little glimpse at our future as AI becomes a bigger part of our lives.

Interested in donating or volunteering? Send him an email: [e-mail]

Pima County Trails & Trailheads
https://webcms.pima.gov/cms/One.aspx?portalId=169&pageId=28083

Trail Building Machines - Sweco 480 Trail Dozer & John Deere 17g Mini-Excavator
https://www.swecoproducts.com/equipments/480-trail-dozer/
https://www.deere.com/en/excavators/compact-excavators/17g-excavator/

“The Best Trails Ever” = Ridgeline & Wild Burro - per Neil
https://www.trailforks.com/trails/ridgeline-trail/
https://www.trailforks.com/trails/wild-burro/

Colorado 14ers
https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/14ers.php

Desert Trails - Designing & Building Trails In a Harsh & Demanding Environment
https://webcms.pima.gov/UserFiles/Servers/Server_6/File/Government/Natural%20Resources%20Parks%20and%20Recreation/Master%20Plans%20and%20Manuals/Desert-Trails-Design-Manual.pdf

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