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How Jeff Potter united aĀ community of mountain bikers
ByĀ LeonieĀ Sherman
Jeff Potter set out to build a trail and ended up building a community. The trail got built, too; seven miles of twisting, turning mountain biking grins, connecting Ash Canyon Road with Kingās Canyon Road in the rolling hills of Eagle Valley outside of Carson City, Nevada. And though Potter was rewarded for almost a decade of hard work by a National Trail Award in 2015, heās quick to point out that it takes a village.
āItās not one person who gets this done,ā Potter explains. āItās team work that gets these things off the ground.ā
In 2007, Potter approached a local non-profit group called Muscle Powered to see if they would be interested in taking on a very ambitious trail construction project. Established in Carson City in 1997 for bicycle and pedestrian advocacy, Muscle Powered has created bike lanes and paths, and been instrumental in legislative victories that have helped Nevada cyclists.
The Ash to Kings trail was the organizationās first endeavor into trail design and construction. After Muscle Powered agreed to take on the trail, Potter became a board member and project leader.
āI was completely clueless as to what needed to be done to get a trail built,ā Potter laughs. āTwo amazing Muscle Powered board members, founder Anne Macquarie and her engineer husband Chas guided me through the lengthy process.ā
First they had to meet with Carson Cityās Open Space Manager Juan Guzman. Potter won him over, but it wasnāt a hard sell. āJuan was the most important person in this project,ā Potter says without hesitation. āHis enthusiasm, his relationships and contacts, and his ability to negotiate the red tape was invaluable.ā Guzman opened the door for other partners like the US Forest Service, the Great Basin Institute and the Nevada Parks Recreational Trails Program. Local archaeologists and engineers donated time and expertise.
āWeāve had over 300 volunteers work to make this trail a reality since we first broke ground in 2012,ā Potter says. āDesigning and laying out a seven mile trail in the backcountry takes a huge amount of effort. Each of the crew leaders spent hours in the field, doing recon and GIS work for mapping, and then with flagging for the final alignment.ā Potter can barely suppress a big grin. āThese people have become some of my closest friends.ā
And Potter canāt resist bragging about the folks that make up his community. āThey raise families, coach kids soccer, hold down full time jobs, and then come out with what little spare time they have to build trail.ā His normally rapid fire speech and cheerful tone shifts for a moment. āI get the credit for building the trail, but the truth is I couldnāt do it without them.ā
The trail they completed in August 2015 has brought economic development to a forgotten corner of Nevada and created a vibrant mountain biking community of folks who do more than just ride together. That trail also stands as a symbol of the mountains an individual can move when motivated by love.
āI fell in love with mountain biking back in 1983,ā Potter reminisces. āI grew up in the San Fernando Valley, so I was riding all around the Santa Monica Mountains.ā
But then he came to the Lake Tahoe area and rode the Flume trail. āI knew I had to change my life so I could be close to these mountains and these biking opportunities,ā he says. At the time, he was working with the Post Office. Carson City offered employment close to Lake Tahoe. āSo I cut my hair and interviewed for the position.ā He laughs and admits, āOf course, I started growing it back as soon as I got the job.ā
Since then heās seen a lot of development and growth around Carson City, but as the population grew, the trail system remained stagnant.
Youād see more people on the same number of trails, which led to the creation of informal social trails. These trails were often built without proper engineering or foresight, leading to erosion and access issues. āOne of our goals is to inventory these social trails so we can make them legal,ā Potter says.
āWe realized nobody was advocating for trails,ā Potter explains. āAnd a lot of us were tired of putting our bikes in the car to go riding. We figured Carson City was a perfect location for more trails. So a group of us got together and approached Carson City Supervisor Shelley Aldean to say, āHey, we need more trails here.āā
Aldean showed Potter the Unified Pathways Master Plan for the City and began Potterās education in trail construction and politics. That was almost a decade ago. Since then this mountain-biking mailman known as āTrail Jesusā has learned to navigate government red tape and endless hours in committee. āIām really out of my comfort zone in this work,ā explains Potter. āI donāt like going to meetings and speaking in public, but somebodyās got to be the champion and step forward.ā
After years of grinding process, Potter was finally able to break ground on the trail in 2012. Roughly three years and 8,000 volunteer hours later it was completed. āNow, instead of me driving to Tahoe to ride, folks are coming from Tahoe to ride the Ash to Kings trail,ā Potter says with a chuckle. āItās a 17-mile round trip from my house. My garage is my trailhead.ā
In May 2015, Potter was recognized by an American Trailsā āTrail Worker of the Yearā award, a prize that showcases individuals working for enhanced trail recreation. They commended him for providing consistent support for trail planning, development and maintenance. The next year, the Coalition for Recreational Trails chose the Ash to Kings trail project as the winner of their Annual Achievement Award. But Potterās not content to rest on his laurels.
His next vision is to build a trail connecting Carson City to Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park. āThatās another ten miles of trail we hope to build,ā Potter explains. āThis isnāt just about recreation, itās about providing connectivity to our community.ā
The biggest challenge isnāt the manual labor required to construct the trail, but conducting environmental surveys to safeguard and minimize impact on wildlife, archaeological and botanical features. āThe best case scenario is that the Environmental Impact Report is completed in 2018 and we can start breaking ground in 2019,ā says Potter with a sigh.
Potter is a tireless champion and will continue to advocate and work for local trails, whether heās holding a pen or a shovel in his hand. āNowadays 90% of what I do is paperwork,ā Potter says with a sigh. Then his voice brightens. āBut the rest is fun!ā