It's All About the Bike

Behind the Scenery

What is your favorite way to experience a place? For ranger Dave, it's all about the bike. In this edition of Behind the Scenery, join Dave as he explores what makes cycling at Grand Canyon such a unique experience and interviews experts about the best (and safest) ways to enjoy the park by bike.

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TRANSCRIPT:

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(Ok Lett’er Rip) Hi, I’m Ranger Dave and this is Behind the Scenery. Many visitors have asked me about my bicycle. I ride it on the trails and roads to get around the park. It’s green, which is a bit of an understatement. It has a dark green frame, neon green wheels and tape. A custom made green seat cover that is also green. I usually wear a green backpack and matching helmet. For a bell I have a squeaky turtle, which is also green. My paneer bags are gray since there was no green option. For me it shows some character as a fashion statement.

But that’s not why I ride it. It’s a special bike to me. Let me explain how I got it.

My friend Miles gave it to me. Miles is actually my student, I taught him how to ski bike, after he no longer could ski. Miles has ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease, but this doesn’t stop him. He still is an avid cyclist, downhill skier, and an outdoorsman. He lives right outside of San Francisco, so naturally when we visited he took us for a ride through Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Miles used a recumbent trike, so he offered me his old bike. After Miles showed us around we visited Muir Woods. Miles loves the National Parks and has visited quite a few. Some time later I was looking for a road bike and thought of Miles and asked him if I could buy his. He shipped it all the way to the National Seashore that I was working for. He even sent me a green jersey to represent him when I ride, so I can help raise awareness for ALS. It’s a great conversation starter and a grand way to honor my friend. So when visitors see me ride by in all green in uniform. They see a ranger on a bike, they may miss the story about the bike itself.

[Ranger Dave] Hi, I’m Ranger Dave and with me is Ranger Phil Arrington. [Ranger Phil] What’s up Dave? [Ranger Dave] So Phil tell me a little about what your role is in the park [Ranger Phil] Thanks for asking Dave I like to tell people that I’m an Office Ranger. I spend most of my time doing administrative work, my primary responsibilities involve managing concession contracts that the National Park Service has with the hospitality providers and making sure we’re preserving the cultural resources that are assigned to the concessions. So that’s part of my job and then another park is working with the concessioner to provide the best possible experience for visitors. [Ranger Dave] Phil will you tell us a little bit of how you cycle in the park? [Ranger Phil] Yeah, absolutely Dave. So, I ride around on a cargo Ebike and when I got my job it used to have a car so I decided to trade my car for an Ebike. I have about a four-mile range that I need to travel in. Not necessarily every day. So, the Ebike is just a really fun way to be able to do my job, get some exercise and be a little greener on the earth. [Ranger Dave] Ok, and cost wise are you spending a lot more money on this Ebike or is this more Economical? [Ranger Phil] Well I have to admit Dave that I got it mainly because I am a two wheel guy, and I would rather be on two wheels any day that four. That being said it is a lot more economical instead of having a car payment, filling up with gas, shuttling the vehicle back and fourth from the south rim to the north rim during the winter. My department spent about $1800 I got an Ebike I plug it in once a week, and I can ride around as much as I want. [Ranger Dave] Can you describe for the viewers at home what your bike looks like, because I think it is pretty distinctive? [Ranger Phil] So it’s a cargo bike and the reason I got a cargo bike is I could have a place to store my ranger hat, we call it a flat hat. So that when I got down to the Grand Canyon Lodge, I can take off my bike helmet put on my flat hat and be in full ranger dress so to speak. My bike is long, its big, its got two pinners in the back and the most distinctive part is its bright orange. So whenever I am rolling up. People always know that its me and its really fun because I think a lot of people like to see a ranger on a bicycle and its kind of a little bit different kind of bike that not a lot of people have seen before and so it starts a lot of conversations and creates a lot of interpretive moments so to speak. [Ranger Dave] Phil, you are starting up an employee biking program here on North Rim, why are you interested in improving the existing biking infrastructure here on North Rim? [Ranger Phil] Thanks for asking that question Dave. First of all I think the North Rim is just a really cool place to ride a bike. Living in this community we’ve got the Bridle path, it’s a dirt trail. We are pretty close to everything we need, we have got a little general store, all of the buildings that we work in and all the stations that we work in are close together. I think to answer your question that’s part of it, just how the community and how the infrastructure of this place is designed and how close everything is. I think the other part of it. Is that there’s a maybe certain type of ranger or a certain type of person that comes and works over at the North Rim. Whether you work for the park service or one of the concessioners or something like that. A lot of us are active and we like to bicycle anyways, and I have seen that a lot of us chose to bicycle around whether its to and from work or on their free time or whatever so I saw a need, and I saw some demand. First of all, what the infrastructure involves is just really some simple stuff, like getting some bike racks around getting a place where people can park their bikes, lock their bikes, feel comfortable biking to work, biking for fun, biking for recreation. So we are getting five or six bike racks around the administrative area of north rim and some of this is even going to help some of the visitors like we are getting some down by the visitor center, by the general store, there is definitely a need down there. People are just locking up their bikes next to trees. So I think that’s part of it. Just creating the infrastructure to facilitate people to bike more, if that’s what they want to do. We also bought some tools, and cleaned up an old building. Where folks can use those tools and that infrastructure to repair government bikes, government bicycle equipment and incidentally their own bikes if they need to do that to keep them safe. [Ranger Dave] What have been the biggest challenges that you have faced with this project? [Ranger Phil] In some ways the challenges aren’t dissimilar to a lot of challenges I face with other projects that I’m working on in the park. You gotta kinda have a vision and you have got to be able to explain what you’re doing and why you’re doing it and to be effectively sell to a certain degree and then you just stay with it. I think with this project it was just having a good understanding of why, seeing if there as a need and effectively communicating that with other people in the park. Especially those holding the keys to the bank, to the purse strings. Showing that there is value in making this investment and that it will be used. And then just stayed with it and we finally got it, and its really cool to see the excitement level for it and I think the appreciation that employees have for that. And to see that investment in them I think is a morale booster. [Ranger Phil] I have a personal bike a 1954 Schwinn. I’m kind of proud of it. I have it restored, and I ride that back and forth to work, and kind of around to run errands. [Ranger Dave] Do you find that you are using more of the bridal path or are you using more of the road? [Ranger Phil] It depends on how quick I need to get somewhere. If I’m running late for a meeting, I will just use the road. The nice thing about the Ebike is that I can keep a constant 20mph and keep up with traffic a little bit better. The preferred route would be to go on the bridal trail. Its jus nice to ride on. I can get out of the office for five or ten minutes and just have this national park experience where I am just riding down a trail. There’s birds chirping. The winds blowing in my face. If the flowers are blooming, we have a lot of Lupin around here I can smell the fresh scent of the flowers as I’m going to down the trail I can smell the pine trees, and so it’s nice sometimes to just be able to get into that national park moment in the middle of a work day. And that’s why we are here. The bike is a medium or acts as a means for me to be able to do that. Instead of just driving. If I were just driving from place to place, I would just miss it all. [Ranger Dave] So we’re here with Skye and ... [Joey] Joey [Ranger Dave] We are going to talk a little bit about cycling in the park. Skye do you want to just start and tell us a little bit about what you do in the park. What you do here, and how you spend your time? [Ranger Skye] Sure. I have worked up here for 3 years I am a wildlife Biotech. So, I do work with bison as well as Avifauna, I survey for Mexican spotted owls and help out with any resources trips that are planned for the North Rim. Therese only 4 resources staff up here so I help with vegetation work and occasionally hydrology or paleontology too. [Ranger Dave] Awesome, so spending most of your time outside, in the field? [Ranger Skye] Yeah most of my time in the field. [Joey] Well I’m Skye’s boyfriend and I just get to come up here and ride my bike on the weekends. [Ranger Dave] And what do you do professionally? [Joey] I’m the service manager for Absolute Bikes in Sedona, Arizona. Dealing with bike repairs, bike service, bike rentals. Everything to do with bikes. You wouldn’t think I would want to do it on my weekends, but… [Ranger Dave] Talk to me a little about your time and your experiences of riding inside the park. [Ranger Skye] Well the North Rim has some great riding. I think as far as national parks are concerned, there’s actually quite a bit of mountain biking up here. And when I think of riding up here there’s three options that I usually consider for rides. One of them is the Point Sublime Road. And it’s somewhere in between gravel riding and mountain biking. It’s pretty rough rugged road. The second option is the Arizona Trail, and that’s the only trail that’s available for biking in the park, just because of most of the area on the rim being proposed wilderness. Which doesn’t allow motorized or mechanized, which makes most trails off limits to biking, but the Arizona Trail you can bike on it and there’s 11 miles of Arizona Tail in the Park. And the third option is not in the park, it’s in the Kaibab National Forest, which is directly north of the North Rim. That’s 28 miles of single track along the rim. [Joey] Yeah the road riding here is pretty spectacular as well and the traffic’s not terrible. Usually people are driving at a pretty safe speed, so it’s not like you are getting blown off the road or anything. And the riding just helps you experience the park so much better because you are taking it all in, smelling the smells, you’re seeing the sights and you can stop wherever you want and check out wildlife or the plant life as well. [Ranger Dave] What would you say like remote types of rides that you have done, what does that kind of look like? [Ranger Skye] You know the park doesn’t have a whole lot as far as dirt roads, there’s one main road, Point Sublime Road that goes west for 18 miles and there’s another road that intersect with it, the Kanabonits Road. But if you go north on that, then the national forest, the Kaibab National Forest, has so many dirt roads there. It has been highly developed for deer hunting and bison hunting. They need easy access and there are so many options once you get out there. So, I think some really fun routes are linking roads in the Kaibab National Forest with roads within the park. And that’s something I have done, 35, 40 mile loops in a day going up into the forest service and out west on some of the dirt roads and back around into the park. You’ll notice when you are out there that the forest service roads are really well maintained and you get to the park and the roads are really chunky there’s loose rocks and you are pretty much going faster than all of the traffic you will encounter out there, you’ll see high clearance vehicles, you’ll see jeeps and trucks, and sometimes it’s just a matter of getting round people there’s not a whole lot of traffic though, when you see cars you’re likely traveling faster than them. [Joey] The other option is the AZT headed north you can take the AZT right out of the park and you are along the East Rim, and so you see into House Rock Valley, you can see into Marble Canyon, and its just a beautiful section of the AZT. That a lot of through riders just go fast through that area, but Skye and I have ridden it a bunch of times. You can stop at all kinds of other view points. You rarely see other mountain bikers you rarely see hikers unless they are through hikers. The AZT headed north you can get all the way up to Utah if you want to. It gets pretty hot up on the north end of it but, kinda in the aspens the whole way, headed north and then turn around and come back down, or you can take some service roads to come back to the North Rim itself. [Ranger Dave] Kinda develop your own loop so to speak, take the Arizona Trail and then take a different road back? [Joey] For sure. [Ranger Skye] Exactly. [Joey] The Arizona Tail is awesome. Its very smooth fun single track, there’s not too many chunky sections of it, its just like flowy through the aspens. You’re kinda going through forested areas, then you pop out in the meadows. It’s a really cool experience to not see anyone and you are in this huge meadow by yourself. The single track is really fun, just ripping through those meadows. [Ranger Dave] Do you feel like just a few people use it a day, or do you really have it to yourself? [Joey] I think it depends on the season. If it’s the middle of through hiking season, a lot of times in the spring, they are trying to complete the Arizona Trail while its still cool in the lower elevations, but up here if you ride in July, August, you’re still at pretty high elevations so its not too hot of temperatures. And there’s not many through hikers. We might have seen one or two other users on the AZT headed north from the park. There’s fire lookouts and just awesome forests, we are always finding fossils too, like, fossils in the Kaibab, and a pretty fun trail I would highly recommend it to anyone. [Ranger Dave] It’s a really cool feature and I feel like when I tell people, have you tried the Arizona Trail, people are not interested, so often. Its refreshing to actually have people want to use that trail. And its somewhere where our parks staff is sending people all the time and they don’t want to hear about it so… [Ranger Skye] If you have a bike its excellent, and even if you are on foot, there’s wild raspberries growing along the side of the trail. The aspens are just gorgeous. [Joey] I think everyone is looking for that view of the canyon off the rim, like no one wants to hike away from the canyon but they don’t realize that the AZT eventually just gets you back to the rim, the further you go, just outside the park, you are back on the East Rim, looking down into the House Rock Valley and the Vermillion Cliffs and it’s just gorgeous. [Ranger Dave] Tell me a little bit about some different factors to consider when you are heading into the backcountry or biking into the backcountry. [Joey] Here on the North Rim, bring water. If you don’t want a grumpy girlfriend, bring lots of water. If you can pack it on your bike, pack as many bottles or bladders as you possibly can just because there is very, very scarce opportunity for water. Sometimes we will bring a water filter just in case we find a spring or something or you run out of water, you just never know what you are going to encounter. It does get hot, sometimes you are exposed when you are in those meadows, its just really nice to have extra water. You can always bring water home, but you can’t get extra water when you are out there. [Ranger Dave] Right, so even for day trips, you are doing that? [Joey] Oh yeah! For sure. [Ranger Skye] Even for day trips. [Joey] We will fill a bunch of bladders and bottles. [Ranger Skye] Especially on the park roads, there’s days where you might not encounter any vehicles out there too so its good to just be entirely self-supported with all the supplies you need to fix a flat, and extra water, like a couple of liters extra in case you encounter trouble out there. [Joey] And definitely bike repair tools. Like bring two tubes, don’t just bring one extra tube, like bring a multi tool, read up on what you can bring to fix your bike. Flat tires are the biggest thing. Just have a knowledge of your bike and a knowledge of like oh if my chain falls off, I can get it back on. Don’t go into the back country without any knowledge of that and just expect your bike to work great. Because working at the shop you just see so many people come in with small problems that could have been fixed out there on the trail, but they just had no idea how to do it. If you’re out at Point Sublime good luck getting back, like, you don’t have the best service and if you don’t have the right tools that going to be a tough ride home, or walk home. [Ranger Dave] Do you feel like you need more knowledge than the average cyclist to do some of these rides, just because you are more independent? Maybe getting help is a lot harder if you do need help? [Ranger Skye] Yeah, I would say so. You’re just pretty far from resources out here. I think the nearest public bike shop is probably St. George, which is 3 hours away. Maybe Flagstaff is the closest. [Joey] Yeah, and to just have backcountry knowledge, not just bike knowledge, but have like an all around knowledge of what’s going on. Maybe bring a space blanket because if you’re out there a first aid kit is something I usually try to bring with us, and some emergency supplies because, what if you crash? What if you break a wheel? What if you have to wait for help and its in the afternoon, and help might be a long ways away. Or your partner has to ride in to get help. You don’t know how long you could potentially be out there. [Ranger Dave] So probably lights too and things like that? [Skye and Joey] Lights. [Ranger Skye] Paper map. [Joey] Snacks. [Ranger Dave] Paper maps are something that I don’t think most people are using when they cycle. So that’s a good one to point out. [Ranger Skye] Its nice to have if you’re not familiar with the area. I think the roads are pretty well marked. In the Kiabab, but there are so many junctions. I use the mapping app Gia, and it’s really useful for planning routes, and I love using that but if that were to fail and I didn’t know where I was out there, those road are really a labyrinth to get back. [Joey] Yeah the forest around here, you just cant see for a very far distance at all. I couldn’t imagine being lost or being off the road somehow. Even being on the road if you had no map and no phone it would be really hard to find your way out. Its really disorienting once you get really deep in the trees. [Ranger Dave] For people who are just starting out, is there any other advice you would give to someone just starting to dip their toes into getting into the back country on a bike here? [Joey] Ask question, ask other people. Everyone has their own experiences, and their own views on their way to do things. They might know a little more than you, they might just have a different way of thinking about it, but that’s always something to consider. Just as questions, just ask a ranger. Ask someone else riding their bike. [Ranger Dave] Is there any kind of community you guys use? Because I know a lot of areas will use a community like at a bike shop or somewhere else, but there really aren’t any shops here. Is there an online forum or anything that you guys are using to get information about rides? [Ranger Skye] I think the best option is the backcountry office. Our staff at the backcountry office know so much about navigating this area and what’s open to bikes, what’s available, I think they would be able to point people in a good direction. [Ranger Dave] That’s a great point, they could even do a backpacking trip via bike. I know we have Hiker/Biker spots up here, so if someone is through biking or through hiking they can just roll up, get a spot for the night, they are first come first serve. But there is a number of them set aside, and you can’t even park a vehicle there so its just for hiker/biker. [Joey] Bikepacking.com as well I think there’s a couple routes in the North Rim area not necessarily in the park, but bikepacking.com they have a gear list, and they have specific routes you can do, and you can kind of add on or not add on, but they have very detailed descriptions of different routes, and stuff to bring with you when you are bikepacking. [Ranger Skye] Yeah we have been thinking of putting up a route on bikepacking.com that incorporates all of the best stuff out her. Maybe going out on the Point Sublime road, through the park, and then outside the park on the Rainbow Rim, coming back in the park along the East Rim and the Arizona Trail. We figured out a loop that would be about 80 miles. It could be a good overnight, the limiting factor is water, so it might require somebody to put out a water cache, but it’s a nice way to see a lot of these areas, especially if you don’t have a high clearance vehicle, because right now neither of us own a vehicle that would make it down the Point Sublime Road, but to be able to get out there and see it on bike is a pretty amazing way to go. [Joey] When you’re riding your bike and a bison comes running out of the woods and then runs down the road in front of you, you actually feel the power of that animal, it’s happened to us a couple of times. It’s just pretty cool to stop on your bike and see this massive 2,000 pound animal go running down the road. It really puts it into perspective. [Ranger Dave] You really are out there with the nature and it is a different thing than if you just did it in your car. [Joey] Yup. [Ranger Skye] Definitely you notice little things, there’s a spot of Point Sublime trail where there’s Columbines blooming off the side of the road. You might not notice when you are bouncing around in a Jeep and its dusty out there. On the bike you are just so much closer to everything, yeah you just notice so much more. [Joey] Good conversation... [Ranger Skye] Good conversations… [Joey] It’s a good way to clear the mind… [Ranger Dave] So, tell me about your bikes that you use. Kind of describe your setup. [Joey] I have a bunch of bikes, and I have used pretty much all of them up here. I have gravel bike that I ride on the trails around the North Rim, and a lot of the road riding that we do. I also have a $5,000 full suspension mountain bike that I will take on the AZT and just go fast and have fun, but the bike I like the most is the one I paid $200 for. Kind of custom built it myself and just built all of wheels and components on in over the years, and that’s the bike I ride more than any of them, and I have the most fun on, but Skye has a great saying… [Ranger Skye] So we call our rigid mountain bikes, they don’t have any suspension on these bikes our fun bikes. Yeah and they are good for dirt roads, they are good for gravel, they are good for trail. We watched this documentary on Youtube, a while back and its something we pulled from there, its ride what you brung. That’s kind of a good expression I think that can be applied to North Rim biking. [Joey] Yeah you don’t need a fancy bike, you don’t need the newest highest quality bike. There is literally something here to ride any type of bike on, and that’s probably the best part about it. [Ranger Dave] So anything else that you want to add? [Joey] Quit driving your car. Ride a bike. [Ranger Dave] Behind The Scenery is brought to you by the interpretation team at Grand Canyon National Park. We gratefully acknowledge the native peoples on who’s ancestral homelands we gather as well as diverse and vibrant native communities who make their home here today.