News

VVCC is sponsoring a VVCC XC MBAA 2025 team!

Join in on the FUN with fellow VVCC members!

Details:

1. VVCC Members only are eligible to be on the VVCC XC team.
2. The 2025 MBAA race schedule is here and below.
   • Here are the full XC Team Rules.
3. Doug Sullivan will be the VVCC XC team Captain. Feel free to reach out to Doug, if you have any questions.
4. If you are interested in joining the VVCC XC team, please reach out to Tracy Randall or Kevin Adams to validate your active VVCC membership, and we'll introduce you to Doug Sullivan.
5. VVCC will have a pop-up tent at the events for VVCC team members to hang out. TBD refreshments & TBD race food will also be at the pop-up for the team.
6. The team name for registration is VVCC.
7. You don't have to attend all the races to be on the VVCC team. We ask that you attend at least 1 event to race or volunteer at the event.
8. MBAA has provided over $20,000 to Verde Valley trails, and this is a great way to show your support!
9. For experienced racers, this provides you a VIP race experience.
10. For new riders & racers, this is a perfect, low-stress way to join a race with fellow VVCC members, have fun and have a new experience!
11. We're hoping for a sizeable VVCC team! 

VVCC has been lobbying Sedona City Council Members as well as City Staff to add a full-time position for a Sedona City Trails position for most of 2024. Here are the comments VVCC made at the Sedona City Council offsite meeting in April 2024.

While the City added a position, City Staff and Council Members have directed the position to focus the vast majority of their efforts on Parking with a small focus on ST&PS (Sedona Trails & Pathways System).

We have a potentially unique and timely opportunity to make our case again, as the part-time Bike Park maintenance position might become available, and we are recommending to Sedona City Council & Staff to make this a full-time position, which combines the Bike Park maintenance & ST&PS with the City Trails position recommended in April.

Please join us on December 10th @ 4:30pm @ Sedona City Council Chambers (102 Roadrunner Drive) to speak in support of this position during Open Public Comments or to just show up and show your support.

Here is the VVCC letter sent to the Sedona City Council members and City Staff on December 1st outlining the City Trails position.  

Here is the video of VVCC members and local trails users lobbying Sedona City Council and Staff to add a City Trails position. Click on 6. Public Forum - December 10th.

Here is the most recent letter sent to the City in relation to the Sedona Bike Park - December 5th.

Here is the letter sent to the City in relation to Western Gateway/Cultural Park planning - October 26th.

Here is the letter sent to the City in relation to Safe Place to Park - February 4th.

If you can not make the meeting, send your support for Sedona adding a City Trails position to the City Council Members, here.

In addition to these letters, here is some additional information to consider in regards to our Trail system.

• Maintenance of the Red Rock Trail system is nearing $1 million annually. Federal appropriations covers less than 8% of that. The Sedona Red Rock Trail Fund is covering the vast majority of these costs with support from their donors and local volunteer events.
• The Forest Service had a significant Budget shortfall this fiscal year. Without the support of Sedona Red Rock Trail Fund, Wheel Fun and the VVCC, the maintenance of our Trails would not be happening at its current pace.  We believe that this funding gap will be a challenge for the foreseeable future, so local solutions are needed to fund our Trails at a higher rate. Adequate federal funding and resources are not going to be there to give our Trails the maintenance and attention that is required.
• Sedona currently brings in roughly $50M in revenues each year, largely from tourists enjoying the Trail system, and the City invests less than .5% of that revenue back into directly maintaining, managing and enhancing these Trails. 
• • The City directly donates to Sedona Red Rock Trail Fund through the Trail Keepers program. 
  • The City assists in financially supporting the full-time Forest Service - Red Rock Ranger District Trails/Wilderness/OHV Coordinator.
  • Sedona invests in a part-time Bike Park maintenance position.
• There are mountains of evidence concerning the economic benefits of Trails.  While Sedona is reaping the financial benefit, the surrounding Forest Service trails and their connections to the City need to be an integral part of all City decisions and planning efforts to fully reap the benefits from these Trails.
• Parking and roads are the City's main focus to combat congestion. We do appreciate & commend the City's investment in the Shuttle System, and we believe that an equal focus and investment in our Trails, trail connections, pathways (ST&PS) and Trail usage would reap more benefits!

Feel free to reach out with any questions or if you plan to speak and would like the 3-minute version VVCC plans to utilize at the meeting.

A working group of the VVCC Board compiled a list of Advocacy Priorities into three buckets:

1. Potential and in-progress new trails, pathways & trail connections
2. Biking-related access issues, concerns & ideas
3. Trail maintenance needs

These lists were compiled based on feedback from various VVCC members as well as personal knowledge & ideas of the working group, then reviewed, discussed and adjusted with the VVCC Board's feedback.

The priorities outlined below do not include trail maintenance, as maintenance suggestions/requests are being done through Caltopo with the MTB Advocacy Committee. The MTB Advocacy Committee will also be weighing in on the New Trails and Trail Connections outlined below at an upcoming meeting. We'll continue to share updates, as we receive more feedback.

New Trails, Pathways and Trail Connections:

1.  Red Rock Trails Access Plan: Turkey Creek
2.  Verde Valley Circle Trail
3.  Devil's Bridge / Chuckwagon reroute
4.  Cultural Park City Planning/Girdner TH
5.  Mingus 106 / Higher Learning Connection
6.  Lynx connection
7.  Tomahawk 2.0
8.  Little Horse / Deep Sea Chicken
9.  Mystic connection
10.  Chimney Rock and/or Lizard Head connection

Advocacy Efforts:

1. Sedona Go! Plan Updated 
2. BAC (Bicycle Advisory Committee) Participation
3. Sedona/VOC Trails Vision Document
4. 2025 - 2026 RRRD Seasonal Trail Crew/Maintenance solutions  
5. Sedona City Trails position (@ Bike Park)
6. Chavez and/or Red Rock Crossing footbridge
7. Boynton/Dry Creek pathways & roadside parking concerns

If you have an interest in getting more information or more involved in these Advocacy efforts, please reach out to board@vvcc.us.

Western Gateway Master Planning - 102624.pdf

Most recent VVCC Letter:

VVCC Letter to Forest Service - Red Rock Trails Access Plan - Phase 2 - 103124.pdf

VVCC Letter sent after 1st Public scooping:

RRTAP_December2023-VVCC-signed.pdf

Back by popular demand, the VVCC will be hosting a silent art auction at our December 20th Holiday Party in Cottonwood. We are putting a call out to our member artists who would like to participate. Depending on the response and size of pieces, we will try to accommodate as many pieces as possible. Artists may submit multiple pieces for consideration.

The details:

Who: This invitation to participate is open to all active members of the VVCC (if you have a family membership this includes all family members).

What: A Silent auction where art pieces will be sold. Artists will garner a percentage of sales, (artists opt to donate either 30% or 100% of sales to support the mission of the VVCC). Paintings, drawings, ceramics, sculpture, photography, fiber art, jewelry, and mixed media-submissions all are welcome.

We are unable to hang paintings on the wall so, if you are bringing a painting, you must supply an easel for display. If you cannot secure an easel, contact Mike Coyne.

When: The Holiday Party Friday 12/20 at the Cottonwood Community Clubhouse. Art should be delivered to the Clubhouse between 10 am and 11 am Friday 12/20 (the morning of the event). If an artist cannot deliver a piece at that time, contact Mike Coyne to see if alternative arrangements are possible. Unsold pieces must be taken home following the auction that evening. (We are unable to store pieces for a pick up later).

Where: Cottonwood Community Clubhouse 805 N Main St., Cottonwood

How: We hope to exhibit as many pieces as possible but space constraints and response may limit the number of pieces accepted. There is no fee to enter. For each submission, participants must provide:

1- Photo of the piece with rough dimensions

2- Name of artist, title of piece, medium and desired starting bid. Artists must also supply a mailing address (for payments).

You may have a starting bid as low as $25 or, as high as you would like.(Artists must be prepared for a piece to sell for as low as their chosen starting bid). Bidding increments during the auction will be by either $5, $10 or $20 depending on the item. (Last year we noticed that items with a high starting bid were less apt to sell).

3- The money will come to VVCC and VVCC will reimburse artists via check after the event.

4- Submissions may be made from now until December 14th-and, should be sent to:

Michael Coyne via email at mtnbikehike@gmail.com

Additionally, Mike Coyne will field any questions- feel free to contact him.

All notification of acceptances will be made by 12/15

The US Forest Service (FS) has a significant Budget shortfall for fiscal year 2025. Based on this shortfall, they are eliminating ALL seasonal hiring across ALL Regions. Seasonal hiring is what the Red Rock Ranger District (RRRD) primarily relies upon to maintain our 400+ miles of trail as well as start the building of Phase I of the Red Rock Trails Access Plan (Bell Rock Singletrack Bypass, etc...). The RRRD had secured the funding to support this local hiring; however, the FS is not making exceptions for any regions, even if the funding was in place. We've outlined FOUR ways you can HELP

#1)  The VVCC Board sent a letter to state and national leaders on behalf of VVCC Members. Please send your own letter as a citizen and recreationist within the RRRD, as every letter makes a difference! We're told it's super EASY to do. Find the letter and instructions here.

#2)  For all of us that utilize the trails within the RRRD, we know the havoc the monsoon and the summer heat have on our trails. We need as many volunteers as we can get this year to maintain & build the new trails! If you're able, PLEASE, come out to as many trail work days as you can! RRRD trail work details here.

#3)  The Sedona Red Rock Trail Fund (SRRTF) is prepared to step up in a major way to work to fund the '24-'25 seasonal trail crew, as the RRRD had secured funding that is now unavailable to them. The SRRTF is also assisting with the task of lining up a Private Trail Builder to hire these seasonal workers, if RRRD can't! PLEASE give what you can to the SRRTF Or, give back by participating in Toast the Trails from 10/12 - 10/19. You're giving to the trails while enjoying your favorite spots in the Verde Valley, check it out!

#4) Share this with your friends, family and followers! We need to raise awareness about this critical issue both within our community and outside of it. Please, send letters, send money and volunteer along with us to maintain, upgrade and preserve our trails.s with your friends, family and followers! We need to raise awareness about this critical issue both within our community and outside of it. Please, send letters, send money and volunteer along with us to maintain, upgrade and preserve our trails. Thanks for reading & doing what you can!!

The Link below is the Letter sent by the Verde Valley Cyclists Coalition to the Forest Service leadership and elected officials in Arizona.

VVCC Letter to Forest Service - 091724.pdf

The Link below is a TEMPLATE letter that you can utilize to send individual letters or emails. Feel free to personalize your Letter. If you plan to email the Letter you can sign it and save it as a PDF, as the VVCC did above, or you can cut and paste the content of the Template below into an email message.

Template Forest Service Letter.docx

The email addresses are:

agsec@usda.gov, randy.moore@usda.gov, michiko.martin@usda.gov, 

aaron.w.mayville@usda.gov, alexander.schlueter@usda.gov, 

press@kelly.senate.gov, Jacob@markkelly.com, info@eliforarizona.com, 

RepElijahCrane@mail.house.gov, casework@kelly.senate.gov,

Jasmine.Valdez@usda.gov, Anna.Myers@usda.gov, elise.whitman@mail.house.gov

You can cut and paste these emails into your email client and send them all at once or individually. If you want to mail physical letters, we've provided the physical addresses as well as Social Media addresses below.

If you want to save time mailing physical letters, we used docupost.com. You just need to upload the Template Letter in PDF format and here are the physical addresses below in a CVS file that you can upload.

Template Forest Service Letter.docx

Also, these are EASY forms to send the letters/notes to our elected officials:

Mark Kelly: form here and/or call 602-671-7901

Eli Crane: form here and/or call (202) 225-3361

We are told that reaching out to Elected Officials will have a significant impact.

Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack

U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., S.W.
Washington, DC 20250 

Forest Service Chief, Randy Moore

1400 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, D.C.
20250-0003

Forest Supervisor for Region 3, Michiko Martin

333 Broadway SE
Albuquerque, NM 87102

Coconino Forest Supervisor, Aaron Mayville

1824 S. Thompson St.
Flagstaff, AZ 86001

Red Rock District Ranger, Alex Schlueter

8375 State Route 179
Sedona, AZ 86351

US Senator, Mark Kelly

2201 E. Camelback Rd
Suite 115
Phoenix, AZ 85016

US Representative, Eli Crane

Washington DC Office
1229 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

If you prefer to post on X/Twitter.

@SenMarkKelly

@RepEliCrane

@SecVilsack

If you have any questions are need any assistance, please reach out to tracylynnrandall@gmail.com