This is the Padua Podcast Network. Running a Fever, episode 467, Ozark Off-Road Cyclists, O-O-R-C. Welcome to Running a Fever, a show about fitness, diet, and medicine. My name is Michael Davis, and my goal is to live a long, healthy, happy, active life right up to the very end.

It’s all about living long and loving life. Today, we’re continuing our series on cycling in Northwest Arkansas, which has become a hub of cycling activity and some say the mountain biking capital of the world. This time we’re talking about Ozark Off-Road Cyclists, or OORC, a nonprofit organization focused on building, maintaining, and preserving sustainable multi-use trails in the Arkansas Ozarks. working with various agencies and relying on volunteers for trail stewardship and advocacy.

OORC is a member of the International Mountain Biking Association, IMBA, a non-profit dedicated to creating, enhancing, and preserving great mountain biking experiences. OORC works closely with IMBA to ensure that the trails they build and maintain are sustainable, environmentally responsible, and enjoyable for riders of all skill levels. But OORC is not just about building mountain biking trails. It is also committed to advocating for appropriate multi-use trail systems that benefit all trail users.

OORC believes trails should be accessible to a wide range of users and that a collaborative approach is necessary to ensure that everyone’s needs are met, including hikers like myself, mountain bikers, and trail runners. The OORC has been instrumental in the development of a number of trail systems in the Ozarks, such as Lake Fayetteville, where I’ve been hundreds of times, Mount Sequoia, Kessler Mountain Regional Park, which I’ve also been to, Lake Leatherwood Park in Eureka Springs, Devil’s Den State Park, which I love, Hobbs State Park, I’ve been to that one, Lake Weddington Recreational Area, I’ve been there. Many of these I’ve been to.

Also, the Upper Buffalo, Lincoln Lake, the Runway Bike Park, the Great Passion Play, Gregory Park, City Lake in Siloam Springs, and many, many more. And now we’re very fortunate to have an interview with OORC’s trail coordinator, Jonathan Shaver. I really enjoyed this, especially as someone who hasn’t done any mountain biking, seeing how he casually entered the sport and became passionate about it. Here we go.

Would you tell us a little bit about your background, how you got interested in cycling, and how you made your way to OORC? Sure. I think I picked the wrong room. It’s funny.

You want to get out of here. OK. That’s all right. So I actually started in about 95, bought a mountain bike, living in Little Rock.

with a friend and just kind of rode here and there for a long time until about ten years ago. My same friend wanted to do a 50-mile race in Mountain View, Arkansas. was not in shape. So I started riding every day to get ready for it and then just kind of never stopped.

And still 10 years later, I’m still riding every day pretty much. And then I noticed I kind of wanted to get involved because I knew people were working on the trails and maintaining. So, probably about seven or eight years ago, I started going to work days and then met all the guys. About five years ago, I got on the board.

I was a treasurer for four years. I was relieved of that duty, and now I’m a trail coordinator. Great. What does a trail coordinator do?

I don’t really know. I go to board meetings. No, we kind of all make decisions on trails. We have to make that decision in conjunction with Fayetteville Parks and Recreation, with whom we have a good relationship, and with the city in general. So making new trails is a big deal, and it involves a lot of people. And then also just deciding which trails need to be worked on when, what needs our love at the moment. There’s also always rerouting, because people need, you know, land changes hands, new neighbors come in who want trails off their land.

Right. And so there’s a lot of that. Sounds like a lot of work. It’s a lot of work.

Yeah. Can you tell me about the history of OORC and, you know, how it got started? The official date was in 97. It was basically at Kessler Mountain.

I may get some of this wrong. I’m not really the best historian. There was someone who had land out there, and then they were allowed to start building some trails, and that was kind of where it all kind of spawned from. And those trails still exist today.

And then over time, it just grew. I think it became a 501C3 back in 2010 or so. And so it became kind of more legit. And the festivals and the rides and the different things we host have just kind of grown from there.

And it just kind of seems to get, maybe it’s kind of leveled out for a little while, but it really has grown a lot over the years. Well, what actually are the functions? I mean, I know you build trails, and you maintain trails. How does all that work?

So, we just have certain trail systems that we kind of are in charge of taking care of. We, you know, we also have a Facebook page where people can post things, like a tree down, or give us information if something needs immediate attention. And then there are a lot of things that go into trail maintenance. There’s actual repair of the trail.

There’s weed eating. There’s blowing. A lot of cutting down limbs. Did that answer that question?

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, it sounds like volunteers are really the lifeblood of your organization.

What kind of person is an OORC volunteer? What motivates them? That’s an excellent question. I mean, our president, Rob Reno, he probably puts as much time into ORC as he does to his regular job.

I mean, it’s incredible. Not all of us put that much or get that committed. But you do need someone like that who’s willing to kind of put the work in. And then it kind of attracts other people because they see how much work you know, someone else is putting in.

And if you’re riding the trails and you realize how much effort goes into those trails being maintained, you start to, you know. But yeah, it’s a weird thing. I don’t know where volunteers come from. We host rides.

We have festivals. We try to attract people that way. Races. We have a team now.

So, I don’t know how anybody attracts volunteers. And then we’re connected to NICA, and the NICA riders are required to get volunteer hours. We record all of that. We keep up with how many hours we do.

Well, you’re a volunteer. What motivates you as a volunteer, right? Well, part of it for me was getting to know people who ride. I mean, I had a couple of friends around that rode, but I knew there were people who were riding a lot more, and so I wanted to kind of be involved that way.

But I also just kind of a desire to give back to the trails. Because I mean, if you ride constantly and you know that other people are putting their effort into it and all you’re doing is enjoying it, I don’t know. Right. made me feel a little guilty, I think.

Yeah, yeah, I see what you mean. What about, you know, what if somebody’s watching and they’re interested in becoming a volunteer? How can they do that? Yeah.

We have a Facebook page, we also have a website, and we post all the activities that are going on. Pretty much there’s work days every weekend, which is crazy. In fact, this weekend there’s Saturday and Sunday. There’s also a gravel ride, there’s a women’s ride, and that’s just this weekend coming up.

When people show up for the first time, it’s just kind of like, hey, you can come as little as you want. We usually are there for four hours or so, eight to noon or so, if you don’t want to stay the whole time. Trying to take the pressure off people, but also making them feel appreciated. But everybody’s so busy, you have to be careful not to resent it if someone else isn’t working as much as you, or they’ve stopped coming to things.

You just keep doing your thing and trying to help out as much as you can. Right now, on this weekend, it’s February. Does the work ever stop, or does it go year-round? Pretty much only if Rob is out of town or his kids are in NICA now.

And so, you know, what is NICA, by the way? I’m not familiar with that. OK, I’m sorry. That is.

It’s basically Interscholastic Cycling Association National. I’m probably messing that up. But anyway, it’s basically racing for kids is what it basically comes down to. Once you turn 18, you’re not – I don’t know.

I think maybe as long as you’re in school, I think it starts in like seventh grade or something. I think they tend to start more late summer and into the fall, but there’s a state champion, there’s different age groups, girls and boys. My daughter did it for like one year. She really wasn’t that interested in racing, but she loved going to the practices.

That’s how a lot of mountain bikers are. A lot of mountain bikers don’t race. They have no interest in it. They’re doing it for fun.

Racing takes the fun out of it. You don’t want to put that kind of pressure on people, either, especially kids. So, you know, ORC has had lots of projects over the years. Which one are you most proud of?

That’s a good question. Today I was out at Kessler. Kessler is close to my house, and it’s my favorite trail system in the world. I was on a trail today called Bewitched, which is a very technical trail.

Just riding something that you saw come basically from scratch, being flagged all the way to being done. We built the longest boardwalk that we know of in Arkansas. And it’s crazy long. So that’s maybe my favorite.

We just finished a downhill, only a black diamond, very gravity-oriented. I don’t even ride it. It’s just beyond what I’m interested in. But there’s a lot of kids, especially, a lot of young people that are really into that.

And there’s middle-aged guys, too, or girls. But anyway, we did that this last year along with a return line, which is more of like a blue downhill, and that’s called Pirate Radio. Very proud of that. That was done relatively quickly, considering how much work had to be put into it.

It’s just a beautiful trail, a lot of fun. Those are the two that come to mind. And then, you know, all the work that’s gone into the other trails, keeping them up to date. I mean, I guess for me, Kessler is definitely, you know, what I’m most proud of, but it’s also what I put the most work into.

Right, right. I guess that makes a difference. Just, you know, you’ve actually gone out and done something there. Yeah.

So what do you think are the biggest challenges to the organization right now? Well, you’re trying to keep your board intact, trying not to overwork the people who are putting the effort in, not burning them out. I’ve certainly had, at times, people have families, and they have their own lives, trying to let them breathe, let them take a break, but also recruiting new people who are willing to take on those roles because it’s hard to get people to commit to a board position because it’s a commitment.

Some people just want to come and help on certain things. I don’t want to commit to going to a meeting once a month, and all that kind of goes along with that sort of thing. So for me, I was a treasurer. I think financially, we do really well because we have very attractive events that people come from all over the country to do.

I think as long as we can keep enough volunteer help, then I think the OORC will continue to be very effective. Great, well, I’m glad you’re doing so well with that. The name says Off-Road Cyclist, but according to the website, you also advocate for trail runners and hikers. Full disclosure, I haven’t ridden a bike in a long time, but I do a lot of hiking on trails.

So what’s that about, and what are some of the ways that you do that advocacy? That’s a great question. In fact, now three of our board members are pretty, they own bikes, but they’re pretty much trail runners. Ozark Trail Running was an organization, and I do not, I’m the wrong person to ask about this.

I know the people in charge, but I don’t know all their details. They’ve been doing functions, I think, like Tuesday night runs, Wednesday night runs, they have races. When I first started, there were basically no runners coming to our workdays. We certainly felt a little bit, and not many hikers either.

And that’s something that our board, I’m real proud of them for really bringing in runners and hikers, because a lot of people do both. And a lot of us hike with our families and whatnot, and we want everyone to feel like all of the trails are welcome to that. I mean, there are some trails that are just They’re downhill trails, and they’re not really meant to hike and run on, but that’s a minority. Most trails are mixed-use.

Last weekend, we just had our 21st annual Buffalo Headwater Challenge, which is out at the Buffalo Headwaters, about an hour east of here. And this was the first year, I believe the first year, that the Ozark Trail Runners, the people have been helping, but they actually had a trail run at the same time as our ride. I think it was real successful, and I assume that will continue to grow. But I think that is critical to our future, including everybody.

There were very few female board members, and now half of our board. Inclusion has become critical and so important to our current board. Has that helped you grow a lot? Definitely.

We have another event that’s a 25-hour race called the Beast of Burden, and it is mixed, where there’s two loops going at all times, and half is running and half is riding. There’s all kinds of different categories, and one of the categories is that you can do both. This year, I was on a team of riders and runners, so we had people riding and running at the same time. And that event would be a completely different situation if it wasn’t a combination of both, a collection.

That’s interesting. Yeah. Yeah. So, Northwest Arkansas has been called the mountain biking capital of the world.

What do you think makes it deserve that reputation? And how did that come about? I think that’s a marketing move by the Waltons. I don’t know.

Even though we’re really close to Benton County, we’re the county right below it, we’re very separate. I don’t know that we don’t market at all. We’re just a club. We try to get people to come to our events.

But we’re not really, and then we do work with the city, and so I’m sure commerce is very important to them, but it’s not something that we really think about a lot. It’s something I laugh about with my buddies. I have some friends, and we do a trip somewhere throughout the country every year. And everywhere we go, people kind of make fun of us for being the mountain bike capital of the world.

Yeah, and it’s amazing how many trails we have here, but it’s hard also to compete with places that have a ton of elevation, which we all love to go visit because it’s so different than what we get here. Right. That kind of leads to my next question, and you can tell me about some of those places. I was wondering, what kind of cycling do you like?

Do you like to race? What kind of trails do you like, and where do you go? Um, I, I have started racing. I’m on the ORC race team that started two years ago.

Um, that’s not my main focus. I I’m kind of more, I’m, I’m an older guy and I like, uh, I kind of like more technical, uh, riding. Um, but I like a little bit of everything. Um, the trails close to my house are, are.

fairly technical, and so I’m lucky in that way. Maybe the trails up in Bentonville or more, they have some technical riding up there, they do, but it’s more kind of a flowy type trail. It’s kind of a different type of riding a little bit, which that’s what a lot of people prefer. But when traveling, it’s just amazing to go see other states and kind of how they do things and what their trail systems are like and what the people are like.

You go to other places and it’s just like to say one place is better than another is just impossible. It’s kind of about what you prefer. Do you like a lot of elevation? Do you like to be up in the mountains?

Do you like more kind of just rolling plate hills like we have here? And then the East Coast has amazing stuff too. We went up to Whistler a couple of years ago, and that’s just absolutely incredible. I mean, I don’t know how you, it’s hard to compete with that.

It’s hard to compete with Colorado, and we went to Oregon last year, too, or this year, and yeah, just what a beautiful place. Great, I guess every place has its charms, right? That’s right. So you mentioned being older.

I’m an older guy. I’m not in the best shape, but I’m kind of interested in mountain biking. What do you recommend in terms of, like, how I should get started? Well, great question.

You may know this, but e-biking is faster growing right now than just regular mountain biking. I think it’s not a bad way to entry point into the sport. Most of the people I ride with do not ride e-bikes. It allows people who, you know, we were at our festival this weekend, there were people who were in their 70s and a guy in his 80s.

And they all stated, you know, without e-bikes, they wouldn’t be able to ride anymore. That’s kind of different, but that’s just saying, you know, that is one entry point, and it’s, you know, there’s nothing wrong with doing it that way. But if you were just doing it the old school way, then you get a bike. You do want to get a good one.

I just bought my wife a bike this last year because her experience before was always with crappy bikes, and she had pretty crappy experiences. You don’t have to spend $10,000, but it’s crazy how expensive bikes have gotten. But for $2,000 to $3,000, you might, if you’re going to get into it. You’re going to start on green trails.

You’re not going to go into really hard stuff. You don’t want to injure yourself. That’ll turn you off completely. You mentioned the colors.

Tell me what the color is. You mentioned the blue earlier, and I’m not sure what the colors mean. Yeah, so green would be like beginner, blue would be intermediate, and then black would be advanced. Okay, I got you.

And so that’s important when you’re trying to figure out where to ride. You want to have a good experience. You want to start with those green trails. That’s what we’ve been riding.

My wife and I have been riding the green trails around here. She hasn’t even gotten on a blue trail. And so we may move up the blue trail at some point. She may not.

You just have to kind of wait and see. But the last thing you want to do is just to overdo it and kind of ruin the experience for yourself. But you’re never too old, and you’re never too out of shape. Apparently not.

Yeah, if you can do it in your 80s, then that’s good. Yeah. And never too out of shape. You can always take it easy that first day, and just ease into it, and start somewhere.

I look forward to it. So, looking forward, what are the things that are ahead? What’s the future of ORC, and what kind of projects do you have coming down the road? So we got a rather large grant from the Department of Transportation.

Dealing with state grants is complicated and takes a long time. We got it approved, but there’s still a lot of work to do. This is for an area called Lake Fayetteville, and it’s an old trail. That was the first place I ever really rode in town when I moved here.

But it needs a facelift and we want to also put in, you know, more like a kind of a Kind of a bike park type area, too. So people who like to do jumps, and especially young people, will have a place to kind of go, because there’s really nothing like that here in Fayetteville. Bentonville has some really good spots like that. And they continue to build really good things like that.

But Fayetteville is kind of lacking there. And so basically an overhaul of that. Other than that, I’m going to draw a blank on, The amount of work it is to maintain trails. We also have partnerships.

We have a partnership with Subaru here in town, and we’re going to do a cookout for their employees in a couple of weeks. The race season is starting up, too. So our race team will start in April, and the races go all the way through November. They actually added three or four races more this year, so that’ll all be ramping up.

We help out oftentimes with – there’s now a Pro Cup mountain bike race here in town at Centennial Mountain. where mountain bikers from all over, like the pros, will come, and to qualify for other races. And we help out with that. We get the trail, help get the trails ready.

That’s usually in late March or April. Also, I was going to say cyclocross, but I think the cyclocross has already happened. But that’s all I can think of at the moment. Well, that sounds like plenty to me.

It sounds like you guys are playful. Is there anything that I just don’t know enough to ask or that you’d like to add? Well, I guess for people who are listening from other areas. Keep in mind that there are probably volunteers in your area that are out there working.

They would love some help. And some people don’t want to give time, but you can give money to kind of help buy tools, buy food, gasoline. All that stuff’s expensive. So maybe just being aware, but also not being afraid to get out there, whether it be hiking, running, mountain biking, taking your kids out.

Mountain bikers are, for the most part, very friendly, and they should be. If they’re not, they’re not acting correctly. We all share the trails, and everybody just needs to get out on them and take good care of them. Understand that trails are very vulnerable, and they can be delicate.

So don’t go when it’s wet. Don’t go when it’s muddy. When people do that, we have to go and repair that stuff. Somebody’s having to.

So also be kind of aware of what your trail system can handle. There’s usually signs up that kind of will help you figure that out. Good. Well, thank you so much for being on the show.

I really appreciate it. A lot of interesting things to think about. And maybe you can come back in the future. Give us an update.

Yeah. Yeah. Let me know. All right.

Thanks a lot. Thank you. Have a good one. Okay, thank you for listening to that interview.

I hope you enjoyed it. Remember, if you’ve got the fever, keep it burning, and if you don’t, catch the fever. And I will see you next time on Running a Fever.