Prescott Arizona News and Events - Read It News Magazine

If it's singletrack, you'll find them there.

Bank officer Christophe Noel has a stiff alter ego. I know this because I'd had a meeting at his bank months before we mountain biked together and it took three more outings to put it together. Dirt and lycra changes a man.

Noel's passion is mountain biking and bike and trail advocacy here in Prescott is his outlet. In a sport that typically attracts shredders and gear-studded posers, Noel and his friend Greg Ooley are approaching their advocacy project, Raven Singletrack, with a mellow, almost-Rastafarian cool. They work desk jobs during the week (and have the haircuts to prove it) and then hit the trails every weekend on matching single-speeds.

While they're not entirely sure how far they'll go with Raven Singletrack, one of their most notable accomplishments to date is the Snap Map. It's a set of rolled up, waterproof maps that bikers can attach to their top tube via a cloth-covered bit of measuring tape. Inevitably, the Snap Map has a weird home-grown polish to it. Noel and Ooley created the maps by drawing yellow stars, and bright green and red lines (Rasta, anyone?) on USGS maps.

The whole point of the Snap Map is to help riders find Prescott's best singletrack.

“We wouldn't want them riding itchy, scratchy, no fun trails,” Noel said.

According the the duo, if the rides aren't on the maps, they probably stink.

Rides absent from the maps may also be too far out of town. Each of the maps covers an area – Granite Mountain, Schoolhouse Gulch, and Thumb Butte – which is in easy riding distance from, say, Coffee Roasters on Gurley Street. So while there's some nice riding out at Lynx Lake, it's not on the Snap Map.

One trail you will see is Trail 396. It's a brand new trail that local trail czar Rob Hehlen and his crew spent thousands of man hours building with mountain biking in mind. It starts from Schoolhouse Gulch and White Spar Roads and ascends smoothly through shady oak groves to Goldwater Lake. According to Noel, there are plenty more mountain biking trails to build and Hehlen could use some help to hack, shovel and McCloud them into existence. Involving the local mountain biking community in trail-building is important, Noel says, because while the volunteers who build the trails are often hikers, those same trails typically see the heaviest use from bikers.

According to Noel, the need for more trail-builders is a hole Raven Singletrack would like to fill on their quest to building a solid mountain biking community in Prescott. In addition to publishing and distributing bike maps, and working with Hehlen to learn how to lead trail-building days each month, they're also leading monthly soul rides, the term being a play on the word slow.

“We're the Chamber of Commerce for mountain biking in Prescott,” said Noel of the group's various projects.

And far from being elitist shredders, these guys really get the meaning of slow – or soul. And that's essentially where Raven Singletrack came from. They turn wheels for a while, come to a high point on the trail and pause. For what seems like hours. It was by passing time this way in the woods that Raven Singletrack came into being, according to Ooley.

“The whole thing hatched on wheels,” he said.

And clearly, it intends to stay there.

To buy a Snap Map, visit any of Prescott's local bike shops. For more info on Raven Singletrack, visit: www.ravensingletrack.com.

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