Fat Tire Fun in Florida!

Ocala, FL.  This weekend we had a blast at the Fat Tire Mountain Bike Festival in Ocala, FL.  This weekend long festival, hosted by the Ocala Mountain Bike Association, is in its sixth year.  The festival provides an opportunity for riders from all over the southeast to get together and enjoy the beautiful trails near the Santos Trailhead.  With over 80 miles of trail of varying level, there is fun for all levels of riders. With almost 1,000 riders pedaling the trails, it is important to consider ways to minimize potential impacts to the land, and to take on pictures and leave only tracks!

   One of the highlights of the weekend was the Free Ride Demo at the Vortex Dirt Jump area of the park.  Here riders jumped, bounced, soared, and hit the dirt through an amazing free ride course.  In addition, there were numerous bicycle companies like Trek and Specialized, offering from demos of mountain bikes throughout the weekend.

After a day on the trails, 350 people camped out for the weekend.  The campground was swarming with bikes, trikes, and unicycles.  We even saw a Fat Tire Flyer (shown above) from our friends at New Belgium Brewery, based in Fort Collins, CO. 

Of course, no festival would be complete without a visit from the Big Guy himself.  Bigfoot was super excited to try out the fun park on a bicycle, weaving and bobbing his way around the dirt.  Above, Bigfoot meets Renee Blaney, former professional mountain biker and founder of the festival.  Bigfoot challenged the kids (and the "big kids") to slow down and ride through the middle of the muddy trail, instead of around it, as to not widen the trail and trample vegetation along side the trail unnecessarily.  

Finally, at the end of the festival, one lucky winner named Sunny, was jumping for joy as she went home with a brand new North Face Daypack.  Sunny became a member of Leave No Trace over the weekend and she couldn't help but be excited about all of the fun she had at the festival, and the good feeling she has from helping to support Leave No Trace programs.  Just look at her excitement!  Thank you to The North Face for their continued support of Leave No Trace, and a special thank you to our host Robert Arrieta, for a fun week full of outreach in Ocala, FL.
Respect the Resource...Kate and Tracy

How Green Is Your Grass?

We spent the better part of last week at The Telluride Bluegrass Festival. During the festival, we had the pleasure of running and judging How Green is your Grass? - a creative campsite challenge. This contest encourages Festivarians to raise the bar for sustainable camping by honoring campsites that excel in achieving the highest level of sustainability, cleanliness, and creativity during their stay at the festival. There were daily winners each of the four days that are now finalists for the grand prize. Daily winners enjoyed a prize package that included Chaco gear, Clif Bars, and New Belgium Beer. Stay tuned, the winer of the 2009 How Green is your Grass? competition will be announced on the next "Notes from the Planet" email.

In addition to the campsite challenge, the entire festival embraced sustainable living. For example, Eco Products donated compostable bags that were handed out by camp hosts at each of the campgrounds. The New Community Coalition (TNCC) coordinated stations called CRT (Compost, Recycle, Trash) and they were able to provide trained volunteers the entire four days at each station to direct waste to the proper receptacle. Also, Renewable Choice Energy was able to offset all of the travel the bands did to get there. Each year Planet Bluegrass continues to find new and exciting ways to challenge Festivarians to leave their concert space better than they found it. Hats off to everyone who participated in making this years festival a supreme success in sustainability!

Safe Travels...Kate and Tracy