054 - Mountain biking is surfing the earth... a tribute to Bike Monk, Craig Randall, R.I.P. (Mark Flint, Jon Shouse, & Steve Roach) - Mountain Cog

Episode Transcript
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Josh (00:16):
This is the time where we normally tell a dad joke, like
right at the beginning of ourepisode, but I'm going to save
the dad joke today and we're notgoing to do that today.
So it's Sunday night here on theon the mountain cock podcast
and we're here, I think, with aunique topic.
We're here to.
So recently, here in Tucson,we've lost, you know, one of the

(00:38):
pillars of our community, ofour bicycle community, someone
that has had such a huge impacton our community here.
His name is Craig, the bikemonk, randall, and we're here
with, with three of his, his,his, his oldest friends, who got
ahold of us here at mountaincog and said, hey, we'd like to

(00:59):
do a tribute to the bike monk,and so that's what we're going
to do today.
We're gonna, we're gonna have aconversation, we're gonna,
we're gonna learn about Craig,and and if you don't know who he
is, you're gonna learn a lotabout him.
And if you don't know who he is, chances are you've you've been
impacted by some of the thingsthat he's done for our community
.
So I'm going to start just byletting our guests go around

(01:20):
here and introduce themselves,and we'll start with you, mark.

Mark Flint (01:24):
Okay.

Josh (01:24):
I'm Mark Flint, mark Flint , and you've been on this
podcast before.
I certainly have.

Mark Flint (01:30):
Right on.

Josh (01:31):
It's good to have you here again, sir, good to be back
Right on, and you, sir.

Steve Roach (01:34):
Yes, I'm Steve Roach and a long time mountain
bike mountain biker and knownCraig for known of Craig and had
so many experiences with Craigfor so many years.

Jon Shouse (01:45):
Great to be here.

Well, it's good to have you.

Jon Shouse (01:48):
John and I'm John Schaus and I'm here happily to
have called Craig a great friendover my life.

Josh (01:56):
Yes, and I just John, was giving me grief earlier for
having his wife, jody, on, butwe haven't had John on yet.
So, yeah, we'll get John on andyou'll hear all about John in
the future, so, hey, so so Iknow Craig by reputation and the
things that he's touched andthe things that he's done, and
you know, I lived in when I was,when I was early in my career.

(02:17):
I lived in in Rita Ranch and sorode like every single day at
Fantasy Island and was big likein 2010 with the Save Fantasy
Island kind of effort,participated in that.
So I know him through thosethings and through those trails,
but I would love to kind oflearn a whole lot more.
I think our listeners would aswell.
So so maybe you guys can get astart us and tell us who, who

(02:41):
Craig was, who Craig was to youand who he was to the to the
community here.
Go ahead, man, get started.
I'll start.

Jon Shouse (02:50):
Yeah, just, you couldn't meet a more genuine
person than Craig, and I thinkwe can, just that's.
That's.
The heart of this whole thingis he was the most sincere and
genuine person, regardless ofbeing the business owner and
trying to.
You know, his job was to fixyour bike and to and to sell you
something, but he was just.

(03:11):
That's not why he was doing it.
He was doing it for the love ofit, and that's all there was to
it.

Josh (03:16):
So who was he?
What did he do?
What did he do for the bikecommunity here?

Jon Shouse (03:21):
He created a place in the early days of mountain
biking.
It was just rag tag all overthe city, all over the county.
There weren't trails, so tospeak, back then, but his shop
was like a little core in thecommunity.
You went to the shop and andyou were greeted there and you
met people there and you sat onthe couch and you had a beer and

(03:44):
you read magazines.
And you know you didn't gothere to buy something although
you did but you went therebecause you knew we're going to
run into somebody that you'regoing to ride with in the future
.

Josh (03:54):
And he had shops that were called the bike monk.
Was that always an innovation?
Low, low, low cactus yeah.

And so somehow all of us have a story of how we
found ourselves in low cactus.
I remember being at a earlyrestaurant early in the early
days the Dakota Cafe on Tank ofVerde and the bartender were
talking mountain bikes.
And again, you're just.
You know, it's a greatconversation in the early 90s
and before you know it, craigcomes up in the conversation and
at that time you know theboutique parts that you would be

(04:22):
coveting for and all the CNCmachine stuff and the TNT and
all that that was being madealso in Arizona.
All that stuff would come up inconversation.
And then this bartender thatyou know I can't recall his name
at this point and he saidyou've got to meet the bike mark
and you've got to see this lonecactus shop and that was his

(04:43):
first shop.
That, I think, was his firstshop that he set up here was in
research loop off of like 20seconds just south of 22.

Jon Shouse (04:52):
Right, right next to where BlackRock Brewing is,
right on First reference.

Yeah, so it was just this cool.
The minute you got in there youwere like this is like this
little oasis of all the stuff,all the fetish bike parts.
And then there's Craig and he'syou know this, I think he, you
know, officiated himself as thebike muck and it was immediate
that you're in the presence ofthis really calm, really kind of
very cool guy who wascompletely dedicated to what was

(05:21):
the emerging mountain bike.

Josh (05:24):
He really was a bike muck.

He was the bike muck and the clone cactus was a
shop and he had Spike, hislittle cactus, out front which
you would always say a prayer towhen going in, and Spike would
kind of follow him around to thedifferent shops and eventually,
when we would do our rides onTuesdays and Thursdays, we would
end up at his place over onStella, out by Fantasy Island,

(05:48):
before Fantasy Island was evenlike a thing, and Spike would be
planted there.
So Spike was also part of theso what is Spike?

Josh (05:58):
Spike is a little Swarov, sorry yeah.

And so he was like the mascot, you know, the cat,
the lone cactus, that kind of.

Josh (06:04):
but he was a real Swarov wasn't like me, he wasn't like a
sculpture.

No, it was this real Swarov that had its own
little living space and he wouldsort of travel around.
So that was part of like theearly mythology with with Craig
was, you know, spike and Craigand that whole piece with the
lone cactus.
So there was all that kind ofthing happening as well.
But the community that wouldgather around the shop and
eventually would migrate fromone location to the other.
As we talk about the differentlocations, that's where things

(06:30):
you know before things werereally organized as they became
with with the officialorganizations that emerged with
Mark and Tucson.
Then Craig was really.
He was like the hub of what washappening in that emerging
culture at that time he got itstarted, so so.

Josh (06:49):
So what's the?
What's the history of the shops, right?
What's the history of the lonecactus, like it started on on
Research Loop and then thenwhere'd it go from there?

Jon Shouse (06:56):
Started on Research Loop, then went to over by
Jethro's on Broadway and KaminoSeiko.
Okay, so kind of midtown.

Josh (07:05):
Yeah, east, still East, yeah, still East yeah.

And then went midtown, like then it was
country club and somewherecountry club and Grant he was he
would come in.
He came into Bob's Bargain Barnwhich was like a summit hut
kind of camping gear place andthey had a certain part of the
store that he set up camp in andhe would build like a you know
a little corner that would havehis style, with you know his

(07:31):
woodworking, and just have hislittle crib there where he'd
work on bikes and it just alwayshad a kind of kind of vibe to
it that he would try that wouldtravel with him.

Josh (07:39):
So he did woodworking as well.
That was one of his passions,yeah he came from San Diego.

I know his early days from when he worked
construction and he built, youknow, a lot of houses in
Miramesa in San Diego and canmigrated eventually to Tucson
from San Diego.
But you know, he was, you know,deep into the, into, the sort
of say, the beach communityculture and riding bikes and

(08:03):
that sort of thing.
San Diego, just the lifestyleof that.

Mark Flint (08:06):
Well, he'd been a surfer too, and one of his
phrases is, I think, is mountainbiking is surfing the earth.

Oh dude.

Josh (08:14):
I think that might be the name of this podcast.

Mark Flint (08:17):
Biking is surfing the earth.
That's a good one.

Josh (08:19):
I'll just remember that, right, I'm gonna write that down
while you guys are talking.
So okay, so where did it goafter it was in Bob's Bargain
Barn?

Jon Shouse (08:26):
I think then, like Mark said, it was in that little
almost shack and that was histhing.
It was always a very small,comfortable, like you know.
He'd never wanted like the thegiant performance bike
superstore type thing.
He always wanted to feel likeyou were coming into his garage
at his house, exactly, you know,like he was welcoming you to

(08:48):
his house, not to his business.

Josh (08:49):
And did he have employees that worked at these shops or
was?
It just him Always, just alwaysgreat, that's it.

Yeah.

Josh (08:55):
And did people call him Craig or did they call him the
bike monk?
Like where did he go by?
Both, Both and it was.
Was it monk or was it bike monk?
Did you just call him monk?

Jon Shouse (09:03):
Monk yeah, Pretty much, but I think like I don't
think I ever called him monk.
You know what I mean.
I can't think of ever yeah.

I knew him before the monk thing sort of took off,
so it was always Craig or dudeor something.
It was yeah.

Mark Flint (09:18):
For me it was Craig, and then later on Mr Bike Monk,
but but his to piggyback onwhat John was saying about his
shops.
He was.
He was not into the high endeither.
You know.
I mean, if you're a high endclientele, that's fine, but
that's not what he was lookingfor.
And he wasn't looking to makemoney.
And one of the things Iremember is that I would have

(09:40):
him do some work like repair ashock or something, and he'd say
, well, that's five bucks, greg,you can't even pay your rent
here, take 10.
You know, I mean, how manytimes you've gone into a bike
shop and said, no, I need togive you more money?
But that's the way Craig was.
He was not.
It wasn't about the money forhim.

Jon Shouse (09:57):
Wow, yeah, and in I now I'm a bike mechanic as well
and I like to emulate him,because he, he was a mechanic,
but he treated like a piece ofevery bike was a piece of art to
him and he was.
He was molding that piece ofart into what he thought it

(10:18):
should be.
Right, you know, not just goingOkay, this needs to be torqued
to 8.9 Newton meters, or elseyou know, it was working on
bikes was, was an art form tohim.
There's a lot of love to it.

Josh (10:29):
Yeah, and it didn't matter to him if it was a $10,000 bike
or $200 bike, he was just no,every bike.
Every bike was the same.

And he'd help you to dial in on what was really
right for you all the time.
Yeah you wouldn't get caught upin.
This is really.
It's really cool, but it's notreally functional or it's not
going to hold up for it.
For you, the based on your sizeor your style of writing.

Josh (10:50):
He wasn't trying to upsell you just trying to get you back
out on the trail, never upsellyou.

And he, I mean he brought in lines like he had
Mountain Cycle early on andvoodoo.

Jon Shouse (10:59):
Yeah.

Maracuda, Maracuda.
So we were.

Josh (11:04):
Steve, turn that mic a little bit, so it's facing you.
You can.
You can actually angle it downand we can cut this part out.

Mark Flint (11:09):
Okay, got it.
That's better Okay.

Josh (11:11):
It's a unidirectional, so it'll pick it up better if
you're facing it.
Okay, sorry guys, keep going.

Jon Shouse (11:17):
Oh, I don't even know where we were.

He doesn't upsell us, yeah, his line of bikes and
and that was part of hisphilosophy so the like the
Broadway shop.
He also again, he would havelike the corrugated, like he'd
make a little display in therethat look like you're out and
sitting in front of a bar andthen you have the bikes lined up
and you have a couch and thenyou'd have videos playing with
you know some extreme sportsstuff going on.

(11:42):
So you always had that feelinglike you were also coming into a
place that created that kind ofcommunity where you would hang
and you people and eventually,as as more as Fantasy Island
started to become public andreal and that I mean the story.
I mean I remember FantasyIslands.
You know the creation story ofthat was that Chuck Boyer was.

Josh (12:03):
Really we have you guys spoken with, we haven't had
Chuck out yet, but he's Chuck'spassed away now, but have you
have you talked about his son?
Yeah, junior.

I'm not aware, but the legacy of Chuck Boyer with
Fantasy Island and he'd go outand I just remember the stories
of him dragging his heel aroundmaking the first aspects of what
would become right single trackthere, and then Craig and
myself and Chuck and some otherof the community I'm not sure,
john, were you on some of thoseearly building pieces to we get

(12:31):
out there very early in themorning and hide our cars really
far away and seek out a fenceand then start building and
carving out what became theevolution of.

Josh (12:40):
we all work on it.
Yeah, what do we call?
We call these social trails,right, they started out as
social trails you taught me thatterm.

last time you were on social trails, but like
trails.

Jon Shouse (12:50):
Yeah, Craig was actually the one that that named
it Fantasy Island.

Exactly.

Jon Shouse (12:54):
Because once we kind of got that first loop in and
was was long cactus, the firstloop long cactus was the first
loop but we went out there andand Chuck wanted to call it the
Long cactus trail system.
You know he wanted to call itLong cactus trails and so we
went out.
When it was finally completedwas a Tuesday night.
We left from Bob and Deb'splace.

We always did those rides from there.

Jon Shouse (13:16):
Yeah, and, and, and we finished and we're sitting at
what now would be the picnictable area.
Yeah, I used to be at twobarbed wire fences that you had
to hop over to get in and out.
Yeah, and, and Craig goes.
This isn't Long cactus man,this is freaking Fantasy Island.

Mark Flint (13:33):
Dreams come true?
Yeah, that was.

Jon Shouse (13:35):
That was exactly what, and that.
So that's where the nameFantasy Island came from.
And you know we were just rightthere, just right there, that
one Tuesday night ride, andthere's, there's maybe what five
of us there.
Yeah, I mean it wasn't likenobody.

We were protective of it then and we were keep it
quiet because it was still onthe back in there and you
couldn't you know you're ridingor not a motorcycle or mountain
bike and yeah no one would seeyou and you're just sort of
stealthly going in there andhaving this amazing ride and
getting out at sunset and thenwe're right up the street and
then we're at Craig's place,there again with you know, beers

(14:10):
and tequila and all it's funnyhow you refer to spike like he's
a person.

Jon Shouse (14:14):
He is a person as much of a person as any of us
were at that point.

Josh (14:19):
Where did spike survive?
Where is he now?
Do you know anyone know?

hard to say yeah he's got to be at Kathy's yeah
he's probably on the hill, justyou know regal and tall, you
know hopefully right there onStella down from fantasy.

Mark Flint (14:32):
Yeah, one of the other things that happened early
on with fantasy and it.
I could be wrong, but I thinkit has a lot to do with bike
monks.
Influence is a lot of.
There was a lot of dumps outthere, just old trash dumps, and
people were making really coolart installations out of it
alongside the trail and I maybeyou guys know how exactly that

(14:53):
started, but it just I got thesense that he must had something
to do with that or people didit because they thought he'd
like it.
I don't know.

Jon Shouse (15:00):
I think everybody just kind of started.
It was in the early days,everybody that was going out
there.
Like I said, at one point,there had to be 10 people that
knew about it.
You know what I mean from theTuesday night rise, sure, and
everybody was taking ownershipof it.

Josh (15:15):
So, and it was success has many fathers.

Jon Shouse (15:18):
It was too hard to get all the trash out right.
So instead of getting all thetrash out, you just tried to
make some.
It look cool.
You know what I mean likemaking it.

make it a sculpture , yeah there would be, like
these, totems out all atdifferent points, and it
junctures where the trail mightsplit off, and then you would
have some kind of conglomerationof rusted out parts and things
that were the Christmas tree.
Yeah.

Mark Flint (15:41):
Christmas tree yeah.

Josh (15:42):
There's a car out there too.

Mark Flint (15:43):
Yes, yeah, and that somebody put an old bike frame
on the rack on.

Jon Shouse (15:47):
Rudy and I are the ones that took that old bike and
put it out there and thensomebody stole the bike.
Really, yeah, it's like it waslike an old rally, three speed
or something, just you know, Ihope someone's riding it.
I actually got back to the backto life, like we poked holes in
the roof and then cut the rimand round the rim through the
roof so it wouldn't blow away.
But then somebody like went outthere and you know, that's the

(16:08):
really sad thing.
I don't know if the last timeyou wrote it, but like all those
sculptures are gone, you know,I mean, people have taken them.
The only thing that's reallyleft of that original kind of
you turning trash into somethingis on on Bo's loop, about
halfway through, there's thatshelf on the side that has all

(16:30):
the old stuff piled on it.
Yeah, like those wereeverywhere out there, really,
yeah, and now that's probablythe last remaining.

Mark Flint (16:41):
You know thing relic from that.

Jon Shouse (16:42):
Relic from that.

Mark Flint (16:43):
Yeah, there was the old, like an old chase, backyard
chase, along with no furniture,no cushions on it.
And then it was somebody hadlike a ski leaning up against a
like a little one of thosechests that you were talking
about or shelves that you'retalking about, so you could,
like it looked like somebody hadgone skiing, take their skis
off and and relaxing in theShays lounge.

Josh (17:04):
The last time I was out there, there was a whole bunch
of broken bottles and someonehad like made like a mosaic in
the ground with all the shardsfrom the broken bottles.
I mean someone had spent many,many hours out there taking
those broken glass pieces andmaking it into an art design.
It was super cool.
I mean, it's exactly along thatvibe like take trash and make
it something awesome, right.

Jon Shouse (17:23):
Right, and it would be great.
You know that that would beawesome if that kind of thing
came back.
Just not, you know, and it'sweird, like leave it where it is
, you know it's.
It's kind of upsetting when youthink about it.
You know, because it was.
It was really kind of one ofthe unique things about the
early fantasy island.

Josh (17:42):
Yeah, so so what are we advocating for here?
Make more art installationswith the trash that's still out
there, or bring more stuff out,no, no don't, don't bring more
stuff out.

Jon Shouse (17:53):
Make it, make it.
There's still enough out there,trust me.
So.
But you know, I think, justgoing back to it's not just
about fantasy island, it wasabout the community that Craig
created through.
You know, in the early days itwas like these were the days
when you had to wait for themagazine to come out so you
could see the next cool thing.
And then you could go toCraig's and there was that,

(18:15):
paul's Ross the derailer on hisshelf.
Yeah, just in the magazine.
It was like you could touch itand feel it and and spend $200
to buy it.
Yeah, you know, but but thatwas, you know, the community,
that Tuesday night ride, theThursday night was always over
at Reddington.
And he had that hidden bottleof tequila tequila at the top of

(18:38):
Reddington and you'd comescreaming back down in the dark,
back when the lights were.
You know no better than aflashlight.
Yeah, but.
But yeah, steve was the onealways on that downhill because
he is insane descending.

But then we'd go to Chouie's from there and there
was the whole.
I mean it was, you know, it wasTuesdays, thursdays, and then
we started doing MBA racing,yeah, and then you have Sunday.
So it was a continuouslifestyle for many, many years.

Josh (19:05):
What years are we talking?
So I first came to Tucson in 99.
I think it was when I first gotstationed here and I started
riding.
I think at that time.
Like, what time frame are youguys talking about?

Jon Shouse (19:14):
So Fantasy Island officially open April 20 1999.
That's when it was like kind oflet the cat out of the bag
Jesus.

Josh (19:24):
I probably had just rolled up on the scene when it opened.

Yeah, how many years leading up to that, we
were riding it for three, wasthat?

Jon Shouse (19:31):
mid 90s yeah, mid 90s, yeah, yeah.

Mark Flint (19:35):
I think, I was on it in like 98.

So before Fantasy Island was the, and I was trying
to recall it, we have a namefor the Pantano area out there,
no, across from a pinnacle, youknow, I mean not pinnacle, but
Tucson McGraw's yeah to.

Jon Shouse (19:50):
So fantasy, if we want to call it that fantasy
island.
But it had a name.
It was called like like the pitor the, something like that.

I've been wrecking my brain for the name of that.
But we've developed that andthat's the first Tuesday night
spot that all of us would gather.

Josh (20:07):
That doesn't exist anymore .

Jon Shouse (20:08):
No, no, there's houses and mapped out completely
.
So that was basically acrossfrom Tucson McGraw's, Okay Kind
of Pantano wash to Escalanteback to Old Spanish Trail.
Exactly, and that there was abig trail system back in there.

Really, yeah, wicked, and we put a you know a
loop that we would all know andwe'd get out there at that six
o'clock after you know work onTuesday and hit it like a
racetrack and just everybody'sfinding their pace, but we're I
mean, we're hitting it.
You know that race pace ridingthrough there and then again,
you know all roads lead back toCraig's crib there, yeah.

Jon Shouse (20:46):
And that's when, when they started putting houses
in there.
That's when Chuck when he goes.
I remember back in the 60s weused to ride motorcycles over in
this area, yeah there was somemotocross features, some jumps
and back in there.

Josh (21:01):
Was the BMX track already there when you guys started the
one?
That's like right across thestreet from the entrance.

Jon Shouse (21:06):
Yeah, yeah, that's been there for a long time.

Josh (21:08):
Forever, okay, huh, so, so , so and then and then after so,
after he shut down the loancactus shops, he had something
that he just called the bikemonk that he did maintenance out
of.
I Ran into some of that online.
You guys familiar with that atall, or?

that was the little .
Yeah, I mean he had that shop.
I mean.
So we went from Bob's bargainbarn in midtown, then the next
shop was this little crib therewhere now trader Joe's is
sitting on Campbell and Craig.
When Joe's came in there andthen he said, my shop was
sitting just about where now thebike rack is in front of trader
Joe's right.
So he can never go there nowwithout thinking about and

(21:49):
that's where his shop.

Josh (21:49):
Was that?
And they were?

these little bars.
They were these really coollittle Shacks that were there
and apparently at one pointthere was the legend with the
lore of that was one of them wasa little Bar and that you know,
lee Marvin spent a lot of timehere and he would be there
getting sauced up.
Or there was a bar right out,kind of in front of where, right
where Joe's is, there was a bar, and so there was all those
sort of stories that would go onaround that I don't know who

(22:11):
Lee Marvin is guys.
Okay, he was a famous actor fromthe 60s.

Josh (22:14):
Oh see, cat, I'm too young .
I'm sorry, I see the movie catballoon.

Yeah, so in any case, there, you know.
So then from there.
Then the next shop was on 22nd,the little shop there next to
Kind of Reed Park or something,remember that little, oh, that
show.

Mark Flint (22:31):
Yeah, yeah, that was in a well, I think it was a
converted motel.
Yeah, sort of hotel room waslike some kind of little small.

Oh, that's a huge clothing or a yeah.

Mark Flint (22:42):
Yeah, there was a used clothing in one of them,
right, yeah, and it was a verysmall, but again it was really
comfortable.
I spent a lot of time in thatone.

Jon Shouse (22:49):
Hmm, and then he went to think of Rudy guest
wrench.
Right, yeah, well, he wasworking out there along the all
along, that was yeah, but then Ithink they let him actually
turn the shop there where theyworked their bikes that he was
actually, you know so was he the, was he the mechanic out there
for take over?
And lead led rides and all thatkind of stuff.

Mark Flint (23:07):
Yeah, yeah, yeah and then in 2007 or eight I think a
2006 was when I started workingfor Pima County on the as a
trails program coordinator andwe had a trail crew and he
became a member of that trailcrew I can't remember exactly
what year within a couple ofyears of that, and might have
been Right close to from theget-go Okay, but I spent a lot

(23:28):
of hours building trail with himand he was so great to work
with.
I mean, he just he, he always,you know, I don't think he would
do anything he didn't lovedoing and you could, just I
Could sense that with him andeven like I don't know when, the
last time I saw him on a trailwas maybe two years ago, I don't
know and he also worked on.

(23:48):
One of his favorite trails toride was was the sweet water
Trails absolutely.

Josh (23:54):
Oh, did he help out there?
He did.
Oh, he was on the crew thatbuilt it.

Jon Shouse (23:57):
Yeah, oh, wow, yeah, yeah, that's the last place I
saw Craig.
Was it sweet water?

same with me on a ride just out of the blue to on
a right.

Jon Shouse (24:07):
That's crazy, that that's the last place we all saw
yeah, so perfect.

Mark Flint (24:11):
Yeah, and it was one of those.
For me it was like I light upwhen I would see him.
You're just happy to see thisguy and he'd get off and you
talk for a while, you'd hug andthen hey man, great to see you,
dude, and off you'd go and itwas just this totally complete
spiritual experience.

That's the word right there with Craig, yeah,
and he, craig was.
I did a lot of NBA races wherehe and I would ride together
Uh-huh and for quite a distanceand he's, you know, he was
really cool to drive and travelwith because you could just be
with Craig and you didn't feelobligated to be talking all the
time.

Josh (24:49):
Yeah, what you mean, that's a nice, I mean it's a
good feeling where you can justbe.

You know, and we listen to music, of course, and
yeah, but then you could just.
You know, he was just that kindof guy that you could just be
in the zone with and and whatwas you know shared was cool,
and then there could be longmiles where you're just you know
in that place and what kind ofmusic did listen to?
Do I listen to?
What kind of music?

Josh (25:09):
did he listen to?
Yeah?

He listened to blues and classic rock and, okay
, you know really like and rootskind of music and so we shared,
you know we a lot of greatmusic.
You know Road trips and we hadsome big big road trips, some
couple of you know really kindof legendary.
The biggest one we were headingup to Moab and the van had big

(25:31):
problems and we made it as faras flagstaff and so Like 15, 10
guys in this van.
Oh no, big van and we loaded itdown with like a big trailer
with way too much of everything,including, you know, costco
sized Coolers with Coronas, andup them in the van, just conked
out by the time we got up there.
So we just said, well, here weare.

Josh (25:51):
And then, so here you know so you just did the, did the
trip and in Flagstaff and rightroad in flagstaff.

Just reorganize the whole thing and you know again
with Craig, sort of like youknow, at the center of it being
the, you know the quiet focusedyou know, dude there, you know
it was very cool.
This is another one of the manyendless.
How did you guys get home?
They eventually brought inanother.
It was a large, very large van.
You know I could get ten guysplus a trailer and Rod Krieger

(26:18):
you know I had.
He worked at Costco at the time, he was part of the drive and
he would, you know, help load itup and load it down and but
then we got down past Throughthe vortex at Pinnacle Peak
there and the van crapped outagain.
Oh, no way that it was prettylegendary by the time we got
back.
But that was just all.
You know more.
And then we finally got backthat's when we were still at his

(26:38):
shop on Broadway, and so it wasthis.
You know just this.
Another one of those storiesthat gets written into the books
.
We still talk about, even now,the folks that have been calling
me in the last week and a halfsince Craig passed work.
The stories are all emergingback again.

Josh (26:53):
Yeah, I, you know, earlier today I was watching, I was
doing some research on Craig andI came across the video from, I
think, 2012, when you guys putup Like there was kind of a
statue or sculpture, you know,dedicated to both both, I think,
chuck and and Craig for thework that they had done on.

(27:14):
Fantasy Island and I think thatsign is gone.
Now it is yeah and I'mwondering should we like redo it
?
What do you guys think aboutthat?

Jon Shouse (27:23):
we can get a hold of Lee.
I mean he built it in the firstplace black.

Josh (27:26):
Well, built it None any idea like do you remember the
sign of?
Any idea like what happened?

Jon Shouse (27:31):
to it Same thing that happened.
Everything else out there gotstolen for scrap metal, I'm sure
.

Josh (27:37):
So if we do it, we're gonna have to like put it in
with concrete or something atleast make them work for it If
they're gonna take it again,right?

Jon Shouse (27:42):
Yeah, absolutely, but no, I think that's a great
idea to redo it Absolutely.

Mark Flint (27:47):
Yeah.

Jon Shouse (27:48):
I've been trying to get a good picture of the
original sign out there.
Yeah, the map of the wholeright and get that Recreated on
that white one that had thedifferent color.

Josh (27:59):
Yeah, it was like.
It was like kind of carved in.

The trail was carved in a Router, built it in
and we had named differentfeatures.
Uh-huh, throughout all thesedifferent features.

Josh (28:09):
Yeah, no, I mean, that's how I learned the trail was from
those from that sign right whenI first went out there.
On that video and I actuallysent you a link to it on on
Instagram you guys are standingnext to that You're?
I think you're on the video.
I'm pretty sure it's your voicetaking the video in the rain.
Was that you?
I Just been so long.
They said John, so I definitelysounded like you, so I think it
was yeah.

(28:30):
And.
But you're standing next tothat sign, and so you could take
a screenshot from that.

Jon Shouse (28:33):
Oh, I have pictures.
Oh, yeah, I got.
I got some good, because itended up at Jim's house.
When it got, somebody knockedit over and painted all over it,
so he took it and was gonnaredo it, but it had been termite
eaten and was dry rotted.

So was that jam, who lived right down the street
from there.

Jon Shouse (28:52):
No, this is Jim Domenico.

Okay.

Jon Shouse (28:56):
Another old timey person, samba guy.
Yeah, yeah, samba guy, yeah,he's still.

Mark Flint (29:02):
I haven't seen him in a while, but I'm sure he's
out there writing just some lastweek out here in the vortex.

Josh (29:06):
Yeah, so in that video that I saw from 2012 it sounded
like, like like monk was movingout somewhere towards Safford.

Mark Flint (29:14):
Yeah, he'd bought some land out there and I think
his dream was to build a placeand stay out there, and they
never moved there, but he spenta lot of time there.
And that was did he actuallybuild a place out there?

Jon Shouse (29:25):
No, they had a little trailer out there on the
property.
It's solar, super cool, youknow lights and little
sculptures everywhere and rightyeah, it's actually between air
Vapai and and Mount Graham, kindof in that valley there.

Josh (29:40):
Oh, so you have to kind of come on 91 and then turn left
and go kind of out that way,Bonita bonita and then head,
like you're heading up to the,to the Apache, you know the back
door and air Vapai.

Yeah, it's up in there, Interesting.
They call it bare bones.

Josh (29:57):
That was the name of his place.

Bear was the name is still there and still in the
family and Kathy's talking aboutthere.
She's gonna, they're going backout with the kids and Kathy was
his wife Is that right?
Why if girlfriend?

Jon Shouse (30:07):
were they married, or I think they were at the end.

Oh, so that she was a Just you know, those guys
went, I remember when they metand then they just you know, it
was like the perfectintertwinement of Just the love
of writing and just the freedomand she was right.

Josh (30:23):
She wrote as she rides as well, or wrote Absolutely.
Yeah, yeah, oh, very cool, huh.
So what else can you, what elsecan you tell me about?
About Craig?
What other good memories, whatother good stories you guys have
the story and you just remindedme about doing the enemy.

Jon Shouse (30:37):
Remember the year we all did the NBA series together
and travel all over place.
Remember the trash dump race?
Oh my god, up under Kearney, upin Kearney, right.
So we went out and pre-road andwe called it the trash dump
race because they literally uselike old, abandoned
refrigerators as course markingsto go around.
And we all get back after thepre-ride and we're like this is
that we're not gonna racetomorrow, we don't care what.

(31:00):
So usually the all the drinksgot broken out the next day, got
broken out the night before therace because everybody's like
we're not doing this, this isdumbest thing ever.
So we ended up cleaning up allthe alcohol we had and then he
went and did the race and thenCraig gets up in the morning.
He's like no, we're all doing it.
I don't care how bad the courseis, and I think did you end up?
Somebody ended up winning thatday Like I can't remember who it

(31:20):
was at you or some.
I can't remember that that muchof it.

I remember that when we were where we were
camping at all night long thattrain was coming through.
That was that was hauling themine tailings tailings out of
there.
Yeah, the whole thing was justlike a nightmare.

Jon Shouse (31:37):
You know like a mad max kind of.

Yeah, but ended up one of the one of the crew, one
of the crew won that the race.

Jon Shouse (31:40):
The next day After we were all like, no, we're up
to like three o'clock in themorning or something like that,
and then up all night because ofthe train going back and forth.

That was absolutely surreal, though, that yeah
whatever that was there thewhole whole trash dump race
landfill, but you know he wasalways just like Zen.

Jon Shouse (32:08):
I mean I also put it .
It's like he didn't get, I mean, and he didn't have a you know
as former business owner andstuff, he didn't have a great
business sense.
He did it out of the love of itand that's probably why he
ended up moving so much.
He'd have to go find the nextbest rent by you know, and
things like that.

Josh (32:28):
He was just trying to keep the lights on.

Jon Shouse (32:29):
He was just trying to keep the lights on, you know,
and, like Mark said, you know,oh yeah, that's five bucks to do
that.
I'm like, no, like you can't doit for five bucks, you know
that's.
But but that was correct, youknow you.

Just he was there and and he persevered for so, so
many years and you'd have thebig box.
You know, performance come inand go.

Josh (32:50):
Yeah, because performance at that time was huge, right,
and there was several of them inTucson, right, and but he still
had, you know, his.

The core audience was, that was his core group of,
you know, of the tribe as wewould call it.

Josh (33:03):
I think Was it primarily mountain biking, or did he
service all kinds of bikes?

Jon Shouse (33:07):
He serviced everything, but mountain bikes
were like his passion.
I don't think he ever owned aroad bike that I can recall and
all the time I knew him you knowit was it was, but he had that
tandem for a while, fullsuspension Ventana.
I think it was a Ventana, yeah.

Well, he would.
He would do you know can onlyto State Park and amazing stuff.
They would go out.

Jon Shouse (33:29):
Yeah, yeah, fright 50 year on a tandem.

Josh (33:32):
We had.
We had Sherwood on from Ventana, sherwood Gibson who, who was
the owner of Ventana.
He actually works for Raytheonnow.
Yeah, so it was superinteresting to to hear all about
him and we talked about thattandem when he designed it and
all that kind of stuff.
So go back and listen to thatepisode.

Jon Shouse (33:48):
Yeah, but you know, just genuine is the only word
that comes.
You know, when it comes toCraig, he like even the Fannis
Island stuff.
He part of them.
I sure wanted it called FannisIsland because he didn't want
like any notoriety from it beingcalled bone cactus and related
back to a shot.

He's very, very humble and very, you know, just
had that feeling about him allthe time, just, you know, not
wanting to be in the center oftoo much attention.
But the result of that was thathe was the center, he was the
hub of this, of this community,at the time when it was really
emerging.
You know, when the sport was itwas blowing up.

(34:25):
I remember going to the cactuscup at Pinnacle Peak when Tomak
and you know everybody's therein Craig and all you know the
whole that time when there wasbikes, so many bikes were
selling and the sport wasblowing up, really just
incredible.
But to have that quiet kind ofthat quiet core in the middle of
that where we felt, you know,there was a kind of a safety

(34:46):
there, you know.
And but I was thinking as well,there was this film that came
out in 95 called Smoke, and itwas with Harvey Kytel and he had
this smoke shop in Brooklyn andthat was Craig's.
I mean, he loved that film andhe referenced it.
You know quite a bit and Ilooked it up again tonight and
if you just the listeners outthere and for us, just look at

(35:08):
it, you know, put it in and readthe what it's about.
And it's about this shop whereall these different cast of
characters come in and there'sjust every kind of people but
they're all there and they'reall sharing this common,
connected love and this feelingand that's and that really
reflects so much about whatCraig, the pride he had with
Lone Cactus and how it just can.

(35:28):
You know, wherever it was, itdidn't matter, because it was
really the spirit and the energythat he carried with him and
what would draw us to all thesedifferent places, and so that
was really a great as a film ofgreat metaphor and he connected
to it.
We talked about that a lot now.
He kept referring to thatfeeling of the community that
would come into that, that smallshop.

(35:50):
And then, just again, you'remeeting all kinds of people from
all walks of life.
You know the Raytheon peopleand every walk of life would
come in there.
So that was always cool to goin and meet people and then
eventually we're doing rides.
You know they're jumping in onour rides.
You know, three days a weekwe're going down to Gardner
Canyon or Elephant Head or allthose tracks, those riding

(36:17):
destinations that were alsogetting added into the expanding
list of really cool places inour, you know, beautiful valley
here, Tucson, you know right up,you know you're right out, you
know you've got the ArizonaTrail and you know out here and
yeah, we've got Arizona Trailand the Vortex Trails and all
kinds of stuff out here.

Josh (36:39):
I didn't even know.
I've written here forever.
I didn't even know that theLone Cactus was a bike shop.
I've written Phantasyne andLone Cactus Trail a thousand
times.
I had no idea.

Jon Shouse (36:49):
Yeah, so interesting .
It's kind of funny.
You know Steve's talking aboutthe community thing and I think
people now with technology,where it is, you just don't, you
can't comprehend what it waslike.
Then you know what I mean, andthat's not, that's nothing.
But like his little Lone Cactusshop was the Facebook for the

(37:14):
mountain bike world.
At that point, like you wentthere to look at the thing and
Steve would write on the dryerase calendar hey, I'm riding
Gardner Canyon.
We're meeting here at seveno'clock if you want to come come
.
Yeah right, and that's you know.
Even in the early days of SDMB,there it was basically a
listserv based thing.

(37:35):
It's not like now where there'sall these groups and all you do
is hit a button in it.
You know you had to.
You had to go to the shop.
Craig would of course be therewelcome you or complaining about
something.
One of the two.

Mark Flint (37:46):
Either way, it was awesome Both.

Josh (37:49):
Both.

Jon Shouse (37:51):
And then you'd look at the calendar and see, you
know, if somebody had thrownsomething up on the calendar or
you know, or Craig's, like yeah,hey, we're riding, you know
we're, we're gonna go try toride Shiva, you know, or we're
gonna go.
So this is crazy, we're gonnago try to find Chimney Rock.
Do you know what Chimney Rockis?
Is?

Mark Flint (38:08):
that in Bayota.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jon Shouse (38:10):
Like, like or we're gonna go try and find Milagrosa
Now.
Nowadays Milagrosa is like asuper highway with the bikes
that they are now, but back thenit's a gnarly trail on the
bikes from 1998.

Josh (38:24):
And you couldn't find you couldn't find the trail.

Jon Shouse (38:27):
There was the tree at the corner, but you'd go back
and forth six or seven timesand there'd be like eight of you
trying to find where you turnto get on Milagrosa back in
those days.

Yeah, no, no, no iPhone with GPS getting out of
there.

Jon Shouse (38:39):
Yeah, it was a it was a completely different, a
different thing, but Craig wasthe and for no better term the,
the Facebook yeah Group for formountain biking in Tucson, truly
.

Josh (38:54):
Were you guys using that raise mountain bike book.
I remember why I first camehere.
Yeah, cosmic raise, cosmic,cosmic raise, that's that's how
I found all the trails usingcosmic rays.

Jon Shouse (39:02):
Yeah, I mean, there were the.
You know, back back then cosmicwas stealing our rides and
putting them in his book, butthat's, that's neither here nor
there.
You know, he did.
He didn't know enough aboutTucson riding to come down here.
He was Flagstaff guy, you know.
I didn't know that so yeah, sohe knew Flagstaff and Sedona,
but he'd come down here and ridewith the lone cactus crew to

(39:26):
get and then map it out and putit in the book, right?
So it was kind of like, andthat's not meant in any negative
way, shape or form, but youknow, so we were.
You know.
You ask if we were using thebook.
Of course we'd use the book ifwe go Sedona, but if they were
coming down here they'd use usto build the trails To build the
trails.

And I wrote the book at that point.

Josh (39:47):
You guys wrote the book that I used to learn the trail,
so I should be thinking you guys.
Yeah, exactly, thanks very much.

So that was, that was all part of the community.
That that you know, you justwere excited about he created it
.
Right yeah, that you, just youknow again just can't, can't
even like find the you know the,the words for how amazing, like
what, the way John wasexplaining at that time in the
culture around that, because wewere so immersed in it.

(40:14):
I mean the doing three, fourrides a week, sometimes, Wow,
and religiously, I mean foryears.
You know you'd really have ahard time if you had to miss one
.
I know I did.
I mean I was really into thatdiscipline and and the adventure
and just it was a great balancebetween you know other parts of
your life.
But just you know I rememberbeing out at Fantasy Island when

(40:35):
9-11 happened and we're outthere that day.
It was a Tuesday and it wasfreaking quiet.
I mean all the jets were down,everything was like and we're
sitting there and there was aguy from India who was talking
about Osama bin Laden and he waslike going off about, he
already could see that wascoming.
And we're out there with likeeight people the day of 9-11 at

(40:56):
Fantasy Island, wow, and, andyou know Davis Mothin was just
completely I mean it was surrealthe feeling.
But you're there on on sacredground, you know, and we're
there with Craig and we're justlike having that whole another
one of those life moments atFantasy Island, you know,
significant, wow, yeah.

Josh (41:13):
It's amazing that, even with all the development that
they've been able to, I think Ithink it's secure at this point.
Do we know?

Jon Shouse (41:19):
The main trail says so let's just say Drexel South.
Okay, Drexel North, excuse me,is now a city park, a city open
space park.

Josh (41:30):
So everything but the bunny trails, basically, and the
associated.

Jon Shouse (41:33):
Yeah, now if they put a road through, if, if
Harrison ever goes through,that'll take a pretty
significant chunk.
Hadn't thought about that, butI don't know if they're ever
gonna put Harrison through thebase.
Doesn't want it to go through.

I mean so close to the, to the perimeter of the
base there.

Jon Shouse (41:52):
Yeah.
So I know the base doesn't wantit to go through, so chances of
if the base doesn't want,chances of Tucson doing our
pretty Slim, you know what Imean.
But but basically, from DrexelSouth and and that was the save
Fantasy Island thing, you know,everybody complained we lost
this trail, we lost that trail.
But so, just to go back, I waskind of the one that was in

(42:15):
charge of that red shirt brigade, the safe fantasy island thing,
yeah.
So, and then we spent two yearswriting a plan, which actually
one that American trails trailplan.
But the plan was based on thepeople who bought Sorot trails,
bought the whole Sector and thendonated it back.

(42:36):
Oh wow.
So Everybody who's complainingabout there being houses there,
they don't realize that thosehouses paid for you to have
what's left of the trail system.
Yeah, so be happy that we've gotso so don't bitch about the
resolute being gone and and thefire loop being gone, because if
they, they got paid forEverything else got paid for by

(42:57):
those trails being gone.
Yeah, and it was all.
It was all in the plan.

Mark Flint (43:02):
So there was some funny stuff about the
development of that system toothat I Think about now that
you've kind of reminded me ofJohn.
One was, you know, theover-under.
Yeah, initially that didn'thave the top that you rode over.

Jon Shouse (43:16):
Somebody had ramp.
You had to jump it and therewas a sign that said jump or die
jump or die, and so there's agap jump.

Mark Flint (43:25):
So I called Chuck Boyer and I said you know, Chuck
, somebody could get hurt andensue.
You know it's maybe.
You know that's not a good idea.
I have that out there.

Jon Shouse (43:34):
So then they put the great but then the point is,
who would they sue at that point?

Mark Flint (43:38):
It's kind of like cuz, it was just a wild thing,
but yeah but was also though Idon't know if you remember this,
john, but there was kind of ahill and Couple people decided
to put a dual slalom coursegoing right across the trail,
right across Boselieu.
I remember that that was likethat could make some interesting
.
Rex, you know you're riding thetrail.
Two guys are racing dual slalom.

Josh (43:58):
Is that like when you come down off after the shaft or
whatever?
Was it right down there, orwhere was it at?

Mark Flint (44:04):
I think it was.
I can't remember exactly whereit was, but there was a hill.
As you're riding Boselieutowards the the west, it would
be the hill coming down fromyour left.

Jon Shouse (44:14):
Yeah, it was the.
It was the one with theswitchbacks going up it.
Yeah yeah, and it was as you'redescending off the side of that
.
It came from the other way,across the Okay, across the
trail, as I recall.

Mark Flint (44:24):
But there's some sort of crazy well west stuff
out there that they over under.

I was just speaking with the another.
One of the legendary Tucsonguys was Brian Barr that we call
lion Brian and it's like it'snot because of his long hair and
it's sort of, you know, hasthat kind of there was always
one more hill, just one.
It's only that's just a fewmore miles.
So it's ly ing Found out,you're about seven hours in,

(44:53):
just over the hill bro, justjust one more hill, so but he
was.
We were speaking the other dayabout Craig memories and also
Kathy and you know the greatteam they, they were and still
are and you know, and but she,they were riding the tandem and
she's, you know, tall.
She's, fairly, you know, Idon't know not quite six feet,
but she's tall and she was onthe back of the tandem and, yeah

(45:15):
, and they were doing the overunder and she was on the back on
a tandem.
They were doing the over underyeah, and she got her bell rung
in there, you know, on the I canimagine, because she got yeah.
Yeah, you know the rake of thelength and all that, so she
definitely had some neck.
You know issues going on for awhile after that.

Mark Flint (45:34):
Chuck.
Chuck Boyer hit that too.
He was just coming down towardsand somebody yelled at me,
lifted his head up to look andsee who it was and and really
rung his bell.
Yeah.

Josh (45:43):
I hit my head, done that one time, and I don't ride
underneath it anymore.
I just it's been it's beenpretty cleared out now.

Jon Shouse (45:49):
You have to work to hit your head on it now.
Yeah, it's tucked down in there.

Josh (45:54):
It's all eroded out over time, right and here's it.

Jon Shouse (45:58):
And since we're just talking about fantasy and and
what went on there, the you know, now it's called the burrow pit
loop.
Yeah right, but it was theborough pit loop, because that's
where they borrowed the dirtfor the dump.
So borrow, borrow.

Mark Flint (46:14):
And then borrow somewhere along the line it got
switched to burrow Like yeah brobut it was actually the borrow
Interesting, borrow pits kind ofa construction term, and I
guess, yeah, people didn't knowthat, so they thought almost, oh
, they must be saying burrow,yeah, interesting.

Jon Shouse (46:33):
Yeah.
So then some, at some point itgot put on.
You know, the map is the burrowand it's never.
You are, yeah, and it justnever changed.
But that's had no idea.
There's all kinds of littlethings like that.
You know I mean so.

Mark Flint (46:46):
Yeah, I want to just kind of circle back to more
more lately with the monthbecause I think about him.
I Think about him a lot,especially since it's passing,
but yeah, I always would thinkabout him and one of the things
that I think of him as a trulyyou know, you hear about self
self-actualized people and gurusand stuff and he really lived
that.
He was you, you got what yousaw with him and it was very

(47:09):
real, there was and, like Ithink you guys were saying,
humble and kind he was.
He was that kind of person tome.
He was like someone I'd like tobe more like, to have that
total Congruity with you knowwho you are and what you do is
is always in line, you know, andthat was something that I just

(47:32):
really admired about about him.

Josh (47:35):
He wanted me, he wanted to make, he wanted you to be a
better man.
He inspired you to be a betterman.
Yes, yeah, I'm gonna get there.

Yeah, and he just had this operating system.
That was steady.
You know, I can really neverremember any.
You know real drama really youknow, I mean, he would know he
would have opinions and getriled up About things in his
degree of getting riled up aboutthings, but it was still.
The heart rate was way down,you know, that was that's why

(48:03):
also the rides, all the rides wewould do together, you would
just, you know, it was just,they were blissful, you know we
just it's just super reliable,no drama, and because you know,
you know you'd be out somewherein the deep end of wherever,
yeah, and you break a chain orsomething's going on, and then
Craig just kind of rolls over.

Josh (48:21):
Just solves it.

Jon Shouse (48:22):
Yoda there.
Ficking out, it's all good andand something about him on the
ride and I'm not saying theTuesday night rides and and that
stuff weren't fast andcompetitive, but something about
him being there took away any atype personality Disorder of
the ride totally that you knowwhat I mean like calibrated the

(48:44):
ride at that.
Yeah, like you could go out andand and have fun and and and go
hard and race each other orwhatever, but something about
having them there you knew thatit didn't matter, Like the egos
were just him being in the room,so to speak, kept the egos in
check.
Interesting.
Like, without saying anythingwithout saying anything, without

(49:06):
doing anything, just somethingabout him being there.

Yeah, his presence had that presence.

Jon Shouse (49:11):
You can go as hard as you want, but this is still
about having fun and beingtogether.

Josh (49:15):
No one want to disappoint the monk.

Jon Shouse (49:17):
Kind of yeah yeah, they weren't invited back.

Yeah, they just there'd be different folks that
would come and go and they wouldgo, and it was again no real
drama.
It just kind of had its naturalorder of playing out.
You know, and if you know thecoolness and the awareness and
just the non.
Really it was a non-verbal kindof frequency.

(49:47):
They were all hanging out thereand you're there, you know, in
full support of everyone.

Josh (49:52):
Right.

Jon Shouse (49:53):
And then you've got again Craig there kind of you
know how do you, how do you callCraig the antithesis of an
alpha male?
Yet like had everything, likethe best kind of alpha, the one
that's not in your face, the one.
That's the one that just bringsyou together, because you want
to be like him, you want to bewith him, you want to care like
he cared about everybody, right,right, and he was.

(50:15):
He was definitely the leader ofthe group, no questions asked,
but he was the leader because hewas kind and cared deeply about
every person that was there,whether he knew you or he didn't
know you.
Wow.

And I think that what you're explaining really
speaks, and with Mark workingclose with Craig, and that he
would have that kind of devotionto these trails that we will
continue in our.
You know, the legacy of thosetrails will continue on for
however long.

Mark Flint (50:46):
You know the earth is over there, you know it's
sweet water.

but is I just get a sense that that dedication to
building those trails andknowing how much you know how
cool they are and how they willcontinue to, you know just the
perfect flow and the momentumand all the whole dynamics of
the trail system?
I think that was another piecewith Craig that was really like
his service to you know his loveof the sport.

Josh (51:12):
I mean it's a legacy, right.
I mean I mean you know in shota lot, it'll be around for
generations and generationsIt'll get to enjoy, you know,
what he helped create.

Mark Flint (51:21):
Oh yeah, and he was.
You know it's thinking aboutthat.
You know, trail builders yes,at least a couple of us in this
room will say can be reallypassionate and disagree about
how or whatever, and there wouldbe some discussions like that
among the trail crew and he justhad this sort of quiet way of
getting everybody on the samepage without saying to get on

(51:43):
the same page.
You know it was.
It was pretty cool to be a partof that.

Josh (51:48):
So the, the, the passionate disagreements.
For those that are uninitiated,this is like you're out there
trying to figure out which wayto go or what feature to
incorporate, and different ofdifference of opinion of what we
should do and Exactly.

Jon Shouse (52:00):
Yeah, that never happens.
Yeah, never happens.

Mark Flint (52:06):
There's a lot of work in the last 10 minutes
right, a lot of that probablyworked out also at Fantasy
Island.

I mean just the that sort of you know, the way
things organically evolved outthere and the way we would.

Jon Shouse (52:19):
We learned.
We learned what not to do atFantasy Island.
Yeah, what do you mean?
Let's be realistic about it.

Mark Flint (52:26):
Yeah, I mean like fall line, like.

Josh (52:29):
Yeah, it wasn't a professional trail.

Jon Shouse (52:31):
We 100% honest.
Fantasy on is probably theworst built trail in the Western
United States, but everybodyloves it.
It's fun and that's why youhave to be out there.
That's why we're here keeping itgoing.
But but back in those days wedidn't.
It was, it was all about thepassion of it.
Nobody Steve didn't knowanything about trail building, I
didn't, chuck didn't, craigdidn't know.

(52:53):
It was just like oh, oh, let'sgo down.
It'll be really fun to comeripping down this and then come
ripping up the other side and dothat.
I mean, I don't know about whatwould be.

Yeah, there was no erosion studies or what, what
direction this and that's going.
There was just Chuck in thebeginning dragging his heel
around there and and Craig, youknow navigating through and us
coming in at with the early, atlike five in the morning.
You know helping these guys,you know, to trim out the, the
yeah, the sky, it was all handdone.

Josh (53:23):
Is it all hand done?
No, no, machines, no, no, no.

Jon Shouse (53:26):
And it was.
It was back then.
The machine was a rake at themost, I mean, and generally it
wasn't even a rake, it was justokay.
We're going from there to there.
So there's five of us and we'llwrite back and forth 400 times
and then there's a trail.

Mark Flint (53:40):
I remember giving Chuck Boyer a McLeod.
I think SDMB got him one and hewas like you could have.
You could have given him a newcar and he wouldn't have been
more happy.

Josh (53:51):
So McLeod is a trail building to one side and Ho and
rake.
Ho and rake on the other side,kind of about that big.
I got one in the in the garage.

Mark Flint (54:00):
I didn't know.
That was well 10 inches wide,okay.

Jon Shouse (54:03):
Yeah, but you know, and and I think that's how Craig
kind of did everything Like hedidn't know the rules to do it,
so he made it the best he madeit the best he could and invited
you to be part of it, yeah.

Absolutely.

Jon Shouse (54:18):
You know, and that's the, the trails are perfect.
You know, example of that.
We made the best you could comeout and love it as much as we
do.
And that was his shop, that washis life, that was the
community he created.

Josh (54:31):
So, yeah, did Craig have kids?

Jon Shouse (54:35):
Yes, yes.

Josh (54:36):
He had a daughter, daughter and then obviously
Kathy.
We got about five minutes.
Maybe you guys could give any,any, any thoughts or things you
want to say to to Kathy or hisdaughter, to kind of sum up your
, your thoughts and feelingsabout the monk.
You start with you, mark.

Mark Flint (54:57):
Yeah, um, I'm just glad he walked this earth at the
same time I did.
You know, it was a gift to meevery minute I spent with him.

Yeah, and Craig and Kathy, you know they just there
was just a frequency that theywere always at, it was joyful,
it was connected.
Like Mark said, you know we Imean I ran into both of them.
That's the last time I sawCraig.
We were both out at Sweetwaterupon one of the ridges, just an

(55:29):
idyllic day, just that.
That feeling of everythingwe've talked about here is just
right there, right present.
The joy of that.
When Kathy called me the dayafter Craig passed, I mean she
was just and she was so there,they were so connected and she
was so there for him through thewhole process as well, right up

(55:49):
through his, you knowtransition into the great single
track in the sky there.
So I'm just, I feel we're allblessed by those guys being
together and the you know, thelove and the energy that they
created together ongoing willcontinue in our community and
we'll continue to.
You know, we're going to plantsome also some, some rides

(56:11):
together with Kathy and keepkeep the flow going in that
direction as well.
So we're we're better off allof us to have been experiencing
what Craig has opened up forthis community over all these
years.

Jon Shouse (56:27):
And I think Steve just hit the nail on the head,
so to speak.
We're all better off for havingknown Craig and Kathy both, and
there's really not much more tosay than you know.
We're all better after havingknown him and whether he was
trying to, on purpose or oranything, he made you a better

(56:48):
person just by being around them.

Josh (56:51):
Well guys, mark, steve, john, I want to thank you guys
all for for coming out thisafternoon.
You know it's super apparent tome that every mountain biker
that that comes in rides andTucson or rides and Tucson on a
regular basis is.
It was a debt of gratitude tothe monk, even though, you know,
many of us didn't know him andI can, I can definitely see the
impact that he had on y'all and,and you know, second hand,

(57:13):
third hand, I felt that myselfand super gracious, super, super
appreciative of y'all comingout here and sharing your
thoughts and we'll get this outthere for the community.
Any final thoughts you guyswant to share?
Yeah, all good, all good, allright, guys, let's thanks to you
, man.

Thank you for creating the opportunity here to
share what really needs to beshared, and beyond the community
that knows Craig, but thecommunity of the future.
It's important to to keep that.

Josh (57:42):
Memorialize it for sure.
What?

you're doing there.
It's big.

Josh (57:45):
Yeah, you guys take care, thank you, thanks, okay, hmm,

(58:12):
you.

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054 - Mountain biking is surfing the earth... a tribute to Bike Monk, Craig Randall, R.I.P. (Mark Flint, Jon Shouse, & Steve Roach)

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}054 - Mountain biking is surfing the earth... a tribute to Bike Monk, Craig Randall, R.I.P. (Mark Flint, Jon Shouse, & Steve Roach)