Dear IsPeavineDry.com Readers,

I have some news that is both exciting and bittersweet for me to share.

Sharp eyed users may have noticed a few changes around the website recently. If you look closely at the informational and donation links, you’ll notice they now all point to the Biggest Little Trail Stewardship pages. BLTS is the new home of IPD as of me posting my final Weekday Trail Outlook post on Monday, July 17, 2023. Going forward, they will be the website’s stewards of stoke for trail conditions on our fantastic mountain and in the Truckee Meadows. I think it is fitting that they have taken on the responsibility for this website for two reasons. First, without their hard work building (or legalizing) most of the single track in the region, we wouldn’t have the amazing trail community that makes this website so awesome to run. Second, most of you thought IPD was a BLTS property from the start. :P The stewards have shown that through thick and thin they are passionate about making and maintaining amazing multi use trails even when it requires wading through bureaucracy, surviving multiple recessions, and single handedly keeping that Mexican restaurant on west fourth open with margarita pitcher orders (I may be exaggerating, but only slightly).

For me, it’s on to new adventures. I started this website as a way to give back to the community I love while balancing the needs of grad school, family, sport, and running an endurance coaching business. I finished my PhD this past spring and have accepted a teaching professor position in psychology at the University of Arizona in Tucson. I considered trying to keep updating the website remotely, but wasn’t satisfied with the level of service I’d provide to you from nearly Mexico. As donors know, I was completely surprised by the amount of community support that came from such a simple website. It still floors me to think that what I started as a bit of a joke website grew to serve tens of thousands trail users annually in the Truckee Meadows. Your trail reports, your donations, and especially meeting readers in the wild kept me stoked to keep sharing a place for everyone to know where they could enjoyably and sustainably recreate outside. It wasn’t an easy choice to give away IPD. It has been my baby. But the truth is, it’s your baby too. You helped raise it by engaging with it. You helped it grow by sharing in forums, by word of mouth, and on social media. And so giving it to BLTS, a non-profit intimately tied to our trail community, was my way of making sure you, the reader, get to keep it alive and growing.

So here is my last ask of you, dear readers. Keep it up. Keep going outside and having fun and then coming back and sending in trail reports so others can too. Keep showing up to trail work days, BLTS meetings, donating to trail advocacy groups, and organizing new and awesome outdoor activities. And keep welcoming new trail users of all kinds. (Shoutout to High 5s Foundation for bringing mind-blowingly amazing adaptive mountain bike trails to us) By continuing to be your awesome self and sharing the stoke of outdoor recreation with others, our little trail community will flourish. The stronger that community is, the more miles of new trail will be built each year. By showing others how to enjoy the trails when they’re good, and where the goods are when most are bad, the more it becomes an easy yes for neighborhoods, developers, municipalities, and land managers to approve and prioritize connected multi-use access, infrastructure, trail centers, and supporting outdoor programming. You have been doing this as long as I’ve been here, so keep it up.

Finally, to everyone reading this, thank you. You are building something awesome and made my time as part of this community that much richer. I look forward to seeing how the website and region grow and change with such a vibrant and engaged community.

Sincerely,
Patrick Smith