Bike to ACES!

In the Summer of 2009 we started a fun program to encourage riding your bike instead of driving a car when you come to ACES. I think we all enjoyed it - we loved giving away the stickers and you loved affixing those stickers on your bike cards! We will continue this program throughout the year and will award all dedicated bike riders twice a year: in SEPTEMBER after a full summer of Naturalist Feild School classes (June - August) and in JUNE after the school year (Sept - May). We hope to see your name on the ACES Bike Board at Hallam Lake and/or Rock Bottom Ranch!

The winners will receive a free ACES class of their choice to be used in the summer of 2010 and various additional prizes - we hope you'll put it to good use!

2009 Bike Board Results:

HALLAM LAKE
We had an awesome bike following at Hallam Lake this year – 61 participants! THANK YOU to all young participants for putting on their helmets and making their parents ride together with them to ACES!

Each participant at Hallam Lake received a “bike card” on which they wrote their name and age and put it on the Bike Board. Each time they rode to Hallam Lake they received a sticker and affixed it onto their “bike card.” We also had some walkers who affixed stickers onto their “walker cards.”
Results: we divided all the participants in appropriate age categories, counted their stickers and picked up to 5 riders with most stickers in each category. We randomly picked a winner out of those five – here are the results:

AGE CATEGORY WINNERS:
2-4 years: Maddie Hicks, 4 years, 4 stickers TWO-DAY class
5-6 years: Harry Wilson, 6 years, 10 stickers TWO-DAY class
7-8 years: Gonzalo Flores, 7 years, 10 stickers TWO-DAY class
9 and up: Hunter Penrose, 9 years, 9 stickers TWO-DAY class
Adults: Susan Foster - special recognition for riding to ACES at 6am for the Birding class!
Adult NFS class of choice and ZG Green Bag

OVERALL WINNER
Wheat O’Hagan, 8 years, 12 stickers

WEEK-LONG class AND a Bike-Tune-up by Aaron Taylor

YOUNGEST RIDER
Chase Kelly, 3 years, 5 stickers (no training wheels!!!)

LITTLE NATURALISTS SERIES

HONORABLE MENTION
Aaron Taylor, ACES instructor who rode 360 miles from Carbondale to Aspen to teach ACES classes!

ADULTS NFS class of choice AND ZG Green Bag with bike tools in it!

ROCK BOTTOM RANCH
We had a core of very dedicated bicyclists – 27 participants - who rode many miles on Rio Grande Trail to come to Rock Bottom Ranch. THANK YOU for your dedication, no matter the distance!

RBR Bike Board consisted of a big poster with participants’ names on it. Every time the participants rode their bikes they received a star, which they affixed next to their name on the board.
Results: we had one very dedicated young rider who ended up as an overall winner. This young rider inspired one adult to keep riding back to RBR just to keep up – they both ended up with 11 stars - congratulations! We decided to honor the two most dedicated riders and the three runner-ups who had the same number of stars. Here are the results:

OVERALL KIDS WINNER

Nicholas Waterman, 6 years, 11 stars
WEEK-LONG class AND a Bike-Tune-up by Aaron Taylor

OVERALL ADULT WINNER
Evan Menzel, 30 years, 11 stars
Adult NFS class of choice and ZG Green Bag + Big Wrap gift certificate!

HONORABLE MENTION
Oliver Smith, 6 years, 5 stars TWO-DAY class
Callista Smith, 4 years, 5 stars TWO-DAY class
Anders Weiss, 5 years, 5 stars TWO-DAY class