For those of you that read my message yesterday, you know this message has been edited and is now more diplomatic.
I am encouraging our trail stewards/volunteers to either ride or hike their adopted section of trail and make notes about needed repairs. If you are participating the "Green Hills Challenge" it will be an opportunity to score some hiking/biking miles and accumulate some "trail work" hours.
Obviously, we have become better trail builders over the years and the newer sections use the contours better and are the easiest to maintain. We've learned to build it next to the edge or deal with the erosion issues down the line.
What are some things you can do to make your trail section primo:
Remove trail debris and large downed trees. Twigs and branches are tough on wheel sets. Blow leaves when necessary. It helps with traction and makes the route easier to follow. You can remove smaller trees that cross the trail corridor, but some small trees work as water bars and are fun to jump. That's up to you!
Deberm sections that have a berm on the out slope. Water has to be able to shed out and away from the tread. If trenching has occurred, we may need to reroute the trail to the out slope.
Armor wet areas. Bench cut areas that are rough or off camber. I tend to wait a little while to see what the traffic and deer are going to do. We know that trails that are bench cut dry faster because the organic soil is removed and the tread is more firm under the organic soil. If the organic soil is really thin and there is no out slope, trenching will occur. Deer and riding in wet conditions will expose poor trail design.
Start thinking about signage. If you were in charge of signing your section of trail, what would you include?
Prevention instead of words that start with "RE": RE-route, RE-pair, RE-do!
Great trails are the product of great volunteers! Thanks to all the volunteers that make the trails at Indian Creek so outstanding!
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Thu Jan 06, 2011 6:44 pm
