Off The Road Again
Well-Known Member
I've been reading all of these posts, some good ideas but the conversation is circular with no solution. I don't have a solution. We've been advocating education, JORBA awareness, signage, etc, and that's all good. The problem is the majority of the trail abusers likely are: not on this forum, not a JORBA member, don't have a LBS, don't use Strava, and don't do TM to understand the damage. I would hate to see wide-spread seasonal trail closures occur since I've had great rides during the timespan the trails would be closed - when it is well below freezing and ground is frozen rock solid. By the same token, I've run across several frozen ruts created when trails are not favorable, which is not fun. And spent my fair share of TM time to fix them. We, as a MTB community have been doing our best to police or educate, but it is falling on deaf ears. Unfortunately, it may come to broad brush closures like Nox and Nassau are doing.
KT does/did have the green-white season where they closed the trail to MTB from mid-Oct to March and allowed XC skiing and snow shoeing. However, since the popularity of fatbikes, I don't think this is the case any more. Riding in snow doesn't damage the trails, but that is not the issue here. Ultimately, if the word doesn't get out there that riding in the mud is detrimental to the trails, the parks may just ban MTB altogether. I try to tell everyone I run across who's getting into MTB, or just talking to on the trails, to just don't ride when it's wet or the trails might be permanently closed. I think some of that resonates, I hope. Signage (big) at the trailheads or in mud-prone areas may help and is probably the easiest way to get the message out. As I said earlier, the culprits likely are not affiliated with any MTB-related clubs, websites, or organizations to get the message. For those that do use Strava, I like JimN's approach (counts as a 'like' Jim), similar to what Steve does for TM at Stephens SP. If nothing else, it's subliminal messaging.
Like many of you, I'm having cabin fever, but I can wait until the trail conditions allow riding. My local trails (CR, 6M, and Sour) are off-limits in these conditions. HM and RV drain pretty good. Hopefully we can get the word out about mud-riding.
KT does/did have the green-white season where they closed the trail to MTB from mid-Oct to March and allowed XC skiing and snow shoeing. However, since the popularity of fatbikes, I don't think this is the case any more. Riding in snow doesn't damage the trails, but that is not the issue here. Ultimately, if the word doesn't get out there that riding in the mud is detrimental to the trails, the parks may just ban MTB altogether. I try to tell everyone I run across who's getting into MTB, or just talking to on the trails, to just don't ride when it's wet or the trails might be permanently closed. I think some of that resonates, I hope. Signage (big) at the trailheads or in mud-prone areas may help and is probably the easiest way to get the message out. As I said earlier, the culprits likely are not affiliated with any MTB-related clubs, websites, or organizations to get the message. For those that do use Strava, I like JimN's approach (counts as a 'like' Jim), similar to what Steve does for TM at Stephens SP. If nothing else, it's subliminal messaging.
Like many of you, I'm having cabin fever, but I can wait until the trail conditions allow riding. My local trails (CR, 6M, and Sour) are off-limits in these conditions. HM and RV drain pretty good. Hopefully we can get the word out about mud-riding.