Trail Conditions 6-27-09

[Dogberry]

Howdy all,

New to the forum, but not to MCP or JORBA. Some of you already know me as Rich from SMART.

Anyhow, I took a walk on the blue trail between the East Picnic Area and the double bridge today, just to see what effect one good day of sunshine had. Things didn't look good. There was still plenty of mud, and worse, plenty of evidence that mountain bikers were making the mudholes deeper and wider by plowing through them or riding around them. The drainage nicks we cut a few weeks ago did their job, but they were clearly overwhelmed by the volume of water.

I didn't bother to head south of the lake to see the other trails, because the mosquito air force was winning their little war against me.

Looks like this spring's monsoon will have a lasting effect on Mercer and other places. 🙁

 

[Frank]

Welcome Rich !
It's sad that your intro comes with bad news. One of the topics in an e-mail from Mick today was the deep ruts that he encountered. Hopefully we will be able to generate a large enough crew for the July TM day to help reverse some of the carnage. I will have to mark that day on my calendar.

 

[mike_243]

Welcome aboard

 

[Mick714]

Thanks Rich!

I was going to post something yesterday but I thought the readers/members of this forum are probably not the people who were riding yesterday and again today.
I was out on the blue trail again today and it is still pretty muddy.

Here is what I said to Frank yesterday:

I just got back from the park. I should have brought my camera In the 14 years I have been riding the park I have never seen such carnage.
The ground here in mercer is as wet as I have ever seen it and it looks like everyone in the county decided to go for a ride today. The ruts are a foot deep in places and the trail tread is about two foot wider than it was in the places where the water is in pools

Mick

 

[Dogberry]

You know, it's funny... in my previous message, I was deliberately toning down my description. It was my first post, and I didn't want to be seen as the little boy who cried wolf. But since everyone else is freaking out...

:cry:

I can understand the frustration of MTBers who just want to ride after being cooped up for weeks due to rain. But jeez, at what price? When everyone who rides in the mud thinks, "Oh, two more tire tracks won't make much difference," we end up with the LaBrea Tar Pits we have now.

People, give the trails a break! Ride 'em when they're dry.

 

[southernerinnj]

It does suck the way MCP has been treated as of late. Really disturbing. To add a positive note to the thread though..... I had a couple people actually PM me on here to ask about the conditions and my suggestion as to whether or not to ride this weekend. I hope they heeded the advice to hang back and let MCP get its dry on. Atleast people are asking instead of just saying f'it and heading out.

 

[Frank]

I can understand the frustration of MTBers who just want to ride after being cooped up for weeks due to rain. But jeez, at what price? When everyone who rides in the mud thinks, "Oh, two more tire tracks won't make much difference,"

So true......I felt the exact same way yesterday as we worked on the trails at Allaire. Don expressed the same feelings about Huber as well. The only thing we can hope for is that folks will realize what a bad light we cast on ourselves as a user group. Although we did see some hoof prints, the majority of damage was done by bikes.