17 NE - Get out and ride thread

[JerseyDave]

SMBC Status on all trails is closed, and it looks moist early next week. http://www.stowemountainbike.com/

Waterbury will be closed for a least a few weeks yet as they do some pretty major excavator work to re-route the main climb.

Fellowship trails closed... http://www.fotwheel.org/trailhub/

Millstone as well... http://www.millstonetrails.com/trail-conditions/

Not sure how you drive up there but our trails are ready here in Northfield, exit 5.
I'd be glad to give you a tour. My pace is mellow on the climbs and our trails are best suited for intermediates and above. M, W I have flexibility.

Kingdom Trails open this weekend.
DNJ

[PhishingME]

Harold Parker was dry last night. The place drys amazingly well, despite getting 1.5 inches of rain Tues/Wed very limited mud. I guess rocks don't absorb that much water.

[Rontele]

Harold Parker was dry last night. The place drys amazingly well, despite getting 1.5 inches of rain Tues/Wed very limited mud. I guess rocks don't absorb that much water.

I've generally found the trails in and around Boston to drain really well. Obviously the Cape is a bit of an outlier, but rode Trail of Tears last weekend after the big soaker and it was fully drained and tacky. DaveVt, we have our second baby coming in June, so I'd like to get up to Vt before he/she arrives and get a tour of my to new to me local trails with you.

[JerseyDave]

Lower Cady Hill just opened in Stowe for the weekend.
Rontele, Your new "Back Yard is a high, and wet zone. That area of Stowe will be one of the last areas to open up. Between KD Hill and Trapps you can get a good ride in though. Trapps should be open soon I would think. Definitely worth having the Trapps Pass if you live in town. Let me know when you have plans. I have flexibility MWF.

[Rontele]

Lower Cady Hill just opened in Stowe for the weekend.
Rontele, Your new "Back Yard is a high, and wet zone. That area of Stowe will be one of the last areas to open up. Between KD Hill and Trapps you can get a good ride in though. Trapps should be open soon I would think. Definitely worth having the Trapps Pass if you live in town. Let me know when you have plans. I have flexibility MWF.

Already bought a Trapps pass for this season. Looking like the week of the 8th or the 15th. I'll PM you.

[buttahflake]

Already bought a Trapps pass for this season. Looking like the week of the 8th or the 15th. I'll PM you.

He rides without a jersey, are you cool with that?

[Rontele]

He rides without a jersey, are you cool with that?

I just ride in bibs, back hair and some ski goggles.

[buttahflake]

Perfect, you can consider yourself a local, just like he does.

[JerseyDave]

Sublime trail surface this weekend. Gummy. Dirt's never this good. Get it.

[PhishingME]

Not too wet down south this past weekend. Lowell was riding well Sunday.

[jackstraw]

Rode our powdah run otherwise known as SHP last night and there were a few muddy spots that just turn into shitshows.

What's the collective thoughts on what to do when this occurs? My feeling is the trail should be closed or a bridge ideally, but apparently that is not always an option.

So, there were of course several new lines being made out and around the mud, there were logs thrown in the middle randomly, and one guy off his bike walking I guess...not sure what he was doing.

I went around some and through the middle of others, but we would have never even ridden the trail if we had known.

Overall it was a really fun ride though! Giddeeup!

[ticketchecker]

^^riding through the middle or walking around would by my protocol depending on mud depth, or not riding until it's really ready

[jackstraw]

Yeah, I'd like to see bridges in the "hot" spots prone to this happening during the wet seasons. The rest of the trails were fine. Just weird being such a high traffic area not to have the trails closed.

The off the beaten path places that we maintain we are building bridges or laying down logs. Anything to help with erosion.

[ticketchecker]

^^we should ride straw, show me some goods down your way and bring that hightower up here sometime.

[JerseyDave]

When most of the trail is good with the exception of a few spots, riding right through the middle is ideal. Assuming it's an area with active trail work happening, these spot should be on the top of their hit list.

My personal experience is to avoid wood. PT structures are never as permanent as we think they will be, wood can have slime grow on it making it slippery as ice, and when it starts to fall apart you have a couple hundred pounds of garbage to haul out of the woods.

Fill the hole with rocks, smash them with hammers, cover them with good mineral dirt. If you have to raise the tread, larger stones buried about 50% along the edge of the trail to retain. Slow work, but lasting...and the changes in riding surface add more interest and are safer than wood.

Plus smashing rock is fun.

[gravitylover]

^^And please leave the top surface of soil and rocks smooth enough that it's not horrible to ride over. In one of my regular spots the armoring is so rough that it almost can't be ridden and you end up going around it or dropping (bouncing) off the side into the soft stuff and just end up making it worse.

Re: Closing trails because of too soft - I'm calling bullshit. I've really about had it with the don't ride when it's wet crowd. There's one spot kind of close to me that has a don't ride for 24 hours after it rains policy and they were only able to ride 3 days for the entire month of April. There are a few other places that seem to think this is a good idea and have been talking about making it policy there too. WTF 3 days?! A couple of the regular spots that I ride see a fair amount of traffic and with as wet as it's been you'd think they'd be all rutted out but they're not. Sure there's a few small areas that don't drain well and look sloppy but they'll heal if we ever get a week without rain, ALL of the other similar spots have already. Dropping a ton of leaves in the widened areas will kind of convince most people to hold a tighter line bringing the singletrack back to singletrack.

We live in an area that sees a lot of precipitation and for the most part the ground can handle it. If a trail seems to be getting ruined maybe it shouldn't be there (reroute?) or maybe a little bit of effort should be put into making it better. I don't ride with tools but have done a ton of drainage work this year using the tools the forest provides. Sticks as shovels and rakes, rocks as tamping devices, etc. I clear drains, I smooth and tamp soils so that water won't pool, I drag loads of branches to block lines that should never have been opened up... These small efforts have been very successful this year and the trails are riding better than they have in a while. I am frustrated though that people will go to the efforts they do to remove those blocks and sometimes they even leave nasty notes tacked to trees about how they need the easy lines and how mean it is to block them off...

[jackstraw]

^^we should ride straw, show me some goods down your way and bring that hightower up here sometime.

Yeah, come on down! We ride Weds, sometimes Thurs and on the weekend, usually Sunday but totally dependent on weather...like this wkend it's tomorrow. PM me if you're headed this way.

When most of the trail is good with the exception of a few spots, riding right through the middle is ideal. Assuming it's an area with active trail work happening, these spot should be on the top of their hit list.

My personal experience is to avoid wood. PT structures are never as permanent as we think they will be, wood can have slime grow on it making it slippery as ice, and when it starts to fall apart you have a couple hundred pounds of garbage to haul out of the woods.

Fill the hole with rocks, smash them with hammers, cover them with good mineral dirt. If you have to raise the tread, larger stones buried about 50% along the edge of the trail to retain. Slow work, but lasting...and the changes in riding surface add more interest and are safer than wood.

Plus smashing rock is fun.

Yeah, we never use PT and generally I'm just putting logs down. Rocks are ideal and we've used those, but not always readily available. The stuff we're doing is not "sanctioned", so we don't have the resources or tools to be doing everything the ideal way. I agree with that method though, it would certainly be best. We have a landscape company that abuts our new area and they've given us permission to use their 'dump' pile of dirt and pavers, so we may take advantage of that...still, getting it to the middle of the woods takes effort! We are of just a few hands. Not a lot of love for building and maintaining. Everybody sure likes to ride it though!

[jackstraw]

^^And please leave the top surface of soil and rocks smooth enough that it's not horrible to ride over. In one of my regular spots the armoring is so rough that it almost can't be ridden and you end up going around it or dropping (bouncing) off the side into the soft stuff and just end up making it worse.

Sounds like you need better skilz or get off that fat tire bike!

[gravitylover]

Haha, no you know what I mean. Sometimes armoring is so poorly done that you can't even ride over it. If you hit it with any speed the rocks move or you get bounced right off and if you go too slow (or it's on a climb) you can't hold a line without fighting it.

Heh, the fatty has been pretty lonely since the snow went away. Nearly all of my ride time has been on a steel ht plus bike. Strange too having a couple of top end Knolly bikes that are supposed to be ridden but I enjoy the simple affordable steel ht more.

Speaking of... Who wants a smokin' deal on an Endorphin (med) or (sm) Warden Carbon?

[jackstraw]

No, absolutely know what u mean. Round wobbly big rocks are worse. It takes some masonry and artistic skills to do it right.

[ticketchecker]

Yeah, come on down! We ride Weds, sometimes Thurs and on the weekend, usually Sunday but totally dependent on weather...like this wkend it's tomorrow. PM me if you're headed this way.

I got yer digits still

[HankScorpio]

Re: Closing trails because of too soft - I'm calling bullshit. I've really about had it with the don't ride when it's wet crowd. There's one spot kind of close to me that has a don't ride for 24 hours after it rains policy and they were only able to ride 3 days for the entire month of April....

I couldn't agree more. Most trails around here drain quickly and are perfectly rideable when the officious internet trail wardens proclaim no one should ride.

I understand not riding early season due to snow melt but once the season ramps up southern NE trails are ready to go unless there is an unusually heavy, long rain storm.

[jackstraw]

I got yer digits still

oh yeah, right on!

unless there is an unusually heavy, long rain storm.

I hope that doesn't happen Sunday.

[HankScorpio]

2-3 inches of rain on tap, fucking monsoon

[PhishingME]

"officious internet trail wardens" ie That guy who only rides when its dry

I tend to gravitate toward the rocky locations (HP) post rain.

I've seen more mud this spring in other local places then most years. Nothing that should close a whole trail system, but I will avoid that trail if I go back.