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Brushy Creek


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12 minutes ago, ATXZJ said:

I got talked into going on a work trip with the wife last week and stayed in abilene. Discovered beforehand they had some trails to ride and figured i'd drag the bike along and put some miles in while she was in her meetings. The area is fenced with a locked gate that you have to contact the LBS and pay $10 before they'll give you the combo. When i called two days before, they said its currently raining and wont be dry by the time im there and wasn't allowing any entry.

https://www.mtbproject.com/trail/5673873/buck-creek-trail

 

I know this type of system probably isn't an option on multi-use places like BC but seems like slaughter creek preserve has figured out a way to keep (most) people off the trail when its wet. I'd be down to chip in a few bucks to get some sort of control on the damage being inflicted.

I'm with ATXZJ. I'm not opposed to coughing up some money to a viable solution, being as Brushy is my home trail.

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10 minutes ago, ATXZJ said:

I got talked into going on a work trip with the wife last week and stayed in abilene. Discovered beforehand they had some trails to ride and figured i'd drag the bike along and put some miles in while she was in her meetings. The area is fenced with a locked gate that you have to contact the LBS and pay $10 before they'll give you the combo. When i called two days before, they said its currently raining and wont be dry by the time im there and wasn't allowing any entry.

https://www.mtbproject.com/trail/5673873/buck-creek-trail

 

I know this type of system probably isn't an option on multi-use places like BC but seems like slaughter creek preserve has figured out a way to keep (most) people off the trail when its wet. I'd be down to chip in a few bucks to get some sort of control on the damage being inflicted.

Abilene, hell, they should pay people to visit and ride there...

Being along a regional trail with no gates/access control whatsoever and being the "neighborhood" trail system limits our options significantly. I have reached out to Wilco to see if they will allow us to add additional LARGE (Yuge) signs or maybe a wall... We'll see. I will reach out to Curt Randa at Cedar Park about parking lot signage. 

We definitely cannot erect gates...

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Just now, Chief said:

I'm with ATXZJ. I'm not opposed to coughing up some money to a viable solution, being as Brushy is my home trail.

Appreciated, donate to ARR if you want, they have a budget for us these days...I am just usually too lazy to file an expense report for reimbursement... though, I will be soon for the new Lloyd Bridge I will be building.

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13 minutes ago, Chief said:

I believe the problem that we as conscientious riders face is that most of the offending riders do not belong to any local MTB community, therefor they are not aware of how riding wet trails effects/impacts the trail systems we have. We also face the constant inflow of people from different regions were riding wet trails may not have been an issue. Than there is the issue of entitled assholes who will do whatever they want whenever they want just because. Oh and lets not forget the riders on Walmart bikes who just don't know any better. This will always be a case of shoveling shit against the tide. I see trail cuts in many places there were never any before. I've blocked some of these multiple times only to see them reopened next time I ride. Unfortunately Brushy is slowly becoming the tangled nightmare that Walnut is. I don't really see any effective way to stop this. I saw a guy yesterday with a FS bike on the back of his grey Highlander pulling into the soccer field parking lot yesterday, I highly doubt he was going there to just ride the hike and bike.

Yea, there will always be those people, but even if we cut the mud traffic in 1/2, it would be well worth the effort, and as for those coming from elsewhere, signs would help with that.

It might also be helpful to have QR codes of this thread (to get more people involved in the community, or at least aware of it) and maybe an informational web page (explaining the purpose behind not riding wet trails in our region) printed on the signs.

Edited by gotdurt
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11 minutes ago, rugger said:

Abilene, hell, they should pay people to visit and ride there...

Being along a regional trail with no gates/access control whatsoever and being the "neighborhood" trail system limits our options significantly. I have reached out to Wilco to see if they will allow us to add additional LARGE (Yuge) signs or maybe a wall... We'll see. I will reach out to Curt Randa at Cedar Park about parking lot signage. 

We definitely cannot erect gates...

No kidding. We kept referring to it as Stabilene when there.

Sucks about the gates as it seems only denial or brute force is the only effective method for stopping some people. 

Donated in the past with earmark for BC. I'll get back on that

Edited by ATXZJ
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1 hour ago, ATXZJ said:

I know this type of system probably isn't an option on multi-use places like BC but seems like slaughter creek preserve has figured out a way to keep (most) people off the trail when its wet. I'd be down to chip in a few bucks to get some sort of control on the damage being inflicted.

Slaughter Creek Trails is a VERY special situation. First, it was already fenced. The public was NEVER supposed to be allowed there. ARR worked absolute magic in getting it opened for trails. (I had nothing to do with that but I appreciate the amount of time and effort that was required.) The work that ARR did then is still working for the MTB community today. The WQPL manager is actually amenable to allowing more trail on other WQPL tracts. I have walked some of those tracts. We could build some really good trail on those. And this land manager understands the different levels of trail vs skill level and is OK with it. He will still want beginner trails built first but will not resist more advanced trails after the beginner trails are open.

Operating the gate to Slaughter Creek Trail is covered by several people (5? 6?). Even then it can be hard to get someone there at exactly the right time. Most of the time, the timer on the gate takes care of opening and closing the gate. Wet conditions require manual intervention. That is manual to open the gate when it is dry enough and manual to close the gate and disable the timer when it is wet. And you should hear the griping and complaining when someone thinks it is dry enough but the gate is closed. Some of us have started to sending pictures of the trail or our shoes to all of the others when we check the trail and find it is still too wet. The complaints stop when they are shown a picture of puddles or 1/2" of mud on the bottom of shoes when someone checked the trail that very same day. Even then the land manager is told things like "I can ride that" or "Its public land you can't keep me out." Comments like that don't help our cause.

Slaughter Creek Trail will never be a good comparison to Brushy / Walnut / BCGB / SATN / etc. The others are not fenced. They have too many entrances. They have too many "neighbors back gates". etc.

I am for posting signs saying the trail is closed due to wet conditions. The signs will help some. But not even fences and locked gates seem to be enough to "inform / educate" some people. For those people game cameras and prosecution seems to the minimum required. I would prefer to not go that far. But after a nice request (Please don't ride muddy trails.), a more forceful request (I hope you will be here on Saturday to repair the damage you are doing.), a private shaming (Is this a picture of you riding a closed / wet trail???) and even a public shaming (Does anybody know the person riding this muddy trail on date/time?), there seems to be no other choice. 

Education of people using the trails appears to be the best solution. Or I should say I hope it is the best solution.

Edited by cxagent
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5 hours ago, rugger said:

Abilene, hell, they should pay people to visit and ride there...

Being along a regional trail with no gates/access control whatsoever and being the "neighborhood" trail system limits our options significantly. I have reached out to Wilco to see if they will allow us to add additional LARGE (Yuge) signs or maybe a wall... We'll see. I will reach out to Curt Randa at Cedar Park about parking lot signage. 

We definitely cannot erect gates...

 
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You guys are brutal haha 

Check the latest update on Twitter. My wife hit a pothole yesterday that bubbled her tire so I only had a limited time this morning to check things out before having to drive her around (all of my cars are manuals, she’s a millennial sooooo). If you get on sections I didn’t report on leave a comment! 

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Looks like this guy didn't think Peddlers was too muddy today, he did 2 laps. 
https://www.strava.com/activities/2087862166


Calling this dude out on Strava has some merit. No one wants to be hated by their peers. Well...I guess some people don’t care but even it makes them think twice or shut off Strava being a douchebag, that’s something.


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Looks like this guy didn't think Peddlers was too muddy today, he did 2 laps. 
https://www.strava.com/activities/2087862166


Calling this dude out on Strava has some merit. No one wants to be hated by their peers. Well...I guess some people don’t care but even it makes them think twice or shut off Strava being a douchebag, that’s something.


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If the city/county are ok with signs it might be a good idea to place one on the main trail near the 1/4 notch bailout. Looks like there was recent dirt work done at the edge of the cement trail where there were massive ruts of people entering/leaving the trail.  I know we can’t just put up 1000 signs, so I’m with everyone else that anything would help. 

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19 hours ago, HoneyBadger said:

Looks like this guy didn't think Peddlers was too muddy today, he did 2 laps. 

https://www.strava.com/activities/2087862166

So how does one even go about finding these rogue riders on Strava? Is that a quick process or does it require lengthy searching and analysis? Looks like @CBaron used the opportunity to educate this guy on austinmountainbiking.com via his Strava comments. That's very clever and perhaps is an approach we could use collectively to get more people connected here and with ARR.  

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BTW does anybody know if the wind and sun were enough to at least clear Deception for riding? It's been 2 weeks for me, and even then it was nothing more than a shit show at City Park. If Deception isn't good for tomorrow, then I'll be dancing with Emma again for sure.  

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On January 18, 2019 at 3:34 PM, gotdurt said:

Yea, there will always be those people, but even if we cut the mud traffic in 1/2, it would be well worth the effort, and as for those coming from elsewhere, signs would help with that.

It might also be helpful to have QR codes of this thread (to get more people involved in the community, or at least aware of it) and maybe an informational web page (explaining the purpose behind not riding wet trails in our region) printed on the signs.

A QR code with this website and the Twitter feed saying whether the trails are open or closed would help if people were driving a long distance to ride. I'd be upset if I drove down from Waco or Dallas to find a closed sign in the parking lot. 

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3 minutes ago, JMR said:

A QR code with this website and the Twitter feed saying whether the trails are open or closed would help if people were driving a long distance to ride. I'd be upset if I drove down from Waco or Dallas to find a closed sign in the parking lot. 

I am going to integrate a trail conditions page into the forum, probably in the spring.  I'll make sure it's easy to update from a phone as well.  Once that's done, a "TRAIL CONDITIONS" sign/sticker with the QR code would be great. 🙂 

 ..Al

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For once I have a serious suggestion. With regards to signs, I still say post them rignt at the parking lot (both ends of the sports park, the entrance at the YMCA, and under 183A. BIG FUCKING SIGNS that they have to ride right past and obvious they are ignoring them to everyone else that is watching. Also easier to enforce when the fuckwads come riding back to there parked vehicle with a bike covered in mud, leaving tracks with their caked tires.

 At that point, we can also say fuck you to the city and county if they complain about the MTB community asking for the signage. They have rules posted for the play fields, Skate park, disk golf course, etc... Why not the trails?

 

and yeah, I'm not in a good mood, so fuck em all

 

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