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Ride & Imbibe!


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I would echo this, but I would add that point 6 is actually rideable. There are berms and as long as you stay on the berms (as you should be) then it is fine. The only real messy spots on point 6 were at the bottoms of the berms, where you should not be riding anyway. 

We were able to stitch together a good loop that only hit one spot that I would say was widened by riding (but this had been widened a long time ago, it is not new.)

Yes, if you have the choice, I would opt for not riding it, but if you are there and you are smart/adaptable, you will be ok. 

The biggest problem is not the riders who know what to do. We saw instances of people with fat bikes (3"+ tire tracks) that were riding in the mud at the bottom of the berms - this is just stupid.

Oscar Blues had $2 canned beer and starting there puts an extra 4 miles on your ride, which offsets the place at WC that we skipped.

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On 1/15/2019 at 10:28 AM, Anita Handle said:

What will you do when you get to a non-rideable part? Levitate over it??? Walking around it or riding gingerly around it ain't much better than splashing right through.

Simply turn around.  If you ride through the mud you will cause damage by deepening the ruts, if you ride or walk around you will cause damage by widening the tread and compacting and killing vegetation.  Just stay off any section that is damp enough to stick to your tires or leave impressions.  

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On 1/15/2019 at 8:43 AM, June Bug said:

Although I haven't done much trail work in the last few years, I have done a lot of solo and group trail work at WC over the years, including a very rainy winter quite a few years ago where there were some major mud holes that developed over time. 

Let me clarify the damage cycle. When you ride a damp trail, even when the knobs on your tire make an indentation of, say,  a sixteenth of an inch, that indentation holds water, because that's how it works.   Six more riders come by, and now there's a slight low spot that's kinda soft.  With the next rain, you've got a soft patch holding water that does not drain, people ride through, and now there's a major sloppy mess that can only get worse because it's a low spot that holds water.  

In the past, to fix that low spot, I'd  go out with a flat blade shovel and start shaving the tread down to drain the low spot to the downslope side of the trail.  If there is no down slope, then the side of the trail was downsloped to a drainage pit dug out to capture the water.  You'd be amazed at how many hours of manual labor it takes to do this simple repair over 6 or 8 feet of trail.  Some of these repairs are still holding up, some need to be redone or touched up.  

Chardog's brilliant berming solution for curves (capturing the water to the inside of the berm) has addressed a lot of the problem areas where there's a curve in the trail, but either way, it's still a LOT of hard work to create and maintain. 

  1. If possible, don't ride, let things dry out
  2. Do your damn trail work

 

 

Truth.  It may seem impossibly outside one's paradigm, but it IS possible to turn around and NOT ride a muddy section of trail.  It's also possible to help repair the trails once or twice in your life (or every week as many do).

Edited by Chardog
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On 1/15/2019 at 9:25 AM, Teamsloan said:

I know this is crazy sounding...but has anyone ever considered making an R&I a "TW&I". We have quite the crew that is regularly able to clear their Tuesday nights to be out at WC. If we have a crew that size, I bet a lot of work could be done to address all those poorly draining areas. On nights too damp to ride, why not still show up to throw a shovel around for a bit and then imbibe as usual?

 

 

*I am not suggesting tonight to do this as it is quasi-ridable for y'all and I've thrown my back out again 😞 But I have done this before and it worked well.

Excellent suggestion.  Just say the word and I will bring the tools.  

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56 minutes ago, Nando said:

I'm staying out. All this “ok here but wet in these two specific spots” times five different reports is too much. Seems to me the best choice, at least for me, is to give it another week.

Long Live the R&I!

Some of the reports were based on riding it fully yesterday 😉

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21 hours ago, AntonioGG said:

How about the S&I?

Working on that. It's looking like we may have pre-approval from PARD for having workdays on Tuesdays as long as we give them notice first thing the day before. So if we have a rainy weekend, we'll be able to plan a S&I the day before and get it quickly organized in time to have a solid crew (hopefully) show up.

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49 minutes ago, Teamsloan said:

Working on that. It's looking like we may have pre-approval from PARD for having workdays on Tuesdays as long as we give them notice first thing the day before. So if we have a rainy weekend, we'll be able to plan a S&I the day before and get it quickly organized in time to have a solid crew (hopefully) show up.

Thanks!  The process can be frustrating when you just want to "get things done", but building and maintaining cooperation/trust with land managers is worth it to keep a productive relationship going.

 

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