Percent of wet trail that is GTG needed

[The Tip]

Don't ride muddy trail. Yes we know that. 

But if we waited until there is absolutely no mud anywhere on the trail, not only would we really limit our time on the trail, but then we would be dealing with moon dust too. How ironic!

I contend that it is okay to ride trail that has SOME "bad" spots. The problem is that a bunch of riders have different opinions than I do about what percentage the "allowable" bad spots are. So unfortunately we have to be over militant about sending the "don't ride muddy trails" message.

This is such an inexact thing of course, because how do you really measure, but I think that a 95/5% mix is acceptable. That means on 5% of the trail you are going to have to get off your bike and walk around the muddy patch. And none of the patches I am talking about are ever more than 5 feet long. But 95% of the trail is probably hero dirt. I think that a 90/10 mix would make it not worthwhile to ride. Again, inexact, but am I making any sense?

I feel it is unfair to shame a guy in the parking lot on a muddy bike without knowing his full story. He might have just discovered for the community that 95% of the trail was good, "but don't ride _____ because I did and it was not ready. That's why my bike is dirty." 

 

Edited April 8, 2019 by The Tip

[AntonioGG]

There was a long thread on this.  From what I can gather, there are 3 factions:  1)  5% bad spots is OK, ride through the middle so as to not widen the trail.    2)  5% bad spots is OK, get off your bike and walk around the mud.  3)  5% is not OK (seems to me like the majority of the trail builders fall into this category).  Turn around at the mud.  Even walking around it widens the trail and damages vegetation, riding through it deepens the rut (cxagent posted an excellent graphic on why this is a problem).  I suppose there's probably a 4th faction:  who cares, BRAP!

[RedRider3141]

I think it's highly trail dependent too. Brushy has 90% rock trails and 99% dirt trails.

[Seths Pool]

if every person willing to ride wet trails were equally as willing or eager to help build/maintain/repair trails, id bet it'd nearly cancel out this whole debate and everyone could probably ride whenever, wherever!