When Life Gives You Mud...(A Christmas Story)

[Irulan]

Congrats on the new bike - that is a pretty nice toy for santa to leave under the tree! I'll let you know when the monday night all abilities ladie's fun rides start up again!

please don't take this the wrong way, but as a new mountain biker you may not know that riding in the mud can really damage the trails. There's plenty of good winter trail riding to be had, you just want to be mindful of riding in it. Riverside drains pretty fast in most places as it's sandy, but some trails, especially the Esmerelda trail at Beacon got seriously damaged last year due to mud riding... it actually became twice as wide as it was in places, due to people going around the mud, trying to not ride in the goop. The correct thing to do is to go straight through the little puddles, not around to the side. And if it's really goopy and deep, it should not be ridden until it dries out. We are lucky, we don't get that in too many spots around here. You will notice, that if you look, that the trail is wider where all the puddles Heehee, I'm not talking about the lakes on the fire roads at Riverside, just the puddles on the singletrack.

With our warmer winters here, we are now seeing more trail damage due to mud riding than we used to. It's going to be a real effort to educate our local users. We are lucky in that we don't have the same issues that they do on the West side, or in the Eastern US, but it IS something to have an awareness of. And yeah, I know that there are gazillions of people out there riding right now...I would too, just need to be mindful about the mud.

here is what IMBA has to say about mud:

The most objectionable sign of our presence is a degraded trail. Conservationists love to point to bicycle ruts and use them as a reason or justification for banning use from suitable riding areas, so never ride when and where you will leave ruts. This means carrying your bike across soft spots and walking around mud puddles so you don't widen them. This means not riding on rainy days, especially during the spring mud season. It is tempting to get out on that first beautiful spring day, but this is a time in New England when the trails are fragile. Some trails are especially soft and wet when thawing. Damage can be done this time of year, and can take a lot of time to repair.

Don't hesitate to walk or carry your bike in technical or muddy sections. Learn cyclocross dismounts, mounts and carrying techniques if you are concerned with efficiency. Carry your bike through streams. The silt stirred up can smother water critters and their eggs. The cross-ruts can also divert the stream to create a puddle.

happy riding...