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

[bikerHen'sChick]

I just HAD to post a picture of my new Christmas bike. He's a Giant Iguana mountain bike, bought to replace my ancient 12 yr old Giant Attraction Mtn. Bike (And many, many thanks to Mom, aka bikerHen, for his purchase, although I'm pretty sure she only did it because she was sick and tired of hearing my constant complaints about my lack of suspension) Anyways, since about Thanksgiving we've had a nice thick blanket of snow. However, a few days before Christmas our below-average temperatures became above-average temperatures and all the snow left before Christmas came. It did, however, leave a great deal of mud and puddles, so at least my new boy and I got to play on Christmas. Here's my favorite "after the mud" photo:



My new bike is in the front, and bikerHen's Gary Fisher bike is in the back. We had lots of fun getting dirty, although the mud was so thick in places we had some pretty tough going. I can't wait for warmer, dryer weather so I can go out and test my new suspension on some nice, bumpy rocks. And I'm loving the disc brakes on the new bike. I didn't feel nearly as much fear going downhill on tires coated in water and mud.

[Yasmin]

Merry Christmas & happy riding with your new boy. Good on ya to Mum!

[BikeMomma]

Nice!!!!!!
But what I wanna know is, why does Mom's bike look cleaner???

[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...

[Dirt Girl]

First off...CONGRATULATIONS! Looks like many funs rides in your future this season!! I hope to join you on some of them.

Second, not to be a stick in the mud (ha, ha), but I have to agree with Irulan.
There is a fine line between having fun in the mud and doing damage to the trails. Not knowing exactly where you were riding, I can't say that you DID do damage, I'm just asking that you be mindful of it in the future. As a lover of singletrack, it really is discouraging to see the trails widen from season to season.

[bikerHen'sChick]

Dirt Girl and Irulan, thank you both for the info. And don't worry, we didn't ruin any of the nice trails. We were actually riding in the freeway construction across the road from our house. And we did far less damage to their roads than all of the heavy tractors and semis that rumble through there all of the time! But I never even thought about mud riding damaging the trails. I will be sure to pass it on to bikerHen, and make sure we don't damage any trails. And BikeMomma, well spotted! Mine is dirtier because I was having fun riding throught the deep mud, while mom took it easy and stuck to the firmer mud.

[Irulan]

LOL, I guess dirt girl and I can both put away our soap boxes now, ! I guess
I wouldn't be a very effective mountain bike club president if I didn't carry mine around with me!

[bikerHen]

OK, so the young chick seems to think my bike is cleaner because I was afraid of the pea soup mud. I say, I rode behind her to watch where my little chick sunk into and got stuck in the mud and I being the older, wiser hen that I am went around those spots! That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

[Irulan]

well, you haven't really ridden in mud until you hit a puddle that's way deeper than it looks, get your wheel sucked in up to to the hubs, bike stops deadn and you got OTB and do a superman face plant into it!! I witnessed my friend doing this, poor gal, the guys were egging her onpedalpedalpedal and then spa-loosh!