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Trail Gripes Photos | Trail Gripes Survey Results
Trail Gripes Photos
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This list will be updated each week - usually on Tuesdays - until it's complete. We've given a lot of thought to this and we want to take our time in posting the material.
Photos to Accompany Our Top 10 Trail Gripes
Search terms specific to each set of pix appear below those photos.
10. Failure to provide basic amenities at the trailhead, including ample, safe parking; rest rooms; maps; and emergency phone numbers.
This Chequamegon trailhead (above) near Cable, Wisconsin has trail maps, brochures on CAMBA (Chequamegon Area Mountain Bike Association), and information specific to the Rock Lake Trail. (Rich Ries has the rider's name in his notes but cannot find those notes. Our apologies that this trail worker, with whom Rich spent a couple of hours building new singletrack, remains anonymous.) Behind Rich as he was set up for this picture was a large parking area, a post with a fee box, and vault toilets.
Levis Trow Mound is near Black River Falls in west-central Wisconsin. There's plenty of parking plus an activity building (green metal roof in the background of the photo above) that's available for races and other events. On one end is a covered patio with access to rest rooms and racks of maps. There's also a kiosk at the trailhead with a permanent map and a fee box. This was a race day; the trails typically aren't this busy. You can read our review of Levis Trow Mound here.
The trails at Fort Mountain in northern Georgia are not great examples of design and construction, but they do include some nice bonuses, such as this bike wash station (above). No, riders shouldn't be riding muddy trails. But if trails include sections that sling spooge onto bikes, a bike wash is a thoughtful touch.
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Key Search Terms: Chequamegon MTB trail Wisconsin; CAMBA mountain bike Wisconsin; Levis Trow Mound MTB trail Wisconsin; Fort Mountain MTB Georgia.
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9. Poor maintenance.
Mountain bikers had already been riding around this downed log (blue line in photo above) when we arrived for a spring trail work day at Muscatatuck County Park in southern Indiana. This was one of a dozen or more trees we cut up that day to clear the trail.
Here are the right way and the wrong way to fix a similar problem. The upper photo is from England-Idlewild Park in northern Kentucky. An elevated boardwalk made of treated lumber has been built over a trail section that is occasionally wet from a nearby seep. The lower photo is from Levis Trow Mound in west-central Wisconsin. Here pieces of native softwoods have been used to build a corduroy section in an area that's always wet. Laying softwoods on a soggy forest floor is great way to create mulch but a lousy way to armor a trail. Rerouting would have been the best option. If rerouting was not feasible an elevated boardwalk or more durable armoring (rock or crushed stone) would have been acceptable. Despite this example of poor maintenance, Levis Trow Mound has some truly outstanding trail. Read our review here. And despite England Idlewild's use of a treated boardwalk, it's not a perfect solution. The boardwalk should have a traction-enhancing material applied because treated wood can get dangerously slick. Some builders use rolled roofing. We like poultry netting (aka “chicken wire”).
The photo below shows the inevitable result of fall-line trail routing: erosion. This is the River Loop Trail in the Chattahoochee National Forest near Ellijay, Georgia. It's an older trail that needs to be rerouted to be brought up to current design standards. If not, the erosion will continue. Or maybe it should just be closed if no one's riding it anymore.
Removing trees from the trail during construction is tough. Removing the staubs that emerge when trees are cut at ground level is really tough. But they have to come out. This one at Mitchell Memorial Forest in Cincinnati, Ohio (yellow arrow, photo below) lurked on the inside of a downhill turn, just waiting to throw riders off balance. It was later removed. (For more information on this tremendously fun little trail system, read our review.)
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Key Search Terms: Muscatatuck County Park Jennings Indiana; England Idlewild Burlington Kentucky; Levis Trow Mound Wisconsin; MTB trails Chattahoochee National Forest; Mitchell Memorial Forest MTB trail Cincinnati.
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8. Bad flow.
These two images are from the Raccoon Mountain trail near Chattanooga, Tennessee. The aerial map shows how trail builders worked the contours to preserve flow. One of the best flowing trails ever is Small Intestine when ridden clockwise. The rocky section (below) actually flows very well. It's a breeze to clean and although there is a preferred line there are also several other lines that work almost as well. You can read our review of this trail here.
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Tip: Be sure to enable ActiveX for our site if you want to take full advantage of Google features. Results of your Google searches will appear on the Search Results page.
Key Search Terms: You'll find a list of search terms in our review of Raccoon Mountain, but you can also plug in MTB trail flow and get a surprising mix of sites. Try it and see what you get.
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