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Top10 Trail Gripes
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Key Search Terms: MTB trail design; IMBA MTB trail; MTB trail construction; Hoosier Mountain Bike Association; Brown County State Park MTB Indiana; Versailles State Park MTB Indiana.
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Here are the results of our survey. Many thanks to all who took time to respond!
Top 10 Trail Gripes
Trails have changed a lot since we rode our balloon-tired singlespeeds through the woods in the 1950s. (Rich Ries remembers those times; your initiation may have occurred earlier or later than his.) And the changes have been positive, thanks to tons of research and the development of new design standards. Like any other improvement driven by technology, the quantity of gain has followed a parabolic upslope. There have been more advances in the past five years than in the previous fifty. This is the mountain biking corollary to Moore's Law. You may recall that Intel co-founder Gordon Moore published a paper in 1965 where he said that computing power per dollar doubled approximately every two years. Our version says that the quality of ride experience per hour of volunteer labor doubles every two years.
So is every MTB trail perfect these days? Not quite. Problems remain. That's especially true of older trails that have not been brought up to modern standards, but even some new trails have issues. We'll list our main complaints in a minute. But first, some praise for the home team. The Hoosier Mountain Bike Association builds exquisite trails. In addition they are pros at pursuing funding (they got the biggest recreational trails grant ever awarded for mountain bike trails) and have an effective organizational structure. If you're looking for examples of well-designed, well-built trails, load up the bikes and head to Brown County and Versailles State Parks in Indiana.
One other digression. Although this list is aimed at trail builders and managers, we feel that all trail users bear a responsibility for trail conditions. If you're riding and you encounter a problem, do a quick assessment. If it's a problem you can correct - branches on the trail, a bit of litter - take care of it at that moment. If it's something you can't correct, something that will require a chainsaw or a wheelbarrow or a team of volunteers, report it to the right people, whether that's the property manager or a mountain bike club or whatever. One of the best things about mountain biking is the sense of shared experience. You recognize the shared joy of riding. Don't underestimate the shared pride of trail care.
Now here's our list of our Top10 trail gripes.
10. Failure to provide basic amenities at the trailhead, including ample, safe parking; rest rooms; maps; and emergency phone numbers. The first three seem obvious. But emergency phone numbers? Yes. Trails don't have addresses; dialing 911 and telling the dispatcher that you've broken your collarbone on the Vulture Knob section of the Pine Trail won't do you much good. There are also questions of jurisdiction. If it's not clear which agency should respond there's a chance none will. Put the appropriate number(s) at the trailhead. It's up to the riders to carry the number with them or program their cell phones. Click here for related photos.
9. Poor maintenance. MTB trails are like Web sites. While lots of folks are enthusiastic about building them, precious few are willing to maintain them. Devote one day a week to trail maintenance and rotate that responsibility among your group's members to avoid volunteer burnout. Keep trails clear by cutting out the deadfall and blowdowns. Keep them dry by mucking out the drainages. Watch for areas where the soil gets compacted and re-bench as necessary so water doesn't settle in the middle of the trail tread. Always carry a small saw and know how to use it safely. Have a convenient way for trail users to report problems, either onsite or through the group's Web site. If it's apparent some part of the trail is fatally flawed, reroute the offending section. The eventual outcome of poor maintenance is that trail users ride around the problem spot, creating more maintenance problems. Just fix it. Click here for related photos.
8. Bad flow. One way to gauge the quality of a trail is by how little riders have to brake. Braking is fine when setting up for a technical feature; trials riders have powerful brakes and they use them all the time. But riders shouldn't have to brake to compensate for poor flow. Follow the contours. Berm the corners. Sculpt the transitions. Avoid aimless wandering. And build for riding speed, not hiking speed. Click here for a couple of related photos.
7. Failure to access local knowledge. The locals know where the rattlesnakes hide, where there are drainage issues, and where the scenic overlooks lurk. They've been stomping around their turf a lot longer than you have. Push your ego aside for a moment and ask for their insights - and then act on what you learn.
6. Poor integration of segments. The entire trail system should work together so that a rider could do everything once without excessive backtracking or repetition. This is the problem with stacked loops. While stacked loops offer mileage options, it's hard for riders to do everything without riding some sections more than once. The Canal Loop at Land Between the Lakes in western Kentucky is a good example. While the Loop gets lots of use, it's rare to see riders on the any of the four connectors even though they add 2 ½ miles to the 11-mile placeLoop. A single loop creates logical flow but no mileage options. Raccoon Mountain is a good example. You can park at one of several lots and pick up the trail from the parking area, but once you're on the trail you have to complete it, backtrack, or bail out and take the road back. (In fairness to the trail builders at Raccoon Mountain, it's hard to create anything other than one big loop when you have a giant reservoir smack in the middle of the property. And they did offer a little variation by building the Small Intestine loop off the main loop. As work continues, other mileage options will become available.) A better solution is a central parking area with multiple trail access points, such as at Muscatatuck County Park between Vernon and North Vernon, Indiana. Worst of all is the spider-web approach, such as Hueston Woods near Cincinnati. There is no logical way to ride everything and it's frustrating.
5. Lack of ride-arounds. If you build features into your trail - and you should - less-skilled riders will create ride-arounds if you don't provide them. If ride-arounds are not an option, then qualifiers become even more critical (see Gripe #4). Lebanon Hills in suburban Minneapolis has good ride-arounds (and a terrific collection of features).
4. Lack of qualifiers. A qualifier is a feature placed in the first part of a trail that is typical of features that will be found farther into the ride. The goal is to give an accurate impression of the character of the trail in first 100 yards so that riders can decide if the trail matches their interests and abilities. The bottom line: Don't confront riders with the first tricky technical feature 4 miles into the ride.
3. Faulty features. Features are created from either native products (logs, rocks) or manufactured products (treated wood). The key is that they are created. Quality features are engineered and constructed; they do not occur haphazardly. This is one of BRAT CEO Rich Ries's biggest gripes. “Not every fallen tree is a feature,” he said. “And building ramps over random deadfall using other dead, rotten wood doesn't make things better. This approach doesn't create features. It creates flow-killers at best and liability hazards at worst.” Features should be built for a specific purpose. Rock gardens and skinnies provide challenge. G-outs create compelling flow. Know what feature you're building and why and of what material and why you're building it in this specific location. For our money the trail with the best use of native products is Raccoon Mountain near Chattanooga, TN (read our review here). And for the best use of manufactured products we give the nod to Lebanon Hills near the Twin Cities.
2. Inadequate or unclear signage. Part of the reason trails don't get signed is because they're laid out poorly (see Gripe #6) and committing a confusing design to a sign is impossible. Part of the reason is laziness and the fact that signing a trail isn't nearly as fulfilling as building a trail. And then there's always the sense that riders can and should grab maps from the trailhead kiosk (you did read Gripe #10, right?) or download one from your club's Web site. But signs are as integral to good trail design as bench cuts and berms. Signs help newcomers feel comfortable on the trail so that they come away with a positive experience. Signs help trail builders adhere to intelligent layout. If you know you're going to have to sign it, you take care to create a sensible layout. Don't use geometric shapes to designate trails unless you know you'll never have more than three or four trails. You can have Triangle Trail, Circle Trail, Square Trail, and maybe Octagon Trail; then what? Dodecahedron Trail? Rhombus Trail? Provide spurs off of Triangle Trail and name them Isosceles, Scalene, and Equilateral? If your trails have color names, use the names - not colored arrows - on the signs or you'll leave the significant portion of the population that is colorblind lost in the woods. One good sign type is an overview of the trail with a You Are Here dot or arrow. On large trail systems the immediate area can be enlarged to show detail as a pullout from the overall system map.
1. Failure to follow IMBA specifications. It's hard to fault the impeccable trail standards developed by IMBA, yet some folks do. A rider/trail builder in Tennessee told us IMBA standards were fine for beginners but advanced trail builders had no need to follow them. Wrong. IMBA specs cover every trail design, no matter how simple or advanced, no matter how plain or feature-laden. The chief trail steward for the Shawnee Mountain Bike Association, who is an avid and accomplished rider himself, made a point of telling our group that SMBA didn't follow IMBA guidelines. Trails that are built to IMBA standards are sustainable, environmentally responsible, and a screamin' hoot to ride. Trails outside of IMBA's specs are not. Building trails that don't comply with IMBA guidelines says something about the trail builders. It does not say that they're mavericks, or renegades, or geniuses, or free thinkers. It says they're idiots with no regard for mountain bikers or the mountain bike community. They should amuse themselves by abusing another activity and leave mountain bike trail building up to the responsible, competent trail builders who appreciate the value of following IMBA's rules.