Page 42 - AMB Freelist

WORDS CRAIG MEINICKE
Iam writing this article here in south east Queensland under a summer deluge. It has been raining now on and off for the last couple of weeks but today things have become serious. We have had
well over 100mm in the last 12 hours and some of that rain has come down hard. We’d probably need Bubba or Forrest Gump to give us a full description of the rain but it is coming from everywhere and in a hurry.
We are lucky the soils we have here drain well. If we get our alignments right and keep up with maintenance, our trails cope pretty well with rainfall events. However, there are always some trails or sections of trails which have inherited poor alignment or average, clay soil, and these trails just don’t cope well with water. In some situations, the decision is made to close the trails, and these decisions are generally not made lightly.
So that brings me to the topic of this article, the seemingly never ending and polarising debate amongst the mountain bike community about riding wet trails and closing trail networks when they are wet.
Where do I start? Facts are a logical place to start, the first fact is that most trails will be damaged in some way when they are ridden when wet. The second fact is that someone must repair the damage to make sure the riding experience is maintained and to ensure the continued sustainability of the trail.
That second point is really important because trails don’t happen by magic, there is either an investment from the landowner or there is significant sweat equity from a volunteer group, sometimes a combination
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WHAT’S WRONG WITH RIDING WET TRAILS?
PHOTO NICK WAYGOOD
of both.
Whenever the debate fires up, and when trails do get closed, we often
see polarised and opposite views on the situation.
So, what is the solution? What needs to be done to fix the problem?
The more I think about this, the more I believe that there is nothing to fix. What is required in my opinion is a change of perspective.
Here in Australia most of our trail networks are free to access, no entry fee, no permits, no rule that you must dig to ride. On top of this in most parts of Australia we can ride these trail networks for at least 50 weeks a year.
Putting that into perspective we are spoiled for riding options and riding windows. Wecan pretty much ride where we want, when we want. I often wonder if this level of free access brings with it a sense of entitlement amongst some riders and creates an automatic negative response when the topic of staying off the trails is raised.
With more and more land mangers treating their trails as assets that need to provide a certain standard of riding experience, we should expect them to be managed and protected as any other community asset is managed.
Perhaps next time the trails are wet and your local is closed for a couple of days, take it as an opportunity to clean and service your bike, spend some quality time with your family or friends, or if you are super keen get out and do some trail maintenance, your trails will thank you for it.