Dumbing down trails
posted on July 7th, 2012 in Adventures, Cycling, Reviews by Stephen
There has been an ongoing trend of dumbing down Mountain bike trails.
Some sections of trails need to be maintained in order to keep the water run-off going properly. Side-Note: I understand that this is the USFS main concern for National Forestry property.
Some trail systems seem to be going in the direction of a smooth roller-coaster ride. Yes, they do great and Fun re-working of trails, but they make most trail systems (that I have ridden around Atlanta) so basic that anyone on most any bike shop bike could ride all of it.
Where is the challenge in that? Where is are the latest trails to challenge your skills? Don’t tell, because seemingly they are coming for those trails also – and they are bringing a big Zamboni to plow through any technical sections that maybe left.
Recently on trails that have been previously re-worked I have noticed that work-groups have gone so far as take out parts of a trail that have been a small obstacle for years. This is what we call ‘dumbing down’ trails so that anyone can ride everything. This happens when people take out parts of a trail because it is too challenging. Never-mind that there is no real danger in these obstacles – or that you could make an ‘easy path’ around an obstacle – they just take it out. Flatten and smooth out the trail so that a good Mountain biker could easily tow a child in a trailer through.
At what point are Mountain bikers going to notice how far they have gotten away from their roots.
Is it a goal to stop Bicycling magazine’s articles about how to bunny-hop, do a wheelie & how to do a track stand – due to the fact that no Mountain biker on an SORBA trail will ever need to know this information?
I have found myself going far away from some of these trails, in fact I would often literally pass 1 trail system to go ride trails that haven’t been bulldozed.
While on a camping trip over the 4th of July, I was shocked to hear that a trail system we were riding has had a sectioned that had been re-worked with a motorized shovel.
It suddenly hit me that the places that we are driving hours to get too are slowly being over-taken by the giant well oiled machinery of SORBA.
Most of the trail work they do is Great! But it seems that they are like a dictator who is getting drunk with power, and now wants to take on other countries – snapping roots, popping rocks, and leaving a dirt mound strategically placed in it’s wake.
I’m hoping that in the near future IMBA/SORBA will realize that in order to grow the likes of Pro Mountain Bikers, they will have to leave some technical sections on the trail.
Please focus more efforts on keeping trails open, and maybe opening more trails. But for the sake of the true Mountain bike passion, stop the insane pursuit of “sterilizing all trail systems”.
leave a comment (1)
Tree down on trail
posted on June 21st, 2012 in Adventures, Cycling by Stephen
This past June 2nd was National Trails day. So, after unfortunately missing a couple work parties I made it out to the Bull Mountain work party. I got there and immediately saw David Muse throw up his arms as if to say “yes, you made it!”. David is a guy I’m always happy to see, fun, interesting & knows the Bull Mountain area like no one else that I know!
He knew that I had gotten my USFS chainsaw certification, but little did I know why he was so happy to see me.
He asked me if I was willing to drive about 5 miles on the Forest Service Road (FSR) through a locked gate, and close to a trail, then hike along the trail until I got to where there were 2 trees down. Hmm, drive the Jeep up past a gate where most aren’t allowed to drive? heck yea!
Problem: the key for the gate was about a mile out of the way with people that were cutting another tree. So, off I went. I finally got in touch with the nice lady that had the key – they had hiked the trail to the tree, would cut & hike out. In the meantime I figured it was a good chance to gas up & prestart the saw to make sure she was running. She’s a Husky, so no problems. I met up with the lady that had the key, then headed to find my tree.
Along the way I saw a group along an odd place of the FSR – basically if you don’t have David’s knowledge of the trails there you were in for a pretty long FSR ride – so I stopped & they were actually slightly turned around, but I got them headed in the right direction. They came across the creek at the base of FS77A and turned right when they should have turned left, gone around the gate and up bear hair trail – which was where I was heading.
I got the Jeep up to the single-track with no problems. I threw on the normally equipped 70oz. camelback, grabbed the chainsaw, I debated whether I would need the gas & bar oil, but figured for sure it was better to carry it up then have to hike back out and back in again with it, especially since I hadn’t seen what I was getting into.
As I started the hike, I quickly remembered a good trick that I learned at the certification class. Take a belt and wrap it through the saw handle & buckle it – now you have a strap that you can throw over your shoulder.
Legs were not happy at first and before half a mile I had switched hands with the saw & gas/oil. But soon I got into a steady hike, and after what seemed a couple of miles I found the tree that had fallen. Some branches had been caught by another tree and snapped back into the trail. So, I made a couple of cuts of the branches and was able to quickly get them off the trail. No big deal.
And then there was the trunk!
I figured I would go ahead and save this for later and hiked up the trail to find the other tree.
I hiked what seemed like another mile before coming across the next tree. This one had been dead for awhile and had come down in a storm. It was a basic couple of cuts to get the weight of itself off the trunk, and then cut sections small enough to be able to move it off the trail. So, I made my first cut on the upper end of the tree, made the second cut back far enough by the bank of dirt that no one would hit it – and then it happened – the tree rolled over towards me, although I wasn’t in any danger, because of the dirt and the trail, it just exposed about a foot of more tree towards the trail. I tried to move this ‘trunk’ section of the tree, but she wasn’t budging. Oh well, just another cut to get that section out.
After finishing up this tree and cleaning up everything off the trail I hiked maybe another half mile or so of the trail before turning back around and heading back to the first tree that I hadn’t finished yet. The Trunk!
When I got back, I stopped, set everything down, looked at the clock and it was after 1. So, I grabbed a snack bar and drank some more water while going over my plan of action on this tree. But first I really needed to sharpen the saw more – luckily I had remembered to bring along a file. My forearms are still nicked from sharpening the saw without a vise.
Since there were 2 supporting points on either side of the trail, I decided to cut the high side first. I knew the upper part of the tree was supported by 1 side of the trail, so I jammed some hunks of bark under the spot just below my cut and got to work. I was watching my kerf (first section of the cut) to make sure my saw wasn’t going to get pinched that would have sucked w/o having any other tools! As I got really close to finishing the cut I got nervous that it was actually going to pinch, so I stopped and ended up hand sawing it thru the rest of the way.
I pulled the bark section and stacked them, it would make a great obstacle – and I could double up the tree for an awesome log-over… but I wasn’t sure of the trail rating and how it would work-out on this downhill, so I cleared the trail 
Next I started cutting just off the trail – I had to go off the trail to get the tree out and reduce chance of getting the blade in the dirt. I did the 1/3 under-cut first, then started with the top cut. I had gotten closer than I expected and the tree jammed on me – the saw was pinched – stuck in place. I’m in a tight spot!. I looked around and was able to find a small dogwood tree that was down & section a 6′ section for leverage, and although it took awhile, I got the tree off the saw. Phew!!
So, the rest of the tree I basically cut 2/3 the way through, rolled it, and cut the rest of the way, then rolled the sections out of the trail. Not that it was easy, but it was manageable.
Once I got back to the Jeep I remembered driving around a tree…. crap, I bet our work party organizer Debbie was twittling her thumbs wondering where I was and waiting on this key?! Wait, she has my cell phone number where I wrote out my name & number in case she needed to contact me – free reign!
Well, since I’m here with all the equipment I might as well make the most of it and decided to go ahead and take off the upper limbs to clear the trail some more. Once I finished that tree, I saw another 1 that I had driven past – might as take a little off the top of this one also. These were both trees that were blown down and there wasn’t anyway that they were beneficial being in the trail.
Phew, it had been a good and challenging, Fun day in the woods! So, I packed the gear back in the Jeep and headed out. Out the gate, locked her behind me, and back up FS77A. Once I got to the intersection with FS77, I vaguely remembered a girl named Polly asking if you can say you cleaned a climb if you have to stop and climb over a downed tree. Well, that heinous climb was directly on my right. I parked the Jeep, hopped out, gas up, and hiked up in search of this tree that came down over the heinous climb.
It was a dogwood. Not sure why it had fallen, but it was quick to get cut and out of the trail.
I hiked back down and headed back to the Jake parking lot to see if anyone (Beuller?) was around….. it was about 5 o’clock. Bueller?!
I headed back on down the road and in true mt bike fashion stopped at the local Mexican restaurant for dinner. Today was a good day, I got things done, I spent time in the woods, I helped improve the trails for other riders, and no one was hurt!
leave a comments (0)
Track Rock Gap
posted on February 29th, 2012 in Adventures by Stephen
Since I was already in North GA for my chainsaw cert, and we finished earlier than I had expected, I decided to drive a little further North in an attempt to find the supposed Mayan ruins. Unfortunately, I didn’t think about searching for the ruins ahead of time.
I was basically driving blind with my ‘smart no-phone’ searching the internet for the article and the maps for location. All the time knowing that the article that mentions the location is saved in my old email… but my phone only keeps current email.
Luckily my memory of the area from riding the Gaps (local info: you turn North before the base of Jacks Gap) was able to lead me pretty close to where it is. I pulled into what was listed at TrackRock campgrounds.
After about 10 minutes of driving back through this area, I stop and asked where the Mayan ruin site is, luckily this person knew and I headed back up the road. Just as I think this lady sent me on a wild goose chase, I come across the TrackRock Archaeology sign, and pull into the parking lot.
I head off down the trail which looks quite well traveled, and come up to the spot of all the Petroglyphs (fancy name for old etching on rocks). And the USFS? has put up signage to explain what you are looking at and what the symbols supposedly mean.
I check out the different rock drawings, and read each signage…. yet, I was expecting more.
As I’m looking around, I hear voices coming from across the street. A couple is walking down a trail on the other side of the road. I chat with them about the trail, they said it was steep, but magnificent views along the ridge line. This is the start of the Arkaquah trail, which leads up to Brasstown Bald.
Unfortunately for me, since I did the chainsaw certification until about 3, I don’t have enough time to explore that side of the road.
So, I continue to explore what I am lead to believe is the Mayan ruins area. As I look and hike around the area I come across many large rocks that seem to be closely piled, but nothing to be suspicious of. As I explore some more I realize that there are some actual areas to take notice of, but are covered up in leaves. I’m sure the pictures will not do these justice for that reason.
First, I was curious if these were part of the irrigation system.
Then there were several places where there were large depressions? I’m not sure if these were natural depression or archaelogical digs, from scavangers or what?
This was the only picture I got that seemed to convey the depth of the area.
Either way it was pretty interesting and I headed off down the trail less traveled to see if I could find more. Later I found what appeared to be a terraced area that seemed to match what the article had described. Although it was on the other side of the parking lot from the stones that were engraved.
I also found a trail that started to lead up the hill. As I followed it, I started to pick up some trash that had been left behind by other people. The last several weeks of picking up trash have been some interesting finds for me. And this trip was no exception.
How old would a can have to be to be a pull-top beer can?
Having my hands full as I hiked, I decided to set down the cans since I could grab them on my way out and continued hiking up the mountain for awhile. I saw a fairly interesting rock ledge, but nothing else really worth mentioning. After a half mile or so, the sun was dropping behind the Mt., and I decided that it was getting a bit late. As I headed back down I suddenly heard some rustling noises & stopped to try to figure out what it was. As I stood there the rustling leaves got closer and closer. Then suddenly 2 Turkeys crossed about 50 yards ahead of me in the direction I was heading. As I stood there motionless, they meandered along their way. Fortunately I was far enough away that I don’t think they noticed me. I still heard rustling so, I got out my camera-phone and waited until, to my left another Turkey crossed in nearly the same spot. Unfortunately, the phone doesn’t zoom much and you really can’t see the turkey, but he is there, just over the cans that I set down. After he was on his way I picked the trash back up and headed back down the Mountain.
Shortly after this I hopped back in the car and started the drive back. But suddenly I had to stop along the road, and I quickly got this picture.
Mother Natures way of saying “come back soon”.
leave a comments (0)
StrongerCyclist.com is the site of Stephen Carhart, personal trainer, author, and cyclist.