French Lick Trail Conditions

[Sparky]

Post up the current conditions.

[Alex]

The trails are in great shape.  It's a fun trail with interesting landscapes around each corner.  Be sure to ride it both directions.

[Alex]

Trails are solid and draining well.  They're nearly perfect today and will be even better on Sunday.  You'll have about a dozen spots where the wheels will throw up a little spray but other than that you won't know it rained.

The leaves are peaking:

[Alex]

The older trails (the Buffalo Trace loop) should be in relatively good shape tomorrow afternoon.  I'd expect a few wet spots but nothing that would be damaged from riding.  

The new trails however (if you know where those are) will need at least another day to dry as they are still very soft and could be easily damaged.

I'll be riding tomorrow evening and will post another update after my ride.

Many new singletrack treats are ripening in the woods at French Lick:

[Alex]

trails were in good shape this evening.  There was a 1" downfall this morning but the trails seem to be staying solid and draining well.  This has a lot to do with the fact that the trail isn't getting overused when wet like many of the other trails in Indiana.  As long as the rain intervals allow a little recovery time 12-24 hours and we don't see a huge influx of riders during marginal conditions then these trails should continue to recover quickly after a rain.

There is rain in the forecast for the next few days.  Please keep an eye on rain totals before deciding to hit the trails.  Anything over an inch and the trails should be given a good day of sunshine to recover before riding.  thanks.

If you do choose to ride the new trail please plan on doing an out and back, turning around at this logover:


The 700' beyond this log was built last week during repeated rain events.  With the rain and last weekends race traffic the soils remain saturated and very soft.  We'll need at least 4 dry days in a row before this section will be ready to ride.  Please don't ride this section.  The ruts will just prolong the healing time.

[Traci]

Cleaned up the trail condition and left some of the first pictures of the trail on here. Trails should be green by afternoon here in the area.

[Fred]

I ran green only yesterday and the usual spots are still bad. The switchback in the pines that has the bricks is in desperate need of attention this season. The blue trail has a sinkhole forming where the trail went around an uprooted tree. It's on the hillside as soon as cross the first little creek going clockwise. I'll try to make mental notes of any other issues I come across this evening as I plan on running the green and blue. I'll include a pic from yesterday, but don't let the Instagram filter fool you. It isn't as muddy as it appears.

 

[West Baden Iron]

The trails are in good shape now.  No wet or sloppy spots on the green and just a couple slightly damp spots on the blue.  A few sticks are out there that I should have picked up but I was seeing how far off the pace of the race Cat 3 I was. 

I should have just picked up sticks, that was an embarrassing time.  I would consider the trails a green status.

Thanks,
Jason

[runyourdog]

I would like to mentioned how much fun I have had at French Lick the past two weeks.  Thank you to whoever armored the sandpits and made the entire downhill fast flow again.  I appreciate you work.  Thanks.

[Traci]

Awesome, runyourdog.....thanks! I know John and Jason and a few other locals have really worked hard over the past month along with the staff at getting trails back to good riding conditions. Hopefully we can address some other little things this fall for a good fall/winter riding.


Appreciate the comments


Traci

[yellowrocketbike]

I too have made several trips to FL the past several weeks, and would echo the sentiments of 'runyourdog' on the condition of the trail. Kudos to all. I would say that the clockwise downhill is as fast as I can remember (or I am just getting braver on a new bike). We rode both the green and blue today, and despite the fact that the blue is still a challenge for this old guy, we had a great ride. Only downside is that we encountered several groups of walkers/hikers on the green downhill. They were spread out into about 5 groups of two, something I was not expecting at all.  I came up on one group really fast on a blind curve, and I know that I startled them. I tried to be courteous to them by announcing my arrival (all the while locking up my brakes!) but I just was not expecting another group. Whomever you were, sorry about that!

[Traci]

This area has had hit and miss storms all afternoon. Some areas have received over 1.5 inches and some nothing at all. With this we had some pretty strong winds. Nothing lasted too long, but please just check the local radar prior to riding Sunday evening and or early Monday. Hoping it is over with.
Thanks

[N9TKF]

French Lick received 2 to 3 inches of rain in a short period that  has flooded the gravel road leading from the Valley Links Pro Shop to the trail Head. Will post up when the conditions improve.

[Traci]

PER direction from the Resort Staff, their are multiple tree's down and with close to 4 inches of rain they would like for everyone to stay off the trail until it has dried and the staff has an chance to get the trails cleaned up.Please respect the resorts wishes as we are all very lucky to have such a wonderful trail to ride (with hot showers if needed) We are working together with the staff and the management to make sure the status is accurate and up to date so we can continue to have a great trail to ride with great flow. I will post up as soon as I have been notified as to when it is able to be ridden.Thank you,Traci

[Traci]

UPDATE ON THE TRAIL STATUS:
FRIDAY 6/28/2013
Possible trees still down throughout the trail. The resort crew has been working on flood cleanup and will get to the trees as soon as possible. We are anticipating rain over the weekend, but hoping it will miss us so we can get the trail re-opened.
Thank you for your patience