The past month’s weather has been pretty brutal for riding off road. It also has been pretty tough on our trails. Storms knock down trees, the rain helps weeds along the trail grow, and trail users out on wet trails create low spots that hold water.
While many have helped by staying off the trails, many of us help by going onto the trails. Not with our bikes, but with our favorite trail tool. Almost any trail user can hike with clippers to cut back branches, a rake to remove small branches from the trail, or a trash bag to pick up any trash along the trail. Our more experienced trail builders often walk with a rhino (a large hoe), and repair any section of the trail that is holding water. Some will take out a weed trimmer or hand saw to fight back the undergrowth and clear small down fall. And especially with the high winds in many of the recent storm’s, HMBA’s certified chainsaw operators have been out in force removing downed trees.
Our trails are just as much fun to hike as to ride, so hiking with a tool is fun, good exercise, and helps keep Indiana’s trail in top shape. So please consider taking a hike for better trails. If you see something you know how to fix, then go for it. If you see something that needs more experience trail workers, then report the issue on the HMBA forum.
When our trails are in need of work, that forces us to pull HMBA’s experienced trail builders away from building new trails so that they can help with trail maintenance. So every small bit of help we get means more new trails for us all to ride. Ultimately the amount of mountain bike trails we have in Indiana will be determined by how many miles of trail we can maintain.
