This is a very uplifting article, Kristian. One of the best ways to move forward is to celebrate our successes, and highlight what has been working. Surely anything can be improved upon, but especially here in WNC we're a lot more organized than we once were. Every week I hear about another project that has either begun, been completed, or is in the planning phase.
Its amazing that the various local MTB associations can be so drastically different in their level of organizing & that be so reflective in their trails & how they approach trail development & funding. For example, some groups like Knoxville, Atlanta, San Diego, have grown to where they employ full time staff, yet others of us struggle to grow our membership & can’t even imagine being able to afford a staff.
Our SORBA Orlando group has just received permission to develop mtb & hiking trails on 280 acres of state land that’s as good as it can probably get for central Florida. Central & South Florida are pretty flat so having 80’ of elevation gain/descent, lots of trees for shade, & free of the land managers restrictions that prevent digging or importing of foreign building materials like clay/limestone, wood, & stone is exciting because we can actually manufacture bike optimized features. For this reason, we will utilize professional trail builders to develop a plan that lays out our routing & zones so we can establish a budget & begin raising the founds for the construction of the various types of trails (gravity zones with tech, flow, & dual slalom, plus xc) for a wide variety of trail experiences that meet the needs of all riding styles. This is creating the need for us to get more organized & learn from those that have already been through many of the growing pains.
Please help us connect with anyone who wants to help in any way possible. We’re looking for learning opportunities & want to find ways to share our journey & what we learn along the way.
My advocacy efforts focus on: A. Getting kids off screens & on bikes, & B. Developing bike optimized features & facilities that we can pedal to so kids of all ages have more exciting places to ride than pavement. Thank You!
Jun 14Liked by Seth Alvo, Daniel Sapp, Kristian Jackson
"In the era of the CCC, trail development followed the tenets of environmental sustainability – the trail should keep users on it and have as little impact on the surrounding land as possible."
This is a bit surprising to me. I expect they'd want the trail to be durable and last, but I'm imagining they wouldn't think much of trampling off trail. Maybe they were way ahead with leave-no-trace though.
Over ten years ago, I remember reading a trail building guide published by IMBA, and taking pause at the same mention—just as you did. They explained it a bit further. If there's a good vista, a cool rock formation, or something of interest, people may go off-trail to visit it. Their line of thought was that you should (whenever possible) make the trail fun, and route it places people are likely to go. Furthermore, an annoying climb with tight switchbacks cascading all the way up a steep slope will encourage users to cut through them and hike up. If you make nice, wide turns with frequent grade reversals, it's actually a lot more enjoyable to stay on the bike. With this knowledge, I've begun to notice that the parts of trails that frequently get cut or damaged are poorly designed. For example, there will be a tight zigzag right after a high speed descent that causes you to slam on your brakes, only to return back to the same path, causing riders to cut through the vegetation to keep on going. This takes planning to prevent, but good trail builders are able to see it before it happens.
As a European with "freedom to roam", the American approach of keeping people on the trail and keeping the wilderness wild is something I envy at times.
It's described in all its details on Wikipedia - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_to_roam - but basically you are not allowed near developed areas (you can't roam around someone's house), you can't damage anything, etc. But only developed areas being protected, it also makes it next to impossible to have real "nature preserves". (I don't even know if we have any.)
So while I obviously like being able to walk (biking can be restricted) on pretty much any trail or path I see, I think we could learn from the American approach of really leaving nature to nature. And *that* said, just about every square inch of land here has at some point been settled so it's not really "nature" if you want to be strict about it.
This is a very uplifting article, Kristian. One of the best ways to move forward is to celebrate our successes, and highlight what has been working. Surely anything can be improved upon, but especially here in WNC we're a lot more organized than we once were. Every week I hear about another project that has either begun, been completed, or is in the planning phase.
Its amazing that the various local MTB associations can be so drastically different in their level of organizing & that be so reflective in their trails & how they approach trail development & funding. For example, some groups like Knoxville, Atlanta, San Diego, have grown to where they employ full time staff, yet others of us struggle to grow our membership & can’t even imagine being able to afford a staff.
Our SORBA Orlando group has just received permission to develop mtb & hiking trails on 280 acres of state land that’s as good as it can probably get for central Florida. Central & South Florida are pretty flat so having 80’ of elevation gain/descent, lots of trees for shade, & free of the land managers restrictions that prevent digging or importing of foreign building materials like clay/limestone, wood, & stone is exciting because we can actually manufacture bike optimized features. For this reason, we will utilize professional trail builders to develop a plan that lays out our routing & zones so we can establish a budget & begin raising the founds for the construction of the various types of trails (gravity zones with tech, flow, & dual slalom, plus xc) for a wide variety of trail experiences that meet the needs of all riding styles. This is creating the need for us to get more organized & learn from those that have already been through many of the growing pains.
Please help us connect with anyone who wants to help in any way possible. We’re looking for learning opportunities & want to find ways to share our journey & what we learn along the way.
My advocacy efforts focus on: A. Getting kids off screens & on bikes, & B. Developing bike optimized features & facilities that we can pedal to so kids of all ages have more exciting places to ride than pavement. Thank You!
"In the era of the CCC, trail development followed the tenets of environmental sustainability – the trail should keep users on it and have as little impact on the surrounding land as possible."
This is a bit surprising to me. I expect they'd want the trail to be durable and last, but I'm imagining they wouldn't think much of trampling off trail. Maybe they were way ahead with leave-no-trace though.
Over ten years ago, I remember reading a trail building guide published by IMBA, and taking pause at the same mention—just as you did. They explained it a bit further. If there's a good vista, a cool rock formation, or something of interest, people may go off-trail to visit it. Their line of thought was that you should (whenever possible) make the trail fun, and route it places people are likely to go. Furthermore, an annoying climb with tight switchbacks cascading all the way up a steep slope will encourage users to cut through them and hike up. If you make nice, wide turns with frequent grade reversals, it's actually a lot more enjoyable to stay on the bike. With this knowledge, I've begun to notice that the parts of trails that frequently get cut or damaged are poorly designed. For example, there will be a tight zigzag right after a high speed descent that causes you to slam on your brakes, only to return back to the same path, causing riders to cut through the vegetation to keep on going. This takes planning to prevent, but good trail builders are able to see it before it happens.
As a European with "freedom to roam", the American approach of keeping people on the trail and keeping the wilderness wild is something I envy at times.
Can you tell me more about the freedom to roam? People just trample everywhere? Are there still expectations of respecting the wilderness?
Interesting read. Thank you for Sharing. I'm hopeful to get down to area to ride at some point.
> People just trample everywhere?
No. But yes.
It's described in all its details on Wikipedia - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_to_roam - but basically you are not allowed near developed areas (you can't roam around someone's house), you can't damage anything, etc. But only developed areas being protected, it also makes it next to impossible to have real "nature preserves". (I don't even know if we have any.)
So while I obviously like being able to walk (biking can be restricted) on pretty much any trail or path I see, I think we could learn from the American approach of really leaving nature to nature. And *that* said, just about every square inch of land here has at some point been settled so it's not really "nature" if you want to be strict about it.