I wonder just how many people know how to ride raw and
untrammeled
singletracks, or new trails for that matter? Early season high country
rides have the same kind of sensitive conditions, being very vulnerable
to
abuse. Common sense says that one can only ride as fast as trail
conditions
allow.
There are many great examples of how conditions can dictate speed. If
it
starts raining on a trail with a shale-based soil in the track, you are
either going to slow down, or you are going on a trip down a giant
slip-n-slide. Besides the slip-n-slide, you are going to be more apt
to
damage the trail. If one is riding on a high desert trail in the
Spring and
nobody has been on it to pack in the "freeze lift", your speed could
quite
possibly dictate the condition of that trail for months, or even years.
The
same can be said for putting first tracks in a soil-based high country
trail. Again, conditions always dictate speed first and foremost, not
what
one thinks their skill level is.
What brought all of this on? I was recently saddened by the condition
of a
trail that had fallen by the wayside for a number of years. It had
been
reopened, but was in a very sensitive state. Someone had ridden on it,
though it was obvious that they either had no regard for this trail, or
they
were ignorant as to how a trail in this condition should be ridden.
The
skid ruts in the turns and switchbacks told enough of the story, but
there
were also some other subtle hints that these people had no idea how to
ride
a trail like this. They had blown the outside of just about every turn
in
the trail. After a few turns, I started riding all turns "outside-in",
which kept me on the trail and rolling instead of letting their skid
ruts
pull me outside and off the trail where they had obviously ditched
themselves several times. On the sidehill bench cuts, they had stayed
way
too far to the outside and the duff on the edge of the track had given
way,
effectively blowing out the bench cut in several places as well. If
they
had stayed inside on these sections, it would have given anyone
following
the proper line to follow and strengthened the fragile state of the
trail
instead of damaging it. Whomever had done this has no business on that
trail, at least until the trail has been fully restored.
JD