Pro-active trail repair and maintenance?

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slax

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Contributor I

60
Tucker, GA, USA
First Name
slax
Last Name
dobbs
I wasn't sure where to post this question so hopefully it's in the best spot.

Does anyone else engage in pro-active trail repair and general maintenance?

Down here in the southeast I've noticed some pretty big issues with good trails (different approaches, varying degrees of difficulty, etc) getting shutdown and "repaired" (which results in a very plain dirt road). From what I've seen after running them for years, I've come to the conclusion that it usually is because of people constantly taking all the approaches and removing the varying level of difficulty part.

With all of that out.. I've been working on a model of pro-active model of trail repair and maintenance for trails I run regularly. Like taking just off the perfect line, or taking a terrible route that doesn't cause any harm or prevent us from making it, but it does help fix some portion of the rutting and balance out the abuse.

Does anyone else do this?
 

smritte

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Launch Member

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2,827
Ontario California
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Scott
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SMR
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KO6BI
I was in the Adopt a Trail program out here for three decades. My question to you is, are those routes adopted and maintained? If so, figure out who does it and when they do it. If not find out why there not kept up. Outside of picking up trash and maybe scattering a fire ring, you need to do things by the guidelines. One of the issues we had was people leaving the designated track. You mentioned the trails being shut down and repaired back to a dirt road. That statement tells me the road designation is not more than a dirt road. Its possible no one is actually suppose to make it "harder". All of the routes I worked were Black Diamond routes. I had the opposite problem, "people" would move my obstacles and make it easier. Then go into forums and complain we were making it so only hard core rigs could travel it which excluded them. Unfortunately, if we didn't keep it to what the forest service designated, they could shut it down. For me, it was a constant fight to keep it open.
There are several different trail designations. If people are undoing the harder lines, its because its not designated as a moderate or harder trail.
Before you put any real work into this, find out what its actually suppose to be. It may not be what you think.