in The Farm (Moderator: farmguy)

As some of you may know, I make a conscious decision not to blow the leaves off the trail in the fall. My reasoning is I find it makes the trail ridable during the freeze thaw cycles. It seems like the leaves will make a barrier between the tires and slimmy trail when it is thawing. The downside is it makes the trail harder to follow in the fall, especially while night riding.

Of course I am open to blowing the leaves if I feel there is enough support to do so. I have to admit it was nice riding at Blue Mounds last weekend with the leaves blown off.

Did go out for a ride this afternoon. Was a little surprised all the other trails were listed as closed as good as it was out there. On the north loop, I cleaned the log pile just before the road, up out of the bobsled run, and even made the gully crossing before the connector. Suoth loop was just as good, making every climb including up death drop when going backwards. Some of you might say I was cheating though because I was riding the tractor with nates on it 

I think having leaves on your trail and cleaning the leaves off of Blue Mounds give us more fall riding options. Of course when I have been at the farm I have had the advantage of you blazing the trail so I am able to see where to go.

Leaves present might help because of the place having more fall line and steep than some places. This observation came from my starting to blow off the trails at Blackhawk. That clearly accelerated channels and problems from the stuff that's too steep or fall line.

The Farm might be different but I struggle with racers and downhill riders who want fall line or steep trail but then bitch or move on when it's a mess or not usable, and worse when repairs are done to make things more sustainable. There are indeed exceptions in those groups who do trail work but most work is done by a small group of people so I support what preserves resources and saves time.

As some of you may know, I make a conscious decision not to blow the leaves off the trail in the fall. My reasoning is I find it makes the trail ridable during the freeze thaw cycles. It seems like the leaves will make a barrier between the tires and slimmy trail when it is thawing. The downside is it makes the trail harder to follow in the fall, especially while night riding.

I'd certainly agree with that, my riding at BH and QR over the last couple weeks seems to support that as well. However, some of the flatter areas that get even leaf coverage are hard to follow, even in the day time!

Leaves present might help because of the place having more fall line and steep than some places. This observation came from my starting to blow off the trails at Blackhawk. That clearly accelerated channels and problems from the stuff that's too steep or fall line.

Agree here too William, although it's nice to have just dirt when going through a high speed or jump section.

I have always seen this as a Catch 22 situation. I can see the advantages to surface erosion with the leaves on where it is steep, like at The Farm. I have felt the same at CamRock on the older trails, particularly before we re-routed some of those sections. Kind of like leaving the cover on your fields in the fall and waiting to plow until spring On the flip side in the spring and even now with rains the organic leaves can hold a lot of water on the trails and keep them wet longer. Though whether damage is being done is debatable. On flatter flowy trails they are going to dry faster and be better to ride if they are more open.
The reason CamRock was marked closed this weekend is because I was out of town at a wedding and forgot to log on and change it Sorry. I saw a lot of bikes heading back in toward Madison as I was coming back about 5p yesterday. I assume folks were riding?