in Fatbike Forum

So I was thinking that since it can be a lot of work grooming after snowfall, what if we try to get most of us riding on just specific portions of each trail system so we have sorter loops that we can maintain easier? So, for example at Blue Mound maybe we just abandon Overload for the winter. Maybe leave off some of the less popular runs at Quarry Ridge, and cut off some loops at Cam-Rock (Veritas or Ouback, not both), maybe aggressively to make life easier. If we get good conditions for a couple of weeks we can try to reestablish some additional miles, but the way its been so far with snow after snow, maybe we should just enjoy as much as we can pack down?

Thoughts?

Good idea. As far as I can see this is how other clubs are doing it. They have designated snow biking trails.

Sometimes existing trails. Sometimes trails just for snow biking. Some trails now only exist and specifically built for snowbiking. Most of these are built with the idea of machine grooming.

My opinions on winter trail riding and maintenance don't seem to line up with everyone elses so take me with a grain of salt, but IMHO talking about the optimal way to break in the trails is putting the cart in front of the horse when the first problem to solve is simply getting people to show up to do the not-always-fun task of grooming.  Blue mounds already has it figured out, make it a snowshoe destination and let those folks have their fun while they do the work for us.  We should be thinking more like Tom Sawyer and convince the snow shoers and adventurous xc skiers that the mtb trails are the best fun they can have in the snow.

Personally I don't care where the trail leads, if it's broken in then I'll happily follow it. It really doesn't take a ton of traffic to get the trail ready but it seems that getting even a couple people to put in the time is the main battle.

From what I have been hearing this is supposed to be an above average year for snow fall so finding a way to get snow shoers out to the trails would be a really good idea.  Camrock III parking lot seems to be untouched by snow shoers often times.  Maybe try and get Camrock on this list for snowshoeing to start with?  http://www.countyofdane.com/lwrd/parks/winter_rec.aspx

A flyer at REI might be good too.  The MTB trails really do make good snowshoe routes and they are pretty easy to follow, the staff at REI would probably be open to making that recommendation.  It would be really cool to see more stomping at CR III, the terrain there is super fun in the winter but it's rarely ridden.

Rich I think your idea for QR makes a lot of sense.
The snowshoers at CamRock mostly seem to come in from Cambridge. For good reason. It is the optimal place to start. Hard to turn down a warm place and a beverage at the trails end. I think we really need to start thinking of the Cambridge trailhead as the main starting area for most things.
The upside is that they have done a great job of keeping the Creekside Connector trials packed in. This is a fun 3 mile out and back along the creek. Also beautiful for snowshoeing. The downside is that a few will venture around Veritas. Which ads another mile +. But hardly anyone seems to want to hike further than that. Unless something changes they are not going to do even a partial job of keeping the Prairie Connector trails packed. Even if they wanted to go for an 8 1/2 mile shoe, they are not going to wander around the prairie following our snake trail. So if we could get non-biking folks to wander that far we prolly would not have the fun downhill of Rip N Ride and the berms of Mayors Playground. In my tests if we had an ambitious group to go out for a stomp, and we just wanted to get the basic Connector trail from Rockdale to Cambridge packed, we would need about 7-8 people ready to hike hard for about 4 hours. Obviously YMMV depending on the depth of snow, etc. I have not seen much enthusiasm for that kind if work to date.
A four mile loop is pretty well taken care of. But people seem to look at CamRock as a place to get miles in. If we want to have longer mileage of packed trails at CamRock, I think we need a different plan of attack. I am trying to get machine grooming lined up to experiment with.

I was thinking that the prairie loop would be a good one to cut off. It gets cold and drifty out there. I think its more of a chore to ride that stretch in the winter than anything.

What if we tried to encourage snowshowers to use trailhead #3, even making maps that are based out of there with clockwise loops.

Red loop could start on the doubletrack and then return to start on Corkscrew/Rattlesnake.
Orange Loop could go just a little further, shortcut on the edge of the field to Woodchuck/Stonefly all the way to the round-about and retuirn to the trailhead via Mayor's Meander and Beer Run.

There could be two more loops that continue beyond the Round-About, one could double back after the bermy section in the field, the other could go all the way to Ventas.

I'm not sure how many would go out that far but if you double them up with the folks coming in from Cambridge then maybe it would all work out?