I've ridden Copper Harbor and Brown County (thanks Gary!) recently. Blue Mound isn't like either of these places exactly, but it's interesting to think about what could be done similar to those places.
The trails at Blue Mound ended up as they are for a bunch of reasons. Among the bad ones are poor layout (resulting in erosion), and a general exhaustion in dealing with the rocks. It's easy, at least in theory, to do a better job with these aspects of trail building by being more careful with trail layout, and just working harder making tread.
The interesting question to me is, will the application of these ideas change for the worse what makes Blue Mound special?
The flippant answer is, there's not enough hours remaining in my lifetime to change all the trail anyhow, so why worry?
The better answer is, I'm running an ongoing experiment in building better trails. I'm learning as I go by dealing with the worst problems first. So far, what I'm seeing leads me to believe:
-While big rocks are interesting and fun to ride over, small rocks don't add much to the trail riding experience. Your favorite rock may have to go. Sorry.
-Lots of roots exposed in the trail mean the soil is washing away. It's not getting better without intervention.
-Tight and twisty is easy to overdo, I like to be able to see what's ahead on the trail. Also, it's less work overall to have the brush trimmed back from the trail.
-It feels punishing to ride to the top of a hill, then have to stay on the brakes going back down because the trail is so difficult. My solution is going to be to clean up at least some of the downhills.
-Cutting tread isn't just scratching off the brush and leaves and sticks. The top soil layer has to come off too.
-There is endless use for fill. See above. Filling in holes left by removing rocks, and building switchbacks are the biggest ones.
-Real trails have real switchback turns. If the tail is going to have correct overall grade, it's has to be reversed across the fall line, repeatedly. Climbing turns don't hold up in most cases. Properly built switchbacks do. Too bad it's a lot of work.
-The places that can't be rerouted and have bad (organic) soil combined with lots of seepage have to be dug out and filled with crushed rock (turnpiking). My least favorite solution, but so far, it works where no lesser effort has.
-Trail outslope isn't nearly as important, or fun, as grade reversals.
The short of it is, yes, I'm changing things. But it takes a long long time to do the work, so there will be plenty of time to see how it's developing and do a better job as work progresses.
Walt
