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My local trails are very natural (the singletrack bit anyway) mostly made by walkers or by a very few cyclists. As a result they are very narrow avg 18" at most, have been like that for years. I always consider it a fail if I wander off trail.
Recently the corners have been cut to a degree that the original trail is disappearing and not challenging any longer. Is it common place these days for people just to take the easiest, straightest line possible and sanitise the trail into something dull and boring.
this is a crap rant now that I read it over but the sentiment is still there.
If the trail fails to be exciting you have three choices:
1) ride it faster
2) ride it in the dark
3) find a cheeky trail to ride.
Easy.
Almost as bad as idiots who straight line trails are those who, heaven forbid they get their mtb dirty, ride around puddles as if they were buried land mines.
or do all three at the same time trimix?
+ 4) find another (legal) trail
pisses me off when people go round puddles, I've almost shouted at the GF and her friends for doing it so many times they have considered not giving me a lift home.
The trail is still exciting if you follow the route but people are losing the route but cutting corners, and avoiding puddles. My point is it has been used by riders for years but as mtb has become more popular people are being lazy and destroying the established line.
I do all of the above solutions. 1, 2, 3, and at the same time 😀
CW, the trails aren't [i]illegal[/i], just not a manmade trail.
I'd agree with all the moans above. We've tried the following solutions on my local trails:
-Covering over the "braids" in the trail by raking leaves and debris onto them. Works OK but get opened up again pretty soon.
-Putting logs and branches across to narrow down the width and close the cheat lines. Looks a bit rubbish and can hold water on the trail.
-Digging drainage channels across the offending lines, or digging them up. Quite drastic but seems to be the only semi-permanent solution.
The alternative is, as other people have said, find somewhere else to ride, and wait for the process to repeat itself.
This might be a lazy stereotype, but it seems that riders in other countries, partiicularly in some parts of the US, are much more aware of this sort of thing and go out of their way to minimise it. Maybe because they only get one rainy month a year.
[i]ride around puddles as if they were buried land mines. [/i]
That's the one that gets on my tits; eroding ever outward because of a bit of mud. <shakes head>
If the trail fails to be exciting you have three choices:1) ride it faster
2) ride it in the dark
3) find a cheeky trail to ride.
[url= 
]the obvious option[/url]
Bear in mind that sometimes when you trudge through puddles you also do lots of damage and form trenches. I'm not sure which is worse, but at least that seems like "trail use" rather than trail damage (spreading).
I think the logs/rocks on the trail are my favourite method, but I can rarely be bothered stopping to do it (that just spoils the ride) so I just ride it as though it wasnt as wide as it is.