Rain = Tackiness, and...

Ya' man, rain equals tacky trails, but it also represents something else; an opportunity to identify sections of trail that are eroding due to the condition of the trail up-slope from it. Water-borne trail erosion is immediately evident by material 'flowing' down the trail and 'ponding' in an alluvial fan of sorts at the end of a given sloped section of trail.

Ponding may be identified as tree needles, sand, small rocks, leaves or miscellaneous detritus, and its nearly always visually obvious at various points along a trail after a hard rain - the likes of which we experienced Friday in the valley. The contents of the 'fan' at the base of a slope is, literally the soil etc. which once comprised the trail surface up-slope. This leads to dishing of the trail and in turn, increased erosion. In the end, one is left with deeply trenched trails that suck to ride... But there is a solution; You!

In a nutshell, we need to drain trails that have been created on side-slopes - often times all along the slope - in order to arrest the development of rain-ruts in the trail. Rain-ruts suck; they mess with the flow of a trail as you ride it - so here is the recipe for a remedy:

http://old.imba.com/resources/trail_building/gradedips_2.html

Do yourself, your fellow and future riders a solid; Pay it Forward this summer by reading the link above, then heading up your favorite trail to identify (one) location that could use some trail love. Get your tools [and your friends with tools] and repair the section in need.

One single, simple trail repair per year - that's all I ask. If everyone reading this does [one] single rain repair this year, our trails will shine, we'll flow like the wind, we'll be happy, we'll drink beer; and its all good...

Andrew