AZ Trail damage

[goyo]

For the second year in a row, I am dismayed to find major motorcycle damage to the AZ Trail segment known as the Boulders. The offenders choose to ride after soaking rains with excessive use of throttle, contributing to the damage. Perhaps some kind of barrier would discourage them, since they choose to ignore the many signs prohibiting motor vehicles. The mountain biking there is fantastic, but riding in a trench created by big knobby mx tires really detracts from the experience.

[AZTtripper]

Well that sucks. Not surprising thou, we saw tracks last spring as well but not excessive roosting.

There will always be some jack ass out there who just doesn't care. I doubt anything they could put in out there would keep everybody off. The land is so open out there they would just go around.

Also it's all State Trust land out there and according to State Trust rules they can ride on any existing road or trail. So likely some guy who's paid his State Land fee's feels he has a right to.

So how bad are we talking, should the segment steward be made aware?

Tim

[ImAFred]

Bummer, I lurv me some AZT and am trying to get a bp trip going on it soon, hopefully.

[goyo]

I suppose the damage will heal, the surface is pretty soft. It's more unsightly because the undisturbed surface is light colored, and the underlying material is dark. A lot of motor traffic would have a terrible impact. Yes, the area is wide open, and the trail crosses several roads. I was not aware of the land regs, I suppose one could argue the access point, but how could the trail assn. put up prohibited signs otherwise?

Having grown up riding MX, I'm certainly not against them, I just hate to see the disrespect for all the work that goes into building a trail. I wouldn't even mind the tracks, minus the roost trenches. They rode north to south; the uphill sections have more erosion.

I once descended Red Ridge trail off Mt. Lemmon, only to find a pair of MC's coming up the steep switchbacks, digging really deep trenches at every turn just to get up the steep hills. 20+ years of erosion in one pass, very sad. The desert is a beautiful but delicate place.

[AZTtripper]

Your right about the disrespect. I don't really care for them personally if people want to ride moto fine but you are right they should respect the no moto signs.

Recently while riding Red Ridge we started seeing some very anti MTB activity. Mostly just dragging logs into the trail to be annoying. And then "keep mountain bikes off our trails" was tagged on to a trail head sign.

The hikers have the whole front half of Mt Lemmon we only get a few trails on the north side. I stay out of the Wilderness but I know that some MTBer's poach. No doubt most moto guys play by the rules but there's always a few in every group.

[Chad B]

That [motos riding] happened about the same time last year on Boulders and Ripsey. At first I was bummed about the tracks only to later think that it might actually be good for the trail since it has little/no use this time of year.

[Ultra Magnus]

Yeah, I find it funny when extreme hiking seirra club zealots complain about mtb trail damage, when I' used to sharing my trails with moto's.  One throttle happy rider can do more damage in one minute than a dozen skidiots could do in a month of regular riding.

Our solution here where we ride is build our trials in a way that discourages mx travel.  Narrow passages, slow sharp turns, etc., stuff that adds technical fun to a mtb ride, but keeps the motos away on trails that are more fun for them.  They can suck the fun out of rides in dry weather riding just as much as wet weather- all they have to do is turn our nice hard packed trails into soft sand and a climb you once were able to ride turns into a hike-a-bike.

BM