Always Trailing
Email this articleAliens and creating ruts
by John PeelIn the fall, and in the spring when we're really jonesing to get out on the trails, we run (or bike) into this seasonal problem: Mud.
And the dilemma that faces us, particularly mountain bikers and those on horseback, is this: Do we ride on wet trails, knowing that we will leave deep grooves and tracks, and that we could alter or ruin drainage patterns?
I ran into just this scenario earlier this month. Four of us drove from Durango to northeast of Aztec, N.M., to mountain bike on the 10-mile Alien Run loop ? so-called because aliens crash-landed there in 1948. Unfortunately all 16 were killed. That's what "they" say, anyway. But I digress. It had snowed in Durango a couple days before, and we thought it'd be dry in Aztec. But it wasn't quite.
Do we go ahead and ride, knowing that we might damage muddy sections of trail and that our bikes will need a thorough post-ride cleaning? Seeing that we'd driven nearly an hour, the decision was unanimous. Yes, we would ride.
I think, I hope, we made the right decision.
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