isitwinteryet wrote on 07/01/13 at 4:06pm:
and you guys need to cool it with the hate, hippybiker has good reason to complain. its not what we all want to hear but its got some truth behind it
He's complaining because he can't ride one trail.
BFD Go road ride, urban assault, head up north, ..........
Like we all aren't bummed by the 40 year rains we've had lately.
Tom F wrote on 06/30/13 at 10:23pm:
Hippy:
Lets look at the big picture at LNSP. Granted one or two or 20 MTB's do not leave much footprint. But when looking at the total usage during the month taken from the trail counters in place we see a different picture. Just Hawk loop which has an infrared counter that combines both MTB and pedestrian we find that 1200 people on average use the trail per month. Laurel is getting near 200 bikes per week. We do not know for sure how many walkers. That is for the days those loops are open. The count is similar for Monbo. When that many feet and wheels roll over a wet or marginal trail then major damage occurs. As has been pointed out that is a 30.5 mile system. We have only about 6 rangers for the whole park. The regular volunteers to maintain the system are stretched thin and probably fewer than the number of rangers. In short we do not currently have enough regular volunteers to maintain the system. To answer your question that volunteers get to ride because they do trail work, the answer is NO. We cannot use motorized equipment to haul tools in to where work needs to be done. We do not get to ride an atv to do trail work. Only one or two are licensed to use a chainsaw, and then only to cut trees that are already downed. Please have some consideration for the situation. We fought hard for many years to gain MTB access into the State Park System, and the Itusi has become the gold standard for future builds in the NC SP system. Hopefully our current legislature will not cut any more funding and allow the system to mainain at least the current access, and perhaps see growth in other facilities. The LNSP system has reached it MTB capacity as far as mileage.
Thank you for your consideration.
This is the only truth that matters if you want a sustainable trail system. ^^^
Working hand in hand with the parks and respecting their ground rules is the only option. Rather than taking it to a public forum for all to see, why not be proactive?