Flow Feed provides trail conditions

One draw of the miles and miles of soft-surface trails in northwest Arkansas is they can be used year-round. That’s 365 days of mountain biking, and a reason why people from other states, and even other countries, flock here.

Well, 365 days of riding minus a very few winter, rainy or otherwise wet days that might make it slightly less than ideal.

Freeze/thaw is a natural process that can’t be controlled, said Erin Rushing, CEO of Trailblazers.

“When moisture in the ground freezes, it expands. We can’t keep that from happening,” he said.

Rushing, a landscape architect by trade, has been at the helm of Trailblazers for seven years, and has overseen the design and construction of about 300 miles of trail in northwest Arkansas during his tenure.

When the ground is frozen, like we have seen a bit this winter, trails are prime, Rushing said. They are firm and solid and ready to be used.

When they begin to thaw, it gets messy and muddy. Tires and footsteps cause ruts in the trail, and then when the trail refreezes that night, the ruts freeze.

But Rushing said while the ruts aren’t ideal, they will not necessarily ruin the trail. Ruts sometimes cause people to naturally avoid that area by walking or riding around them, causing the trail to grow wider and changing the singletrack experience. But as long as the drainage isn’t affected, Rushing said they can have a chance to fix themselves.

“The trails will repair themselves. The more traffic during the repair process, the better,” he said, adding there are always trails in NWA that are rideable on any given day.

It’s the way the trails drain water that determines which trails will be best during which weather condition. It is widely known among the locals that the trails in Bella Vista drain well and can be used during wet weather, and there is even a locally known “wet-weather route” on the Back 40 trails ideal for the rainy season.

This is made possible thanks to the design of the trails, such as crowning the trail or adding aggregate to the surface, but also thanks to the landscape of the city.

“The soil type determines how well the soil holds moisture,” Rushing said, adding there are several classifications of the clay that we know as our native soil.

Bella Vista has a rockier composition to the soil, he said, compared even to its next-door neighbor Bentonville.

“Rocks don’t hold moisture. Clay holds moisture,” he said.

If you live here, you know all this. You’re familiar with the weather patterns, the water levels, the types of trails. But if you’re visiting, or planning a visit, you may not know when and what trails shouldn’t be touched by tread.

Enter Flow Feed.

“In the trail space in northwest Arkansas, there are two commonly used apps – Trailforks and MTB Project,” said Bryce Paden, one of the founders of Flow Feed.

Other leading platforms like those that are user driven, such as social media platforms, generate a lot of conversation about the condition of trails, Paden said. But they also generate a lot of other conversation about things off-topic, things that are subjective, and therefore may not always provide the most accurate trail condition-related information.

“Except for Coler (Mountain Bike Preserve in Bentonville), none of the trails here close (for weather),” he said. “But that doesn’t always mean they are good to ride.”

Flow Feed is a web-based app that uses data and live weather sensors, as opposed to people’s opinions and input, to predict and automate a condition reporting process, Paden said.

About two years ago, six entrepreneurs from different general backgrounds started this venture. A couple PhDs, some data analysts and some trail enthusiasts came together to create something new.

With access to 50 weather stations in the area that are all gathering real-time information, they created algorithms to look at unique trail construction factors – surface type, drainage, structure, etc. – to produce an accurate output in real time about the trail conditions.

The app, since it’s webbased, doesn’t require any downloading and is free for everyone.

“Our goal is to keep it free,” Paden said. “We didn’t want people to have to download anything. If you’re coming here for the weekend, the last thing you want is to go to the App Store, download the app, create a profile … this functions like an app would on your phone but happens in your browser. Just open the browser.”

Reporting trail conditions is just step one for them, he said. In the long term, they want to use data to be able to change the way people use the trails. They are testing special soil sensors that can give a more reliable reading about what the soil temperature does in response to the air temperature. And they are working on trail-specific freeze/ thaw messaging, which will be available in the future.

As far as wet weather, like a good rain, they have found the app to be 95% accurate, Paden said.

For now, each trail system is uniquely labeled. There are four categories: firm, fair, rutty and closed. Based on the number of trails in each status, a ring will fill, letting the user know at a glance what trail options are available on any given day.

Rutty, Paden said, means the trail isn’t closed but they don’t suggest riding it.

They want the app to grow so users can build a profile and answer a few questions about who they are as a rider and what they are looking for in a ride. Then the app would provide specific trail recommendations for you, which they would like to turn into complete routes as well.

“It will give you a ride that hits exactly what you want,” he said.

Paden said NWA is the perfect place to launch an app like this, not just because the designers are based here but because of the extensive infrastructure that people like Rushing have helped create.

“Some of the smaller MTB ecosystems have centralized trail communications systems,” he said. In NWA, Facebook is popular among trail users.

They built the first version of the app and then chose some local trail experts for closed beta testing.

“We are technically still in open beta testing now,” he said. “We’re refining something that’s never been done before.”

This is a side project for these guys, Paden said, and something they are passionate about. Community involvement will help sharpen the app and the user’s experience.

“One of the most helpful things we get from folks is when our status is wrong, tell us,” Paden said, referencing a feedback button on the app.

It’s true you can ride any day of the year here, Rushing said: “You just have to be creative when you plan your ride.”

“Do it before the sun comes out, before it starts to thaw,” he said. If your bike is getting muddy, go somewhere else.