GET SET FOR SUMMER
As we roll into summer 2021 it is great to see that a large part of the country is not a tinderbox ready to ignite, or already being impacted by fires. Given we live in Australia we cannot be too complacent about our ever-changing weather though. The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) have recently released their Severe Weather Outlook which predicts above average rainfall, particularly over the eastern two-thirds of the country.
Most well-designed trails love a bit of rain and the riding experience on damp and grippy trails is an awesome reprieve from sliding around on sketchy dry trails. It’s called hero dirt for a reason, and the riding experience on prime trail conditions gives you enough grip and confidence that you may well feel like a hero! But some trails don’t like a lot of rain and are easily damaged when they are ridden in wet weather.
If you are a land manager or part of a trail care group, now is the time to pull a plan together to get ready for significant rain events to protect the trails and to ensure there are some riding options available when the deluge inevitably comes. Given the long range forecasting from the BOM, it’s a case of when, and not if.
Here’s what we do with some groups in our patch:
• Use local knowledge to understand what trails or sections of trails are vulnerable to wet weather and focus your drainage and improvement works on them now.
• Get an audit done of your network to get an understanding of the condition of your drainage and where issues will occur – the audit will be something that will also provide benefits outside of the summer period.
• Prioritise work that will make the most difference.
• Engage with your network to get some help, either financial, equipment, or sweat equity.
• Have a plan for closing trails and for communicating with local riders, while this is a last resort, and not all riders will respect the closure, you will keep 90% of riders off the trail which will massively reduce any damage.
Lots of groups are reluctant to flog volunteers to do drainage work, we all like building berms, jumps and drops so when you put the call out for a session of drainage work you usually hear crickets.
Recently we have had success through a process of ‘Making Drains Sexy’, essentially building drains as trail features or adding sneaky optional lines that add to the riding experience while also creating opportunities to get water off the trail. It’s the perfect time to mix creative trail building techniques for drainage with the desire to add more features to trails.
Fingers crossed that we don’t get hammered by weather events or fires that damage our trails, but there is no harm in being prepared.