zippetydude wrote:About those mountain bikers - those guys are legit! They actually carried those bikes up (and part of the down). Seems like it must have been crazy hard but an adventure for all that.
z
Simply put, the PCT was not designed or constructed for mountain bikes and is thus easily and seriously degraded by mountain bike use – especially when those bikes are ridden on wet or muddy trail. Riding bikes on wet trails can cause deep furrows and erosion. It typically occurs when riders skid back tires when braking on downhill, apply heavy torque to tires when riding uphill, or simply ride through mud. The damage caused by a mountain biker is much greater than that caused by a hiker or horse because, with a bike, the soil is impacted continuously along the trail, while a hiker's or horse’s feet hit the soil only at intervals. The continuous troughs created in trail tread by bikes collect water runoff from the entire hillside above the trail and then act as drainage ditches, creating serious erosion which the PCT was not constructed to withstand. Water that might drain off the trail under pedestrian and equestrian use now runs down it in wheel ruts, eventually removing all the soil and turning the trail into a streambed. In extreme cases, no amount of “trail maintenance” can restore the trail and new trail becomes necessary.
zippetydude wrote:Patrick: If you go to the link, they carried them up Skyline. The PCT would be a very rideable trail. The guy's real honest too, describing being too tired to try to ride a lot of it on the way down, thus carrying the bike in both directions. Didn't work out like they were hoping.
z
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