Very interesting article in this months AERC Endurance News about trail marking without ribbons. A subject I have been thinking a lot about...I recently did the sweep riding for a bicycle race that is on the same course as our AERC Endurance Rides in Weaverville Ca. The cyclist marked the trail pretty much as described in the article in AERC news. I was easily able to follow the course, without a map to. Of course it was my home trail but I by following the arrows I knew which places to turn and where not to. I would love to mark the trail for my e rides the same way. Just mark the intersections with colour coded (to the loops) arrows and a few security arrows here and there and a wrong way sign on the trails not to take. This would work in theory on our trails in Weaverville Online because there are long stretches with no where else to go but down the single track....however I had a few complaints of not enough ribbons on trails in 2014. I have been told by some riders that they HAVE to have a ribbon every 100 feet or so or they feel insecure that they might of missed a turn. I personally dont like the clutter of to many ribbons on e rides I go to. I want to see the scenery, not ribbons every few feet. Ribbons get messed with by wildlife, (Or cows if ya have em) and other trail users. The article states that to use the arrow and stakes you have to flag by ATV or you would need a pack horse for your trail markers...our rides in Weaverville have miles and miles of single track that are non motorized and we HAVE to pack in by horse our trail markers...be they ribbons, arrows, stakes whatever...I wish I could just mark the intersections and that riders would use there maps to correlate...would be less time marking and unmarking trail for us that have to do it by horseback. I am going to use a combination of both Arrows and Ribbons in 2015....I may be able to use Chalk to. Our course use to go over the top of another event (a trail run) that used chalk but a fire destroyed those trails the run was on so we will not overlap their course in 2015. I forgot to tell my riders in 2014 to not follow chalk and we ended up with a lot of confusion when they hit those other event trail markings. I am hopeful that maybe I can phase out the ribbons over time though... we also have the possibility of permanently marking our loops on the trail signs in the future to... in 2014 I had mixed reviews on trail marking...some had problems finding their way and some did not and said it was marked great. I provide a real map of the trails with our course overlaid on it. Unfortunately we had one of our eriders rider move a trail ribbon to follow the chalk arrows she thought were ours (she told me this after the ride)..that messed things up pretty bad for some folks...please dont EVER mess with a rides trail markings..and please use those maps...ride managers give em to you for a reason ;) !
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 14:01:46 +0000
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