Can trails be damaged by using them when they are wet or muddy?
Some trail users enjoy getting a little muddy, hiking, running or riding on wet trails, especially in warm weather. However, using trails when they are wet can cause significant damage to the trail tread. Impressions made by feet, hooves or bike tires create places to hold water. This traps water on the trail and delays drying of the trail tread. The longer the trail tread remains wet, more trail users will leave more impressions which hold more water and so on. Damage to the trail tread created in minutes by a single trail user during wet trail conditions may take hundreds of hours of work to repair. Please remember to let the trails dry out. Your local volunteer trail builders will thank you!
