We have talked about this, at length, several times. It still "kinda" depends. Although I am 100% with the idea that if your trail drains properly, the presence of leaves is irrelevant. Unclog the drains, but otherwise, do nothing! Our trail mgr has flip-flopped on leaf blowing (yes, no, and currently yes). Our trails have never been in such bad shape in the early Spring season as when they have leaf-blown in the Fall. The frost heaves have been extensive. Every spot that wasn't leaf blown is in fine shape. I don't know what the disconnect is. To my eye as well, it seems obvious (for our trails).
We do have a couple trails where traffic can be sparse, making navigation through 12" deep leaves challenging. Yes, 12". The leaves seem to all drop at the same time in places. You navigate by feel.
I keep a leaf blower with me while machine building. Not for leaves though, it's how we blow out the radiator when it's getting loaded with dust, duff and dirt. For a little while we struggled with keeping the machine from overheating here in the hot, arid south west. If you run into this problem the leaf blower is clutch, use it for a minute once or twice a day and problem solved.
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