20 years ago I first saw people rake a MTB trail. These were primitive trails, trails that were basically "Built" by raking through eastern hardwood forest. These trails were rogue, unsigned, not mapped, and by our current standards very lightly ridden. It was, in some cases, the only way a rider would be able to follow the trail after a fall and winter of leaves, sticks, and limbs coming down.
Then things changed and trails got mapped, signed, excavated and marketed. Traffic increased 100x...maybe more. The raking also continued, and leaf blowing...to the point of excess. We started to notice that the narrow, sinuous tracks were gone. In their place were more roots, more width, more trail creep, more mud, and a debate on is clearing leaves good, bad, needed, or was there a real reason to not clear leaves.
Around 2007 paid trail work entered Vermont and I got on with VMBA and then private contractors. We built trails, rehabbed old trails, watched and worked on some of the most popular networks in the East, and I paid attention. Simultaneously I was building out a network in my new town, one I moved to because there was no advertised MTB, no real MTB at all, and started building.
The oldest single tracks are now 8 years old. For the first 6 years I raked every spring. I watched the tread wear deeper into the earth, and as roots appeared the tread widened as well. It's amazing where MTBers will ride these days to avoid roots and small rocks. I started adding material back to cover tread features so people would stay on track, and not ride around the root beds that were being exposed.
Then I stopped raking. For the last 2 years no leaf clearing. Here is the result. The trails have reverted back to 10" wide ribbons of well burned in, but not blown out, trail. The small obstructions that used to cause people to wander from edge to edge, ride off tread ect, are not as visible, they are constantly being covered by a naturally replenishing source of organic material that rapidly gets mulched into soil and mixes with the top layer of dirt. The tread wear has virtually stopped. Also, in the fall when we ride during freeze/thaw cycles the new mat of leaves prevents damage. The trails do not stay wet longer as is sometimes argued and during the summer in very dry times, when a lot of raked trails turn to moon dust and we watched inches of dirt blow away, trails with a high ratio of organic material mulched and mixed in to the top layer hold valuable moisture and the dirt stays in place.
So, the result is if a trail becomes popular, stop clearing the leaves. Nature is trying to work with you to keep you trails nice, let it. I hope this is the final word on raking.
Then things changed and trails got mapped, signed, excavated and marketed. Traffic increased 100x...maybe more. The raking also continued, and leaf blowing...to the point of excess. We started to notice that the narrow, sinuous tracks were gone. In their place were more roots, more width, more trail creep, more mud, and a debate on is clearing leaves good, bad, needed, or was there a real reason to not clear leaves.
Around 2007 paid trail work entered Vermont and I got on with VMBA and then private contractors. We built trails, rehabbed old trails, watched and worked on some of the most popular networks in the East, and I paid attention. Simultaneously I was building out a network in my new town, one I moved to because there was no advertised MTB, no real MTB at all, and started building.
The oldest single tracks are now 8 years old. For the first 6 years I raked every spring. I watched the tread wear deeper into the earth, and as roots appeared the tread widened as well. It's amazing where MTBers will ride these days to avoid roots and small rocks. I started adding material back to cover tread features so people would stay on track, and not ride around the root beds that were being exposed.
Then I stopped raking. For the last 2 years no leaf clearing. Here is the result. The trails have reverted back to 10" wide ribbons of well burned in, but not blown out, trail. The small obstructions that used to cause people to wander from edge to edge, ride off tread ect, are not as visible, they are constantly being covered by a naturally replenishing source of organic material that rapidly gets mulched into soil and mixes with the top layer of dirt. The tread wear has virtually stopped. Also, in the fall when we ride during freeze/thaw cycles the new mat of leaves prevents damage. The trails do not stay wet longer as is sometimes argued and during the summer in very dry times, when a lot of raked trails turn to moon dust and we watched inches of dirt blow away, trails with a high ratio of organic material mulched and mixed in to the top layer hold valuable moisture and the dirt stays in place.
So, the result is if a trail becomes popular, stop clearing the leaves. Nature is trying to work with you to keep you trails nice, let it. I hope this is the final word on raking.
