in Blue Mound (Moderator: Walt Hougas)

Hey guys!  LOVE the trails up at Blue Mound.

A few friends of mine are joining me for a ride at BM Sunday, hopefully the rains tonight don't render the trails unusable come Sunday morning... we're targeting 10:30ish as arrival time. 

I was hoping to get some insight on the new trail - Pokerville - and what the condition is: ride-able, stay off, over grown, etc....

I've ridden BM about 8 or 9 times, love the trails and the challenge they present.  Can't wait for another ride!!

Hey guys!  LOVE the trails up at Blue Mound.

A few friends of mine are joining me for a ride at BM Sunday, hopefully the rains tonight don't render the trails unusable come Sunday morning... we're targeting 10:30ish as arrival time. 

I was hoping to get some insight on the new trail - Pokerville - and what the condition is: ride-able, stay off, over grown, etc....

I've ridden BM about 8 or 9 times, love the trails and the challenge they present.  Can't wait for another ride!!

It can be a NASTY place when wet.

http://www.mtbproject.com/trail/4178015/mound-loop

It can be a NASTY place when wet.

no doubt... hoping the rains don't dump on the trails too much. 

how dry are the trails right now? 

National Weather Service predicting precipitation to total between 0.10" and 0.25"

At our trail systems - mostly dirt hardpack - we'd be good to go to ride the next day. 

How would you say the trails at Blue would be with this minimal amount of precip? 

...I have no interest at all in riding Blue when the trails are wet-ish.

Blue Mound dries very slowly.

Where are you coming from?

Quad Cities... 2 hour-ish drive.

If Blue Mound is wet would you consider Cam-Rock?  A very fun place to ride if you haven't been there.  Bonus is that Cam Rock dries quickly.

'preciate the suggestion of a plan B but there are some buddies of mine that wanna pop their proverbial Blue Mound cherry.

if it's too wet, our plan B is to ride our fat bikes on the dried up Mississippi River bed and her banks.  pretty solid plan B.

check out this video of how the QC does fat bikin':

Personally I think you'll be fine to ride tomorrow.  I would call the park office to verify before heading out, though. Have fun whatever you do.

called the ranger at 7:10pm, said trails have taken moderate rain for a good part of the day so they closed the trails and were expecting rain tonight.

decided to call the ride.

bummer...

seems as though each time over the past couple of years we plan a ride up to Blue we get rained out.

Sorry!

We're working on making the trails more weather resistant, but it's going to take a long time. The rocks are very slippery when wet, some refer to them as "slimestone". Unfortunately they don't get any less sharp.

Walt