in Middleton Bike Park

Saturday, Dec 9. Since the gates are always closed now, we pedal up the driveway. On the way to the trail entrance there are 2 signs that say "trail closed."  We ran in to 2 fellow fatters in the parking lot, and distraught and obedient, they turned around and went back to their car.  We inspected further and noticed that a third closed sign at the trail entrance had a second sign scotch taped over the closed sign, but was folded in the wind.  Unfolded that to see a sign that says "trails closed when temps are above freezing visit madcitydirt."  Well, it was in the mid twenties, mostly cloudy, and clearly covered in snow so of course we rode.  Conditions were perfect and we had a blast.  I don't think we help anything by giving people wrong information, and denying people access to trails for no reason.    Let's standardize our signage, I think Quarry Ridge signage is good.  People who are going to ignore the signs are going to no matter how many contradicting closed signs, or how long the Mayor's trail status rant is    Posting incorrect signs only encourages people to ignore signage.

I took pictures but I haven't been able to add an attachment the last couple times I tried

The city put up the barriers in response to riders not obeying the rules including the no riding wet sign at trailhead.

For all practical purposes you can ride frozen solid trails but not the freeze/thaw soup people have been abusing.

Trail steward Dave and crew always need help. New signs just arrived. Send a message and I'm sure someone will help you help us.

Thank you.

Absolutely, Pauls.  The city should not have put those up, and once they did they should have taken them down when the trails opened, and we should have followed up on that.  In general, this is why trail open/closed signs are a bad idea.  I will get them taken down tomorrow.

Trail signs NEED to say "If you have not checked MadCityDirt.com for trail conditions, you should not be riding." Period. And in the winter we need to add signs that say "If you do not know the rules for riding during freeze/thaw, please turn around".

I am about done babying people. Too much damage is being done and it is costing lots of money and time from volunteers. And volunteers wasting their time fixing problems others cause are getting discouraged and not coming back. I am getting on folks I see riding when they should not be. I hope others will too. Riding these trails should be a privilege that we don't take lightly.

If you are going to ride in the winter riders have to take enough responsibility to determine when the trails are open. It literally changes by the hour and sometimes by the minute. The trails are not open now. As I write this it is 27 degrees and sunny. Anywhere in the open will be muddy and if you ride you will be damaging the trails.

If riders don't want to take the responsibility to know or learn this they should not ride.  Frankly it is way easier to just close the trails.  CamRock used to be closed from November 1st until May 1st. Life was so much easier then  But now I just sound like an old curmudgeon    Because in truth riding in the winter is so much awesome! But it must be done responsibly as trails are so very fragile during the freeze thaw periods.