TRAILBLAZERS

PALMER — While most hikers and bikers were out enjoying the Mat-Su’s network of trails, members of the Valley Mountain Bikers and Hikers spent the weekend improving what many take for granted.

Started in 2000, the non-profit VMBaH has become the Valley’s main non-motorized trail advocacy and public awareness group.

“The motorized users have all sorts of clubs and organizations,” said Mark Gronewald, co-chairman of VMBaH. “We want people to know there are non-motorized users out here too.”

While the group focuses on trails for hikers, bikers and cross-country skiers, it fights for the sustainable use of all trails, motorized or not. Its members lobby local and state politicians and coordinate trail clean-up and construction efforts around the Valley.

Last weekend, the group hosted two representatives from the International Mountain Bikers Association’s Trail Care Crew sponsored by Subaru. Friday night and Saturday morning, the group spent classroom time learning tips and best practices for sustainable trail development. Members put these theories to practice Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning when they built a 600-foot diversion on the trail around Long Lake in Kelper-Bradley State Park.

Hiking the 10 minutes east from the Long Lake trailhead to the construction site, it was easy to see what poorly built trails become. The trail turns into a de facto creek bed and the low spots never get dry. The trail is rutted and roots are exposed, making it dangerous for any bike.

At the site of the new detour, Gronewald — also the head of trail maintenance for VMBaH — explained some of the incorporated sustainable practices. The most important thing, he said, is to pay key attention to water drainage. The idea is to have water drain off the side of the trail rather than run down the length of it.

To control water, the grade of the trail should always be less than half the grade of the hill it’s on and never more than 10 percent. The surface of the trail should be sloped away from the hill by about 5 percent, and the section between the surface and the hill above should be sloped instead of vertical. The trail will inevitably become reshaped over time with use, said Gronewald, and water will want to flow down it. To combat this, grade reversals are built into the trail, stopping the flow of the water and pushing it off to the side.

Certain aesthetic features serve a dual purpose, said Jason VanHorn, one of the representatives of the Subaru/IMBA Trail Care Crew. Replicating the lines of nature makes the experience more enjoyable to the users. Keeping trees close to the trail passively controls the users’ experience by slowing the bikes down. By choosing a line with a view, the trail will get sunlight and breeze, both of which dry trails faster.

As members of the trail care crew, VanHorn and Ingra Beck travel the country giving advice to mountain biking clubs. After the Mat-Su, they are stopping in Juneau and Fairbanks to lend a hand to the local clubs there. Self-described “dirt bags,” they always try to help clubs construct at least one new trail.

“You can talk all you want about concepts,” said VanHorn, “but it’s different when you actually play in the dirt.”

Under the supervision of VanHorn and Beck, the crew from VMBaH dug the diversion using pickaxes and McCleods, a tool that looks like a hoe on one side and a rake on the other. Workers padded the large tree roots with gravel and tested the fruits of their labor with a group bike ride Sunday afternoon.

After the Subaru/IMBA Trail Care Crew leaves, VMBaH will continue the work. Members have two more trail care days, May 31 and June 28. In addition, they are asking for trail assessments by volunteers working through out the Valley.

The data collected will help the organizers determine which trails are distressed and why. All the necessary documents are available for download at www.vmbah.org.

Contact Todd L. Disher at todd.disher@frontiersman.com or (907) 352-2252.