FATS is open

[seenvic]

As of about 2PM on 12/29/09. FATS is open. Lower Skinny is the only thing closed. Lower Skinny just stays wet.

I don't have access to the homepage. I can only post it here.

[brianW]

Looks like scattered rain showers on Thursday. Please stay off the trails 24-48 hours after rain.

[tdecherd]

Will FATS be open tomorrow? (1/3/2010) We're planning a trip from the Charlotte, NC area, and am hoping the trails will be open.

Thanks!

[quiver]

I would say you are OK for tomorrow... we (at least in North Augusta 8 miles away ) haven't received any rain since Thursday night. It will be still be quite wet in some places... but will should be fun and rideable. Avoid the lower section of Skinny...

But that is just my opinion... Bill, are you guys going to have the trails open for tomorrow?

[ted]

The wet spots will likely be frozen as they have in the past when temps are as low as predicted tonight. When and if it warms, they'll return to mush. I'm sure big rock and tower will be fine. A few spots on Deep Step, Brown wave, as well as stretches of Great Wall will be either frozen or nasty.
I'm going out in the morning for trail condition scouting and gravel roads and will hopefully report to Paul via phone and he can post it on the site.
If you're coming all the way from Charlotte, you'll probably be ok.
The water is out there and best case scenario is it'll be frozen.
Get out there early. It's supposed to be around 23 degrees at 8am.
Your choice.
Bill had to go out of town until tomorrow night.

[oddcouple]

Saturday, January 3, 2009
Avoid Riding in the "Freeze/Thaw" Cycles
This time of year it can be very tricky to mountain bike in Indiana. The running joke that "if you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes" seems to hold true more often than not. This makes it difficult to find good trail conditions. Often times, the trails are frozen solid, but it's too cold to ride. Other times, the weather is beautiful, but then the trails are too muddy or soft to ride. The Hoosier Mountain Bike Association has a great description of what freeze/thaw cycles are and how to avoid bad trail conditions.

"When soil freezes all the moisture turns to ice crystals between the particles of the soil, and in clay or loam soil they are tightly packed together. As the moisture freezes the crystals expand and tear the clay apart which shatters it, then as it thaws the soil becomes more porous and allows more moisture in. This is repeated with every successive thaw. In Indiana we can get as many as 100 freeze thaw cycles in a season. Please be very careful when trying to ride the trails in the winter. The best time to ride is when the trail is frozen solid. On days when the temperature goes below freezing at night, the worst thing you can do is wait for the sun to come out and warm up the trail before riding. The trails can be very soft even if it hasn’t rained recently. Even if the temperature stays below freezing South facing trails can defrost in sunlight and turn to mush. If you are leaving ruts in the trail where you have ridden please leave the trail. The ruts will allow even more water to remain on the trail and make it even worse. If people see you riding they will want to ride too, so very soon the trail reaches a point of meltdown. If you would like to find out the trail conditions on your particular trail before driving there please visit the HMBA message boards. All of these trails are maintained by the Hoosier Mountain Biking Association and all the design, maintenance and building work is done voluntarily by local mountain bikers. If you would like to find out more about the Hoosier Mountain Bike Association and how you can help please visit hmba.org.

I know this is NOT INDIANA but the same applies here IMHO.

[tdecherd]

Thanks for the reply guys. We'll head down early tomorrow morning and ride Big Rock and the Tower to minimize any impact. You guys have a great trail system there!

[seenvic]

FATS was closed all weekend. Said so on the homepage. What more can I say?

[azdrawdy]

Jan 4, 2010 13:05:38 GMT -5 seenvic said:

FATS was closed all weekend. Said so on the homepage. What more can I say?

The forum never stated it was closed again after you stated it was open.

Simple: Don't open or close FATS with a thread. Use the homepage only. Simple. No confusion.

[seenvic]

Jan 4, 2010 17:31:07 GMT -5 azdrawdy said:

Jan 4, 2010 13:05:38 GMT -5 seenvic said:

FATS was closed all weekend. Said so on the homepage. What more can I say?

The forum never stated it was closed again after you stated it was open.

Simple: Don't open or close FATS with a thread. Use the homepage only. Simple. No confusion.

I agree with you. But you gotta agree there are some shades of gray here with people reading/thinking what they want to read/think.

My intention was to give a heads up for the afternoon of 12/29/09 for people who wished to ride that afternoon as I can't change the homepage.

Won't make that mistake again.