Matting Question

[steelworx]

Am seeking info on the matting You use at your trail. We have a trail in Portage Indiana - The Outback Trail at Imagination Glen and are currently seeking out alternatives for some of our problem areas with erostion & sand.
Sincerely
Lyle Kaye
2nd V.Pres Outback Trail Commission

[G.Cook]

At the Potawatomi Trail at the Pinckney Rec.Area they have used plastic honey comb geo webbing .
It would be effective in repairing significant erosion damage on trail tread that would NOT be used for further traffic of any type . But that did not happen on the sections it was used .
It is akin to riding up or down a plastic Coke bottle . So riders would ride around the geo webbing witch mitigated the affects of the geo webbing in stopping the erosion . Hence , nice big ruts around the webbing and more eroded trail at the bottom of the fall line . Sucks when it's wet also .
If you don't want to reroute to stop the erosion and sand build up the other alternative , in my opinion .would be Appalachian Armoring . As you can see from the following example it can be very labor and material intensive compared to doing a sustainable reroute .
http://www.dupontforest.com/trailproject.asp

[c0nsumer]

At the Potawatomi Trail at the Pinckney Rec.Area they have used plastic honey comb geo webbing .
It would be effective in repairing significant erosion damage on trail tread that would NOT be used for further traffic of any type . But that did not happen on the sections it was used .
It is akin to riding up or down a plastic Coke bottle . So riders would ride around the geo webbing witch mitigated the affects of the geo webbing in stopping the erosion . Hence , nice big ruts around the webbing and more eroded trail at the bottom of the fall line . Sucks when it's wet also .
If you don't want to reroute to stop the erosion and sand build up the other alternative , in my opinion .would be Appalachian Armoring . As you can see from the following example it can be very labor and material intensive compared to doing a sustainable reroute .
http://www.dupontforest.com/trailproject.asp

From what I'd read in the USDA handbook Geosynthetics for Trails in Wet Areas (PDF, pg 25), the geowebbing at Poto was implemented wrong, and thus it has that problem. Or, perhaps it was used in an area too prone to erosion so it was buried deep enough at first, then got exposed?

[G.Cook]

The exposed geo webbing is on Poto fall line trail tread . Can't think what wet area it has been used in on the Poto . Anybody know ?
The eroded down hull section after going past the UM fence line has part of the geo webbing exposed where riders have been trying to avoid it and the other half is buried perhaps 6in. -/+ . So it would seems that with the traffic on the fall line , even with the geo webbing buried , significant erosion has occurred .
I assumed from the op that erosion on fall line was what they were thinking about addressing with the matting . My first reaction is to reroute but if they have the material and the muscle to try Appalachian Armoring . I consider matting , geo webbing , check dams , waterbars etc. as band aids for eroded , damaged section of trail tread that needs to be abandoned to give the damaged section time to repair itself without any further traffic .

[steelworx]

Thanks everyone, Our group and myself went down to the HMBA Annual meeting in 2009 to talk to their keynote speaker, Woody Keen. He was the one who developed this technique so we went down to specifically talk about the appalacian armouring process. We have since done it on several of our steeper downhills, with about 4 to 5 more to go. The Roller Coaster section on our trail is fairly easy to get materials to and we have been fairly lucky in that many have donated the remains of sidewalks & driveways to us. We use the broken concrete rough side up.(no mesh or rebar concrete only) We did not use the logs to lock everything in. Time will tell how smart that decision was. However we have low areas in the Near & Far Creek Runs that have badly cupped tread and even when the trail is closed people still ride those areas. We are in search of alternate methods of tread surface in the areas that just are not easy to get conrete, boardwalk into. Someone asked about the matting like they have at Custer so I figured I could get more info.

[steelworx]

http://www.outbacktrail.org/ this is our websit for our trail.

[barrybs]

I think the matting used at a couple of the water crossings at Fort Custer is different from the Geo Web used at the Poto. The crossing I'm thinking of is where you roll down the the hill and the dry mat stretches down into the water a bit. Maybe one of the locals from over that way will chime in.

Barry

[Briana]

I will ask Mike Needham tomorrow on our Thursday night ride and let you know after the ride, I'll post it here.
Briana