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This winter, the ongoing trail restoration program near Boone will add miles of mountain bike trails and miles to adult popular destinations in the Pisgah National Forest in much of western North Carolina. Hiking trails.
The Mortimer Trails project is one of several upcoming projects in the Grandfather Ranger District. The project is supported by a private organization to meet the soaring demand for entertainment from public land units in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.
Mountain biking is one of the most popular activities in the National Forest, concentrated in a few destinations in the Pisgah and Nantahala National Forest, including the Bent Creek Experimental Forest in Bancombe County, Transylva Pisgah Rangers and Dupont State Forest in Niah County and Tsali Swain County Recreation Area.
Paul Starschmidt, a member of the Northwest North Carolina Mountain Bike League and a member of the Southern Dirt Bike Branch, said that expanding the path to the trail will eventually allow riders to eventually be dispersed in the WNC’s 1 million acres of national forest. And reduce the pressure on the excessively burdened trail system. Association, also known as SORBA.
The Mortimer Trail Complex-named after a logging community in the past-is located on the Wilson Creek Divide, adjacent to Wilson Creek and State Highway 181, in Avery and Caldwell counties, respectively. The U.S. Forest Service refers to the concentrated area of ​​the trail as the “path complex.”
The upstream source of the basin is located below Grandfather Mountain, along the steep topography of the eastern cliffs of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Mountain bikers want to walk more in the Wilson Creek Valley, because there are few remote areas of horse riding opportunities in the eastern United States
In the past few years, despite the isolation of the area, he has observed a rapid decline in the condition of single-track trails in the project area.
In the past few years, these trails have remained stable due to their relative difficulty and concealment. Stahlschmidt says that these paths will repair themselves as leaves and other debris heal on the path and protect them from erosion.
However, the trails of the Mertimer complex are more compact and prone to runoff, which leads to ecological damage. For example, during heavy rains, sediment will be discharged into waterways.
“Most of it is due to the increase in the use of mountain bikes,” he said. “There is not so much leaf litter and there is more compaction on the trails-usually, people using trails will have more signs.”
Lisa Jennings, Recreation and Trail Program Manager, Grandfather District, U.S. Forest Service, said that in addition to Boone’s large cycling community, the Mortimer Trail is relatively close to the population centers of Charlotte, Raleigh and the Interstate 40 Corridor. .
She said: “When they went west to the mountains, the grandfather area was the first place they touched.”
Extensive use not only affects the sustainability of the trail system, but the infrastructure is also very tight, such as maintenance access and signage and the provision of parking facilities.
Jennings said: “We see busy trails in western North Carolina every weekend.” “If you can’t find these trails and they have terrible shapes, you won’t have a good experience. In In our work as land managers, it is vital that the public can enjoy them.”
With a limited budget, the Forest Service Bureau intends to rely on partners to maintain, improve and increase the pace of miles to adapt to the prosperity of leisure and entertainment.
In 2012, the Forest Service held a public meeting to develop a strategy to manage non-motorized lanes in the Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests. The subsequent report “Nantahala and Pisgah Trail Strategy 2013″ stated that the system’s 1,560 miles of hiking and biking trails far exceeded its capacity.
According to the conclusion of the report, the trails are often placed randomly, lacking a design that meets the needs of users and are prone to corrosion.
These issues posed major challenges for the agency, and the federal budget tightening put the agency in trouble, so it was necessary to cooperate with other land managers and volunteer groups (such as SORBA).
Cooperation with user groups is also an important part of the draft of the Pisgah and Nantahala National Forest Land Management Plan, which was released in February 2020 and is expected to be completed in the second half of 2021.
Stahlschmidt participated in the public process of developing a draft management plan and participated in the 2012 and 2013 cross-country strategy meetings. He saw an opportunity to cooperate with the Forest Service Bureau to expand cycling routes.
The Northwest NC Mountain Bike Alliance signed a voluntary agreement with the Forest Service in 2014, and has since taken the lead in conducting small-scale trail improvement projects in the Mortimer trail complex.
Stahlschmidt said that drivers have been expressing solidarity with the lack of traces in certain geographic areas (such as Mortimer). There are a total of 70 miles of trails in the Wilson Creek Basin. According to Jennings, only 30% of them can ride mountain bikes.
Most of the system consists of old-style paths that are in poor condition. The remaining trails and trails are remnants of past logging roads and ancient fire lines.
She said: “There has never been an off-road system designed for mountain biking.” “This is an opportunity to add trails dedicated to hiking and sustainable mountain biking.”
The lack of trails can lead to “poaching” or “pirating” illegal trails, such as Lost Bay and Harper River in Avery County and Caldwell County within the Wilson Creek Basin, the two wilderness research areas or WSA routes.
Although not a designated part of the National Wilderness System, mountain biking on WSA trails is illegal.
Supporters of the wilderness and cyclists are happy about the remoteness of the area. Although some mountain bikers want to see places into the wilderness, this requires changes to federal laws.
The memorandum of understanding signed in 2015 by 40 regional organizations aimed at creating a national recreation area in the Grandfather Ranger area has sparked controversy between mountain bikers and wilderness advocates.
Some wilderness advocates worry that this memorandum is a bargaining chip for negotiations. It abandons its future permanent wilderness identity in exchange for mountain bikers’ support for wilderness identities elsewhere in the national forest.
Kevin Massey, the North Carolina project director of the non-profit public land acquisition organization Wild South, said that the conflict between mountain bikers and wilderness advocates is wrong.
He said that while his organization advocates for more wilderness, both wilderness advocates and mountain bikers are interested in more hiking trails and support each other.
Stahlschmidt said the goal of the Mortimer Trail Project is not necessarily to keep people away from pirated trails.
He said: “We are not the police.” “First, there are not enough routes to meet the needs and types of riding experience people want. We are working hard to gain more access and more clues.”
In 2018, the Forest Service held a meeting with the mountain bike community at a restaurant in Banner Elk to discuss work on accelerating trails in the area.
“My favorite thing to do is to take out a blank map, look at the scenery, and then think about what we can do,” said Jennings of the Forest Service.
The result is a publicly reviewed trail plan to improve the current 23 miles of mountain bike trails in the Mortimer complex, retiring several miles, and adding 10 miles of trail miles.
The plan also identified failed highway culverts. Malfunctioning culverts increase erosion, destroy water quality, and become obstacles to species such as trout and sal that migrate to higher altitudes.
As part of the Mortimer project, Trout Unlimited funded the design of a bottomless arch structure and replacement of damaged culverts, which provide a wider path for the passage of organisms and debris during heavy rains.
According to Jennings, the cost per mile of trails is about $30,000. For this troubled federal agency, adding 10 miles is a big step, and the agency has not spent the past few years putting entertainment funds in Priority location.
The Mortimer project is funded by the Santa Cruz Bicycles PayDirt grant to the organization of Stahlschmidt and the NC Recreation and Trail Program grant to the Grandfather Ranger District of the Pisgah National Forest.
However, as more and more people visit public land, the demand for outdoor recreation may replace more traditional industries such as timber logging and become the engine of economic development in rural areas in western North Carolina, which have been struggling to find stability. Economic foundation.
Massey of Wild South says one challenge is that the backlog of trail maintenance may cause Forest Service to take a new step.
He said: “Amidst the severe test of entertainment pressure and the starvation of Congress, the National Forest of North Carolina is indeed very good at working with partners.”
The Mortimer project demonstrates the possibility of successful cooperation between various interest groups. Wild South participates in the planning and construction of the Mortimer project area. The team is also involved in a project to improve the Linville Canyon Trail and is part of another extended trail project near Old Fort.
Jennings said that the community-led Old Castle Trail project received a $140,000 grant to fund a project that will include 35 miles of new multi-purpose trails that connect public land to McDowell Old Fort Town in the county. The Forest Service will show the proposed trail system to the public in January and hopes to break ground in 2022.
Deirdre Perot, a public land representative for equestrians in remote areas of North Carolina, said the organization was disappointed that the Mortimer project did not specify a route for equestrians.
However, the organization is a partner in two other projects in the Grandfather Ranger District, with the aim of expanding horseback riding opportunities in Boonfork and Old Fort. Her team received private funding to plan future trails and develop parking spaces to accommodate trailers.
Jennings said that because of the steep terrain, the Mortimer project is most meaningful for mountain biking and hiking.
Stahlschmidt said that throughout the forest, more projects, such as Mertimer and Old Fort, will spread the burden of increasing trail usage to other cycling areas in the mountains.
He said: “Without some plans, without some high-level communication, it will not happen.” “This is a small example of how this happened elsewhere.”
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