Dannihilator

I get to the trail head, it's on college property, I notice that the rocks that were placed there to act as a block to keep the 4x4's out of there, were pushed to the side. Continued on out of curiosity, go and notice one mistake the college did, they used a bull dover to flatten out the terrain, which was done with a shovel last time and just to make a small line. Not far after that, error 2 came along, they took dirt out of the area and put it on the trail, fell because of a patch, clear it off, see a scraped up root broken. Then comes error #3 along the first few miles it runs along a river bank, the trail was widened, which wasn't needed, they widened the trail so close to the river it is not safe to ride on. Thanks New England College for not looking for people or a group who know how to build trails, you yet destroyed another trail. Oh well, time to find another trail.

Maelstrom 

Bummer man. Poor trail maint is far worse than poor biking skills ...

copper RS

that sucks, poor trailbuilding is a major problem where i live

nathank

well, i have to tell you guys:

here in the Alps they seem to know almost nothing about trail-building...

and yet i think they actually do a lot of work and build a lot of stairs and retainers... yet they so often do stuff like 1) build a trail right down the main drainage, 2) build a trail totally flat so it holds water. it almost hurts me when i ride a trail and see all the erosion (that is mostly preventable IF the trail were properly built and maintained)

what is probably most annoying is the most common "trail-building" involves simply using a bulldozer to make a flat smooth section and fill in with gravel... totally uninteresting as it's flat and smooth AND totally erosion-susceptible as it's totally smooth and doesn't match the local terrain...

on another note: on one of our local trails here in munich a tree fell during a storm about 3 months ago. since then the trail has 2 huge limps across it and people make all kinds of detours around it. so finally last weekend i figure since nobody ever seems as if they will repair it (the state is supposedly responsible for all trail maintenance here) i would at least do some minor repair. so after 1 1/2 hours of work i cleared most of the smaller branches and built a pile of logs over the largest tree limb - and the whole thing was easily rideable (and better for hikers). i go by Wednesday on my weekly ride and someone had simply scattered all the logs all over the place --- so people again have to make random detours! urgh! i mean either REPAIR the trail or leave my minor repairs there! i don't know if it was some disgruntled hiker who didn't want MTBs there or the government not wanting any "unapproved" trailbuilding... (probably the former)

Transparent

i had that on a trail i ride quiet a bit... its on hill nad as the storm came and rained everywhere its eroted about a foot hole in the gravel real shame to ride now cos that used to be a amazingly fast bit