Rosaryville Conditions

[RetroG]

The horse damage is pretty bad on sections of Perimeter Trail. It's obvious there has been horse activity during wet conditions, like earlier this week. Sections of the North side of Perimeter (roller coaster stuff) look like it was tilled. This makes me sad. Any suggestions what we can do? Signage?
Conditions yesterday were a bit greasy in some spots. The majority was firm.
I can only hope this great trail system doesn't get destroyed during the Spring thaw.

[scrapel]

I have also seen the damage caused by the horses on the perimiter trail. There is also evidence of an ATV that has been using parts of the trail. This has seemed to make the single track look more like double track. I dont know what can be done about the horses riding on the trails when they are too muddy. I personally have put in many hours doing trail work and am very disturbed at the lack of respect for the trails.

Again I would like to help in doing something about this situation, but do it in a manner that is proper and peaceful. I just am not sure what can "really" be done???

[pgendell]

I think ignorance is often the problem. Educational signage could help.

[27Feet]

I believe most of the trail maintenance is being done by MORE and volunteers that also mtn bike. Maybe contacting the local horse community about the volunteer trail maintenance days and trying to develop a more mutual relationship about the trail(s). I wonder if there could be a representative from MORE that could be a liason with the horse community.

Or maybe a sign saying trail maintenance sponsored by MORE with usage guidelines.

[bikerRob]

2/26/05
If you recall, there are homes that border on the N/NW side of the park that have horses so my bet is that the culprits are the locals. I don't know what it is about Horse People but as soon as the spring thaw starts they come out in droves and show little if any concern about destroying sensitive, soft trail systems. Sections of Patapsco St. Park also have this problem...always...the local horse people. If you see sections that are torn up and you have a camera, you might want to take a picture to document the problem and report it to the Park authorities. It would be great if there were a local equestrian club with a web site that we could air our complaints out on but alas, I have yet to see one.

As for the ATV problem: I think this is going to be more of a problem as ATV's become more and more popular. Not only in Rosaryville but in all the other MTB'ing venues in the greater Md./Va. area. I should also mention that Dirt Bikes are not exempt from criticisms either.

Last but not least, there is also the flip side of the coin to consider. Mountain bikes tear up soft trails too. You know how you feel when You see the damage done by the horses...you sit on your bike and curse the day they were born. Now consider how other trail users feel when they happen upon a section of trail that has been totally thrashed by mountain bikers. If we're going to talk the talk, then we've got to walk the walk. Don't ride Soft trails.

[MantraMan]

2/26/05
Last but not least, there is also the flip side of the coin to consider. Mountain bikes tear up soft trails too. You know how you feel when You see the damage done by the horses...you sit on your bike and curse the day they were born. Now consider how other trail users feel when they happen upon a section of trail that has been totally thrashed by mountain bikers. If we're going to talk the talk, then we've got to walk the walk. Don't ride Soft trails.

Nicely said Rob!
We had a great trail maint day at Rosaryville today and were able to remove some big blowdowns and repair some eroded/damaged areas.
A big thanks to Joe W. , Ricky D, Bob Cantin and Mat Bucchin of MD DNR and Maryland Parks, Trevor, Ian, and Joe of Davidsonville. We split into two groups and covered about 2miles on each end of the perimeter trail.
The trail is far too wet to ride and we were able to prevent a cople of new mtb'ers from riding today that did not know better. Education is the key here! ;)
The guys were really cool and just took a ride on the paved roads instead.
On the good side, there was only a small amount of horse and atv damage and I
virtually no trace of mtb tracks in the wet areas. :D This made me really happy
and confirms that the word is getting out to stay off of the trails when they're
wet and soft!!
Thanks All!
Todd- Rosaryville Trail Liaison

[bunky]

. . . the word is getting out to stay off of the trails when they're
wet and soft!!
Thanks All!
Todd- Rosaryville Trail Liaison

Are the trails at Rosaryville wet and soft?

[drevil]

Are the trails at Rosaryville wet and soft?

During trailwork on Saturday (March 5), the trails were extremely soft, muddy, and mucky. Horses also came by and didn't make things any better. I'd suggest waiting some more.

[MantraMan]

Checked conditions at Rosaryville today and she's still to wet and muddy to ride :(

Hang in there and tune up the road bike to let the trail dry.
Any questions? Call me.
Todd 301-848-7649 :D

[kev0153]

Any updates after all this rain?

[scrapel]

I heard from a few people that went to Cedarville today and they reported very muddy conditions. I would assume that Rosaryville has slightly better conditions, but I would still let it dry out before riding. Letting it dry will make it so much better for the rest of spring and summer riding.

[MantraMan]

I went to R-Ville today and it is too wet to ride for awhile.
We have an issue with the equestrians riding there when it is wet
recently and I am especially concerned that we don't ride there since
we are calling them to not ride when wet. :(
Be patient and I'll post the go ahead just as soon as possible. :D
Thanks to everyone for their patience!
Todd aka MantraMan :cool:

[RetroG]

Horse damage: minimal
Trail condition: Good!!! with some wet, sloppy stream crossings.
The worst section is the little climb (clockwise) up to the "Barking Dogs" house on the South side.

[liltommy]

Horse damage: minimal
Trail condition: Good!!! with some wet, sloppy stream crossings.
The worst section is the little climb (clockwise) up to the "Barking Dogs" house on the South side.


I can see the name sticking now "Barking Dog Hill". In 20 years I can tell my children how it got it's name. I know where your talking about.

Tommy

[RetroG]

I can see the name sticking now "Barking Dog Hill". In 20 years I can tell my children how it got it's name. I know where your talking about.

Tommy

last night was this mouse. Just past "Barking Doghouse", where the roots are, I catch these glowing eyes at ground level moving toward our line. I slowed and watched them for about 5 seconds. He stopped right in the middle of the trail, about 10 feet away, looked up at us then scurried into a hole under a root. I heard him say, faintly, "What the #@%^ are you guys doing out here in the middle of the night"!!??

Also a few deer and some Wild Turkey. We also saw the actual Wild Turkey bird.

[buckwheat]

Did anyone ride at Rosaryville this weekend? I would like to get in an evening ride on Tuesday 4/12 but if things are still pretty wet Ill cancel. Seems like it should have been a great weekend for drying, sunny and breezy all weekend. I know that when I washed my car it dried pretty fast...and left me with lots of water spots!

If anyone is interested in riding tomorrow evening around 4:30 or 5:00 drop me a line. gottajiboo at hotmail dot com.

-Buckwheat

[RetroG]

I'm sure it's in great shape. 3 days is plenty of time to dry out.

[buckwheat]

I rode at Rosaryville yesterday evening. Overall the trails are in great shape. The creek crossings are messy as usual and there is a bit of horse damage here and there but not nearly as bad as I was expecting. There is one muddy section, it is right at the intersection where you go right and begin a short climb up to where the small plywood jump is. There is about 20 feet worth of muck, looked pretty nasty. Other than that everything is quite fast and enjoyable. As a bonus, there are no spiders out there yet, even for a spider magnet like myself.

-Buckwheat

[bikerRob]

...There is one muddy section, it is right at the intersection where you go right and begin a short climb up to where the small plywood jump is. There is about 20 feet worth of muck, looked pretty nasty. Other than that everything is quite fast and enjoyable...-Buckwheat

4/17/05 >> I rode Rosaryville today. The muddy section (above) is pretty bad. Seeing that conditions over all were dry and buff, I believe a re-route of the said muddy section is in order. If it's not dry by now, it's probably not ever going to dry. The noted section is about 3.5 miles into the ride (Area 4)

[buckwheat]

I rode Rosaryville yesterday evening and the trails over there are MONEY! Smooth like butter, dry like toast. Everything is nice and buff and fast. With my new tires I really enjoyed the twistiness of the place, nice to have some traction for a change. Props to the folks that put in the small bridge over the really muddy creek crossing, it really helps with the flow to not have to dismount and deal with 25 feet of mud. The previously recognized muddy spot about 3.5 miles in is still there but seems to be drying a bit. Looks like there is a bit of a defacto reroute being created by riders to avoid the spot, not sure if thats a bad or good thing.

Over and out...
Buckwheat

[darren]

Let me know when you ride I work in SE so I can hope on to Route 3 and be there pretty quick. I was thinking of doing this trail next wednesday but not work maybe on Wednesday the 18th? well email me if you want if not I should be out there.

[kltbo]

The trails were awesome and it was such a beautiful day. A couple of those bridges could be used at other water crossings as well also I am a little worried about the trails.

There were parts of the trail that if they weren't marked with a sign I wouldn't have known where to go due to the grass growing in. More people need to get out there and ride and keep the grass from growing in on the trails. My friend and I were the only two out there and we left at 10 am.

[liltommy]

I heard that they bridged 3 gaps on the last trailwork.
I think I know where 2 were, by the paved road, and then a little bit later going counter clockwise.

But wheres the 3rd.

I'm just trying to figure out what sections would keep me from making a return out there.

thanks,
Tommy

[buckwheat]

Rode Rosaryville yesterday afternoon. Trails are in good shape overall. I didnt get a chance to ride the new bridges near the paved road because theres a pretty big tree down that forces a dismount and walk around. Everything was dry except the mud pit at mile 3.5 and some of the creek crossings are pretty soft and seem to be getting softer. Also, I was disappointed to see quite a bit of ATV damage to large sections of the trail. There are places where the sweet single track is being widened by the ATVs and there are places where they are creating new tracks around tight spots in the trail they cannot fit through. I hope this doesn't continue or I may need to forceably dismount some ATV riders with a large stick!

-Buckwheat

[RetroG]

Also, I was disappointed to see quite a bit of ATV damage to large sections of the trail-Buckwheat

Where is the ATV damage?

[buckwheat]

Most of it is before you hit the paved road crossing while riding clockwise. Some of it is not noticeable because the bikes have already packed down the loose dirt. But if you scan the edges of the trail as your riding youll notice ATV tracks on the edge as they can't fit on the skinny singletrack. Looks like they are using the Perimeter Trail as a connector for some other trails. Also, if you find some rooted up dirt follow it to a narrow squeeze between two trees, etc. Stop and look around and youll notice a slight reroute, sometimes it just appears as flattened grass from the tires. Of course these symptoms dont last long as the grass eventually stands back up. I thought it was especially noticeable on a few sections of the bench-cut areas. The ATVs seem to cave in the bench cut a bit so the angle between trail and hill is less dramatic, the angle is flattened out.

-Buckwheat

[billbowers]

Kevin, Scott and myself hit this trail yesterday morning about 8am. I must say i am very impressed with the work that has gone on there. Trail conditions where good, I wont say great because it was damp in parts but not muddy. Only muddy spots are the creek crossings. The other creek crossings where bridges were built are awesome. Only thing i am dissappointed in about rosaryville is that it does not look as tho a lot of people are riding, Kevin and I have ridden there twice in the past month and there is hardly evidence of riders being out there and trails are starting to grow over in spots. We really enjoy that loop, according to GPS it is 6.2 miles. We should enjoy this gem, the trail work has been awesome there and it drains better than the past. Good Job, i hope to see you out there sometime. Later.

Bill

[cloughja]

I just rode Rosaryville for the first time this evening (June 12). Conditions are about the same as Bill reported above. I agree, that it doesn't seem like it gets much traffic. My buddy and I were the only ones out there this evening. I also agree that it's a great trail - good job to everyone who worked on it.

[rdeleyos]

This past Saturday, 6/11, I chose Rosaryville to make my 2005 debut on the trails. It was kind of an impulsive thing going solo, but I wanted to take my new ride (tnx rick) out for some fun.

Upon arriving at Rosaryville, I took a cruise in my car to all the picnic areas first just to see if anyone else was around. Well, all of the horse jumps and courses were up in all the fields, but I only observed 2 people walking around looking like they were measuring distance of one of their equestrian courses.

So I went back to the usual parking spot (no cars around there either), got out the equipment and left about 5:30pm. The conditions were pretty good, but there were several instances of horse doody which weren't bad at all, hoofprints on many incline sections and a bit muddy on the creek crossings. I liked the 2 little wood bridges on the section after crossing the road (nice job guys!). The conditions overall were great and at that time in the late afternoon the humidity wasn't bad. I wasn't totally alone out there...passing one horserider nice enough to let me through.

It took me 1.5 hrs (yikes) to do the shortened clockwise perimeter trail (turning right instead of left when leaving the powerlines). Phew, it was pretty tough for a seasonal debut but I'm feeling good and anxious for next time.

In the future I'll announce more when I'm planning to ride there....


Jay d

[drevil]

Good job, Jay!

Y'know, I'm supposed to be rdeleyos all over the Internets, and you are supposed to be jdeleyos! You are confusing me and I'm telling mom! :p

[liltommy]

This past Saturday, 6/11, I chose Rosaryville to make my 2005 debut on the trails. It was kind of an impulsive thing going solo, but I wanted to take my new ride (tnx rick) out for some fun.

Upon arriving at Rosaryville, I took a cruise in my car to all the picnic areas first just to see if anyone else was around. Well, all of the horse jumps and courses were up in all the fields, but I only observed 2 people walking around looking like they were measuring distance of one of their equestrian courses.

So I went back to the usual parking spot (no cars around there either), got out the equipment and left about 5:30pm. The conditions were pretty good, but there were several instances of horse doody which weren't bad at all, hoofprints on many incline sections and a bit muddy on the creek crossings. I liked the 2 little wood bridges on the section after crossing the road (nice job guys!). The conditions overall were great and at that time in the late afternoon the humidity wasn't bad. I wasn't totally alone out there...passing one horserider nice enough to let me through.

It took me 1.5 hrs (yikes) to do the shortened clockwise perimeter trail (turning right instead of left when leaving the powerlines). Phew, it was pretty tough for a seasonal debut but I'm feeling good and anxious for next time.

In the future I'll announce more when I'm planning to ride there....


Jay d

Jay? is that you. Drevil's little B.
I thought you died? :D

Good to see your still around.
Give me a few weeks and you'll see me back around there.

Tommy
(Big ugly guy from last years Tues. night rides).

[rdeleyos]

Ya, it's me Tommy. I'll give a heads up when I plan on going again to Rosaryville and look into our weekly rides of old.

Jay

Jay? is that you. Drevil's little B.
I thought you died? :D

Good to see your still around.
Give me a few weeks and you'll see me back around there.

Tommy
(Big ugly guy from last years Tues. night rides).

[RetroG]

Give it 2 days to dry out. We got in a ride before the rain, and it's just as buff as always. Some trimming is due.

[RetroG]

Rode Rosaryville last night and what a treat! Trails were dry, fast and fun! The crossings that were worked in the last 2 weeks are excellent.
A DNR policeman was at the parking lot last Thurs. and asked me if I have had any problems. There was an attempted break in recently. Just a heads up.

Major props to the trail work vols. and Rich from IMBA who is a huge asset to any
project.

[bikerRob]

9/10/05 >> I took a ride today at Rosaryville just to check out the new bridges that were put in a while back. Great job guys/gals...thanks! All the trails were in great shape..nothing but hardpack..real fast. After a quick one hour loop I took my own advise and drove over to Merkle Wildlife Management Area ( about 10-15 minutes away ) to take in a couple of the loops there. I'm afraid Merkle isn't as groomed as Rosaryville is. The equestrains have pretty much taken over the trails at Merkle. Although it was dry, it was very bumpy due to the pock marks left by the horses. I also had to use a web chaser because of all the spider webs. Boy does that place have some spiders! Some of them are about the size of a fifty cent piece. You definately don't want one of them crawling around on your face!