Winter Trail Riding/Closures

[basebklyn1]

Hey Forc'ers. There have been some talks recently in Iowa City about possibly opening Sugarbottom in the Winter. There seems to be some confusion in ICORR as to how to go about opening the trails during the winter and under what conditions riding should be permitted. What guidelines do you guys use to determine if the trail systems in the QC can be "opened" per say during the winter, and does a member of the club have to physically "check" the trails to decide if they can be opened, or can one just decide based on temperature and snowfall/snowmelt if the trails will be rideable? Thanks for any input you guys can give!

[DH001]

If the trail tread is frozen or dry. => trails open
If the trail tread is thawed and/or muddy => trails closed

It would probably require someone with a sense of how the trails reacted to similar conditions in the past if you don't want to physically check. It shouldn't be too hard to determine if the conditions are suitable at the trail by simply looking at how wet/frozen/thawed/muddy the ground is in a similar geographic location, especially if there has been similar weather.

The conditions we are experiencing right now, a heatwave and major snow melt, are probably the best example of when to close the trails in winter and early spring. Apparently our trail status indicators need to be updated.