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Dirt Rag Articles
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Access Action
Mike Riter, Trail Guy Extraordinaire
It's finally the weekend. Five days of bike-less drudgery are behind you, and now it's time to ride! You've been thinking about it all week long, and you've lined up your best riding buds to meet you at the trailhead. You've got your gear, your energy bars, your water—you're ready to hit the trail. The anticipation alone has got you pumped.
But have you ever thought about the trail itself? How did it get there? Who built it? Who maintains it? Why does this trail always look good—even after a rainfall? Why are some trails more fun to ride than others?
Call me weird, but I think about trails a lot, and these questions always pop into my head. That's because I'm a Certified Trail Building Crew Leader. For this I blame Mike Riter. He's taught me (and hundreds others) how to build great singletrack.
Mike has designed and built trails all over the world for the last 15 years. Mike lives the trail-building life non-stop. Primarily, he works for the state of Georgia as their only Trails Education Specialist. He also has his own company, Trail Design Specialists. As if that wasn't enough, Mike also finds time to volunteer for the Southern Off-Road Bicycling Association, one of the country's foremost IMBA-affiliated clubs.
Mike did not set out in life to become a trails specialist, but it seems that his life led him here. Perhaps it's divine providence. Raised on a farm in the Midwest, Mike grew up outdoors. He worked at various jobs, settling into the wholesale irrigation industry prior to focusing on trailbuilding. But it was mountain biking that led him to trailbuilding.
Mike got his first mountain bike in 1992 while living in Florida and soon he was hooked, racing XC and downhill, even helping to build several racecourses. The turning point came after the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Living near the Olympic MTB and Horse course, Mike was dismayed that the town of Conyers planned to destroy the course and build an office park. Mike, along with other concerned riders, wanted the course preserved for all mountain bikers to enjoy. Not only were these great trails in his backyard, but the course was Mike's laboratory for honing his trail building skills. He applied tried and true methods, discarding and replacing them with his own innovations when the old-school style just didn't work. One of his eureka moments was developing the "rolling grade dip" for singletrack trails. Prior to this, large, ugly, and bike/horse-unfriendly waterbars were the norm.
Jan Riter, Mike's wife, was also a skilled competitive rider, and she worked side by side with him on the Olympic trail. Word made it back to Tim Blumenthal, IMBA's then Executive Director, and Blumenthal recruited them to be part of IMBA's own experiment: the first IMBA/Subaru Trail Care Crew. Mike and Jan were the first to travel the world (with their dog) and teach others how to create sustainable, dynamite trails for mountain bikers. They were on the road for three years, training hundreds of IMBA-affiliates in the fine art of trail building.
Once their IMBA duties were over, the Southern Offroad Bicycle Association (SORBA) found some grant money from Gainesville Colleges to allow Mike to become the Georgia Trails Education Specialist. As the Trail Education Specialist (TES), Mike travels the state, teaching others riding skills and trail construction. When he's not hard at work as Georgia's TES, Mike consults through his company, Trail Design Specialists, which he founded in 1998. Through Trail Design Specialists, Mike's expertise is available to all, including those not blessed to live in the state of Georgia.
His schedule is packed giving presentations, holding trailbuilding schools, consulting on any and all aspects of trails. He even teaches beginning mountain bike riders the basics of riding trails. He works with mountain bikers, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, the National Parks Service, the U.S. Forest Service, equestrians, hiking groups and OHV users. Land managers consult with Mike to help solve problems on existing trails. The equestrians may seek advice on how to approach a land manager with a trail redesign proposal. Mountain bikers look for advice on how to supervise 600 volunteers working on a new trail over a three-day period. Yes, this really happened!
Working with these various groups fits in well with Mike's trailbuilding philosophy. He says, "I believe in shared-use, as opposed to single-use trails, so I work with all trail users. I am primarily a mountain biker, and in the process of working with other groups, I dispel a lot of the negative perceptions that have formed about mountain bikers. These groups see that bikers are concerned about the environment and respect other users, and they realize that we aren't dangerous speed-driven adrenaline junkies who should be barred from all trails in order to keep their daughters, and the American way, safe. I'm very much a goodwill ambassador to other user groups because I see that education is part of my mission."
Lobbying for his shared-use trail philosophy is sometimes a struggle. He hears a lot of comments that bikes and pedestrians can't safely use the same trail. Yet, gently but firmly, Mike explains that good design, construction techniques, and proper maintenance can reduce user conflicts. According to Mike, "You can control speed, increase visibility, and create smooth transitions by following good design principles, construction techniques, and regular maintenance. Avoid fall lines, keep brush trimmed back three feet on either side of the trail, and avoid abrupt transitions in trail direction. If a berm begins to form on the edge of the trail, knock it down and disperse it below the trail."
Mike believes that if land managers and trailbuilders adopt these simple guidelines, all trail users can be accommodated efficiently. "Areas, especially in the eastern U.S., have too many users and too little land to create single-use trails," says Mike, "If you have an area that will accommodate 15 miles of trail, you get to use all 15 miles for shared-use trails. If you segregate the trails according to user groups, each group only gets a portion of that 15 miles. Everyone wins with shared-use trails."
To create a shared-use trail system, Mike advocates the stacked loop design. This design incorporates multiple loops of trail, and places the more advanced trails further from the trailhead. Beginner bike riders, dog walkers, and casual hikers will use the loop closest to the trailhead. The design for this loop focuses on aesthetics, rather than challenge. Users looking for challenge will continue on to the trail loops that require more advanced skills, where they find obstacles built from, or incorporating, natural materials and features, such as steep drop-offs, logs embedded into a climb, log ramps, stream crossings, and the like. Mike reveals, "My favorite challenge is to add slow speed obstacles, such as a series of rock steps or log crossings, that challenge advanced riders to use skills to negotiate the trail, rather than speed. I love to make riders think about the best way to 'clean' a section of trail."
Land managers and trail users are catching on. Mike's a popular fellow, and his famous four-day trailbuilding classes fill up fast, even without advertising. Graduates of the four-day class become Certified Crew Leaders who go forth to supervise others on trailbuilding projects. Amazingly, 80% of Mike's trainees are volunteers—people like you and me, who love our choice of outdoor recreation so much that we are willing to give up precious free time to make sure that we have trails to ride. The other 20% of trainees come from local, state, and government agencies that are involved with managing public lands.
Mike makes sure that trainees learn to make trails that are interesting and challenging, as well as sustainable. Mike's message is consistent. He wants trails built that follow the contour of the land—no fall line trails, thank you. He wants water to flow across the trail, quickly and harmlessly. "When you play with water, water always wins. The trick is not to let it play the game," admonishes Mike. "Erosion is caused by natural impacts from water, wind and gravity. Users impact trails by skidding tires, riding or walking on wet trails, and by skirting obstacles that should be ridden. The design and construction of a trail determines the negative effects of these impacts. Minimizing the time that water spends on a trail reduces the amount of damage it can do and speeds the time it takes a trail to dry out after a good rain. Less damage means fewer hours spent doing maintenance, which helps keep volunteers interested and committed. Because volunteers are the means by which most trails are constructed, keeping them involved is essential."
Trail education doesn't end with building trails, and Mike's mountain biking basic skills classes are also in high demand. "Learning to ride a trail with the proper skills can make the difference between enjoying the ride or not. An unskilled rider can harm himself and the trail, so I take the time to make sure riders will be successful. I cover pedaling, braking, shifting, turning, weight transfer, climbing, drop-offs, track standing and simple bike maintenance. I also use the opportunity to stress the importance of safety and trail etiquette. Students may not have mastered these skills by the end of the class, but they have a firm grasp of what to do, and what they need to practice on." Riding classes are open to everyone. "We have a lot of parents who come with their children, and I love to see that, because mountain biking is an excellent sport for families to enjoy together. It's great to see the next generation of riders get started on their bikes successfully."
Trailbuilding is a specialized profession with just a few practitioners. A Trails Education Specialist is downright unique. Mike has carved a space for himself through hard work, dedication and passion, and he shares his expertise selflessly. Jan Riter sums it up nicely, "Mike has found his niche. He loves what he does, and he is very good at it." Although his work is not restricted to mountain biking, his work is important to all mountain bikers.
Think about that trail that you love so much, and think about how important people like Mike Riter are to that trail—its past and its future. Perhaps Mike designed or worked on that very trail. You should be impressed and grateful—I certainly am.
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