The Daily Beer And Bike Log: Jan. 27, 2015 Riding in Muddy Soil

So After a muddy experience out in the woods a few weeks back,  and this past weekend, I came across an older article in Dirt Rag Magazine  called to Ride or Not to Ride: The dirt on Muddy single track by Frank Maguire.

 I am not an expert and I am learning as I go, and now that I had that experience with a semi muddy trail, this article caught my eye. It was one of those articles in the past I may have skipped. Now I connected with it. So these are the types of things I would like to share as I come across them, I did not come up with the stuff I am going to post here, just read it and suggest you go to the whole article if you can I had a hard time finding the article on their site but can say it is in Issue 180 of DirtRag (this is the cover) 

and the link for Subscriptions and back issues

Anyway the part I wanted to share is at the end of the article Soil Sampling

It is a test for your own local areas to find out if you have a more sand , Silt or clay type soil where you ride.

Here is the easy explanation 

Sand is will dry quickly, but during dry times it will be really loose, and is hard to shape (for you trail builders)

Clay trails are normally very hard in the summer and if they are made right will shed water, but once the water creeps in they will take a while to dry.

Silt for the most part holds the water and does not compact

Maguire tells us in the article that any one of these alone will be a shit trail, well he says “Crap” but hey you get it same thing. And most trails are a combination of the three but have a dominant soil. Here is his way to check

1-      Find a Spot just upside of the Trail (less chance that other soils have been displaced here) brush off the leaf litter, scoop up a handful of dirt, if it has been dry add a little water, just enough to make it moist.

2-      If you are able to make a ball and not have it crumble, next try to squeeze that ball into a rope, like playing with play doh.

3-      If you can extrude a ribbon between your thumb and index finger, see how far you can squeeze it before it breaks off

He goes on to tell us, “If it crumbles easy and it was gritty you have a high sand content”

“If the ball crumbled, but was pretty smooth otherwise, then it was silt”

“If you were able to make a ball. One that stained your hands, but formed a several inch long ribbon, then you have mostly clay."

Again this is not my info just thought I would share it, plus hey! shit is not always exciting in my life, so talking about something most days is not always easy.

Disclaimer: I am no expert in anything on this blog as it states it is a Beginners journey into Mountain Biking and Beer Brewing. These are just opinion and observation pieces through my eyes as things happen. It is my personal journal for the world to see, that is all. Anything technical I would always refer you to some sort of expert, be it a brewer, or bike shop.