Mike Riter of Trail Design Specialists (#38)

Trail EAffect Episode 38: with Mike Riter of Trail Design Specialists

This episode first aired on September 8th, 2021 on Mountain Bike Radio

Topics Covered in this show:

• How Mike got into Trails and Trail Building
• The start of the IMBA Trail Care Crew
• Traveling to Europe as the IMBA Trail Care Crew
  • (The blurring of Public & Private Property in Europe)
  • Laws governing trails in England
  • Trail Construction in Europe
• Trails and how they have transitioned from function of travel to recreation
• Writing IMBA’s Guide to Building Sweet Single Track
• Integrating a quality shared use trail experience to promote shared use
• Directional Trails
• The Transition from IMBA TCC to regular life not on the road
• Working as the Georgia State Trails Coordinator
• Starting TDS Trail Design Specialists (Two Dimensional Squirrels)
• Trail Design Specialists – Design and training
• Expanding out of just the South East and into Wisconsin
• Trail Master Training / Class at Kickapoo Valley Reserve, WI
• How Shared Use expanded from Hike & Horses to include Mountain Biking at Kickapoo Valley Reserve
• How Mike has evolved into primarily training through the Trail Master Certification Courses
• Covering the full 4 Day Trail Master Certification Course
• The Feature that Mike continues to push for Trails (Rolling Grade Dip)
• The Evolution of Trail Building from the 90’s to where it is today
• The Trend of getting back to just building really good single track (vs more specialized trail types)

Links discussed during the show:

Trail Design Specialists: https://www.traildesign.com/

IMBA’s Guide to Building Sweet Single Track: https://www.imba.com/resource/trail-solutions

ORA Trails in La Crosse, WI: www.oratrails.org

Support for Trail EAffect Comes from Smith’s Bike Shop in La Crosse, WI https://smithsbikes.com/

This show has been edited and produced by Evolution Trail Services, for more information go to:

Evolution Trail Services: www.evotrails.com

Contact Josh at evolutiontrails@gmail.com

Support the Trail EAffect through Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/traileaffect