I Explored Helene Damaged Mountain Bike Trails

[@MatthewCallier]

Bless the volunteer trail builders and maintainers.

[@Chubacca838]

I've worked on trails for a few years. Storm downed trees are the worst! I've luckily never suffered any injury, however the same cannot be said about an old boss of mine. He was clearing out a bunch of trees fallen together and accidentally cut a limb that was holding tension for another tree, which snapped at his ankle. He kept working the rest of the day with pain, clearing over 10KM of trails. Turns out the next morning he found out he had a broken bone in his leg. Thankfully he was wearing proper PPE, I can't imagine how much worse it could've been!

[@SnowIsMyTerrain]

Heh, I find the saw work to be the most interesting part a lot of the time. It's always interesting figuring out how to tackle a particular tree or problem. It is no joke though, and you absolutely have to know what you're doing and be able to know your limits. That said, if it's something you're interested in, many of the bigger trail orgs have a process to work on getting you trained and certified so you can cut on public land! Go do some dig days, put in the work and ask around. I've spent a lot of time doing backcountry saw work on some of the more unloved trails in my area and it's been super fun (and yes, I am doing it legally)

[@aloraluna3455]

Thank you volunteers, trail builders, foresters, forest and conservation workers, and you too, Seth, for bringing us these updates.

[@ryan3416]

good on those volunteers. The definition of Yeoman's Work right there. God speed in your recovery from Alberta Canada.

[@jackkelsey5043]

Thank you so so so much for putting out this video, Seth! The volunteers and linemen up here have been working absolute miracles, and thanks to them, many places are now ready to reopen, at least partially. Many towns up here, especially along the open sections of I40 and Hwy 74 DESPERARELY need tourism, so plan a visit or three folks!

[@Casitascrawlers]

Its amazing that the Forest Service even had the time & resources to work on the trails. Looks like it washed away the dirt all the way down to rock. After a huge fire the next rain season we had some bad storms & it damaged our trails so bad the were closed & impassable. Eventually we went & did an exploration ride & some areas we couldn't even tell where we were.

[@SnowIsMyTerrain]

It looks like they're volunteers who've gone through and gotten their certification from the USFS (well.. USDA technically) in order to be able to saw on their land. Out here much of the saw work is done by folks like that because, as you pointed out, the USFS is stretched thin.

[@Casitascrawlers]

@SnowIsMyTerrain Those are some dedicated people for sure. I've done trail maintenance & according to our Forest service you can cut back brush but yiy cannot do any work as far as the dirt & rocks on the trail there has to be a hydrologist there. One time I spent hrs. doing maintenance only to get back to my truck & find someone broke my window & stole whatever they could but I'm smart enough to not leave much it was my broken window that pissed me off. 🤨

[@jemsmay2167]

Thanks for sharing Seth. I’m actually amazed how good it is given the circumstances. Great work by the recovery/repair crews, really surprised how rapidly they have made progress. Great work by you calling attention to all the hard work and giving the crews the help and recognition they deserve.

[@micahnuckols5046]

A lot of that work is some of the best work you can do because there's nothing like being outside on a nice day with great people getting exercise and doing something to make things nicer for the community.

[@dennisfloyd8514]

Well done Seth. I live in Ma and there is zero news about this. I wouldn’t know how bad things are if it wasn’t for your channel. Good on you for brining attention to this issue. Good luck, keep doing what you do!

[@joeanon3888]

We had a terrible storm here in KY that hit Mammoth Cave National Park and our local IMBA Chapter cut over 250 trees off Big Hollow trail... we love our trail volunteers!

[@daledubose3032]

Those trail workers are heros

[@avmaviator]

Although I appreciate getting trails back online, fixing mtb trails so some people can go have fun/a work out is not hero stuff. If they were down helping people clear mud out of their houses or rebuilding essential roads I would be more inclined to call them heroes…

[@Dwyeb73]

@@avmaviatorthere are hero’s on different levels. Just sayin.

[@mcdonoughnicra]

If tourism brings in that much money, maybe the need to beef up the budget a bit.

[@tylerk.7947]

Yeah. $6000 a year for all the trails in pisgah ranger district?! That is nothing!

[@subyrally]

The service team from Fox Factory were out there the Friday the forest reopened. We went through the bottom half of Trace up to Coffee Pot. Ran out of time by the point we made it that far up.

[@RodMesa-e2t]

Those volunteers are Big Damn Heroes.Thanks for sharing this story of what's going on post Helene and how the community is responding. It's what America is all about.

[@Brian-sz2ti]

Rode bent creek yesterday, looking so good! Thanks for all the work!

[@mikebambamvincent2024]

I live down in the Hickory area. It's wild that 15 to 40 minutes north they got devastated. The mudslides are so insane and tributaries that were puddles feeding in the rivers like they were large creeks..it's hard to believe. Many prayers to all the families who survived and the volunteers that are supplying help.

[@mattmurphy24]

I visited the area a couple years back on a cross country road trip with my daughter. We camped and swam at lake Powhatan, had lunch in Asheville , visited folk art center, then drove, hiked and swam along the blue ridge parkway on our way to smokey mtn national park. Great nature and friendly people. We both really enjoyed the area. A highlight on the trip for sure. Good Luck on the recovery. Thanks for the video.

[@glitchman3194]

Excellent information about the trails. Thanks for sharing. Enjoy the ride

[@martysoulard7349]

Thanks for sharing Seth. It is heartwarming the depth of human character in action there.

[@Dwyeb73]

Great to see people coming together for a greater cause. In that area right now there is something that everyone can do if they are willing and able.

[@seattlegrrlie]

That's awesome Seth (and all the volunteers). Need to plan a vacation to N. Carolina. Rent a bike, hit your trails and eat your foods

[@stevehague3836]

thank you for updating us on conditions

[@jg2wheels]

My son and I camped at Mills River this past April. Crazy seeing those trails washed out from the Parkway. As you said though, not nearly as devastating as the communities affected. 😔

[@lidarman2]

Brings back memories of the 2013 flood here in Boulder, CO and the trails destroyed. Then later, we had trails destroyed by wildfire and some of them have barely been rebuilt and opened again.

[@alexander.sollie]

Same here. LHOHV is a silver lining though.

[@jynxyboy95]

I have never been there, but it sure does look absolutely amazing with some insanely awesome trails. Thank you to those whom tend to trails and maintain them. You guys/gals are heros of the cycling world that uses trails!

[@rotorblade7363]

Thank you for the video. It's great to see the recovery efforts.

[@Elmo6855]

Really appreciate the focus on WNC recovery.

[@iamdamo]

Amazing to see such a rapid response! Kudos to all the volunteers.

[@Greenfuego]

Clearing snag patches like that is for the well-qualified c-fallers. Great to hear that so many volunteers are showing up to get the forest open again. Beautiful country. I’ll have to,add it to my bucket list

[@jasonseiverling5354]

Seth, you're a hella good guy. I hope to shake your hand one day. I've said it before, you got me back into bike riding. Thank you for everything you do.

[@JacobTechShit]

Love this channel

[@avocadotoast9489]

Looking forward to getting back out to Berm Park.

[@efmtb]

seth you should buy a few more of the chain saws and try turning them into an actual chain with the sharp parts on the outside. you should also see if it would work as a chain whip.

[@jeffpower6473]

How would the teeth make it through the derailleur?

[@efmtb]

@ single speed

[@damnedlock2956]

I was wondering when trails were going to be fixed....I knew it was kinda last on the list of important things but Im glad its getting cleared...its good to know what trails are good and what is bad.

[@drmoynihan]

WOW - we were just in the Appalachian Mountains around Boone for a Wedding in June. Our friends were safe but roads were out and recovery slow. Very informative, including the cost to the community and the whole State of North Carolina's economy. Thank you for sharing.

[@VaultCord]

Great video, good luck to Blue Ridge Parkway and Pisgah

[@angelicacrosby778]

Thanks for the update stay safe 🎉

[@kendrewreviews]

It would be great if those cut down trees could be used for riding features, benches, or something. Perhaps public funds can be used to pay for local artists to carve them into sculptures

[@rethridermtb3262]

Great to see the recovery efforts are going so well. Unfortunately our first. trip to Asheville was scheduled for September 29th through October 6th, so we had to change plans.

[@ethanmccorkle6693]

My buddy and I want to take out bikes and ride down to ashville on the parkway from roanoke, we've had some of our parkway washed out and it takes FOREVER for the parkway to be fixed. I really the parkway can be fixed within a reasonable amount of time for the sake of yalls economy and me and my buddy's senior trip. Thanks for inspiring me and my friends to bike and we pray for all of yalls safety down in NC.

[@SarahBaethge]

Thanks for the info!

[@inMotionOutdoors]

Thank you for covering this

[@brilog69]

Thanks Seth! Great news. I love those trails!

[@JoseOsorio-s6e]

I hope you guys are safe have a good day berm peak❤

[@JustAFloridaKid]

Been waiting for this video

[@marcodm]

Bring in some big boulders across the creek. Keep filling with smaller and smaller stone. Water can always pass through. Flood surge like that dont think will happen in a long time again

[@AWNWY972]

Wow . . . inspiring and amazing people.

[@raeperonneau4941]

Thank you for the update!

[@SlingsAxes]

Thank you for this, Seth.

[@timetoslaughter]

I thought I saw a Seth doppelgänger walking around CB drinking coffee on the morning of I think the 22nd of September. I see you brought the snow that weekend.

[@Tony.in.motion]

Thank you for sharing

[@spaceman4782]

This is what I keep telling people who are still trying to keep tourists out of western NC- you literally need them to continue existing.

[@michaelfleming4015]

I worked on the trails at Oleta using a pocket chainsaw very similar to yours. Good times!

[@88perestroika]

Once they are all clear, you should do a top 10 trails in pisgah video to celebrate!

[@OldManAzeban]

Vermont was devastated by Irene and hasn’t recovered yet; that was over a dozen years ago. Used to be ranked for foliage season. The landscape devastation and our local government not doing anything to repair the damage has greatly impacted the economy. For a state that’s primary source of revenue is tourism.

[@RockyPondProductions]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="396">6:36</a> those Nordic style chain saws are legitimately terrible. They barely work and bind up all the time to the point where you can't get through much. A small foldable saw is a way better option.

[@stujm8376]

Looks like where I ride in Italy, the difference being that it’s hunters that drag trees across trails as they hate mountain bikers… the hills are for everyone, they just think they own them. I hope enough people help out, it’s cool to see people working together

[@whateverrobert]

Finally a full riding video.

[@nathanboy7448]

Broken trails are better than no trails

[@LuckyLapin]

love you seth

[@Brett0206]

At <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="144">2:24</a> you can tell how deep the slide was when it was flowing. There are mud splashes about 10 ft up the trees near the creek.

[@Robert_McGarry_Poems]

I worked out of Leicester NC, doing forest service jobs through the wild fire company I once worked for.

[@_Justinriceism_]

A bike/pack/gear check for something like this would be interesting to see. We got a lot of tornado damage in the Midwest this year and that chainsaw is a good idea.

[@zeldajunkielol2]

I live in an area that was affected by superstorm Sandy in 2012 and just to fix a small portion of trail it cost almost 1 million dollars. I can't imagine how much this trail will cost to fix if they have to do environmental studies

[@Wiroe]

Got my 2 bikes stolen the other night, so none of this nice autumn riding for me… Posted an ad on pinkbike buy/sell under stolen bikes, the Spark and Tyee. Would really appreciate if people around Europe keep their eyes open 🙏🏼

[@orulz1]

It strikes me that many of the mudslides started at a spot whwre the natural grade had been altered. In some cases it is an embankment for an old logging road that gave out and set the slide in motion. In more instance than just this one, though, it is the venerable blue ridge parkway that served as the catalyst.

[@rob-c.]

Where there aren’t any trees too. Trees are great and preventing erosion.

[@LongPeter]

On the plus side, it will likely be better after it is fixed. Fox Creek bike park evaporated in a bush fire a few years ago. It was so wrecked that the state government finally had no choice but to provide funding to fix it up properly. My brother couldn’t even get them to install a toilet at the car park for twenty years.

[@kindradeleon9053]

Now it’s a good DH trail !

[@pdvision2194]

My brothers around hard times cleaning up all around that area.

[@dylandrumhero6]

One of the more beautiful aspects of mountain biking: a natural disaster can wreak havoc and mass destruction, but you’ll still be able to have a mostly decent ride.

[@kerryseabrook2438]

good job

[@RuggedRunnerOverland]

Unfortunately it was more than tropical storm force winds that hit that area, according to the NWS (National Weather Service) they measured winds of 130mph on Mt Mitchell...it's why there is so much wind damage to the trees on the higher ridges and mountain tops. Now that access to some areas has improved there has been a lot of footage posted lately showing not just the damage from the mudslides, debris flows and river valley flooding but also the massive areas where entire sections of forests were shredded from the 100+mph winds.

[@thedubdude7720]

Very true.. unfortunately this ruined my annual trip this year

[@kyleosbun]

I carry one of those hand chain saws with me when i dirtbike. Its the best and far more efficient than i though

[@vaughndoerr7751]

I knew I saw you in CB LESGOOOO!

[@Verbot819]

Being early to a berm peak vid feels unusual

[@_Zane__]

14" of rain is crazy

[@willkeene661]

Honestly, those washed out trail beds look like a lot of fun. If this happened at windrock they'd leave the trail as it is.

[@jackbartash4044]

I love you!

[@jackbartash4044]

❤

[@m.i.c.h.o]

Love the thumbnail lol. This was trail

[@todd727300]

In the big scheme, that isn't really damage. That is how mother nature builds all that beauty. It'll all be good, trail will have to be fixed and cleaned up and at some point, nature will move the trail again.

[@Jman1999x]

Is there anyway we could get an update on your backyard trails? Maybe on Express but I am curious how everything is looking

[@mokshpathak-y4i]

My mom always go up blue ridge parkway it's so sad to see what has happened

[@JJR_BIKES]

That is great that the volunteers are clearing this! How are the berm peak trails and features doing?

[@mathewnunez]

How does the Berm creek trails look at your house? Also berm park Seth?

[@MrMeheheh]

It won't collapse necessarily and it certainly doesn't need to be built to sustain a similar natural disaster. People built trails over landslides where I ride and it stayed fine for 5 years so far. One never knows unless you want to drill boreholes etc...

[@aarongosser6117]

As a resident of North Carolina I find 6k ridiculous. Who can I contact about this?

[@alexander.sollie]

It’s the federal forest service, which is part of the Department of Agriculture. So the first step would be voting by Tuesday.

[@growlith6969]

Incredibly sad. So much time energy and money has gone into making that region very special. I'm trying to imagine if my favorite Colorado trails suddenly got water bombed to hell and it's really really hard to imagine. I don't know what I would do besides run around with a chain saw and a shovel.

[@redchainsaw791]

16 minutes, never been this early to a berm peak video

[@whateverrobert]

I’ve helped clean up trails and yes. Look at the whole picture not one tree. It might be binding or holding and just bad news if you cut one. And boom. Leave it to the pros. My job was cutting a tree to be able to pass though. We did not get hit bad just heavy bad lighting and rain

[@Liam1992]

Trees are one of the most unpredictable dangerous things in the world! Been a arborist for 15 years and even i never know which way it's going to fall but I do know how to cut without trees rolling onto me and know how to make trees stand back up after falling because it is possible alot of the time you just need to anchor them after for a while, nature is scary ne careful lads!

[@urouroniwa]

I often think this is why the mountain biking community here in Japan isn't that well developed. Not to diminish the disaster that has befallen you guys, we get 2 or 3 similar kinds of events every year here. Over the years they have built up strategies to defend against it. So along the roads, you'll often see miles of mountains encased in concrete with drainage systems. It's pretty elaborate. But the point is that up in the mountains, landslides are really common. Even with all of the preventative work, where I live usually 2/3 of the roads are closed in one section or another, with constant work crews. It's not that a road is closed forever, but there are *always* roads closed due to land slides. Within that structure, it's pretty difficult to maintain long term mountain bike trails. Either you can't get to it, or the cost of maintenance is too high. Although, having said that, enormous amounts of money are spent on keeping hiking trails open -- to the point of having literal stair cases carved into the mountain to make it easier to walk. So maybe mountain biking will catch up some day. I wonder if places like the US will start to adopt the very high cost maintenance that Japan has done -- at least in important areas. Possibly the larger areas are not economical and... to be frank, the result is often unbelievably ugly (concrete mountains). But global climate change is a thing and these weather events are just going to get more common and more devastating, so probably something needs to be done.

[@simonm1447]

Here in Germany mountainbiking isn't that developed too. This is not because we would have natural disasters like hurricanes or wildfires (we don't have them), it's because it has a low priority for the authorities and most of the population and the federal government even discussed this year to ban mountainbikes completely from entering forests (luckily there was enough resistance to prevent this). There are very little trails (what you have here are the logging and fire roads) and building real mtb trails is legally difficult. However we can be happy we don't have such severe natural disasters, because authorities here would not be able to handle it. They suck and they would just fail to do a proper disaster response. They also failed catastrophically years back in the Ahrtal flooding. A lot of authorities and emergency services have become disfunctional, and this is not the fault of the volunteers who still do a great job, but the fault of the ones in the authorities who are no longer able to organize everything.

[@Happy_Biker]

That's an amazing human powered chain saw, Seth - where can we get that? Hoping to come there in the next weeks.

[@scottkaptein-u8h]

This is crazy

[@KristofferEk]

That land slide is gon a ha e to become a bridge of some kind and its posible they should leave the rot vault alone as its safer left laying. Cause those rots can weigh a couple of tuns them selfs and if your not carefull cutting them you can end up badly ingured or worse dead.

[@owenneedham4651]

That's my average trail in my trail system year round 😅

[@mopseydocks6014]

What is the bag on your handlebars?

[@rondavis3232]

Open up to emtb for more visitors, more money, more fun, and to catch up with the rest of the world.

[@WesleyChevez]

is there going to be a video of berm park? I went there and the entrance was devastating.

[@stackingdimes6939]

Great video would be you trying to cut one of those trees by hand with a chain saw blade 🤣