Usually spring time weather consists of light rain, some nice days of soaking rain not too heavy which is good for digging. Some years you don’t get enough rain and its tough claying and fixing the woods up when everything is so dry. This year has been pretty crazy with Tstorms hitting already, humid hot days which makes it feel like July. Its getting a bit ridiculous now with the amount of heavy rain we been getting mixed in with wind, heat, and humidity. Some will blame it on global warming but who knows really. It seems like every year really is different thou, either not enough rain or too much rain, etc etc. Basically what I’m saying is thank goodness for tarps. I guess you can say this is more like a write up on how tarps have saved trails. Last year we spent a good amount of time buying new tarps and making sure all the jumps are covered up real nice. Years before you wouldn’t find a tarp at any trails it was unheard of and maybe it didn’t need to happen yet because it seemed like we didn’t get rain that wrecked the trails all the time. I can remember back to about 4 or 5 years ago one summer we were getting hit with bad tstorms and the jumps would just get hammered. Finally I think everyone had enough of it, since it seemed like you were spending so much time fixing the trails up as to actually riding them. We started using random things to tarp the jumps, and year after year the tarp process got improved. The worst case scenario before we used tarps was to fix the trails up real nice then get hit with a Tstorm the next day. Now that isn’t a problem, the jumps pretty much stay dialed all year as long as their tarped up. Sometimes you gotta scrape some bowls and touch up where the tarps end, but trust me its all worth it. Some people dont like the way tarps look on jumps, kind of takes away from trails being all natural. I think I felt this way at first but if you get the all black ones and roll them up neatly behind the jumps you kind of just get used to them being there. Its also good to use lawn stakes to keep them in place. You also have to take into consideration the do you tarp up if there is a slight chance of rain scenario. Sometimes trails need a little rain certain jumps are real dry so its good to leave them untarped get a bit of rain on them. Its all personal preference and in the end tarps save a lot of time and keep the trails looking good and riding smooth. You can really thank Mike Gentlicore who was tarping his trails like 15 years ago but it took a long time for everyone else to realize to use them. Hes even gone into the whole Soiltac process of keeping his trails basically maintenance free all year. There is also the whole concrete debate but that’s a whole other story. Here are two pics below of jumps that would of fared better with tarps.
PAWOODS 