To Ride or Not to Ride... Robinette's

I want to try and get back to riding Robinette's Apple Orchard's MTB trail again. For the past several years, the trail has been slowly disappearing from the lack of use... and the lack of maintenance by Robinette's. The trail is slowly overgrowing itself. Sad.

A few years ago, some development on the far side of the property spread rumors of the demise of the trail. People began to avoid the trail due to the confusion. On top of that, the $3/day rider fee didn't seem to go where that money should have gone... back into trail work to keep it in great shape. I do not know if the lack of this is due to Robinette's losing interest in the trail, laziness or just plain ignorance (where the people that did all the work in previous years have left for one reason or another). Anyway, the trail is in rough shape.

Rumors have also been thrown around that the new Grand Rapids Bicycle Company was going to adopt the trail as its own, helping to provide upkeep and promotion of the trail. I have not heard anything regarding that in a few months and have to admit, I don't have the time right now to pop in there and poke around.

A few years ago, they actually opened up the orchard for some cyclocross action, but not in the past few years.

So... I plan to try and ride the trail at some point before it gets too cold. Around here, when hunting season kicks in, a lot of the best trails close or are highly cautioned to riding. Privately owned land which is open for use with an MTB trail are few and far between (anywhere really) so I would like to keep as many opened as possible. This trail is one of the most challengingly "short" venues in the area and I would like to help bring it back on the radar.

First and foremost is to renew interest. If that can happen than more riders will ride the trail and wear it in. Next is to find a way to get regular upkeep done on the trail... Robinette's, GRBC and/or the MMBA? The riders fees there are suppose to cover all that, but...

Sigh. I know it is all hopes and wishes... but it would be nice. It is one of the closest trails to downtown Grand Rapids... unless Versluis (sp?) Orchard on the west side decided to open one up (they hold the annual Snow Cross there).