Summertime Syllamo Trail Conditions

I’m very sad to type this right now, but I found out yesterday (the hard way, of course) that there are frequent sections of overgrowth on my favorite trails. Violent, thorny, skin-ripping overgrowth. I left Memphis yesterday in hopes to go for a short ride on the Red trail then head out for a longer blue/orange ride this morning. However, once I was on the trail, my hopes for fun rides quickly faded into visions of blood and spiders.

Well, I’d say that about 90% of the trail was OK. It was a little bushy, but as long as you watched out for new deadfall and rocks, you’d be OK…

good

However, the bad, overgrown parts were really bad…

bad

I managed about 7 miles of the loop before I said “eff it” and took a bail-out trail back to Green Mountain road. I was bleeding from my elbows and knees, and (despite saturating myself with bugsray) wondered how many spiders, ticks, and chiggers were invading my skin. It sucked.

seeds

glove

ow1

leg

bugs

BTW- those little brown dots are bugs of some sort. Chiggers? Ticks? I have no idea. I hosed them with bug spray so they’d stay put in the time before I got into the shower. I was pretty disappointed in the whole thing.

After getting back to the cabin & cleaning up, I headed back down to Anglers for some catfish, then made it back to the cabin just in time to catch the tail end of the sunset, which made things a little better…

toes3

6 thoughts on “Summertime Syllamo Trail Conditions

  1. i’ve heard those little brown bugs called chiggers and turkey mites both. not sure what they are, but i do know my recent run in on a trail ride produced little itty spots for about a week. good luck with that. i thaught i had washed them off quick enough and then covered myself with off as well to kill the remaining few but it was to late.

  2. There is a product that could easily help that situation. Glyphosate is a very effective product for weed control and is safe to use.I believe it is approved by the Forest Service. Dad

  3. Is there a list of the volunteers who signed up to help maintain a specific section of the trail? If so, seems those should be contacted.

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