BOISE FOOTHILLS, Idaho — Snow and rain mean muddy trails for the Boise Foothills — which hikers and bikers should avoid to reduce erosion. The Ridge to Rivers trail system also offers all-season and paved trail options until muddy trails dry or freeze for the season.
- You can find an interactive map of current trail conditions in the Ridge to Rivers trail system here.
- You can find more information on trails that are often muddy and good alternatives to use here.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
"A lot of us that are up here all the time, we don't want to be messing with muddy trails," says Sherry Gorrell.
She enjoys the Boise Foothills trail system with her dog Ellie every day, but when the weather gets wet, they sometimes run into muddy trails.
"Some of them are really, you should not be on them. Now, we have a lot of sandy trails as well, and the sandy trails, that's where you wanna be if you're hiking," says Gorrell.
"The rule of thumb is as you're walking on a trail, if you see your footprint in the mud we ask that you turn around and come back," says Doug Holloway, Director of Boise Parks and Recreation.
He says their team assesses the trails on a daily basis and will often recommend closures when conditions are right for erosion.
"What the bikes do, what your footprint does is it creates damage on the trail that in some cases can't be repaired," says Holloway.
"Yeah, so we walked along the trail right here and once we got up to the gate and started walking through to kind of go up and make a loop, the trails were a little bit muddy so we just turned around and came back," says Heather Lopez.
She tells me when she runs into mud in the foothills, she'll walk around her neighborhood or the greenbelt instead — until the trails dry out.
The soil makeup on certain trails makes them more susceptible to mud, but the trail system also has a variety of all-weather trails and paved paths that are open year-round as an alternative.
"We see these types of conditions all the way through late spring, unfortunately. When we get some freezes, it's OK to be on the trail as long as they're not thawed," added Holloway. "Go to the Boise River Greenbelt, go to a number of our park systems where we have paved pathways, and utilize those until the conditions resolve and you can actually get on the trail."
