Showing Love to the Trails During “Mud Season”: Only YOU.

​If you live in Vermont or hike there year-round, you’re probably already familiar with the concept of “Mud Season”—that part of spring where the soil is saturated with snowmelt, the trails are mudholes or icy “monorail” luge courses, and the dirt backroads turn into wheel-devouring quicksand. 

The bear worked for fire, why not mud?

​Vermont’s Green Mountain Club, which manages the famous 272-mile Long Trail (the first long distance hiking trail in the United States, which inspired the Appalachian Trail and other long distance trails), routinely closes the Long Trail and other high-elevation side trails during Mud Season. ​The closure lasts from late March through Memorial Day even though actual “Mud Season” conditions are not necessarily uniform throughout the trail system.  During the closure, hikers are strongly encouraged to pursue other activities or hike lower elevation terrain where the ground has had a chance to dry out sooner. Generally speaking, most hikers in Vermont respect this—some out of a sense of personal responsibility, some falling into line through raw peer pressure. But Mud Season isn't unique to Vermont--it's an issue throughout the Northeast (for instance NY and NH) and other northerly latitudes.

​Changing how you hike in Mud Season is important. Trails are particularly vulnerable to destruction when the soil is saturated and 24-hour day/night spring freeze-thaw cycles are taking place. Wet trails churned up by a lot of boot traffic and frost heaves will erode quickly during the next heavy spring rain or warm-day melt-off, which means that trail maintainers (perpetually overworked, underfunded, underpaid, and with a backlog of priority trail work already on their slate), have to work a lot harder to shore up degraded trails. Hiking during Mud Season can also cause significant ecological damage—this is particularly true with regard to the fragile, endangered alpine plant communities above treeline. 

Spring conditions on the Crawford Path: muddy trail and ice "monorail." [Photo: Iva Blazina Vukelja]

Too, Mud Season conditions influence hikers to use the trails in ways that exacerbate trail entropy. Spring ice “monorails” (caused by hikers compacting snow into very hard ice over the course of the winter hiking season) melt slower than the surrounding snowpack, keeping trail soils damp longer, and creating unpleasant slippery obstacles. Monorails also increase the speed of runoff and channel water flow along the sides of trails, gullying them. To avoid slipping on the monorail (especially on the downhill) and to avoid stepping in the muddy areas that have melted out around the monorail, some hikers (too many!) will walk off trail, which causes a widening of the trail course called “trail braiding.” Braided trails move the footway away from the true trail and whatever erosion control measures (water bars, steps, etc.) were built into it. This results in more erosion and can make it harder for hikers to identify the correct trail course during snow-off conditions, exacerbating the problem.

Above treeline during mud season, following monorail melt-off. Notice the footbed of the trail is wetter than the surrounding terrain. The foremost hiker is hiking off the trail and in the fragile alpine area to avoid the mud. {Photo: Iva Blazina Vukelja]

​The best way to avoid damaging trails in mud season is to refrain from hiking them until they have sufficiently dried out, i.e. hike elsewhere, at lower elevations, or further south, or engage in other activities altogether.  Whether a trail is sufficiently dried out can be subjective and hard to assess if you don’t have experience with trail maintenance (and that’s why the Green Mountain Club has a general “closure” season). In places other than Vermont, one might consider a general rule of thumb: when the snowpack surrounding the trail is more than 40% melted out over any course of 500 feet in length; when there is a lot of lingering monorail with melted-out bare earth surrounding it; when the mud on the trail is ankle-deep or deeper for extended stretches; when you are finding yourself frequently walking around the trail to avoid ice and mud instead of on it—you’re probably hiking in “Mud Season.”

GMC's Long Trail Guide has a section dedicated to Mud Season etiquette.

If you are determined to hike in the early spring (perhaps you’re Gridding and are reluctant to give up the month of April), there are some things you can do to reduce your impact:
 

• Plan your timing and approach to minimize damage. Hike as early in March and April as you can, and as late in May as you can. Hike on colder, overcast days when the ground is frozen. Hike just after a heavy spring snowfall (as long as temperatures are still cold). Favor north-facing approaches and more gradual (less steep) trails. Avoid south-facing approach trails, steeper trails, warm sunny days (especially above treeline), and hiking during or after significant rainfall.
  
  
• Stay on the actual trail. Use GPS, blazes, personal knowledge, and awareness to stay on the actual course of the trail. Don’t walk off trail just because others have done so—set a good example by laying out the correct course. Prepare to walk right on monorail ice or through trail mud—not around it. Bring appropriate traction (crampons might be needed, not just spikes) and footwear that will allow you to tolerate mud. Carry snowshoes and wear them when snow depth warrants, instead of postholing (petrified postholes in ice monorail cause obstacles which further influence hikers to step off-trail).
  
  
• Hike in smaller groups, and on less-travelled trails. Less travelled trails are less likely to have dense ice monorail. Having to repeatedly hike around a lot of other people (because of large group sizes or trail popularity) can widen the trail course and cause trail braiding. ​

See you in the spring! --Paul-William

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