Trailism

Category: Trail Science

  • Knot Science

    There’s a whole field of mathematics that studies knots, to explore abstract properties of idealized curves. “But that’s not what you care about if you are, for example, a sailor or a climber and you need to tie something which holds,” says Vishal Patil, a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology whose new […]

  • Lyme Disease Diagnosis

    Hopefully testing does indeed get better: sciencenews.org-testing-new-approaches There is a yet another tick-borne illness to add to the list: Powassan If you are in NY, an Upstate lab tests ticks for diseases — for free: newyorkupstate.com-lab-tests-ticks For more information on tick safety and Lyme literate doctors on Trailism see this.

  • Grade Calories

    School grades, food grades, health grades, trail grades…elevation profiles and the speed at which they are traversed are caloric profiles. The precise relationship between how fast you walk, how steep your trail is, and how much energy you burn turns out to be less obvious than you might assume, which is why researchers at the […]

  • Happy Half Tau Day

    It’s Pi day, or better, Half Tau Day. PDF

  • 5 Things Jordan Crawford Learned From The Appalachian Trail

    I stumbled upon Jordan’s Instagram, and soon after his website because he settled on “trail-ology” to name them both. After reading some of his posts I can see we certainly relate on some level beyond just a word. His piece “5 Things I Learned From The Appalachian Trail” is great (so are many of his […]

  • IMBA’s Position on The Wilderness Act

    find the PDF here IMBA will continue to respect both the Wilderness Act and the federal land agencies’ regulations that bicycles are not allowed in existing congressionally designated Wilderness areas. IMBA is not supporting H.R. 1349.   As part of our commitment to trail access and public land stewardship, we have been involved in discussions […]

  • Smooth Jumps and Rollers

    *for big bikes In thinking about jumps and rollers I assume the safe bet is to make them smooth (not too jerky/bumpy) for bigger bikes as they have the biggest wheel base. For extra large 29ers this is somewhere near 46 inches…which led me to produce the following thought experiment: [rethought/updated, the Brachistochrone or cycloid […]

  • Flow versus Flowy Trails

    Some people may not be familiar with the terms trail gentrification, trail sanitation, or dumbing down. I linked to a post related to this about a year ago. I’m sure there are more terms tied to the same whipping post, but no more come to mind other than “flip-flop-ready”, and “stroller paths.”  These words are […]

  • National Hydrography Dataset

    This site is new news to me, and great for some layout and design situations: https://nhd.usgs.gov/ Although it’s not practical or possible to always bypass the lower 1/8-1/4 of any mountain to lower the chances of hitting seeps as a result of “toe-of-slope-effect,” the site (with the help of GIS) could be used to lower […]

  • The Stair Event

    Not exactly stairs on trails, but food for thought anyway. The Stair Event, is the only film on stair use and safety. It is based on the 1978 field study of spectators’ use of stairs at the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Canada. The Stair Event from Copycat Video Productions on Vimeo.