New research suggests that mountain bikes and boots leave equal wear and tear on trails.
By Michael Lanza. AMC Outdoors Magazine, April 2001 Reprinted with the permission of the Appalachian Mountain Club. How bikers ride and where hikers step may make more of a difference. A few years ago, he began counting hikers and mountain bikes and monitoring the condition of trails in New Jersey's Ringwood State Park, near his home. After months of observation, though, he realized he didn't have enough time to correlate the types of users and trail impacts.