Friends of Webster Trails

I went to a Friends of Webster Trails meeting yesterday evening. It's actually the monthly board meeting, but it's open to the public. There really isn't a meeting for just plain members. Being a member pretty much means you're just supporting the trails, and receiving a newsletter. There were about 8 board members and 2 of us new members. The average age in the room was probably in the high 50's. They were all very welcoming.

Early on I introduced myself as a mountain unicyclist. I was surprised not to get any clown jokes. And at least one person said they saw me on a trail.
At the end of the meeting I explained that I came to learn about which trails I'm allowed to ride. Really this means, which trails are bikes allowed on.

I might not understand it all completely, but this is how I think it is.

Town Owned Trails
Over the recent years, my town has been buying up land to preserve green space. The managed trails on town land are open to hiking, biking, and horses. Though it sounds like there isn't very much horse activity.

Donated Land
Some of the trails are on land that has been donated by people who owned it. Or maybe they still own it? However it is, these trails have the "Pedestrian Only" because that was/is required by the donor/owner. It sounds to me like someone did a good thing by letting people use their land for recreation, so I think I'm cool with that. (Not to mention there aren't a whole lot of trails in this category)

County Owned
A good number of trails are on county owned land. There is a currently a county law/restriction/whatever that says "No Bicycles" on these trails. ally1776, you might be right about the liability issues with this one.
But it sounds like there is some effort to remove this restriction, so I'll have to learn more about that.

There's one fairly new trail (Midnight Trail) that the group made that is on a piece of land surrounded by county land. So you can't bike into it, but you can bike on it.
They recommended getting dropped in by helicopter. Ha ha.

Some members shared info with me about other riding places in nearby towns. There's some kind of trail system just for mountain biking not too far away.
So I learned a lot about the trails.

And I am now a member, so that's cool. I'm sure I'll be helping out with trail maintenance and trail building soon.