The Cycling Independent is actually a community, with the site at its nexus. Many of our contributors started as readers, and as we’ve gone along we’ve discovered just how many of you have expertise or experiences worth sharing with the community.
Ken Barker is one of those people, the proprietor of Backyard Trails, based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Ken has been a supporter of the Revolting podcast, and we were in touch as I thanked him for helping make that show possible, but of course, as with so many of you, I then found out about his very deep connection to bikes, which led to this brief interview.
TCI: How did you get into trail building in the first place?
Ken: When I was a kid, I would dig jumps and use my little sister’s step through framed Huffy because it was lighter than my Coast King dime store bike with mags and could fly a little higher, so I guess you could say I’ve been playing in the dirt since childhood. Rediscovering the joy of scratching Earth and riding in the woods happened during the 90s. In the aughts I began actively advocating for trails and volunteering a bunch, attending trail schools, reading every trails book I could get my hands on…this all descends into the rabbit hole of trails obsession (MTB travels, IMBA travels, trail job travels, etc.) eventually leading to the launch of Backyard Trails in 2017.
TCI: What are the big mistakes amateur trail builders make?
Ken: Trick question! None, volunteers are great; they really are. Back to your loaded question .. I never bag on someone’s hard work as mistakes are one of the best ways to learn, and DIY trails can be really, really good. That being said, design/layout is critical to the process of developing a trail; also knowing your audience (present and or forecasted) and building what they need/desire vs. building for yourself. Being open-minded to the possibilities, knowing your own strengths/weaknesses/preferences, listening (really listening) to who you are building the trail for, and of course understanding the limits of the land and who owns that land are important variables to take into consideration.
TCI: What percentage of your work is design, planning and approval versus actual shovels in dirt trail building?
Ken: Digging is difficult but I would say all the work prior to the shovel is in a lot of ways harder. I don’t have a percentage, but we spend most of the winter, shoulder seasons, and some of the construction season working on this aspect of trails development…such blueprints and front work really help trails come to fruition in a professional manner, similar to other recreation facilities like playgrounds, ball fields, swimming pools, etc.
TCI: How many volunteers is too many?
Ken: Depends on the task(s) and leader(s) ability to guide folks…for me it’s important to have a good plan to help bring whatever vision for the trail experience is to life, and to quickly as possible assess the strengths of the volunteers and facilitate them doing what they can best do to help the trail be great. Often when leading volunteers you don’t get to do any actual trail work; herding cats, but cats are awesome so…we’ve led groups in the 30-40 range (too maahch) but prefer a smaller knowledgeable team to get things done.
*But we also really appreciate volunteers and the creativity that come from working with a variety of humans; just not too many other them.
TCI: How long does your average project take?
Ken: It’s all over the place depending on the size and technical difficulty of the project…some can take as little as a week or two, the one we are on now could take a year, sneak peek. Here’s another vid of an epic build (~3 years) that I watch when I think what we’re doing is arduous (12+ minutes of your life you won’t get back, the intro gets the idea across.).
TCI: What has been your best work, to date? Where can we ride it?
Ken: Oh man, laser beam questions <insert pew pew sound effect> the project we’re on now is some of our best work to date…it is in a county park in Iowa named Pinicon Ridge. Another trail we are quite proud of is the Aspen that is part of a larger linear system near here.