Trail Status Live — SE Michigan MTB

What is this?

Real-time trail conditions for mountain bikers in SE Michigan. Every trail is checked against current weather data — recent rain, temperature, and the forecast ahead — so you can decide whether it's worth the drive before you leave the house.

Conditions update every 30 minutes. If a trail has a known closure or special situation, the local coordinator can post a manual override that takes precedence over the weather model.

Reading the conditions

Rideable Dry enough to ride. Soil has had enough time to drain and firm up after the last rain.

Caution Rideable but soft in places. Consider skipping if you're on a heavy bike or the trail is clay-heavy.

Too Wet Recent rain and not enough drying time. Riding now causes ruts and lasting damage — please wait.

Rain Actively raining or rain expected imminently. Check the forecast tab for when it clears.

Closed Official closure — seasonal, maintenance, or a known trail issue. Tap the trail for details.

RainSense™

Most weather apps tell you there's a 90% chance of rain — but not whether that's 0.05" or an inch. RainSense™ always shows the actual amount in inches. Colour encodes probability: light blue means unlikely, dark blue means near-certain.

10% chance 50% 90%+ chance

0.05"

25% chance · trace

0.8"

25% chance · significant

0.05"

90% chance · trace

0.8"

90% chance · significant

A 90% chance of 0.05" is a dark blue near-nothing — annoying but not trip-cancelling. A 25% chance of 0.8" is a light blue tall bar — low odds, but worth watching.

How to use this site

1

Trail List — Trails are sorted by distance from your location. Green is good to go. Anything else, check the details.

2

Tap a trail — Opens the Today page: current status, temperature, hours since last rain, and a 12-hour window forecast.

3

Weekly Planner — From any Today page, tap Weekly Plan to see a 7-day forecast and the best riding window ahead.

4

Map View — See all trails at a glance. Marker color matches current status. Tap any marker for a quick summary.

Weather sources

Weather data comes from three sources: Open-Meteo for forecasts and baseline rainfall, NWS airport station observations for timing, and NOAA MRMS radar data (via Iowa Environmental Mesonet) for accurate rain amounts — particularly for localised summer storms that gridded models and airport stations can miss. When radar data corrects the rain figure, a note appears on the trail's detail page.

Drying models are tuned to each trail's soil type and drainage. Official NWS weather alerts for SE Michigan are shown automatically when active.

How you can help

Rate the conditions after you ride. Each trail's Today page has a quick Drier / About right / Wetter button at the bottom. Takes one tap — those reports directly improve how the drying model is tuned for that trail.

Request a feature or report an issue. New trail, something looks wrong, anything — I'd love to hear it.

Send a message →

About

I'm Jon Barks, aka Woof. I'm an avid mountain biker with a fascination with weather. I'd constantly check weather apps and social media reports to plan when to ride — trying to figure out if a trail was actually rideable without causing damage.

This site is a combination of those two passions: a decision tool that brings everything into one place. No ads, no accounts, no tracking.

Questions or corrections? Drop me a note →

Support this site

If this site saves you a wasted drive or helps you catch a perfect window, consider buying me a coffee — it keeps the servers running and the model improving.

Buy me a coffee ☕

Add to your home screen

Trail Status Live works as an app — no App Store required. Once installed it opens full-screen and loads instantly.

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iPhone / iPad — Open this site in Safari, tap the Share button (box with arrow), then tap Add to Home Screen.

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Android — Open in Chrome, tap the three-dot menu, then tap Add to Home Screen or Install app.

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