Trail Cleared (and More)

[bmac]

I had a thread running over in the ATV section of TBN soliciting advice on clearing a trail around our 12 acre parcel. The trail is my kids to ride their ATVs on. If you want to save some time reading, I'll summarize the advice I received. 1. Cut the trees and leave the stumps. 2. Cut the trees (or push theme over with a dozer) and remove the stumps. And 3. Bring in a tree mulcher.

I had 3 estimates. The first guy was going to use a skid steer and chain saw to clear the trail. Gave me a price of $8300. Second guy was going to use a skid steer with what sounded like a tree spacde of sorts whereby he was going to dig out each tree and push them to the side. He estimated a day and a half with a fee of $75/hr, with the total fee not to exceed $1000. The 3rd quote was from a guy with a tree mulcher. $150/hr and said he could do it in a day. For a variety of reasons, I went with the mulcher guy.

Here's some pictures of his machine.

[bmac]

Another. Something like 150 HP and some ungodly GPM. It started out as a Cat, but modified by the mulcher outfit - bigger engine, high capacity hydraulics, auxillary oil cooler on the roof of the cab. Scarey.

[bmac]

The buisness end.

[bmac]

Hard to get an action shot because there is so much tree debris flying out of this thing. But here it is in the woods.

[bmac]

Another pseudo-action shot. I took some video that I hope will really show the distruction this thing delivers. I'm working on it now, and if successful, I'll post a link to the video.

[bmac]

Here's a picture of the trail it made. Kind of hard to see, but between the trees with the green surveyour's tape is the path he made.

[bmac]

It only took him about 3 hours to do the trail. Because I had mentally prepared and budgeted for a full a full day, I had him clear the underbrush from the woods behind the house.

Here is a "before" picture.

[bmac]

One more "before".

[bmac]

Here's how things look "after".

[bmac]

Another "after".