Well, I started out wondering how I might determine a route to the top of the hilltop proposed home site - i.e., contemplate a new road up, or use the much longer existing road which would take more to maintain and had a number of curves that might not satisfy County Fire. All that explained in the OP. I have selected a grading guy but he is tied up now and in any event wants to wait until we have had some rain before starting (and that is fine as we have a long way to go before we get through the other steps). I really just wanted to have more information re what was possible, feasible, etc. And as I have time, I thought it would be a bit of fun to figure this out.
Anyway, what I eventually learned was that I could determine the elevations at the proposed starting point of the new driveway/road, and at the hilltop proposed home site using info on the Internet. And we also measured what seemed to be the most logical way up - with a 300 foot measuring tape reel - the distance from the starting point to the hilltop. Then with the help of Dodgeman and others - providing the math and formula - I could determine that the grade for the proposed road could be made to meet the requirements of County Fire. ( I put the elevation numbers and distance in an earlier post).
The only thing that has changed since then is that I have moved the proposed starting point out about 15 feet further out, and I have marked the proposed route, and have used my tractor to grade a path to the top - about 12+ feet wide. I have also determined that there will be one spot near the beginning where the slope may exceed - slightly - the 12% limit, with the rest easily coming in under 12% - though that could change. With a chainsaw and the tractor I have taken out the smaller trees and bushes etc. to clear the way. There will be 3-4 more trees to move but I will leave those for the bulldozer when the grading contractor gets here - too big for my tractor. It was nice to see the 'way up' sort of cleared out - it all started to make sense once I could see all that take shape. So, I am satisfied now with the feasibility of the more direct route, and happy that I have a lot more info than I had before posting. Hey, and I had a lot of fun doing it as once I had the requisite info re feasibility of the short way up I was able to get a lot of seat time on the tractor.
As always, grateful for the help I find here.
Forgot to mention: the way up seems as if it will be uniformly gradual - but I will be checking on that when I get back to it and will then try to utilize some of the other suggestions here - i.e., to check the grade at any spot where it may seem to be a bit steeper.
