trail clearing technique and tools

[airbiscuit]

That will change your life.

 

[ArlyA]

That will change your life.

I've used mowers on trials before, and this summer our current trails were mowed. Here is a DR mower we used for like 8 years.

 

[ArlyA]

Here is some maple shoots we cut this past week. Snow loads do this to nearly all trees here.

 

[ArlyA]

We are under pressure here ... Last night we applied for $20,000 in grants.

 

[kenmbz]

Good luck Arly-hope you get the grant.

 

[ArlyA]

Good luck Arly-hope you get the grant.

Grants are announced on the 15th of this month. We asked $$ for a mower, snow plowing, general operational costs and making the parking lot, into a real one. Here's what it looked like last spring. Might get all the $$, none, or some part of it. If we don't get any, we might not be grooming this winter. A&S can not not pay for it all again.....

 

[airbiscuit]

I know it's difficult to make trails wheelchair accessible, but when you can, it's a cool thing. Wheelchair friendly trails are also stroller friendly. If you have any candidates for that, it might open up other grant opportunities.

 

[hayden]

I admire all you are able to do with just hand power tools. I would be totally exhausted, and unable to make sufficient progress to keep up.

Much of what I'm doing currently is creating "new" trails, and that's a bunch different vs maintaining existing trails. I'd be interested in comparing techniques, understanding there will be differences since I'm more mechanized, but we might learn from each other.

Most of my trails are old logging roads and skid trails. Some are 50-100 years old, and others 10-20 years old. And all have grown over in to widely varying degrees.

This first challenge is locating the trail. Sometimes it's easy and obvious, but a lot of times they are pretty hard to see because of how much they have grown over. Logging trails also generally fan out from a log landing, all dead ending near a property line or the edge of the area that was logged. That leaves trails that can get you lots of places, but dead ends aren't very interesting, so a big challenge I find is deciding which trails to use, and how to connect them in a useful and interesting way.

The first step I take is to map out at least the major trails until I have access to most parts of the lot. I'll only spend as much time as required to get them mapped, and do minimal clearing. All too often I'll reach a dead end, or discover a better trail to get to a particular area, so by doing as quick a survey as possible I can focus the more time consuming work of clearing on the trails that I actually want to use. I'll also often start with a vision for how I want the trails to run, only to change that as I discover what's already in place. Maybe I'm trying to make a loop, or create a trail to the summit of a hill top. Or connect a trail on one parcel through to a trail on another parcel.

When I map the trails I will typically use both a GPS track, and flagging to mark the trail. I find that once you are in the excavator clearing stuff, it's easy to lose track of which way the trail goes and find yourself pushing off in the wrong direction. The flagging makes it a lot easier to follow since otherwise you have to keep stopping and hiking around to re-find the trail. With just the GPS track you can get too far off before you know it.

The hardest trails to create are completely new one, so I try to keep that to a minimum. But when there are adjacent parcels, each with logging trails up to their boundaries, their ends will be close, but not connected. Tying them together to create a loop or trail that actually goes somewhere requires creating a new connector segment. That usually means removing larger trees, and dirt work to level and grade. I try to minimize both, but there is always some amount required.

More to follow in another post...

 

[airbiscuit]

What do you use for GPS? I use either GiaiaGPs or Huntstand to map the trails and tune up stand locations in a Paint app. Here is our 80 acre hunting area.

 

[hayden]

I have tried different levels of construction for trails, and finally settled on what works best for me. For trail use, I want them to be usable for foot traffic, bicycle traffic, and ATVs or side by sides. I don't allow motorized traffic other than by permission for a couple of neighbors who I know are careful operators. Otherwise the trail damage is too great.

But the bigger demand on the trails is both my mechanized building of them in the first place, plus maintenance. I have learned over the years that when I go through to clear a trail, I should cut it back as far as the machines will comfortably reach, and take out all saplings and trees and branches that are reaching into the trail. Beeches are the worst. They want to grow horizontally right into the trail, so I'm very aggressive about nuking them.

I also want the "roadbed" to be wide enough and clear enough that subsequent maintenance can be done with a brush hog in two passes, one out and one back. That makes it really easy to maintain the trails for about 5 years before things have choked in from the sides enough to need another pass with the mulcher. I also try to level the trails so it's not uncomfortable or too tippy to ride them on a side by side since that's how I get around on them.

Stream crossings are common, so I end up having to install culvert pipes. If traffic is very light you can ford small brooks, but I find the damage accumulates, so I usually just put in culverts. And in general, water control is important, especially in steep terrain of which I have quite a lot. Loggers put in water bars when the close out the trails, and I try to preserve most of them, but often have to reconfigure them a bit so they are more passable. And I have had to add a bunch, especially on any longer runs where water flow builds up. If you don't have good water flow control, the trails will wash out really quickly.

All this has evolved into a set of mental guidelines for trail construction.

Next, the actual process of creating the trail....