Why do we like trails so much?

[Liquidsilver]

With 17 miles of single track on my property, I spend a lot of time working them by hand. Loppers and chainsaw mostly. The dirtbikes actually keep a pretty good path to hike on, too.

 

[deezler]

With 17 miles of single track on my property, I spend a lot of time working them by hand. Loppers and chainsaw mostly. The dirtbikes actually keep a pretty good path to hike on, too.

Dang, thats a lot of trail. How many acres do you have?

 

[herefromthere]

When people on TBN talk about what they will do with their CUT, inevitability maintaining trails is one of the tasks mentioned. I remember the fun of making and exploring trails as a child. It seems like when I'm not working on trails, I'm planning on making more. So, what is it about trails that draws us in so much?

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The Fairbanks city bus that Christopher McCandless lived in is a nice touch on the map.

Worked hard to establish a perimeter trail around my property initially, but didn't really get into building a true trail network until last year. Now I have my ADD trail system in progress. Keep finding myself seeing an aesthetic feature or terrain I like and opening a random section of trail near it. Over time, I'll figure out how to connect to the rest of the trails.

Eventually, there will be some tractor trails in there to access firewood or milling wood, but so far I've just built singletrack for walking myself and the dog. Stepping out the door and immediately onto a trail is awesome!

 

[masscity]

We do many, many hours of trail clearing each summer and we have also been training on how to do it. This is with whackers, saws, loppers etc, etc and in the northern hardwoods. On our dogs blog is a section dedicated to that, but its mostly photos. If anyone has any questions on the hows and whys, I'm game to try answering questions.

I live 11 miles west of Courtney Lake. I used to go camping there when I was a kid.

 

[ArlyA]

In case this is of interest, many of the trails we do are NFS and motor vehicles are not allowed but some are wide enough that our 6x6 can go with us and the FS will grant us a pass. For help with trail work, was the main reason we got this machine. Here is pictures of the Polaris boss at work.

With us we bring several 32" bypass fiskars loppers, small axle, 2 complete pole saws and all associated accessories for them in there own box. To many thing in it for me to write. Small digging bar, small shovel. What I'm I forgetting??

Food, water, extra clothing, sawyer first aid kit, Epi pens for insect stings, extra gloves, forestry hard hats etc.. This is all I can think of right now!

 

[airbiscuit]

The Fairbanks city bus that Christopher McCandless lived in is a nice touch on the map.

Ya, that was Google Images to represent our 1952 Chev Bus/Hunting Shack. Good catch!

 

[airbiscuit]

The Fairbanks city bus that Christopher McCandless lived in is a nice touch on the map.

Worked hard to establish a perimeter trail around my property initially, but didn't really get into building a true trail network until last year. Now I have my ADD trail system in progress. Keep finding myself seeing an aesthetic feature or terrain I like and opening a random section of trail near it. Over time, I'll figure out how to connect to the rest of the trails.

Eventually, there will be some tractor trails in there to access firewood or milling wood, but so far I've just built singletrack for walking myself and the dog. Stepping out the door and immediately onto a trail is awesome!

About half my trails were skidder trails from some selective logging, but still had to be cleared of slash. One fourth were 8' tall brush that I cut with that little Shibaura. The remaining 1/4 were done by plotting a route and cutting down trees, then cutting the stumps low enough that theoretically my rough cut mower won't hit them.

I try to have trails near the property lines, and wherever I want to walk during deer season. I find it therapeutic to make and mow trails, but I find it less fun to clear blowdown each spring. Our property is (now) 80 acres and the trails are all 6' - 12' wide. I've found that if it's not too much effort, it's better to make them wider to start, because they always get narrower. See post #13 for the app that worked great for mapping them.

 

[Liquidsilver]

Dang, thats a lot of trail. How many acres do you have?

A bit over 400 acres. Mostly woods.

 

[bearthebruce]

On 200 acres, we have built trails and are adding more. In the map, Orange are established trails, Blue are trails planned, yellow are trails that are being built - where bright yellow represent walking trails and dull mustard yellow are started trails.

Brown lines represent different parcels. Grey is a power line. Violet is water - as in springs and such.

We use an app called Hunt Stand to make the map and keep track of things.

We opened the trails to allow us better access for deer hunting and recreation such as walking. We are trying to have trails around the perimeter of the property. Not all sections are possible for the machines.

 

[Rustyiron]

I need to do some mapping, 711 acres of woodland and MILES of various condition roads to skid trails.
How do you like Hunt stand?
Does a phone provide enough information (or whatever) to make a fairly accurate map?

 

[bearthebruce]

How do you like Hunt stand?
Does a phone provide enough information (or whatever) to make a fairly accurate map?

It does. We make the trails by looking at topo background maps. Then we walk the proposed path using the locator trace function in Hunt stand. This uses the GPS to trace where we have been. Mind, at times the GPS jumps around and it is helpful to have more than one person doing the tracing with the phones. We then average the position and with it are able to get a good path.

We mark our proposed trails using the fibreglass snow sticks. We can see them easily and even if we drop a tree on them, they rarely break. Once the trail is established, the sticks are removed and deployed to new trails.

With the trail cleared, then we do successive runs over the trail running the trace function to make sure we have it marked correctly on the map.

Sounds like a lot of work to map but is not.

We also like that every person in the "hunt club" has a copy and can share details with the rest.

There are some newer apps out there that we have considered. We're so invested in Hunt Stand, we are not inclined to start over.

Hunt Stand has two forms - a free and a more capable pay version. We are using the free version.

For reference: https://huntstand.com

 

[airbiscuit]

On 200 acres, we have built trails and are adding more. In the map, Orange are established trails, Blue are trails planned, yellow are trails that are being built - where bright yellow represent walking trails and dull mustard yellow are started trails.

Brown lines represent different parcels. Grey is a power line. Violet is water - as in springs and such.

We use an app called Hunt Stand to make the map and keep track of things.

We opened the trails to allow us better access for deer hunting and recreation such as walking. We are trying to have trails around the perimeter of the property. Not all sections are possible for the machines.

View attachment 689442

Nice work! You had better luck with the mapping function of Hunt Stand than I did. Things jumped around wildly. Maybe it was becauxe I was using the free version. Gaia GPS worked much better for me. What was your secret? How are you making your new trails - removinb stumps or cutting them flush?

 

[bearthebruce]

What was your secret? How are you making your new trails - removinb stumps or cutting them flush?

On the mapping, we get off the phones after syncing to the PC application. Most of the editing is done on a PC. Data collecting is done on the phones.

We are mostly cutting flush on the stumps except for the really small stuff. We take those out when we can. We still do not have the stump equipment we would like to have - there is only so much money to be thrown at equipment each year.

Flush cutting the stumps seems to get it done and then we can travel over the trails. A down side is the stumps keep growing up out of the trail as the earth settles around them. This year, we are going back over several trails to improve the ride over the trail. We bought a box blade and we are leveling and grading the trail to make it easily navigable by our UTV and tractor.

Mostly, we are having fun and opening areas deep in the property for hunting.

 

[airbiscuit]

I find it addictive. I would locate my new trail routes with flagging tape. Over the years, we've had a few straight line winds come through, so cutting the downfalls can be daunting. I'll have to try the tracking function of Hunt Stand again and see if it is so so erratic.

 

[Rustyiron]

Nice work! You had better luck with the mapping function of Hunt Stand than I did. Things jumped around wildly. Maybe it was becauxe I was using the free version. Gaia GPS worked much better for me. What was your secret? How are you making your new trails - removinb stumps or cutting them flush?

You were going to be next for the same questions
I did go to that site and poke around some.
I have a GPS that I bought new about 12 years ago. It's been in a box in the closet for most of this time . Surprisingly it charges and turns on with all my old track and waypoints still there. The problem is the computer that has the program in it died 6-7 years ago and the disc with the program doesn't talk Mac.

 

[bearthebruce]

I'll have to try the tracking function of Hunt Stand again and see if it is so so erratic.

We did find that newer phones did better in our part of the world. We started out 5-6 years ago and tech then was jumpy. It has gotten much better with more recent phones. I recently upgraded to a Google Pixel 4a for $349. That phone seems rock steady. My old Samsung S5 - not so much. This is why we use more than one phone to start the trails.

We never work alone in the woods. Too many things could go wrong. We use a buddy system- mostly to keep this dumb ol man sharp. Even so, we do dumb things!

(I was out last week cleaning up all the downed trees and limbs from a big ice storm. I wanted to push a widow maker down with the tractor forks. I really did not think through what I was about to do and it is nothing short of a miracle that I did not get flipped on the tractor. Dumb, dumb, dumb. I know better... but.. in the moment, I did not think it through.)

The point is - with Hunt Stand, if you can, use more than one phone. That's how we got our better results.

 

[bearthebruce]

I find it addictive. I would locate my new trail routes with flagging tape.

I find it addictive also. I love being out and on the mountain. Love being in the quiet of the woods. In part that is why we want the trails - go out and get deep into the woods to sit and watch.

We tried flagging tape.. didn't work for us either. So then the idea of the snow sticks came in mind. Sure, it cost some to buy several hundred of them, but they are durable and last. They don't take much to put into rocky soil and if they fall, they dont really move far. So they end up still giving the trail line. And, with the reflective top, we actually followed them to go hunt before the trail was actually finished.

Bottom line is we are having fun in the woods. We've taken 21 deer in 6 years off the property. It feeds the families. This year, we are planting the trails with deer food - food that is indigenous to this region to help the deer. We are going to try several food plots if I can get to it. If not, there is always next year.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

If you are outdoors working, animals become accustomed to you. When I bought this place 26 years ago, I knew I was going to log eventually, so I planted 14,000 seedlings myself, so the eventual buyer would have something nice to look at instead of stumps. I spent hours every day with a hoedag and bag of seedlings. After a while, the wild turkeys followed me to peck at the fresh turned dirt. I saw bobcat, fox and deer. Even today, when I walk from the house to the shop and back, the deer ignore me. They know where I am going and what I am doing. I'm just another animal in their world.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Nothing like owning your own park. Maybe even more so recently than ever. Forget what's going on in the rest of the world.

Feels good when people pull in here thinking it was a conservaion area. lol

 

[grsthegreat]

deer still run from me...but probably cause of the dog. but the dog doesnt chase them, she pretty much ignores them. too busy sniffing.