Building trails?

O

Old-schooler.

Member
I'm thinking about building a trail on my property, *lots of forested land* but I've never done anything like that before. If anyone has any insight or tips about this I'd love to hear from you. Also stuff about building bike trails because I'm sure that if I just built a ski trail it would be interchangeable as a bike trail in the summer and vice versa.
 
How big are the trees in your property? I am trying to build a ski trail at my house and I have to cut all the trees into firewood which is a ton of work. If you don't have any heavy equipment (bulldozers ect.) you are going to have to work a lot harder.

Also the optimal ski trail is going to be a lot steeper than the optimal bike trail. But if you do clear for a ski trail it will be much easier to make a bike trail there next summer.
 
In my general experience, bike trails make awful ski trails. Bike trails are far too narrow, and the fall line for a DH bike is far less direct than the preferred fall line for skiing.

You will probably have heavily glade something that is a minimum of 4 meters wide, to get a half decent run. You could run a bike trail that cris-crosses that fall line if you are so inclined.
 
13208641:JonnyK said:
How big are the trees in your property? I am trying to build a ski trail at my house and I have to cut all the trees into firewood which is a ton of work. If you don't have any heavy equipment (bulldozers ect.) you are going to have to work a lot harder.

Also the optimal ski trail is going to be a lot steeper than the optimal bike trail. But if you do clear for a ski trail it will be much easier to make a bike trail there next summer.
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13209065:Beetle_Kill said:
In my general experience, bike trails make awful ski trails. Bike trails are far too narrow, and the fall line for a DH bike is far less direct than the preferred fall line for skiing.

You will probably have heavily glade something that is a minimum of 4 meters wide, to get a half decent run. You could run a bike trail that cris-crosses that fall line if you are so inclined.
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Thanks for the input

I'm taking a guess and saying that it's at a 30 40 and 50/55degree incline depending on the exact zone with spacing in-between. Lots of small rocks and little boulders. Might take awhile to move out of the way. I'm thinking that filling clearing the trail may cause erosion. So I'm a bit iffy on it.
 
When I was trapped in Ontario for a few years, I cleared a new run on the back side of this tiny non profit ski hill I helped manage.

We just threw the brush down over the gigantic rocks and filled in the bigger divitts and holes with logs. It was super short, but there were about 3 different cliff / drop options on it, and it was super fun.
 
13209084:Old-schooler. said:
Thanks for the input

I'm taking a guess and saying that it's at a 30 40 and 50/55degree incline depending on the exact zone with spacing in-between. Lots of small rocks and little boulders. Might take awhile to move out of the way. I'm thinking that filling clearing the trail may cause erosion. So I'm a bit iffy on it.
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if its really that steep definitely put in water bars. even a glade would probably erode pretty bad.
 
make sure you are actually allowed to do it, just because a tree is on your property doesn't mean you can just go cut it down
 
13209800:cool_name said:
make sure you are actually allowed to do it, just because a tree is on your property doesn't mean you can just go cut it down
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Yes you fucking can! This is the dumbest thing I've read today.
 
13209831:caucasian_chad said:
Yes you fucking can! This is the dumbest thing I've read today.
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lol you are a fucking idiot, you are not allowed to just go cut down a tree on your property , just like you are not allowed to just tear down and build a new house.
 
13212618:cool_name said:
lol you are a fucking idiot, you are not allowed to just go cut down a tree on your property , just like you are not allowed to just tear down and build a new house.
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Good one!

Anyways, OP take out the bare minimum and go from there. You can always take some more out, but you can't put it back.
 
topic:Old-schooler. said:
I'm thinking about building a trail on my property, *lots of forested land* but I've never done anything like that before. If anyone has any insight or tips about this I'd love to hear from you. Also stuff about building bike trails because I'm sure that if I just built a ski trail it would be interchangeable as a bike trail in the summer and vice versa.
Click to expand...

I am really confused with what you mean by "trail," are you talking about a section of your property that you can ski on? It would be sick, but getting trees cut is not a fun process and if you live in WA like I do then it is even harder because the gov. is always in your business about that stuff. I have built trails in the past for riding my mt bike and that is a very tough process because of undergrowth like ivy, ferns, roots, and bad dirt.unless you have heavy machinery I would not suggest it.
 
13212789:gnarballsianm said:
I am really confused with what you mean by "trail," are you talking about a section of your property that you can ski on? It would be sick, but getting trees cut is not a fun process and if you live in WA like I do then it is even harder because the gov. is always in your business about that stuff. I have built trails in the past for riding my mt bike and that is a very tough process because of undergrowth like ivy, ferns, roots, and bad dirt.unless you have heavy machinery I would not suggest it.
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Yea man, I totally get the whole gov up on your business dealio. One of my friends built a tiny trail connecting to a river so he could have boat access and the local forest service totally fucked it up and he was fined. and as far as undergrowth goes.. It doesn't seem to be an issue. I guess I'm lucky.
 
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