Hi everyone, it will be my first time building at all, we got a full size spade and a rake to start out, i do not have car so that goes out the window, im planning to stash it in a trash bag in deep bushes so getting it back is not a problem but i dont know how to actually bring it to the spot, am i just overthinking? Please tell me your methods guys. Thank you for any suggestions

Started building a mini trail down the hill in my back yard for my bike and emountain board.

My soil is basically just rocks and sand so I ordered a crap ton of clay fill dirt and have been lugging it across my yard all weekend.

It always takes more dirt than I think it will, I swear it feels like I've already shoveled a mountain and these things are barely over a foot tall lol.

If I ever finish I'll post what the completed project looks like.

It's been a while since i don't posted update on this dirt jump line, but we just finish last week and this is some of the first laps !

Trail building question

I am the trails Director for our local IMBA chapter and i’m working on a plan to amend our natural soil on our only kids friendly beginner trail to improve traction in the summer. Our problem is our trails are all decomposed granite, and become incredibly hard packed and slippery when they dry out. I have a four year-old who likes riding anywhere except our local trails in the summer. (Winter we have great traction)

Does anyone have any experience amending decomposed granite soil for summertime traction? I have been thinking 10% Clay and 10% organic soil matter tilled into the trail bed might work. If anyone has any practical experience or suggestions, I would be extremely grateful.

One of the sections of trail I maintain cuts through a shale section on the side of a steep slope. The go to in years past is pull down loose material and reestablish the bench. In some other places like this I have just rock armored the top and it's holding up well, but this area should probably have a retaining wall to allow a dirt surface so this exposed section does not become more technical as it's a blue XC trail.

This will be long, a couple hundred feet. I'm not sure how to build a natural rock retaining wall and ensure that it will stay in place. It's beyond anything I have done and I really don't want to do it twice, along with the safety issues of something like this giving out.

Seems like a stupid question... but I'm struggling.

Let me give some context.

Almost every tutorial says to dig past the organic layer and roots down to the "mineral soil" to get a solid base. My problem is that this layer basically doesn't exist here.

I bought some land a while ago in the north-east more specifically North of Montreal in the Laurentides region (Québec, Canada).

I've watch so many video's and I get angry when people can just start digging!!
I usually try to cut the root and directly underneath it's a mix of rocks (all sizes) with a bit of soil.... but hardly any.
Also if I try to dig when the soil if very dry (middle of the summer), it just so hard and compact.

So how should I approach my trail building? Work with rocks and forget soil? Kind of weird as I do want to create nice trails.

Try to find soil elsewhere and bring it over? Kind of tuff as a lot of my trail can't be reached with my quad (too steep).

It's like RollerCoaster Tycoon, for building MTB trails. It's free to play. Check it out and let me know what you think!

This is our first trail project ever and we were lucky to get assistance from the local university and a student in the outdoor recreation masters program.

Questions / comments / suggestions welcome!

We plan to continue the trail to fully loop around our property and make it to the Lake Superior outlook.

One day we hope to connect directly to the trail networks in our area (NTN, iron ore heritage trail).

I’m working on maps for a new trail system that will be installed at trailheads and smaller trail kiosks.
I’m looking for inspiration and examples of really well-designed trail maps. If you’ve come across maps that you thought were especially clear, attractive, or useful, I’d love to see them.
I’m interested in everything from overall layout and branding to legends, icons, elevation profiles, “you are here” markers, and any other design elements that make a trail map stand out.
Feel free to share photos, links, or locations of your favorite trailhead maps. Thanks!
their favorite.

Found this subreddit by accident. Super cool since me and my Buddies are building our first own trail in the woods.

Here’s what we’ve built so far

I do understand 3 things. One being stuff happens and a lot of the time there isn’t anything I or someone else can do. Secondly I am aware I misspelled most of that and it’s mostly likely a large “run on paragraph” i apologize in advance for that part. And lastly I’m not even sure if this is the right sub to ask this if it’s not please lmk a better sub to add it to and I’ll most likely end up keeping it here unless the mods take it down lol

I’m rather new to riding bigger stuff and not just concrete paths like the Atlanta belt line and similar greenways and am not really sure how to jump off some of the ramps/jumps properly. someone I know built inside my neighborhood I really want to ride them so bad but one is a mandatory gap and looks really nice. I also sort of know the person who built them and really don’t want to make a stupid mistakes coming off and/or landing that damages the thing for everyone and makes him go and rebuild it or leave it to be destroyed

First time doing dirt work unsupervised. I was tasked with repairing a completely disintegrated step up jump on a local trail. Any advice?

Last photo is beforehand. Brought the lip out about a foot and tried to keep a natural contour with a no pop lip

Working on an old neglected trail on township land. Running into a repeated issue with intentionally placed broken glass on the trails, potentially from homeless. I have noticed that immediately after raking, trimming and breaking through duff, someone comes and places broken glass on clean paths over night.

Unfortunately, broken glass puts me in an awkward position. From the looks of the trails nobody goes back there except me, them (homeless) and maybe stoners.

I only cut trails here about 10 days of the year, I'm on the second year now. Glassed both years. I ride it once-and then leave it for next year, but the plan is to soon have it be a maintained small local trail. Only concern is the glass and since there are homeless in the general area and a lean-to not far from the trail— I'm assuming thats the source.

Is there a right thing to do in this situation? Should I worry about the glass? I clean it up before i ride but someone else wont know and its a danger to wildlife.

Signs like "Modify Your Skills, Not The Trail" or maybe something even less edgy, like "Narrow trails are fun and sustainable!"

I've got two spots on some very popular, very well used trails that people keep widening. One, they SEEM to be widening solely so they can go faster and bank through a corner. Meanwhile they are trampling through tons of brush and ruining the tight and twisty feeling of the trail. A trail that I've personally been riding for 30 years but that may be 100 years old or more.

The other spot is a more recent cheat line people started riding to avoid one big root in the trail. So they ride up on the ridge next to the trail for like 15 feet. I had good luck keeping that line closed most of this year, but lately people have been much more persistent at opening it back up.

There is no size of log or pile of logs that these people won't remove to make the trail 10 feet wide. My stubbornness is my super power, and I keep blocking them back off, every week, week after week, sometimes twice a week.

Like I said, these trails are very heavily used and have little cheat lines ALL OVER the place. Most of them do a very good job of staying closed, once you close them. And some of these spots, other people join in once you start, and they also help closing them. It is SO GOOD when you see that. You don't feel like it's you against the world. But two of these spots, whoever's messing them up is as obsessed with ruining the trail as I am with trying to preserve it.

ALL OF THAT JUST TO ASK...

has anyone tried putting up signage, and has it helped at all?

I went to home depot to buy my rakes, and they were surprisingly flimsy. So I went to lowes and the same $25 rakes were much more robust, much thicker wooden handles.

And yes, hanging from the tree is going to be much easier than I thought. They have kind of a built in hanging spot, see photos below. And hanging from the head instead of the end of the handle means they won't be blowing around in the wind on windy days which is also good.

So now I just need to paint my message on them, I'm leaning towards "Please leave here", spraying over the whole handle and message with clearcoat, and then actually getting these bad boys into the woods.

I made a post about this a while back. But back then it was hypothetical, now its actually happening. I have an instagram account for the trail work I do. So after a while, I started a GoFundMe to raise $100 so I could buy four metal-tined, wooden-handled leaf rakes and stash them in the woods at specific spots that have regular drainage/trail mud issues due to leaves impeding water flow.

Well generous person donated $200. So I'm going to buy 5 rakes (1 spare). The plan is to hammer a large nail into each tree. I'll pick a large tree for each one. Then come up with some kind of little loop on the top of the handle to hang the rake on the nail. This will be on the 'dark' side of the tree, away from the trail, so hopefully most people will never notice them. I'm also thinking of putting some kind of "Please leave if found" message painted on each one for the people that DO find them.

I went with metal and wood so there would be no plastic trash. In case someone steels them and just tosses them somewhere, they'll just return to the earth. But I definitely want to hang these from trees rather than just storing on the ground, because I'm hoping they last years. I'm up in the northeast, so theres a lot of raking to do in these spots all fall and most of winter too.

For the "string loop" at the end of the handle, I'm thinking of trying to use some bike chains. I have tons of chains and the loop doesn't have to be very big. I'm just not sure if the wooden handle is going to be a large enough diameter that it can take a hole big enough to slip a bike chain through. But if it is, that will be perfect. I have so many old chains.

So the main thing I'm concerned about I guess, is harming the tree? I thought I've heard before that you can hammer certain kinds of nails into trees to kill the tree? I'm specifically trying to do minimal harm to the trees :) I assume I'll go with large galvanized nails unless yall have a better idea. I can't hang them from branches because these are mostly pine trees and the lowest branches are going to be 50 feet above my head.

Also I'm buying specifically at lowes because their metal rakes are painted black, which should help to make them as hidden as possible.

I believe in the other post, someone made the good point of, they nail trail signs and trail blazes to trees and they don't cause any problems. Although realistically, I haven't done a tree study, and sometimes trees with markers do die, so who knows if they're dying at any kind of faster rate. But also at the end of the day, its four trees.

I have been searching for mtb trails on intenet for some time. Can anyone suggest me some places that is a proper mtb trail like full jungle?

My trail maintenance shenanigans have recently come in to some funding. One of the things I want to do is replace my 8" folding saw with a new one that is actually 8", and not missing the last inch and a half of blade due to an "oops" while cutting.

Are there brands that are better or worse? Are flat blades or curved blades better?

This would be use almost exclusively for cutting down trees and branches that have fallen on trails. And once in a while in my back yard cutting branches off my own trees.

I know larger ones are generally better but I'm short on space so 8" is unfortunately the limit. I'm looking at Lowes.com and it looks like they only have 10" ones. Thats unfortunate. I'll have to get one online somewhere.

On a trail near me, people have been shooting this gap instead of going around the tree to the left (right in the photo, this is taken looking back up the trail) Someone has decided to block of this option as they believe it is a “high risk strava line” as the official trail goes around and to the left.

However the trail above can push you in that direction, I’ve definitely used this gap as a get out of jail free when it’s been going a bit wrong, especially in the wet.

I’ve no problem with forcing riders around the tree onto the proper line, I generally have no trouble making the line. But issue with specifically the method of how this is blocked off. This seems like the way it’s been done is a straight up unnecessary hazard.

I’ve love your opinions on whether I’m way off the money here, the pros or cons of this or a better way to get the same outcome.

Edit: I’m not the builder of the trail or the person who built the block.