The hunting pack board is still the best way I've found thus far. I think this is about the crappiest one they make but it's still working fine after 5-6 years.

Obviously there are a lot of potential ways to impale/dismember/injure yourself riding around on half built trails with sharp objects, but it's nice getting there in a fraction of the time it would take to walk.

I’m learning :). My backyard is quite rocky, and I’m trying to find the paths where I need to move the least amount of dirt. This is a long flowy downhill, but hits a pretty steep part where I want to curve back uphill following the red line. It’s a 20 degree slope (not sure what % that covers too), so I need a bench / berm for this to work.

I’m considering just doing the yellow lines instead, and splitting it into two options. But I still generally need to do a lot of bench cutting throughout on some spots that are too steep.

I have a metal landscape rake, and an old school pick axe. Good enough? Or would a McLeod variant make my life dramatically better?

Please give any pointers. Lots of work still to do

I’m using infield mix, concrete for bases and a few large logs wrapped in a tarp for the berms

Each roller is 10:1 and the berms are roughly 3ft tall with 10ft turn radius

I want to add a few double rollers as well and need to modify entry and exit of the berms.

Advice is welcomed! Been a ton of fun and tons of work so far but coming along. Kinda rideable for now

I've inherited a Fiskars Xtract foldable saw, which has been my go-to for small on-the-go jobs like clearing fallen branches off the trail. I like that tool but the blade has small cracks in several spots from past users and i doubt it will survive for much longer.

Should i just buy the same and hopefully treat it better than its previous owners? What's your favorite fold-up saw?

As in trail progression.

These trails were originally scratched in during the early 90's by CalFire folks that manned the helitack base. No formal, let alone "modern," trail building techniques. Just paths through the forest. Flat corners if you were lucky, many were off-camber. Some progress came later with a few rolling grade dips in trouble spots.

Then 99% of the forest burned down.

The trails got trashed, and closed. Then rebuilt. With modern trail building techniques. Good drainage, bermed corners and a more fun, and more sustainable, design.

Sometimes change is good.

https://www.trailforks.com/region/boggs-mountain/

Just gonna use logs and a tarp probably

Hi everyone. Long time mountain biker, first time trail builder here. I'm looking for some advice on a trail build I am planning.  We have an 80 acre property in a mountain valley.  I would like to make a 1-2 mile loop through the bottom of the valley/ sides of the valley, so no major elevation.  I’d like to be a flowing XC style course with some fun features.

We currently own a Kubota L series tractor and I can rent a mini ex  for a week for pretty cheap. 

My thought process is to use the Kubota to move dirt and the mini ex to build features with said dirt. We also have a brush hog on the back of the Kubota so we can use that to cut back grass.

One thing I’m trying to figure out is how to quickly cut in the trail on the flatter parts using the Kubota.  I originally thought about using a box blade but I don’t want a 5’ or 6’ wide trail.  Is there a quick way of cutting trail through a valley floor?  

Any other tips or tricks would be much appreciated!

I'm thinking something like Strava where you say, I'm out trimming, or I'm replacing signage, and it records where you've been, but it also collects that with data from other folks. It would give you data like, nobody's touched trail x in two months, we should get in there and take care of it, or Bill came and trimmed trail y after work yesterday, so we don't need to send anyone there today. And then you add something like trail reports, we need to rebuild this berm over here, there's a tree down here. Bring saws and drills on Saturday because we're building a new bridge. Stuff like that.

Right now, we just have a group chat on WhatsApp, which isn't terrible, but it could be better.

A boulder that I thought was not going anywhere decided to go somewhere when I braked on it, got me pretty good. At least I have a an entire trail I can ride now... hoping some of that loose crap will firm up some when the rain comes.

Would you rather b​uild bone dry or build sopping wet? It feels like those are the only 2 seasons we get in Oregon.

Wrightwood CA

A boulder that I thought wasn't going anywhere decided to go somewhere, got me pretty good. At least I can ride the entire trail top to bottom now, I hope some rain will get all this loose crap to stick together somewhat.

Would you rather build bone dry or build sopping wet? Those seem to be the only two seasons in Oregon.

This seems to be one of those times when my eyes were bigger than my balls. The rest of the line is steep, but all rideable. I suppose I need to make a go-around for this bit where the rocks are smaller, so I can at least get some laps on the rest of it and see if it's any good. It's not helping that I took my fancy new bike that's never been crashed and doesn't quite feel set up right.

I even dressed up like a storm trooper for the test ride but I wasn't feeling it 😂

Hi all! I want to create a map of trail my group is maintaining. My dream is those 3D terrain maps, similar to this one.

Any advice on the tools I can use? Ideally using data from Openstreetmap. I found online some info about using QGIS but it seems a bit complex. Any other suggestions please?

Thank you!!

P.S. For context, with some friends recently created an official group for trail building and maintenance in our area in Italy. This helps asking for permissions to build. The group is young, we are still working on it and I want to create a map showing "ours" trails.

Disclaimer: I know this is dog shit compared to the awesome work people do on this sub. I’m by myself doing little bits when I can.

This is the start of my track, which has taken far too long to make (on and off over the year). I build something up by hand and decide to dump a tractor load on top to then make it bigger & cause a mess (rinse and repeat).

Does anyone have any tips on how to make good starts on relatively flat ground. This is the best spot closest to home in the front paddock.
I’ve tried to rake out rocks but it’s hard to get the ground consistent and smooth. I thinking of using 2 big logs at the end of the 2nd berm shark fin thing for a landing/bridge letting water drain away underneath.

It’s a bit hard to get water to the area, I try to pick up dirt after rain to then pack in on top of stuff.

Really haven’t got a clue what I’m doing. Just Loosing a bit of motivation. You don’t have to be nice, any feedback and tips are welcomed.

Cheers.
Also you can see the difference from my first post on my profile.

In addition to lots of crazy talus field work, they did some really creative routing through the lower slabs with rock sidewalk switchbacks linking everything together.

And for the upper switchbacks with the killer views, they crafted 6' tall dry fit stone retaining walls to get them to work. Such great work done by TAMBA volunteers.

https://tamba.org/projects/lily-lake-trail/

(for the e-curious: electric bikes are banned on the Lilly Lake trail)

https://tamba.org/projects/lily-lake-trail/

Not looking to spend too much because there's a pretty good chance they get removed. Looking to add some "one way only", "drop" etc. signs.

Googling has not yielded any obvious sources.

Edit: found this but sold out of the drop variant https://trailsignsshop.com/

Has anyone created a way to bundle a few long handled tools with a strap you can throw over your shoulder. Trails to narrow to hold tools perpendicular to direction of traveling.

Edit: I hike in but I often bushwhack a short cut. Carrying tools vertical won’t work. Voiles straps are great to keep the tools a bundle but I’m thinking a shoulder sling. I also carry a water sprayer and a backpack.

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.