Dave.
If you are serious about building good, long lasting, "Sustainable" trails; I would suggest doing what responsible mountain bikers do.
Check the IMBA (International Mountain Biking Association) website.
http://www.imba.com/resources/trail_building/index.html

I have helped build miles of trail here in central Oklahoma. Much of what we've built has been "re-routes" of older, poorly built trail.
Bad trails erode the soil fast and cause land owners to close us out. If you're the land owner, it's your land that gets ruined.
Funny thing is, it's as easy or easier to build good trail as bad. It just takes a little thought and study.

As a short course in trail building, may I suggest the following?
First, winter is the best time to build. Although cold, it's better than hot weather for working outdoors. You'll warm up quickly.
There's less underbrush to deal with.
Don't cut trees. Find ways to thread your way through the forest from feature to feature.
By "Feature", I'm suggesting that you spend time in the woods with flags, marking out interesting things to ride by. Mossy rock outcroppings, overlooks, unusual trees, natural rest areas and the like.
Keep your trail off of "Fall line" downhills. The fall line is the natural runoff place for water. It gets worse with use and quickly becomes rutted beyond use...then it gets wider...then deeper. You get the picture.
Contour your trails along hillsides as much as you can, minimizing the steepness of the slope but maximizing mileage of trail within a use area. Sure, you'll want to add challenging places along the way such as washouts, etc. That’s ok, but just makes sure it's not in a place that will destroy anything long term. Alternate side routes are good for this.

Get friends together for workdays and be smart about how you use them. Have your sections well marked (flagged). Send crews out with weed eaters, pruners, axes, but most of all, rakes. You will need to "scarify" the trail, removing all vegetation down to the dirt. Make the trail about two feet wide. It'll pack in naturally when you ride on it.

I could tell you much more, but mostly I'd suggest a good read of IMBA's material. Get their free guide to trail building and have fun.
It takes time to do it right, but it's well worth the effort.

Good luck!

Bill Dragoo
(Shadetree)
Norman, Oklahoma
rideok.com "Bill's Garage"
KLX 250s

 

That goat thing cracked me up


I built some, and am still building some trails on about 40 acres of land. The magic trick? A JD450C bulldozer, a New Holland 5610 tractor and the occasional JD 310SG backhoe. Oh, and I've used a Case W-36 loader to haul some materiel around.


The hardest part for my area was getting the soil to settle after we pushed a road out. We used a small disk on the tractor to aid in settling the track and level things out, Im no hot shot on a dozer... and I don't have the backhoe long enough to push out the trails. I can actually build some roads with a backhoe...


Ill get some pics tonight after work for ya. It takes a lot of time, its a lot of hard work but its dang fun to play on your very own track.

 

Thanks for this LINK

That's what I was looking for, I could go out there and just cut away,or do it the right way so it will be challenging and last a long time.

I've got a lot of reading to do, winter is around the corner.............I'll grab some pics before I start, And update the progress.

Dave