Best equipment to create and maintain trails

[Dougryan]

Hi,
I'm new to rural living... actually not even in the house yet, but closing dates are set and planning to move in October.
I'd like to, and I have mapped out using Google maps, create a mile long trail on my property.
It consists of old corn fields and woods. The ground is very bumpy and uneven and I'd like to smooth it out so that I can run with minimal risk of ankle twisting.

I've been looking at compact tractors with box blades, but there may be a better step to do first... Perhaps using a york rake to break up the ground and expose rocks that can be removed from the trail surface? Or would a box blade with scarifiers do the trick?

Also, for a good finish, I believe some type of V shaped drag would be ideal to create a crown vs pushing soil to the outside of the trail.

Ideas, thoughts, experience?
Thanks,
Doug

 

[ultrarunner]

The park district used a mini dozer to blaze trails…

 

[ponytug]

+1 on @ultrarunner's advice. As someone who has built lots of trails, rent a dozer to do the initial work. It is safer and more effective than tractors. If you know that you have rocks, I would make sure to rent one with scarifiers. Try to rent a dozer no larger than the final trail size.

After that, yes, a tractor with a tilting box blade and scarifiers should be fine. You probably don't want a land plane as trail design is to shed water on a slope at the trail, and not channel the water anywhere, unless you have a need to fill a pond or something like that.

Have fun!

Peter

 

[ruffdog]

Maybe add wood chips to the trail instead of digging into it.

 

[airbiscuit]

I've spent this summer widening my trails. However wide you want them, make them 50% wider. The sides will grow in and the tops will droop down (with heavy snow). If you can weave between the trees and have no stumps, then I think a disc and a drag would be the tools of choice (best for the corn field in any case).

If you will have stumps, then a bulldozer is step 1.

My trails are for ATV riding and hunting, so I just cut the stumps off close to the ground and keep mowed with a Rotary (rough cut) mower, I use the Huntstand phone app to map the trails on our 80 acres.

 

[2manyrocks]

Tree roots can stop a tractor and can tear expensive things up.

 

[alwaysworking]

mulcher. I used to dozer the trail open and maintain it with a rotary cutter. Now I just use the CTL and mulch everything in my path. Use it for trail upkeep as well, as more often then not, a tree can be found fallen across the trail.