Trail Coverage - Wood Chips?

[Kyle241]

What do you do with new trails that tend to be very muddy? Do you cover them with anything? I've been playing with the idea of purchasing a chipper and chipping all the hardwood branches to cover the trail that currently is mud/earth due to installing some tile drainage to reduce surface runoff. DW is not happy it's all muddy now and I am not a fan either so I'm looking for a solution. Snow will be on the way likely not too long in the future but I know come Spring, they'll be all muddy again.

 

[hchxoom]

Any idea that rationalizes the purchase of a new toy, I mean piece of necessary equipment, is a good one in my book. I say run with it.

 

[bcp]

I've used wood chips. After about 2-3 years they are gone, and they hold moisture so the ground dries out slower. But they work for a while as a temporary solution.

Bruce

 

[uglyboywith11fingers]

we've got a few hundred yards of trails thru our woods that tend to get soggy in spring and fall... wood chips work great and last about 4 or 5 years before they decompose to the point of having to cover them again. A few years ago a tree service outfit in our area was giving away chips just to get rid of them.
Now they want $50 for a 10 yard load, still not bad.
If you get a chipper, go for a pto driven unit for your tractor... we bought a little one with a 10hp Tecumseh. It'll handle 2-3 inch stuff, but slowly, and you work all day to get a couple yards of chips.
Pete

 

[Kyle241]

Tks guys. I have been looking at a Wallenstein BX62 but they sure are expensive. Also considered renting and have done that before but then I have to rush through a weekend of chipping and that is not fun.

 

[dave1949]

Wood chips will keep your feet out of the muck. When I chip with my BX62, about 45 minutes (real rough guess) of chipping will produce a 6' wide FEL bucket of chips. The 45 min. includes the time to drag the branches a short ways to the chipper.

Chips would be a good temporary solution, but if you have trail sections that are always wet, the best solution is to raise them up with dirt, or to rock them with stone over filter fabric. I have some trail sections that were wet areas to get across that I have trenched on both sides with the backhoe piling everything in the trail.

After it dries out some, I level it out, and after it has had time to settle, that solves the problem. Of course, that leaves some muddy ditches on each side that the dogs love to get in.

 

[scollins]

I would try to level the trails out when they dry up with a landscape rake, and then seed the trails to cool-season grasses that can be mowed short.
You need some kind of grass on them to keep down erosion and mud.

I have seen trails improved with loads of gravel but that would be expensive.

I'm trying to get the big rocks out of my trails - some the size of Plymouth Rock when I start digging and prying them out.

I don't use wood chips because my trails double as fire breaks.

 

[BeezFun]

If you're talking about trails that horses go on, forget the wood chips. They'll churn them up so fast you won't have anything left. Chips with lots of leaves decompose really fast, try to get trees in the winter so there's no leaves.

 

[crbr]

Thanks for the pictures

 

[Frank Okee]

I use wood chips with my trails to keep weeds down. The soggy parts stay soggy so I fill them in with rocks from other projects. The wood chips compact where I drive a lot, but do work. I use my 6" Valby PTO chipper and gator to haul the chips. Whenever I walk in the woods I stack dead stuff along the trails to chip on the day that job comes to the top of the "To Do list".