Grenock
Platinum Member
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2016
- Messages
- 2,358
it’s rare that I go onto my own trail and do anything other than cut back vegetation and cut deadfall’s. I also suck at taking before and after pics, as in, I never do, but the thought occurred to me today, so here we go.
I have been fooling around the trail in the mini removing deadfalls, improving drainage and adding spice here and there. I have also been rehabbing older jumps and such that have melted and shrunk with age, here is one of them.
Short decline into what was once a nice mellow roller that you could roll or float. It had room for improvement, if you tried, you could overshoot the transition and land to flat. So, it’s time to enhance what is there and change it a little bit to make the landing better.
First thing, I need to clear off all the leaves and debris before adding new dirt.
In addition, it is very important to breakup the hard pack so that the new layer of dirt can bond with the old dirt. For this, it’s just as easy as sticking the teeth in the ground over the entire area you will be adding dirt.
Do it until the whole area is loosened up.
Now, we need dirt, lots of it. That means digging a hole somewhere. In most cases I just dig to the downhill side from the trail tread, but in this case, I wanted to get off the trail to preserve the root systems of the two large trees to the left of the machine. So, off trail we go, but only far enough that I can still reach back and dump dirt where it needs to go.
Let’s start digging, first we gotta strip the organic, we don’t want that in our trail tread.
Next we wanna get to the mineral soil. That dark brown stuff is grade A primo potting soil, but is soft and slicker than goose shit when it gets wet, we want that tan stuff underneath it, like in the middle of this shot……
Now, it’s time to start making a pile. When you think you have enough dirt, double it, cuz you can never have enough dirt!
Normally, I like to dig a deep, skinny hole, it’s easier to close up and naturalize when I am done. However, trailbuilding is all about stuff not working how you plan on it to work, so this happens…….
Rock, about a foot down, and it’s crumbly old Virginia field stone not good for much of anything. So, instead of skinny and deep, this pit is gonna have to be the same way I like my women, wide and shallow.
Once I have enough dirt, it’s time to close this pit up and naturalize it. It’s a good time to throw an old makeshift funnel in there to bury that some old timer left out in the woods in another era.
I have been fooling around the trail in the mini removing deadfalls, improving drainage and adding spice here and there. I have also been rehabbing older jumps and such that have melted and shrunk with age, here is one of them.
Short decline into what was once a nice mellow roller that you could roll or float. It had room for improvement, if you tried, you could overshoot the transition and land to flat. So, it’s time to enhance what is there and change it a little bit to make the landing better.
First thing, I need to clear off all the leaves and debris before adding new dirt.
In addition, it is very important to breakup the hard pack so that the new layer of dirt can bond with the old dirt. For this, it’s just as easy as sticking the teeth in the ground over the entire area you will be adding dirt.
Do it until the whole area is loosened up.
Now, we need dirt, lots of it. That means digging a hole somewhere. In most cases I just dig to the downhill side from the trail tread, but in this case, I wanted to get off the trail to preserve the root systems of the two large trees to the left of the machine. So, off trail we go, but only far enough that I can still reach back and dump dirt where it needs to go.
Let’s start digging, first we gotta strip the organic, we don’t want that in our trail tread.
Next we wanna get to the mineral soil. That dark brown stuff is grade A primo potting soil, but is soft and slicker than goose shit when it gets wet, we want that tan stuff underneath it, like in the middle of this shot……
Now, it’s time to start making a pile. When you think you have enough dirt, double it, cuz you can never have enough dirt!
Normally, I like to dig a deep, skinny hole, it’s easier to close up and naturalize when I am done. However, trailbuilding is all about stuff not working how you plan on it to work, so this happens…….
Rock, about a foot down, and it’s crumbly old Virginia field stone not good for much of anything. So, instead of skinny and deep, this pit is gonna have to be the same way I like my women, wide and shallow.
Once I have enough dirt, it’s time to close this pit up and naturalize it. It’s a good time to throw an old makeshift funnel in there to bury that some old timer left out in the woods in another era.
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