# Trail building/Woods clearing tips



## ammarhio (Jul 26, 2006)

I found a new spot near my house. Place is sick, big outcrops, decent hills, it's got the works. I wanted to build some DH and some big drops off of the outcrops. The only problem is that the place has be untouched for many years, so there are lots of shrubs, and little trees everywhere. What would be the best way to clear this stuff out? A controlled burn?


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## pro (Oct 7, 2007)

weedwacker, chainsaw, and elbow grease


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## rollertoaster (Jun 11, 2007)

weedwacker with a metal blade kit. home depot and lowes both carry a kit to put a 3 replaceable blade head on a weedwacker. It works awsome. Also I have a small folding saw for when I don't feel like breaking out the chain saw. We have cut down trees up to 8" think and about 40 ft high with it. Use a springy metal rake ( not plastic) to rake everything you cut out of the way. I also have a mcleod tool which kicks ass for grading and chopping roots.


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## ammarhio (Jul 26, 2006)

16 years old=No Car.

It would look kind of silly for me riding trough a 6 figure neiborhood with a weed wacker, haha. I like the foldable saw idea though. Anything that will fit into a large backback will do.


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## Madman133 (Apr 25, 2006)

ammarhio said:


> Anything that will fit into a large backback will do.


Who cares what people think of someone riding through their neighbor hood with a weedwacker...it will make you life a hell of alot easier. Will a small bulldoser fit in your bag? lol j/k I normally use some of those branch trimmer things(I thnik they are called loppers or something like that) The pair I got form home depot can do about a 4 inch tree/branch pretty easily. Anything bigger than that and the chainsaw somes out. The weed wacker will help you alot though with the small under brush and bushes...Also get a springy metal rake and a not springy one with the teeth things so you can loosen up the dirt and get all of the rocks/other crap you want out of it. And last but not least a good shovel...the ones that are flat inead of curved work better in my experience cause you can pack down the dirt easier with it. So day #1 I would take chainsaw and loppers with you. day #2 or once you finish with those then take the weedwacker after that use the rakes and shovels to start makin your trail.


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## 317000 (Mar 2, 2007)

ammarhio said:


> It would look kind of silly for me riding trough a 6 figure neiborhood with a weed wacker




tragic


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## Boulder Pilot (Jan 23, 2004)

*Oh Yeah,*

I'd like to watch the controlled burn myself:madmax:


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## ryan_daugherty (Oct 8, 2006)

rent a brush mower. or have your mom rent a brush mower since you're under age.. they work real well. otherwise the weedeater with metal blades.. or if you can't do that still because you're underage get a shovel.. a small saw or axe and get workin' .. don't burn.. that' be retarded.


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## wookie freeride (Apr 10, 2007)

*A controlled burn is a great Idea...*

If you want to draw attention to the spot and get it shut down before you even get to ride it. Just do it like we all do...BLOOD,SWEAT,AND TEARS......

Shovel..........16.00
Folding saw............12.00
Weed eater saw blade.......22.50

Building your own trail on the downlow............PRICELESS

Good luck with your new trail.

No fires.:nono:


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## lax30 (Apr 23, 2007)

wookie freeride said:


> If you want to draw attention to the spot and get it shut down before you even get to ride it. Just do it like we all do...BLOOD,SWEAT,AND TEARS......
> 
> Shovel..........16.00
> Folding saw............12.00
> ...


listen to this man he knows whats up with the trial building.....trust me


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## Pedal Shop (Dec 14, 2006)

Wookie is right... 
in addition to what Wookie listed, get some loppers too.

go ahead, rent some power tools, chances are you'll draw too much attention and the project will get shut down. unless you have permission of the land owner // park service, you're asking for trouble.

The ONLY power tool I would even think about is a back pack style leaf blower --- makes buzzin' lines way faster. Or maybe a cordless sawsall.

_If it's parents place, HAVE AT IT!!!!_ but really -- no burning, that was a joke, right? I'm building trail out at my folks place but I'm not going hog wild with it. They own land which is mostly used for horse boarding and training so I can't make things too dangerous for the horse clients when they're out horsebacking.


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## ryan_daugherty (Oct 8, 2006)

Pedal Shop said:


> I'm building trail out at my folks place but I'm not going hog wild with it. They own land which is mostly used for horse boarding and training so I can't make things too dangerous for the horse clients when they're out horsebacking.


thats cool, i started working on a trail yesterday, all the infrastructure is pretty much in, i started building a berm .. and i've got some cool plans.. just a bunch of small stuff out behind the house.. so when i can't get out to to real trails.. i have something to ride.

I'm trying to build with as little impact to the land as possible.. I have to dig for my dirt... but i'm going to find a way fill the holes, with something if trees or plants etc.. I figure the neighbors won't ***** if its pretty low impact.


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## Pedal Shop (Dec 14, 2006)

low impact here too... and I would rather make do with what Mother Nature gave us instead of going out there buying a bunch of lumber, etc. Eventually, I'll start building "wood" features.

1. when I dig, I dig very shallow and wide... and then rake back over the open ground.

2. I don't cut down any large trees if they are not already dead. I will cut & pull out sapplings but only if they are pretty small. Cutting branches I don't have any problem with... that's like cutting 9 & 1/2 fingernails to me.

3. moving rocks = no biggie

4. stacking tree fall = no biggie

5. I try to have "wuss out" (aka go around) lines not just for the biking but for hiking and horseback. It's sad but, besides the little camp site I put together, my parents have never walked around out there. They have been there for 7 years and the deepest they have gone into the woods is about a 1/4 mile where I built a log maze for my kids.

The horse clients have been given permission to walk the land where I'm building but I don't usually see anyone out there. I have seen footy prints but never met anyone face to face while riding. Actually, I really do need to meet with the current manager just to let him know that I'm out there and where I'm building stuff.


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## Pedal Shop (Dec 14, 2006)

Off in the distance (behind my right hand), that's where Mikey (in the photo above) is jumping from. Me, I'm just making my way down from a little booter (nothing special)....this line is pretty much just clearing the ground cover and using nothing but dirt and dead trees (so far) for booters. This line takes all of 20 seconds to ride from top to bottom but it's pretty thrilly..


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## ammarhio (Jul 26, 2006)

Alright, I started clearing with a metal rake, some loppers, and a weedwacker : ).

I got some weird looks from peole, but fuuck em!

Should be done by sunday. Ill post up some pics


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## SHIVER ME TIMBERS (Jan 12, 2004)

ammarhio said:


> 16 years old=No Car.
> 
> It would look kind of silly for me riding trough a 6 figure neiborhood with a weed wacker, haha. I like the foldable saw idea though. Anything that will fit into a large backback will do.


don't worry about.....people are not paying attention


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## Pedal Shop (Dec 14, 2006)

Varsity team made this creek gap.

Building in flood zones suck --- this one has been washed away several times.


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## Pedal Shop (Dec 14, 2006)

oops - 4got the photo


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## ryan_daugherty (Oct 8, 2006)

Pedal Shop said:


> oops - 4got the photo


looks real good bro, you've definitely got a lot more room for trails than I do, i'm definitely envious.

My area is a big clearing in the woods behind my house w/ a double track that heads down w/ a couple turns, opens up to a small grass area .. w/ a trail that loops around back to the top.. it has some pretty good elevation.. its just short... i figure it'll be like a small version of basic training at Blackrock...


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## SHIVER ME TIMBERS (Jan 12, 2004)

get a small group of people to help....1st rule secrecacy


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## Pedal Shop (Dec 14, 2006)

This (on the left) was built right next to a power line easement and near a county park trail (but not on it), near a golf course. I don't know who owns the land but, nobody had been using it.

still--- word on the street, it fell pray to some nit wit wanna-B thugs who pushed several features over. I was a kick once, they must have thought it was cool --- shoot, I'm all grow'd up now. Now I just call it G A Y!!! If I caught them I'd have to drop kick them in the forehead.

in the 2nd photo (to the right) -- that was taken down by Ranger Rick, built on park land.


gotta watch out where ya build


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## ryan_daugherty (Oct 8, 2006)

Yeah my stuff is on my folks land. So i'm not worried.


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## freerider_07 (May 13, 2007)

ammarhio said:


> Alright, I started clearing with a metal rake, some loppers, and a weedwacker : ).
> 
> I got some weird looks from peole, but fuuck em!
> 
> Should be done by sunday. Ill post up some pics


Yeah we are working on it tomorrow, saturday, and hopefully be done by sunday!!!


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## boogenman (Sep 22, 2006)




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## freerider_07 (May 13, 2007)

boogenman said:


>


IM RENTING ONE OF THOSE!


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## alexit (Oct 17, 2006)

A lot of elbow grease. Once you have the tools, you still need to put a good deal of time into it. You aren't going to build a full run in a couple of afternoons; a single feature maybe. No sleeping in till noon on weekends either, especially in winter when days are short . Try to get out on the trail early enough that you can get a solid 3-4 hours of building in and then still have time in the afternoon to ride once its giong. Also, leave the bike at home when not necessary to test out distances etc, it'll improve your speed.


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## blackwater racing1013 (Nov 8, 2007)

any body live in North Carolina??? any good dh spots in the peidmont area??? i have one but its gunna get torn down within a year due to construction ...


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## ammarhio (Jul 26, 2006)

yeah, we have one 17 foot high outcrop there. It's like a natural drop. Just need to build up the laning since it's really sandy. Should be really nice thouhg! Cant wait to get my hand dirty


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## blackwater racing1013 (Nov 8, 2007)

yea its tough out here... no local bike shops carry any DH stuff, but yea ill post a new thread with in the week showing the trails me and my two brothers made. Not much but its hard to made due with what I got


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## ammarhio (Jul 26, 2006)

Long Island probably sucks more. It's an island. With sand. SUCKS!


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## Pedal Shop (Dec 14, 2006)

Out at the folks place, there's two areas I can mess with without causing conflicts with the horse clients. My guess it's about 25 acres, the rest of the property is pretty much just open (flat & slightly rolly) fields. There's isn't a whole heck of a lot of "flow", it's more of a lot of silly fast freeridey downhills, then you gotta hike-a-bike back to the top. I think one day, I'll be able to build a slow, somewhat painful, in the saddle, climb back to the top. 
HA...We actually have shuttled up the drive way when we're short on time but still want to get a few lines in. The section of the driveway we shuttle is about a mile long. 2 minutes to drive to the top, 2 minutes to ride to the bottom.

l love the area but making it flow has been a bit like a Rubic's cube to me. Guess I'll just have to switchback the hell outta the place if I ever want to get a long & continuous ride out of it.

Actually buzzin' the lines is easy. I bought a Stihl's BR550 back-pack leaf blower. With it, I can groom a line super fast. Then you just go back through it and edit all the crap (fallen limbs, trees, sapplings, etc).


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## greengreer (Dec 4, 2007)

blackwater racing1013 said:


> any body live in North Carolina??? any good dh spots in the peidmont area??? i have one but its gunna get torn down within a year due to construction ...


in high point there is a place with about 8 miles of trails and a ton of features. lots of free ride stuff but not alot of huge hills to bomb


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## CountryBoy (Oct 24, 2006)

I need to get out a start a trail at my house, we have 80 acres, the only proble is it isn't steep. Oh, we I just start diggin'!


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## Pedal Shop (Dec 14, 2006)

I don't know if there are any books about 'freeridey" building but there are trail building books out there. I have one put out through IMBA, it has some pretty good tips. And for the life of me, I can't find it right now.... _nevermind, found it(written in2004) _ There's a another book I have at the shop that is also a trail building book. About 1/2 of it is boring as heck and sorta dorky but the other half is pretty helpful. I got it through QBP (it was the last copy & don't know who else sells them). I'll follow up on that later.


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## Pedal Shop (Dec 14, 2006)

here's a couple shots of a droppy drop.

We didn't really do anything other than just clear out all the ground clutter.

The different color'd lines indicate bike travel options.

The shovel in the photo is about 4-1/2 tall? maybe 5.

Which reminds me: _bet there's a thread on this:_ when you claim a feature is X feet tall or X feet long. What is it based on?

eg: I stand 6 foot even, that rock in the photo is about 2 feet taller than me at the spot where the bike hucks off. Then where you land is about 15 feet away from where I'm standing.


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## Pedal Shop (Dec 14, 2006)

photo 1 = not sure what to do with this one... that's my kid in the photo, he is 6 (to get a scale).

photo 2 = that's a before shot (now there's 5 booters in a row coming down the hill, all about 30 to 40 feet apart). --- just clear the debris and stacked up log piles, added dirt and that's it.

thinking about doing something elevated going from side to side (like a bridge).

photo 3 - big azz skinny

_*always open to your thoughts on any photos I show.*_


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## Pedal Shop (Dec 14, 2006)

trail & maint book = Lightly On The Land (2nd add).

printed by The Mountaineers Book.

like I said earlier: 1/2 the book is boring and has nothing to do with FR&DH but there is some good trail pointers made. Retails for $24 if you can find a source.


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