Trail Blazing Experiences

[Jerry-B-WI]

I'm talking about a simple trail…. Something to use walk quietly around the property border. Wide enough for a 4 wheeler. Clear enough so a person isn’t tripping over roots and 2 inch stumps. I figured the box blade and shanks would be a good option to pull out the roots and 2-3 inch stumps after clearing a bit with the mower.

Save the wear and tear on your equipment and your time. Hire a mulcher. The guy that did mine had a mulcher that was 6 feet wide. He was a good operator and did two small plots and about 300 yards of trail. All done in one day and everything flat and level with nothing to trip on. Total cost was under $2500.

 

[SwampCat]

I'm talking about a simple trail…. Something to use walk quietly around the property border. Wide enough for a 4 wheeler. Clear enough so a person isn’t tripping over roots and 2 inch stumps. I figured the box blade and shanks would be a good option to pull out the roots and 2-3 inch stumps after clearing a bit with the mower.

I had about three miles of trail like that cleared with a mulcher. Most of it was in ground with few rocks and no stumps at all remained after mulching - just chips. No brush to contend with after clearing. About a 1/4 mile was upland with some rock and there were half a dozen 3” tall stumps I had to remove with a chainsaw afterwards.

This is representative of my trails. Looked like this about 18 months after mulcher went through. I marked the trails where nothing bigger than about 6” dbh was removed

Well, wont do that - none of the icons highlighted so I cant add picture

 

[SwampCat]

This is what my mulched trails look like after 18 months

 

[Walleyeguy13]

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This is what my mulched trails look like after 18 months

Very nice!

 

[Walleyeguy13]

View attachment 86294

This is what my mulched trails look like after 18 months

Very nice!

View attachment 86294

This is what my mulched trails look like after 18 months

This is the sort of stuff we’re looking at.

 

[SwampCat]

Very nice!

View attachment 86298
This is the sort of stuff we’re looking at.

I think a mulcher would work great. Will still need to spray gly maybe once a year

 

[Telemark]

I figured the box blade and shanks would be a good option to pull out the roots and 2-3 inch stumps after clearing a bit with the mower.

Sounds reasonable. Probably what I would try.

 

[Turkish]

Interested in hearing how some of you in thick woods handle cutting new trails. We would like to build a perimeter trail on the property which will necessitate blazing through some thick stuff. We’ve done a little chainsaw work which is slow and tedious to make sure we aren’t leaving punji sticks along the path.

We have:

A ‘70s Massey Ferguson 180 (diesel) with the Woods-DuAl bucket on front.

A King Kutter rotary brush mower.

A King Kutter box blade with the shanks.

Am I crazy thinking we could just blaze a trail with the bucket and box blade?

The mower is OK, but still leaves behind all the tripping hazards to be cleaned up.

I’m all ears!

I’ve tried it all. Dozer. Mulcher if your pockets are deeper and there is absolutely zero water management (grading) to do. This is assuming that it’s more than a few hundred yards. If a small job, maybe brute forcing it with hand tools and a tractor is your best bet.

 

[omicron1792]

I'm talking about a simple trail…. Something to use walk quietly around the property border. Wide enough for a 4 wheeler. Clear enough so a person isn’t tripping over roots and 2 inch stumps. I figured the box blade and shanks would be a good option to pull out the roots and 2-3 inch stumps after clearing a bit with the mower.

It can be done like that. But man it will be tough. A forestry mulcher would do that trail in about an hour.

 

[matinc]

My main trail already previously completed I weed Wacked it this year and blew out all the leaves already. Talk about stealth quiet Plenty wide for side by side. Even brought in gravel for low areas off a trailer l. Keeps ticks away. I may install a culvert in a low area. Of course I use shovel and pick axe.