Building trails on slopes

[Greg Deitrick]

I am looking for recommended references for how to plan and build trails on slopes.  We are in the process of purchasing a house in a wooded canyon.  The property extends nearly to the top of the canyon where it borders public land.  But that is a 1/2 mile climb with about 1300 ft elevation gain over a few patches of scree as well as woods.

Yes, we will be googling around for ideas, but maybe some people here have experience with this and can point us toward the better advice.

Thanks

[Jerry Adams]

The Forest Service has detailed design information.  I’ve seen on-line detailed manuals.  google it : )

Basically, if you go straight down a slope, it’ll turn into a stream and wash out.  If you go sideways you won’t lose any elevation.  Going about halfway in between is about as steep as you can go without washing out.

You cut into the slope and throw the spoils over the side.  You want the slope of the tread to be something like 6 degrees so water naturally runs sideways over the trail.  Then, uphill from the trail, where you cut, it’ll be much steeper.

[Greg Deitrick]

Thanks Jerry.  I think my wife has found the Forest Service stuff once already.  We thought they would be a good source.  But as we have absolutely no experience with this (yet) it is reassuring to hear a bit from others.

In addition to avoiding washout we’d like to end up with a trail that is also comfortable to hike.  Well, comfortable within the context of 1/4 mile elevation gain, which is going to be a bit of a workout regardless.

[Gary Dunckel]

Greg, you might also check with the Nat’l Park Service. Their trails are far superior to those of the USFS, as far as comfortable hiking. I am talking about grade, minimal PUDs (pointless ups and downs), and proper drainage.

[Kenneth Keating]

The Calif Dept of Parks and Rec has a site that provides references for numerous trail design manuals called Trail Managers Toolbox.

[Kenneth Keating]

Los Angeles county also has a comprehensive Trails Manual.

[George F]

The AMC has this.

[David Thomas]

For a more relaxed pace, I like 600-700 feet vertical rise per mile.  Which is about what the Bright Angel Trail in the GCNP is.  That would give you a 2-mile path and that is a LOT of path to build.

To climb more rapidly, when I’m in good shape (and you’ll be in good shape if that’s the front walk to your house!), I prefer about 1000 feet per mile.  That’s still 1.3 miles of trail.

If there are stretches that require stairs, I’ve built a bunch of long ones and the most cost-effective technique I’ve developed is to take engineered floor joists (TJI’s, etc), paint them, infill the web with another layer of plywood, glued & screwed in place.  That makes a very long (up to 48+ feet long, depending on your lumber yard) stringer for a section of staircase.  Then I secure 2×8 treads and 2×4 or 2×6 verticals which stiffens the whole thing a lot.  A little triangulation with 2×4’s or a section of plywood affixed to the bottom of the stringers stiffens it up even more.  Stairs are a quicker way to gain elevation, but 1300 of stairs to too long for almost everyone, so consider some mixed use of them.  While stairs can help you gain elevation and maybe span some tricky rocky section, they would preclude the easy, continuous easy of a wheelbarrow, garden cart, or 4-wheeler to bring supplies and weekly groceries in and out of the house.

Suggestion: Volunteer on some trail-building and trail-repair service trips through REI, the Sierra Club, etc.  Call your local State Park, USFS, etc and see if they have volunteer opportunities to help work on trails.  There’s more to it that it seems at first glance.

And/or hire a former CCC (California Conservation Corps), USFS, NPS trail worker.  Whether to help train you to do the work or to build it themselves, they’ve already learned how to and grasp what the job entails.

[Jerry Adams]

yeah!  trail-building groups are always looking for volunteers

you could look at an existing trail and learn a lot from looking at it

[Greg Deitrick]

To climb more rapidly, when I’m in good shape (and you’ll be in good shape if that’s the front walk to your house!), I prefer about 1000 feet per mile.

The road and the house are on the canyon floor, so no climbing required for “normal” activities.  The hill is out back and strictly for recreation.  I’m sure our neighbors will think we’re nuts.

It would be practical to start out with stairs, but I’m not sure how far we’d get before hauling parts up became impractical.  Also I’m not sure how much non-native material I want scattered through the woods.  There are the occasional downed trees scattered up the slope, and in principle a few more trees could be cut down, but I imagine even moving them into place by hand won’t be easy.

Good idea about getting hooked up with the locals with trail building experience.

In the end this is a retirement project, so no big hurry getting it done.  It will probably be a year or two before we get started.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

 

[David Thomas]

If it’s a private, recreational trail and not the main access to your house, it doesn’t have to be 4-5 feet wide and very evenly graded like a NPS trail, IMO.  I’ve seen a lot of footpaths built, especially in Costa Rica, almost by just hiking the route repeatedly and occasionally pick-axed it a little wider and to take out the most annoying rocks and bumps.

The errors I see most often in those efforts are to take too steep a path, not routing it around steep slopes (which requires planning hundreds of yards in advance), too much reliance on handrails instead of a better pitched trail, and not redirecting water off the trail often enough.

“I imagine even moving (trees) into place by hand won’t be easy.”

Correct!  Unless you’ve got some heavy equipment, a crane or some spectacularly rigged rope system, fallen trees really aren’t viable materials in lengths over 8 to 12 feet.  Even then, you need a big crew with log carriers:

I just googled around for an image and was surprised Northern Tool + Equipment has them for only $50.  The name-brand ones are $130-150.

Anyway, that’s why I suggested the the engineered joists.  I can carry a 30-footer by myself and with my teenager could position them on a 45-degree slope to make (in my case) a roller coaster”

(That’s another dad, not my teenager.  A 60-foot horizontal track with a bungie cord propelled the roller-coaster car towards the 45-degree slope supported on the garage roof).

[Greg Deitrick]

The errors I see most often in those efforts are to take too steep a path, not routing it around steep slopes (which requires planning hundreds of yards in advance), too much reliance on handrails instead of a better pitched trail, and not redirecting water off the trail often enough.

Going up the hill the property is about 100 yards wide for maybe the first third to half and then 200 yards wide for the rest.  My first thought was basically a wide switchback that spanned the available width of the property.  I suppose I should check with the neighboring property owners.  If the trail spanned the 3 adjacent properties there would be about 400 yards to work with side-to-side all the way up.  That would probably make for a more pleasant hike.

I imagined the trail to be about 12 to 18 inches wide.  So just a bit more substantial than a game trail.

In the end probably best to hook up with a local that is experienced with trail building and get their recommendations.

[Tipi Walter]

When I lived on my ridgetop Tipi in North Carolina I spent considerable time cutting in a one mile trail with an elevation gain of one thousand feet.  And for years afterwards kept it open with my trail tools etc.

**  The best part of making a trail is exploring and bushwacking first to get the general lay of the land and where the switchbacks will go, and/or wooden steps.  After these initial explorations you can use red ribbon to mark the probationary trail and then get to work by clearing a wide tunnel thru brush and trees.

**  By such explorations you can swing near rock caves or scenic points or by giant trees or seep water sources for a later spring development to get water.

**  Switchbacks are your best friend when constructing a trail.  They offer brief moments of level ground during arduous climbs.

Here’s a scene midway down my trail where I swung over and next to this giant oak tree as I wanted its limbs to form a trailway arch and a bit of level ground.  Notice the faint red blaze I painted on the trail.  I was on 40 acres of land—most vertical—and the Red trail was my main route up to the ridge and the tipi, but I had a Green trail and a Yellow trail and a Blue trail exploring all facets of the 40 acres both up and down.

Here’s the view from the top of the ridge by my tipi on a sidetrail where I had a small wooden deck—all of which was carried up the mountain on my back.  In fact, everything I owned was carried up this mountain, so having a long switchbacked trail helped me to slowly get to the top and to rest periodically.

I did have a straight shot trail, a plunge chute, which went directly up the mountain with no relief, but it was only used in terrible storms and ice and deep snow or after ice storms or when I needed fast ins and outs—like when I carried my 140 lb iron woodstove up to the top.  Gotta find the shortest fastest route.  Otherwise, I could backpack switchbacked trails all day long.

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