Had camera mount still setup on windshield from my trip to the Smokies and decided to take a little drive around my woods with it. Nothing exciting, just cruising around.
Love the trails! Makes me appreciate our more level ground. Trail a bit rough in spots but not overly so. I see a few leaners too.
As they say, the video doesn't do the hills justice. We are limited to ridge tops and sidehill roads to get around. These are mostly all old logging trails. The woods was logged with a team of draft horses before my great uncle bought it and has had a timber crew through since then. Picked the best and most useful skid roads and rehabilitated them into a trail system. If you notice some bumps on the hills, those are my water bars. Some trails are purposefully sloped to one side for better water drainage....some are just not as developed as others. Most all work is done on them with my little kubota and and old bush hog moldboard scraper. I have had a small dozer a few times (rental) over the years and that is a tremendous help in shaping and leveling the trails. The last part of the trail 2 video...where you see a pause and hear me going to 4 low is a secondary access that I made with that dozer. It's not bad if you can work from the top! I don't consider a trail to be finished until my little pickup can navigate them easily and without scratches. What if I told you that is the *easier to get up hill?? Ha! The other one on that parcel is steeper and longer. I also made a secondary down off of it, but have never been up or down that one in a pickup...so it still needs work to be finished. Hoping to get one of those small dozers back here this spring after things dry out and make some more improvements and try to finish the mother of all woodlot trails which would allow me to fully cross both parcels of ground covering around 1.5 miles in the woods. I chickened out last go around when working from the top, and had the dozed hung up the previous rent working from the bottom of a hill. Another 100 yards of trail and it will be complete, but boy...what a hundred yards it is!
Fully understand the need for the water problem! I remember skidding logs just once in a woods similar to yours. Not fun for sure once winter set in but we got it done. Back then we didn't have skidders; we had tractors and drays.
Call me a houndog then! Had I known better when young, I could have saved the tack and collar harnesses. They were in a shed and by the time I realized what they were they had deteriorated beyond repair. The foundation of the horse stable is still visible in one of the yards. Would loved to have seen them working.
I got to see some demonstrations at the Bunyan show back when it was held at Hocking College campus. Impressive to see the teamwork between the driver and even the horses themselves to move those logs around.
