Trail Work 2014

I'll start on some trail work this weekend, pic 0156 is the new old trail I started to clear a few weeks back, I'll be at the top soon and the last two pics are a broken Beech and a broken Birch that the ice storm took care of up above the Brook.

 

I did get both trails opened up today, pic 0162 was my first stop so I could get some dead chit out of the trail, 0163 was the second stop...dead chit out of the trail, 0164 was what I think is a downed Sugar Maple, 0165 is after I cut it, 0166 is some small chit that I took care of, 0167 is an after pic, 0168 is cut up out of the way, 0169 both the broken off Maples are taken care of.

 

Pic 0170 is at the top, I still have some work to be done on this trail but nothing big, 0171 is the Beech that was broken off, the Rhino took care of that and the Yellow Birch 0173 & 0174

 

I hauled another three loads of chit wood that had been down for a good amount of time to the wood dump, the best part was getting the ice damaged Ironwood.

Cleaning this area up also opens a nice little trail into some storm damaged wood, Birch, Cherry and some Maple.

I also hauled 5 loads of leaves to a very wet area.

 

Work for this weekend should include more trail clearing, I think that I'll be removing about 8-10 stumps so a few extra chains will be needed.

If I can get all the dead chit down and the stumps removed, that will give us another two trails for the sleds, that will be a total of three new trails opened up this month.

 

How close do you try to shave off a stump usually? When I get lower than an inch or so, I trash the chain perty fast.

 

I try to get them within a half inch of the ground.

I also take a Mattock back in so if the stump is rotten I'll take it down with that first .

 

I ran out of room on the card so this is what I had planned doing part of the day tomorrow.

Pic 0237 we have some stumps under the weeds on the right looking down the trail, 0238 I have some wood along the trail that I'll take care of and pic 0239 is heading down the trail.

I did head into a a ravine that I worked this spring on some downed Beech but didn't have enough space on the card for more pics, I'll be working that this weekend so it will be done for snowmobile season.

Lots of tops down with some rotten wood in that area but I think the ravine can be opened up in a day maybe more.

The ravine is way down to the left in pic 0239.

 

My goal was to get the dead chit cleared out of the trail,I hauled seven loads to the wood dump which took care of most of it.

I'll be back on that trail if it's not raining real hard tomorrow, certain areas need to be wider.

 

A few more pics,in the last picture, I'll be taking the downed stuff out of that area.

 

Go get em , try n stay dry

 

I think it will be okay for working tomorrow, all the big stuff that was down is gone so tomorrow will be an easier work day.

W.S., it started off cloudy but at 11:00 the sun came out long enough for us to have lunch in the ravine at noon, things changed after 1:00 with the clouds moving back in with some wind and rain.

 

It finally stopped raining around 9:45 this morning so I started my trail clearing down in the ravine, pic 0259 is what I started on, pic 0262 is the after pic, pic 0260 is the entrance to the ravine (dead basswood cleared up) pic 0261 is after, the wife brought back a PBJ sandwich for lunch so after that I started on the small pile of dirt close to the trail (pic 0263) it went into a good size hole (pic 0264) pic 0265 is after I moved some dead Cherry branches out of the way an raked some leaves on top of the dirt.

The plan is for about three more loads of leaves on top of the fresh dirt, I'll call this trail finished at the end of next Sunday if Mother Nature gives us some good weather.

 

So... when all of your land is covered deep with snow... is that really why you got into snowmobiling? ... cause you'd go crazy all winter wondering where all those dead poles and leaves were, that you couldn't wait to clean up?

 

Out of all the trails I worked on, this one only had about a days worth since we owned the lot.

Having the snowmobiles put a fire under my arse to get two or three more trails open, I also like having access to every part of our property. I'm thinking that by next fall I'll be real close to reaching that goal.

That area you're talking about (dead poles) I was taking a break after loading the trailer up with chit wood so I look up the hill, I see what I think is a downed Beech, GOODER wood.

I'll be checking that out next weekend.

 

It's been a mess in that ravine since we bought the land, I promised the wife it would get cleaned up before the sledding season started. I usually don't make them this wide but with the sleds going through we'll need more room so we can have a nice wide trail.



We still have some nice weather left, one day won't make a difference.

 

This is the new trail that will come down into the ravine from up top, most of the clearing is downed dead chit, I'm thinking an hour of work at the most.