Wow, by looks of that picture, you have a nice property and live in a great location with beautiful mountain scenery. Nice!
On your trail project, a slight thinning, especially smaller crooked trees can be a good thing. And a ATV trail doesn't have to be very wide..
I can’t really offer advice on how to build but I have one. I had a lil tornado and every time wind blew, you could hear branches falling. I tried for 2 months to clear with job kids etc. called logger said if softwood or broken take it down. 20 years later trails are still there woods full of cherry birch
It's only five acres, so up to this point I've managed without needing to cut a trail. Unfortunately the caterpillar devastation has made it a necessity that I now have a trail to get at the minimum an ATV & trailer in. I have mostly just let everything grow naturally over the last 16 years but with unfortunately now needing to drop so many standing dead trees, I'll be doing more woodlot management going forward. I'll definitely be replanting some oaks and beech but may get some of the blight resistant chestnut trees as well. Thanks! I'm blessed to be pretty much smack dab in the middle of the White Mountain National Forest and surrounded by forests, mountains, and close to a river (and waaaaaay too many tourists). I've done that somewhat over the years just for the walking trails and have eyeballed potential routes for an ATV or snowmobile trail. A lot of those smaller crooked trees didn't go to waste and became firewood many years ago. It would be great to have a loop trail large enough to drive the tractor through but I don't really want an established road going through the woods. An ATV trail, like you said, doesn't have to be very wide and won't detract too much from the aesthetics of the forested property (I'm definitely not a tree hugger but I prefer to have my woods as native as possible...there's too much clear cutting going on around here IMO for out-of-staters to build their million dollar second home AIRBNB rentals). I have bears, deer, moose, bobcats, etc. on the property all the time and don't want that to change. It seems like every time I clear a path, Mother Nature decides that's right where she wants to blow down branches/limbs/trees. I'm planning to start a slash pile of smaller dead or damaged trees over the winter/spring so that when the logger comes back next year to drop a few more of the tall red oaks (the last ones that are just possibly within reach of the house if they fell at the perfect angle), I can take advantage of him having that chipper here. I'm out in the woods several times a day walking the dog anyway, so a little here and there will quickly add up in cleaning up a lot of the unwanted scrub and give the trees I want to keep more room to thrive.
Man I hate ice. I'd take ten feet of snow over this stuff. Stupid January thaw (that ice will probably be there until at least April). Supposed to get 2-5 inches of snow tonight. Not even going to clean it up, just going to drive over it and pack it down on top of the ice.
Ice is rather uncommon here, but I still keep a bucket of sand and maybe a bag or two in the garage. It goes pretty quick when you do need it. When I had a 4WD truck I used to just pack it down unless we got a crazy amount. That doesn't happen down here very often either.
ooph! Im with you on that. Our driveway is ground reclaimed pavement and gets icy after a while. Luckily all melted now. Do you have any extra gravel you can spread over it?
I keep at least a couple 5-gallon buckets of a salt/sand mix that the town allows us to get for free plus several 25-pound bags of the paw-safe ice melt for the areas where the dog walks. Only put some in front of the truck and alongside it as it's all hopefully going to be covered in snow by tomorrow. Unfortunately no extra gravel on hand but did put some sand down. Didn't want to waste too much of the sand since it will be covered in snow soon. I keep meaning to build one of those 55-gallon drum stands to fill with salt/sand for the driveway but always forget about it until winter arrives.
Looked pretty much the same as my place with that ice. Same approach-I couldn't wait until it snowed and covered it!
Well I fell on ice Thursday wife fell Friday salted yesterday and again today.. IMO I only want ice in my drinks!! Stay safe MSGT
Yeah, there's no bouncing when you fall on the ice...it just hurts. Hope you and the Mrs. weren't hurt. I've been using the Kahtoola microspikes since back in 2009 and keep a pair of slip-on boots dedicated to just them (kind of a PITA to put on and take off). Just adds another layer of 'fun' to going outside...put on one pair of slip-on boots, carry the other pair with the spikes, go out and go down the deck steps, put on the spiked boots, let the dog do his thing, grab some more firewood, come back, step out of the spiked boots into the other boots, go back in.... rinse and repeat as necessary. Just goes with the locale. About 12 years ago, my GSD was needing to burn some energy but I was limited on where to let him run. The snow was too deep and everywhere else was 2-4 inches of solid ice like in the pictures. Only place to let him run was the treated road (private dirt road with very little traffic). It was late in the evening when I took him out and I made the bad mistake of not wearing the spikes. No memory of what happened but I slipped on the ice and woke up lying on my back in the middle of the road with my dog standing guard over me. Not sure how long I was out but had a pretty good concussion. With the multiple bombings, the last thing I needed was another head injury. Lesson learned and since then I'm extra cautious and very seldom venture out on the ice without traction devices. Don't mind falling in snow, but ice is completely unforgiving.
Those are some serious ice cleats for boots. Will have to look into them. I just use the thin rubber slip-ons with small metal embedded tips. Work, but still have to be very careful.
Me and my beautiful bride are ok; she had bruised knee BUT she bruises easy.. Myself if it doesn’t require surgery to fix I’m good. Just finished touching up our driveway 400 pounds salt yesterday 40 sand salt mix today before freezing and snow after dark
They cost a bit more but to me they're worth it and I've tried the cheaper types (like Yaktrax) but they just didn't hold up or work for me. I have three sets of the Kahtoola spikes (including the original pair from 16 years ago) and they've been put through the ringer. Never even remotely came close to slipping when wearing these.
You'll enjoy having that peace of mind. That's exactly what I did this past fall and have no regrets. The town I live in has "free" sand for all residents at the DPW yard. I had a plastic 55 gallon drum on hand and filled that right up to the top back in September. I'll probably be set for next winter too. 800 something pounds of sand goes a long way.
