E biking has opened up a lot of new territory for trail building

[daju]

I'm almost looking for deer trails going up long steep hills. Anyways, does anyone know of a link or forum devoted to creating single track. I want to be better at constructing natural bridges out of rocks, following the land contours, cutting as few branches as possible, using natural features, etc.
My current dilemma is navigating a way through an old junk yard full of broken glass; trying to imagine a way to use old tires to "pave the way"
I also have some good pictures of great efforts by others more talented than I

 

[R120]

its one of the great things about EMTB's how they help with trail building - I have never seen, but presume their must be a forum on this, maybe on one of the other major sites such as pink bike. YouTube has lots of vids on how to build trails. Good luck!

 

[R120]

Thinking about I maybe we should have a trail building sub Forum on here? I know there are a few people doing it and posting up what they are doing.

 

[Zimmerframe]

Sounds like a great idea. Since having the emtb I've got quite heavily into trail building/tidying/renovating/extending.

Always interesting to see what different tools people use, how they carry them, types of trails people make, what rules and general guidelines they follow - with respect to the environment and how best to make a great trail.

 

[daju]

its one of the great things about EMTB's how they help with trail building - I have never seen, but presume their must be a forum on this, maybe on one of the other major sites such as pink bike. YouTube has lots of vids on how to build trails. Good luck!

Thanks for the encouragement, peeps
I'll look at pink bike. I have a 3 liter back pack that is surprisingly comfortable for transporting wood, electric drill, screws, etc. But the best approach would be using all natural materials; the picture is such a natural bridge I found by the trailside last week.

 

[OldGoatMTB]

imba.com might be a good place to start.

 

[johnf0246]

One thing I have always tried to do when constructing a nice user created trail is to build the trail as good as the land manager could or hopefully better than the land manager would. The reason for constructing a trail as good as or better than the land manager is so at some point in the future they may adopt the trail into a system trail for others to ride.

Where I live there are a lot of people who hike trails. The trails I have built are also hiker friendly. If you can get more people out enjoying a well built trail it puts a good signature on the trail, which gives the land manager the incentive to allow the trail to exist.

When I build a new trail I ride on the newly constructed trail to pack it in and to make sure it rides nicely. I don’t do a lot of trail excavation, I make the trail tread barely rideable, so that the trail can be ridden in by the user group who will be using the trail. That cuts down on a large amount of work.

 

[daju]

This is one of my better bridges over muddy creek water thats anywheres between 6 inches and 2 feet deep

 

[B1rdie]

This is one of my better bridges over muddy creek water thats anywheres between 6 inches and 2 feet deep View attachment 53400

I love riding skinnies, specially over dirt water like that, but how would you exit without hitting that tree ??

 

[daju]

I love riding skinnies, specially over dirt water like that, but how would you exit without hitting that tree ??

It's not bad and wider than it looks, but riding it the other way, going downhill, approaching the skinny, is much harder --usually walk
overall, it's low risk, low consequence