Have you ever made your own hiking trails?

@theknute (183)
July 1, 2011 1:40pm CST
I am making my own trails in the woods behind my house. Have any of you made your own trails? Does anyone have tips or advice? Thanks!
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1 response
@JoyfulOne (6232)
• United States
1 Jul 11
We've made a lot of trails through our woods at the farm here. Some are tractor wide, for when we ride horses through there, and others are walking paths. When I make a hiking trail, I usually follow the easiest path to make. In other words, if there's a bog, or wet spot, the path goes around it. The biggest hint is that before making any path, I keep an eye on the areas I want to put my paths through. That way you can tell which areas holds more water than others after a heavy rain. The ones we made with the tractor are wide enough for two horses to ride along together, and the jogging/hiking trails are about 2 1/2 feet wide so that we can also take leisurely strolls side by side. On one stretch of our one walking trail, we have little side areas along the way for exercize. The kids love it, as well as some of us adults lol. On these little areas, the walking (or jogging) path makes a straight line, then the path is a little wider for the exercize spots. One exercize area has about 5 old tires to run through army style. On the tires, the side that touches the ground has plenty of holes so it doesn't hold water and become mosquito heaven. Another spot has low logs, (about 1/2 a foot high or so), so that when we're running, it's like a mini obstacle course. Some spots have a spot that has an old chair, or a log, so we can sit down if we want for a while. To keep weeds from re-encroaching onto the paths, I sometimes use that Roundup stuff that's supposedly safe for the environment.
@theknute (183)
1 Jul 11
That sounds so cool! The obstacle course sounds like a lot of fun! The path in our woods was already started for me. It was a path to our well. I did a bit of clearing and cleaning up and extended the path to go down by a brook where I set up some logs as a sitting area. I want to make the path go all around our property. It's been fun, but I haven't done much with it lately.