building an at home trail

[kly5953]

In the past few months, I have become a homeowner, and with how low the rates were, I was able to purchase a decent amount over what my perceived budget was. I ended up purchasing a decent rural property, and got a little more than 3 acres of property, 2 of which are wooded.

The previous tenant had a 4 wheeler and made a little trail back there, and I plan to expand on this. Right now I'm getting things in order around the house and trying to get all the "fixer-upper" bits out of the way, but I really want to make a fun little exhibition playground in this back wooded lot. Right now, there is a small ditch obstacle, some tight turns, and not so smooth pathways, but obviously the jk has 0 issues with any of it. I would like to change that.

Keep in mind, I'm not trying to create "the Rubicon 2.0" I just want to make a small playground for the jeep and possibly for my kids dirtbikes, once they are old enough. This will be an ongoing project as my family will probably make this evolve constantly throughout our ownership of this house. BUUUUT, for now, I have a few idears.

It's an L shaped property, ~500ft on the 2 long edges
I want to use the trees to create some obstacles, I'll have to clear some anyway because they are all interfering with one another.
There's a small 12' hill climb in the back that I'm currently prepping
I have a few off camber spots that seem like they have promise
I'm hiring an arborist to come out and give advice on trees before I map it out.

What I need to know is this:
once I fell some trees, how do I prep them so they can last like a phone pole?
just how difficult will it be to obtain large rocks for a rock garden?
Is there a way to preserve tree stumps so that I could use them in obstacles?

Please feel free to give advice on this topic, or even a bobcat if you got one lol

[8lugLJ]

Stumps will never go away lol, the trees wont for a few years. Big rocks are hard to find and expensive unless someone is clearing and just wants them gone. They are heavy, hard to unload, and hard to place where you want without a trackhoe. Bobcat and trackhoes run anywhere from $75-125hr plus haul fees usually, you might just look into renting one for half a day, but make sure you get one with a hydraulic thumb or its just a shovel lol. Good luck, building trail is a blast

[Raisinhead]

Very cool!

Demolished concrete might be an option, but I’ve heard there is still a market for it. Also, the concrete blocks and barriers could be cool.

[patman]

I got a buddy who built some trails, and he contacted some demolition companies and they provided large concrete slabs or broken concrete pipes. Not free, but cheaper than rocks. As Justin said, you got to have something to move them since they will be heavy

[8lugLJ]

Big rocks are wayyyyy heavier than they look. 8cu ft stone which is only 2x2x2 is north of 1000lbs, most 8k-12k lb trackhoes are rated to lift roughly 1/3 of their weight out in front of them with the blade down. If the land has natural hills and ditches it will be much easier to make cool stuff out of smaller objects with. I hauled 2 pretty good size rocks back to the compound the other week and it pretty much maxed out a 14k trailer.

[kly5953]

I may get access to a bobcat at some point for free, which would be nice for moving some of this stuff. I'll basically use what comes to me for cheap.
I'm not trying to have this done within a year or anything, so I have time to wait and build whatever comes available. Would be nice if I did some digging and found big rocks underneath the soil!

[BigMike]

Rent a stump grinder.  If you just want them flush it won't be as hard to do that.  Rent a big fork lift to move the rocks.  Could be fun.

My buddy has 48 acres and has a Kubota UTV.  Even the 4WD  in that has trouble climbing the hill with 4 people from the gun range he made.  I told him he should buy an old Jeep.  He already has a Skidsteer, mini Excavator, dump truck, all terrain forklift, and a monster brush chipper. 

[Grass Janitor]

SiteOne or a local stone supply yard will have lots of big Tennessee boulders but you’re gonna pay landscape prices and like [mention]8lugLJ [/mention] said your average skid steer will handle 2-3k pounds depending on the model and sometimes those stones are 4K lb. And also like he said a 80 size track hoe at minimum would be necessary as well.


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[classified]

Call around to local site development companies, like grading contractors, to see if they are blasting anywhere. If its close, they may be happy to bring a couple of dump trucks to you.

Try to have your area prepped before they get there and let them dump. If you feel the pile is too easy then you can always rent a smaller track hoe latter just to drag spacing between the larger rocks.

[extremetownie]

That is what happen here. When my son was 13 ,we had to do some blasting to enlarge the drive way entrance. Well he would drag the rocks up on the hill and use the backhoe to stack them. Then he would have me go out and see if i could make it. It took a while , but he accomplished his goal. Broke a lot of parts trying to get over those rocks.

[8lugLJ]

That is what happen here. When my son was 13 ,we had to do some blasting to enlarge the drive way entrance. Well he would drag the rocks up on the hill and use the backhoe to stack them. Then he would have me go out and see if i could make it. It took a while , but he accomplished his goal. Broke a lot of parts trying to get over those rocks.

I figured Thor would just break the rocks with his HAMMA