Professional trail builder Eric Carabba of Backwoods Contracting is making steady progress on constructing the park’s trail system.  He finished up the work requiring his small, maneuverable excavator and surface grader.  From here, it is all hand work using hand tools for finish details.

This involves smoothing and then compacting the surface, assessing it for drainage and irregularities, and adjusting as needed until it meets professional published trail standards.  In addition, there is considerable work done in distributing both soil and vegetation that was on the original trail surface.  This gets hidden back in the understory, used for berms and water dips, or re-distributed by switching better soil materials with less desirable walking surface soils.  In addition to thinking of water flow and returning the environment to a natural and undisturbed appearance again, aesthetics are actively assessed throughout as well.

Using a compactor on the trail surface

South loop trail in midway finish between rough-in and final hand finishing