Projects – Page 3 – Nature Trails

Bristol, Tennessee ATV Trail

Client: Long Cane Trails Location: Bristol, TN Long Cane Trails was hired to construct 3+ miles of 4-wheeler trails on private property in Bristol, TN. Upon encountering extra steep side slope with extensive subsurface rock, Long Cane hired us to complete the trail using some of our larger equipment and hydraulic breaker. The steep slopes and rock required cuts up to 12 feet deep in solid stone to form a 60 inch wide tread suitable for ATV's to safely navigate. This project required extreme patience, caution, and precision to be built without the use of blasting or hydraulic fracturing methods. Total duration of construction through the rock cliffs was approximately 5 weeks to complete 0.5 miles....

Private Mountain Bike Skills Trail

Client: Natalie L. Location: Raleigh, NC1 This private bicycle skills trail was created for MTB skills instructor with a passion for riding, but also teaching others! This trail is approximately 1,600 linear feet in length on 2.5 acres. As part of the design, the client specified wanting progressive drops, rollers, jumps, berms, skinnies, ledges, and a rock garden. With semi flat terrain, we had to construct an elevated mound for the entrance of the trail to create a double drop zone with a ledgy downhill bypass line. Next, the trail progresses from small berms, to small uniform rollers before diving into a larger berm and hitting several larger table tops and a rollable hip jump. After the jump section, the trail provides a bypass shortcut back to the top or descends further down the hill with a custom cedar slab A-frame bridge, skinny, and up-down ledges. The climb back up as a log pile roll, rock garden, cedar skinny bridge, and a unique...

Oskar Blues REEB Ranch Bike Park – Beginner Dirt Jumps

Client: Oskar Blues REEB Ranch Location: Hendersonville, NC The REEB Ranch is an unique event venue owned by Dale Katechis, the founder of Oskar Blues and REEB Cycles. The ranch caters to a wide variety of events, but notably, it has a dedicated bike park complete with dual slalom, dirt jumps, pump track, skinnies, and more! Despite all of these cool options, Nature Trails was contracted to build a beginner / intermediate dirt jump section that bridged the skills gap between the pump track obstacles and the large jump lines so that riders had more opportunity for skill progression. We accomplished this by installing a line of progressive tabletops that start around 3ft tall and 6ft long and increase in size gradually up to about 4ft tall and 8ft long without the need for pedaling along the way. In addition, we built two extra small tabletops that are stand alone to provide riders new to jumping the opportunity to catch air without having...

Black Mountain / Avery Creek / Buckwheat Knob – Pisgah Trail Rehab

Client: Pisgah Area SORBA Location: Brevard, NC Pisgah Area SORBA is an extremely active trail advocacy organization overseeing the Pisgah Ranger District and surrounding areas. Through their efforts, they have been awarded several Recreational Trail Program (RTP) grants for rehabilitation, reroute, and new construction of multi-use trails in the Pisgah National Forest. Nature Trails was selected as the contractor to perform rehabilitation on the a group of trails radiating from a central intersection with Club Gap. Our scope of work required us to create positive drainage and sustainable tread surface on legacy, fall line logging trails often in excess of 20% grades that were never designed for this application. Our work was restricted to using the existing trail prism which meant that we had to develop creative solutions for drainage without realigning the trail to reduce grades. In addition, we had to work closely with the US Forest Service to prevent conflict with numerous Native American archeological sites that exist along the trails. As...

Galloway Ridge Nature Preserve – Phase III

Client: Galloway Ridge Location: Pittsboro, NC Progress continues at Galloway Ridge with the third phase of development on their ADA walking trails for residents. This third phase of construction features a babbling brook bisecting a small piece of property between the community garden and resident villas. Rather than simply building trail on one side of the brook, we created a plan than maximized the use and beauty of the natural features by meandering back and forth across with the use of 6 bridges over the course of 1/4 mile! Where we encountered low lying marsh land, we elevated the tread and stabilized with native stone for a picturesque experience. The result is a truly beautiful and completely unique section of trail that the residents love....

Trail Bridge at Briar Chapel

Client: Avid Trails Location: Chapel Hill, NC Our friends at Avid Trails were contracted to build 3/4 mile of single-track mountain bike trail in the Briar Chapel master planned community in Chapel Hill, NC. As part of the project, Avid subcontracted us to build a bridge to clear span 20ft across a small creek. ...

Raleigh Private Bike Park

Client: John T. Location: Raleigh, NC John is a new mountain biker who started building a pump track in his front yard in his spare time, but soon realized that building trails is a lot of work! Determined to have trails at his house, John contacted us to design and build him a private bike park where he could improve his current skills and leave plenty of room to improve over time. Our design increases in speed and obstacle size as the trail progresses downhill along his property. Beginning with a straight pump track of 6 rollers, the trail then encounters a 180 degree righthand berm to direct you into two small tabletop jumps. Following the tabletops, the trail berms left into a wooden roller that drops over a retaining wall and into a downhill roller - berm - roller that hits the crescendo with a huge 180 righthand berm with a 6ft curved wall ride! Exiting the wallride, the return trail...

Galloway Ridge Nature Preserve – Phase II

Client: Galloway Ridge Location: Pittsboro, NC After completing the dog park and first walking trail at Galloway Ridge, the residents were so enthusiastic that they immediately expressed interest in having more trail built so that they could enjoy the beautiful wooded areas surrounding the property. We were more than happy to respond and tackle a unique piece of land with several lowland areas by expanding the Chapel Hill grit trail system and using puncheon bridges to span several primary drainage locations. In addition, we constructed a large native cedar trailhead arch at the new entrance as well as using cedar and cypress branches to create a decorative screen around some unsightly electrical panels. ...

Raleigh Private Walking Trail

Trail Steps & Bench-cut Photos Client: Anna T. Location: Raleigh, NC Anna and her husband have a beautiful wooded lot in the heart of Raleigh near the NC State campus. They contacted us to create a path for their family to be able to walk down a steep hillside behind their house for their children to explore safely. Our solution was to build approximately 250ft of single-track trail with several grade reversals to manage the water flow. At the bottom of the trail, we cut sharply down the final grade with 17 steps built with 6x6 pressure treated lumber, backfilled with crushed stone. The crushed stone helps shed mud when walking back from the creek as well as ensuring many years of durability regardless of the creek level. ...

SIM USA ‘Back 40’ Trail Master Plan

Digital Trail Map .embed-container {position: relative; padding-bottom: 80%; height: 0; max-width: 100%;} .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container iframe{position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;} small{position: absolute; z-index: 40; bottom: 0; margin-bottom: -15px;} Trail Planning & Construction Photos Client: SIM USA Location: Charlotte, NC SIM USA is a global missionary organization dedicated to improving the world through prayer and care. Their people travel the world to improve the lives of those less fortunate by providing healthcare, clean water, shelter, and hope. They contacted us to transform 40 acres at the US headquarters in Charlotte, NC into a natural haven for their guests who return home to reflect and connect with nature. We started by developing a Trail Master Plan that would guide the future construction and development of the property for several years. Next, we developed a construction budget with their land stewardship committee and set out for the first phase of construction. We're happy to say that visitors to SIM USA now...