My Trail - Autumn
:date: 2025-10-09 15:46 :tags:
Winter is coming! And I have been working very hard to prepare for it. One thing I've poured a lot of energy into is my own XC ski trail entirely on my property. I now have 1000 meters of pretty good trail that avoids pine trees, difficult inclines, sharp turns, and road crossings — even avoiding my own driveway.
When I first moved here, even walking in this forest was simply not done. First you had to armor up in a full beekeeper suit and then anywhere you stepped you'd have a face full of beech leaves. I did make some early expeditions into this thicket armed with a machete and this forest seemed extremely difficult to move through. Here's a note on the 1841 survey of my township that says "2nd rate land undulating".
And that is quite true. Notes like this probably saved this forest from clear cutting. The undulations are actually what I call "tree graves". Trees fall and leave big pits where the root ball was and then create long mounds where they decompose and get covered by the forest. But it makes it tough to move through, especially on a bike.
With a lot of work I have managed to upgrade last year's 250m rough ski trail into a pretty good loop that goes all over the property. I have also cleared out tons of small beech trees — well over a thousand — that were choking the forest. Well, they thought they were the forest but I disagreed.
Since we're having some very nice weather and the trees are putting on their fall colors I thought I'd make a video of my trail for others to check out.
This is so rough for biking that I suspect I could run this route on foot quicker — I'm sure my brother could. (This is pretty close to 1km in 6:23 or 9.4kph; younger me has run a half marathon at 15.8kph.) Hopefully I'll post another video once the snow comes demonstrating the truly quickest way to get through this forest!
UPDATE - 2025-12-08
Here is the winter version. And yes, skiing is quicker!