Well if it weren't enough to run trails.....I had to go and build my own. The land where our home is once was a Farm. We have been told it was Chief Blackfish's farm but we have never been able to confirm that. Although, there is a road the travels through our edition that is named Blackfish. There is however, a Shawnee Chief named Blackfish with a bit of a sorted past.
There is about 11 acres behind our house of heavily treed land that lies between our neighborhood and the next one. City planners call this green space. It has about 0.3 miles of existing unsustainable trail that included an old abandoned farm road. The kids in the neighborhood have also managed to carve some other trails to forts and other spots where they play. In mid summer most of the trails are overgrown and goes unused.
I had been thinking of building some trails back 
there and then one day just started doing it. I walked the land a couple of times to decide on what would be the best route and how to optimize the space I had to work with to get the most mileage. I laid out about 0.25 miles where no trails had existed. I started the actual blazing in February.
In addition ,I also built a rock staircase from our backyard down to the top loop of the new trail. The total length including the old stuff is about 0.62 miles. One loop has about 150 feet of rise and fall. It is plenty rocky and there are several trees to jump or climb over. We also built three bridges. Two from an old privacy fence I tore down and one over an area that stays muddy for a long time. I trenched through that spot and then built a rock bridge over it leaving a tunnel for drainage.
I have devised many ways to move rocks that are
twice my weight. I read how to build sustainable trails from a book I bought from IMBA. The trails seem to dry very quickly except a couple of spots that are obviously drainage areas from the neighborhood. I'll eventually armorer these areas.
Many kids have walked by when I'm working on the trails and comment about how COOOOL they are. Several neighbors have built spurs from their yards to the trail. I have noticed some folks walking dogs and a few kids riding their BMX bikes.
Phase II is re-routing some of the old farm trails/road to get more mileage. Not to mention create trails that are sustainable and drain well. I think that I can get a full one mile and maybe 1.5 miles. Phase II will commence this fall. I built 0.25 miles in three months by myself and got side tracked on the rock staircase. I'm hoping that through the fall and winter I might be able to get about half what I have planned finished.
The name I've settled on is the Blackfish Homestead Trail unless someone comes up with a better suggestions.
Longer trails ahead, Jim
