[nemesis256]

I recently moved to a house, and I've got a very small amount of woods behind it on my property. The area I have to work with is about 150 feet wide and 50 feet deep or "in" away from the road. The biggest problem is it's very steep. The hill is around 35 degrees steep, steep enough to be difficult to walk on, some serious benching will be required. Attached is a picture of the area. The trees are rather open in the area I was standing for the photo but are quite thick on the other end of the property.

What I'm thinking is ride down, have a small table top (1 foot high or so), then ride back up, probably with a switchback on both ends. Biggest concerns are making the switchbacks wide enough and shallow enough to ride. Is this worth pursuing? Am I going to be able to pack down the dirt to make it firm? I've noticed newly built trails are always soft, and I don't know if it's time/weather or use that eventually packs it down.

 

[Shartist]

Steep sounds fun, be wary of drainage and places water could collect. Enjoy that loose brown pow while it lasts! It’ll pack down as you ride.

 

[nemesis256]

Another question, I've more or less chosen where to build the trail, going down and across the hill, and I've measured it to be about 15 degrees using an iPhone app. That sounds steep, but the section is only about 20 feet long. Is it climbable?

 

[127.0.0.1]

it's definitely climbable

question is are you personally up to it ?

it's a simple power grunt... should be cake

 

[nemesis256]

That's pretty much the answer I was hoping for. I'm fine with breathing heavily at the top of it. My bigger concern was whether or not the average rider would loose traction or have to give up.

 

[Harryman]

It's on the steeper side, but perfectly climbable. A lot of the accepted build rules commonly used on public trails can be thrown out the window on a private trail with only a handful of users. Make it as narrow as you can deal with to cut down on how much material you have to move, the switchbacks would be the biggest black holes. Maybe buy a bunch of beer and have a build party with your buddies?

 

[slapheadmofo]

You gotta ask yourself though, in reality, how many times are you actually going to want to just ride up and down the same 20' hill? Unless you've got some pretty serious OCD, I'd imagine it would get old incredibly quickly.

 

[Shartist]

Maybe buy a bunch of beer and have a build party with your buddies?

Orrrr... head to home depot, buy a bunch of 'buddies' [for the day] and have a build party with your beer?

 

[alexbn921]

Great video series on whats possible with a small space.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1iGpIm2g0D8lZvhtqetHmg

 

[nemesis256]

That actually looks like a fair amount of space. Great channel, thanks for posting!

 

[bsieb]

You gotta ask yourself though, in reality, how many times are you actually going to want to just ride up and down the same 20' hill? Unless you've got some pretty serious OCD, I'd imagine it would get old incredibly quickly.

See if you can poach some of your neighbors land, no one else will want to ride your trail unless you add some distance. Any other trails you can connect to? Careful on that steep terrain you don't want to turn it into an erosion scar in a few years, steep takes a lot of maintenance.

 

[Aglo]

(...)Careful on that steep terrain you don't want to turn it into an erosion scar in a few years, steep takes a lot of maintenance.

This. Be very careful with erosion, not only on the steeper area. When I'm working on some feature my main concerns are safety and how I can make the water drainage prevent erosion and if possible improve the current status.