Road to Trail Conversion

Trail Dynamics, LLC
Sunday and Monday, March 15-16, 7:45 AM - 5:00 PM
Two-day outdoor workshop
Location: Meet in the Crowne Plaza Conference Center lobby and

car pool to sites in the Asheville vicinity.

The Session

Many trails in the southeast and other parts of the country are not purpose built trails (PBT) but instead adopted old roads. When these old extractions routes (troads) came into being, long term sustainable recreation use was not considered and therefore many of them are failing badly as trail corridors and having a negative impact on natural resources such as water quality.

This hands-on workshop will explore how to best locate a trail within an old road matrix to accomplish many trail management objectives: improve long term sustainability through better water management, enhance the user experience by making the corridor more interesting, and reduce user conflict by calming the speeds of faster user groups.

Workshop participants will learn to how to design a good road to trail conversion from experts with lots of experience, and then they will help design and implement a conversion plan. Pin flags will mark the location of the proposed tread for a trail, and attendees will learn how to use the full road matrix to include undulation and meander into the soon to be single track trail.

Trained trail professionals will run the needed trail machine equipment to cut in the new tread (on an old road bed) while workshop attendees work with other trail professionals to landscape and finish the new “trail”. The use of trail anchors and gateways will be introduced and created to help manage the user. Some machine time may be available for those wanting to learn a little about using trail machines, but for those wanting to focus on that aspect of trail building we recommend the Intro to Mechanized Trail Building workshop happening post conference.

This is a working and hands-on workshop. Please bring appropriate work clothes including: good work boots, work gloves, eye protection, a helmet (if you have one), and rain gear. A small pack will be needed to carry water, food and extra clothing. Also recommended is a digital camera to capture the process.

Transportation Needs

Participants will car pool with each other to each day's work site. Some carrying capacity will be provided by workshop presenters. When you register, please indicate if you will or will no have a car at the conference. The commute to the worksite is 50 minutes from the host hotel. On day one, several stops will be made to examine successful past road to trail conversions.

                       
The Presenters

Various members of Trail Dynamics staff. TD is one of the leading trail contractors in the US and has completed many successful road to trail conversions with great feedback from land managers and trail users alike.

When and Where

Sunday, March 15 and Monday, March 16, 2009

Time each day will be 8 am - 5 pm (meet in the Crowne Plaza lobby at 7:45 am)

Fee
The cost will be $300 for early registration (through Feb. 27) and $325 after Feb. 27.   Fee includes lunches on both days.  Registration is on a first-come basis and is limited to20 attendees.

For More Information
Contact: Woody Keen, Trail Dynamics LLC, (828) 862-5613, woody@traildyamics.com