Trailblazing in Silverlox

I can't even believe it's been over two years since Pat and I moved out here to our hidden oasis of Silverlox (what we've named the place). We've worked and worked on it, and there will always be more work to do, but we love it out here. Not much has been done to the inside of the house since the winter, but we're constantly working on the yard. CONSTANTLY!

As of late, we've been tackling the woods. It's been a dream of ours to have trails throughout the wooded area in the back of the property. It's about 2 1/2 acres or half the property, plenty of room for several connected trails. Not long ago, I discovered Pat out there hacking away at the undergrowth and making trails. I can't complain.

I've even helped clear out some of it. But, he really gets most of the credit for this latest project.
Above, you can see less undergrowth right in front of the golf cart as opposed to at the bottom of the picture. That's the area he had just cleared. The process is simple but tiring: trim any thick-ish saplings, move large branches and sticks out of the way, swing a sling blade across remaining plants to level them, and drive or trample over the area to mash it all down. We may eventually mow the area to smooth it down even more. But, for now...it's awesome just as it is!

We're really trying to use what looks like old trails to our advantage.

For now, there's one main trail that cuts from one side of the property to the other but has several entrances.
Eventually, there will be trails winding all through our Silverlox woods.

Here's one that's yet to be cleared, but you can clearly see that it used to be a trail. This makes it much easier to work on making these paths. However, not all the areas we want to have blazed are as clear cut as this one. We'll likely have to wait for the fall or winter when some of the growth dies back to clear those (and when it's not so stinkin' hot).

I know many of these pictures probably all look the same to you, so I did a pretty quick video tour of some of the cut trail to give you a clearer picture of how long it is and some of the sights.


I'm looking forward to using these wooded paths for walks, biking, and eventually disc golf!
They're fun to ride around in the golf cart too!

Our oasis is becoming more and more of what we had envisioned for ourselves and echoes more of who we are too.


5 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for the tour of your forest. We are overgrown with atalantis trees- an inadvertent import from China. They closely resemble sumac and produce hundreds of thousands of seeds every year.
    Keeping up with clearing them out is beyond us.
    Enjoy your trails!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Candy, You are welcome. Thank YOU for taking a peek. I'm not familiar with the tree you mentioned. But there are tons of other invasive plants out in the yard (wisteria, bamboo, air potato, jasmine, and more.) I completely understand being overwhelmed with trying to clear them out. That's part of the reason that we're out in the yard almost every weekend. Having so much property is a total labor of love.
      Thanks again for taking a peek at our trails. We will definitely enjoy them. :)

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  2. Replies
    1. Veralynne, Thank you! We do too. I was surprised how quickly they arose. Pat was out in the woods, and when I checked on him - there was a trail. It was an awesome surprise. I helped as much as I could, but he didn't really need it. I appreciate you taking time to take a look.

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  3. How awesome is this idea to create your own trail network! Very impressive. So glad for you and Pat to have this labor of love!

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Thanks for stopping by! It means so very much to me. I love to hear what you have to say.

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