84 Forest Club Annual 



hillsides. Where the country has been worn down, the valleys 

 have .a gentle grade and are quite wide so that they make good 

 trail routes. Where mountains are crossed the route is usually 

 expensive and contains steep grades. The foothill grade is 

 undesirable because there is so much winding in and out 

 around the heads of canyons in order to keep an even grade, 

 that the trail is bound to be extremely long. 



In the southwest where cattle graze on the forests to some 

 extent, it is found that they are very good engineers in the 

 location of trails, as a number of trails on the Gila National 

 Forest of New Mexico are old cattle trails which have been 

 brushed out and blazed. In going up a grade cattle resort to 

 switchbacks and always travel where the going is best, keep- 

 ing an even grade. In traveling down a ridge or canyon they 

 always pick out the smooth spots and many of these trails 

 located by cattle are just as good as those located by man. 



The factors which influence the building and cost of trails 

 are: (1) grade, (2) width of cleared space and the tread, 

 (3) nature of the soil, (4) cost of labor, (5) distance for 

 packing supplies, (6) distance men walk to work, (7) cost of 

 supplies, and (8) supervision. Grade, as said before is the 

 determining factor of location; the steeper the grade, the 

 greater the length of the trail and consequently the greater 

 the cost. The greater the amount of brush, the wider the 

 space brushed out and the wider the tread the greater the cost. 

 The cleared space varies from 6 to 14 feet, and the tread 

 varies from 1 to 4 feet. Ordinarily a tread of 18 inches is 

 wide enough, for a horse will almost invariably travel on the 

 lower side of a trail and always in the same place, so if the 

 trail is wider than 18 inches the inside will just fill up with 

 sliding material and the extra cost in excavation will be 

 thrown away. On turns, trails are widened and on switch 

 backs the width is doubled. The trail bed should be flat, 

 Excavation should be made into the bank instead of building 

 up the lower side of the trail, because on steep slopes earth 

 thrown out of the trail makes a poor footing. The nature of 

 the soil affects the cost of excavation. The cost for excava- 

 tion of sand would probably be the greatest as the greatest 

 amount of material would have to be taken out. The bank 

 on the upper side of an excavation should slope away from the 



