Duke Energy TRAILS

Intro to Sustainable Trail Design & Layout, Construction, and Maintenance

Classroom teaching and experiential learning are combined in this four-day training session to understand the fundamentals of sustainable trails and learn how to apply them. Participants learn sustainable trail principles, key trail design elements, physical sustainable trail attributes, and trail design effect on the user experience. Participants learn how to incorporate these fundamentals into trail layout, construction, and maintenance so they can be more effective at designing, managing, and expanding their trail systems.

This four-day workshop introduces design, construction, and maintenance techniques that result in trails having a reduced impact on the environment, better meet user needs, and require less maintenance over time. Participants will practice desktop trail planning, corridor planning, and pin flag trail alignments in the field. Field experience also includes construction and maintenance techniques that reduce tread soil loss and muddiness through improving the trail’s ability to shed water. Participants learn the importance of tread grade and alignment and learn how to use clinometers to measure tread grade and side slope. Additionally, this training session includes how to ensure a trail design has sufficient grade reversals from the outset as well as how to address existing trails suffering insufficient grade reversals.

Participants should bring:

• Lunch, snacks and sufficient water (suggested 2 liters or more) for full days of field work
• Appropriate dress for the forecasted weather including layers and rain gear
• Appropriate clothing for field work including long pants and closed-toe shoes (comfortable sturdy work boots recommended)
• Hi-viz (shirt, jacket, vest, etc. so that no matter the weather, your hi-viz is visible)
• Work gloves with dexterity (mechanic–style gloves work well)
• Safety glasses
• Hard hat
• Pen and paper for taking notes
• Day pack for your lunch and gear so that your hands are free for carrying tools
• Clinometer (if available to you)

RCC will provide:

• Hand tools for trail building and maintenance
• Clinometers
• Supplemental PPE (hard hats, safety glasses, safety vests)

Note: There are no restroom facilities at the field site.

Sustainable Trail Management, Assessment, Permitting, and Contracting

During this two-day intermediate trail training session, participants learn about the comprehensive management of natural surface trails. Participants discuss trail assessment, trail facilities, signage, maintenances, wet weather trail closure, and other current issues. Classroom teaching and experiential learning are combined to understand critical trail assessment. Participants discuss how trail condition, maintenance, and safety can affect the “trail experience,” and they conduct a desktop trail system review. Participants learn how the interpretation of assessment results may vary depending on user group and trail difficulty. The session covers potential permitting requirements and trail contracting for natural surface sustainable trail projects based on assessment results. Gain field experience assessing existing trails and proposed reroutes on the RCC trail system. Fieldwork also includes a site visit to a local trail system to evaluate sustainable trail management topics. Participants should bring their own lunch, snacks, and plenty of drinking water. Participants must dress appropriately for hiking – long pants and closed-toe shoes (boots preferred), and be prepared to hike 3-6 miles over the course of two days.