Client: Dupont Recreational State Forest Location: Hendersonville, NC Grassy Falls is a favorite destination for visitors to the forest, and we were pleased to refresh and improve the sustainability of the trail leading up to the falls. Over the years, the original trail had experienced erosion which had exposed roots, created ruts and made the approach treacherous. By adding some local stone, slightly rerouting the trail and using sustainable building techniques, the new trail will be enjoyed by visitors for years to come....
Client: City of Rocky Mount Location: Rocky Mount, NC The city had an existing paved greenway connecting Battle and Sunset Parks and wanted to include some natural surface trail to increase user traffic within the parks. Nature Trails worked with the city to design and build 5 miles of natural surface bike optimized trail. The rocky terrain provided a perfect location for a bicycle playground and we custom fabricated progressive features on a different rock feature....
Client: Back Alley Bikes / Gnarrboro Location: Carrboro, NC Back Alley Bikes has been a go to spot for bmx riders for years thanks to an awesome wooden bowl cobbled together with scrap wood, hopes and dreams! After years of hard riding, weather, and abuse the bowl finally rotted through and it was time for the next generation of bowl. This time around, Back Alley reached out to us to create a rot resistant concept that would last even longer and be infinitely modifiable. Our solution was to level the area, install drainage, bring in 160,000 lbs. of concrete bin blocks to form exterior walls, then import another 160,000 lbs. of red clay to shape up a dirt spine bowl with sub boxes and corner hips. The local bmx crew took over final shaping and the bowl is now being shredded on the regular!...
Client: Pisgah Area SORBA Location: Brevard, NC Pisgah Area SORBA is an extremely active trail advocacy organization overseeing the Pisgah Ranger District and surrounding areas. Through their efforts, they have been awarded several Recreational Trail Program (RTP) grants for rehabilitation, reroute, and new construction of multi-use trails in the Pisgah National Forest. Nature Trails was selected as the contractor to perform rehabilitation on the a group of trails radiating from a central intersection with Club Gap. Our scope of work required us to create positive drainage and sustainable tread surface on legacy, fall line logging trails often in excess of 20% grades that were never designed for this application. Our work was restricted to using the existing trail prism which meant that we had to develop creative solutions for drainage without realigning the trail to reduce grades. In addition, we had to work closely with the US Forest Service to prevent conflict with numerous Native American archeological sites that exist along the trails. As...
Digital Trail Map
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Trail Planning & Construction Photos Client: SIM USA Location: Charlotte, NC SIM USA is a global missionary organization dedicated to improving the world through prayer and care. Their people travel the world to improve the lives of those less fortunate by providing healthcare, clean water, shelter, and hope. They contacted us to transform 40 acres at the US headquarters in Charlotte, NC into a natural haven for their guests who return home to reflect and connect with nature. We started by developing a Trail Master Plan that would guide the future construction and development of the property for several years. Next, we developed a construction budget with their land stewardship committee and set out for the first phase of construction. We're happy to say that visitors to SIM USA now...
Pump Track Construction Photos Client: Aaron H. Location: Lake Gaston, NC Aaron has a lake house in North Carolina and wanted to make use of his wooded lot to create a fun area for his son and he to ride bikes together. We created a small 30'x45' pump track with 1,000ft of winding single track surrounding it....
Trail Building & Construction Photos Client: Triangle Off-Road Cyclists (TORC)
Location: Chapel Hill, NC
We were thrilled to partner with Newland Communities, Briar Chapel's HOA, REI, and Triangle Off-Road Cyclists (TORC) to build the first bicycle skills park in Chatham County. Briar Chapel has been a growing destination for mountain bikers in the Piedmont region and now it has even more reason to attract visitors.
In designing and building the skills park, we focused on three main goals: Sustainability - Build features and obstacles to minimize erosion and that can be easily maintained by volunteers. Each run aligns with natural topography and includes subsurface drain systems and natural rock reinforcements where needed.
Accessibility - All constructed trails were designed to integrate seamlessly with existing infrastructure. The staging area and return paths use existing trail to minimize new construction and provide convenient access to parking and local dining at the Veranda shopping center.
Safe Learning - Each obstacle is designed to have progressive options scaling up from the...
