{"id":1817478,"date":"2026-03-10T10:05:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T07:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1817478"},"modified":"2026-03-10T10:05:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T07:05:00","slug":"why-some-trail-builders-are-ditching-bench-cuts-for-elevated-singletrack-tread","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1817478","title":{"rendered":"Why some trail builders are ditching bench cuts for elevated singletrack tread"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Golden Fleece Trail, built by Steve Wentz using this technique. Photo: Hollow Photography, courtesy BLTS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For decades, the bench cut singletrack trail was the gold standard of mountain bike trail building techniques. But in recent years, a variety of new, more advanced techniques have been on the rise that create a better-quality trail and require much less maintenance. One such technique is building a singletrack trail with a slightly elevated trail tread.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You might be familiar with elevated trail treads where singletrack passes through low-lying boggy areas, but the technique can be used even in arid environments to create more engaging trails that \u201camplify the terrain,\u201d while simultaneously draining water better. That\u2019s how Steve Wentz, Owner of Momentum Trail Concepts<\/a>, describes it.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how it works.<\/p>\n

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Extremely elevated trail tread in a low-lying area in Vermont. Photo: Jeff Barber<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Building an elevated trail tread using mineral soil<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The machine operator begins by scraping off the organic layer of soil where the trail is intended to go. Then, instead of digging straight down into the mineral soil to create a bench, the trail builder digs a nearby pit deep into the earth to access the best-quality mineral soil there. This is called a \u201cborrow pit.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the borrow pit, the builder excavates high-quality soil. (This works especially well with clay-based soils.) They then take this high-quality dirt and cover the trail tread, where they had previously removed the organics. As they\u2019re covering the tread, they\u2019re able to build it up and create rolls, undulations, and other engaging trail features.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Once that section is done, the builder takes the organic soil they had scraped off previously and dumps it back into the borrow pit. This way, there aren\u2019t holes scattered throughout the forest. Trail users who come through the trail might have no idea that the builder used this technique. They\u2019ll just enjoy an engaging, interesting singletrack experience.<\/p>\n

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This trail is just minutes old, but there\u2019s no disturbance to the backslope, and water can drain off both sides. Photo: Steve Wentz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The benefits of using mineral soil to build an elevated trail tread<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The upper mineral soil can sometimes be crumbly and difficult to compact, but when the trail builder digs high-quality dirt out of the borrow pit, it can be compacted into a fantastic trail tread. The slightly elevated tread also drains water much better, because it can drain both to the inside and<\/em> the outside.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have mineral base on the inside, on a traditional bench cut, you have nowhere for the water to seep in quickly,\u201d said Wentz. \u201cSo that\u2019s why trails are generally out sloped a lot, because once you get to a harder pack, more foundation base, like on your house, water is not seeping into that really quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo if you can elevate the trail and make this look like it\u2019s always been there, you have organic materials on the inside and the outside, so both sides of this water can absorb into root systems more naturally, and the trail can sheet off water on both sides. And you kind of have freedom of design as far as slopes one way or the other, to the left, to the right, to make the trail feel how I think it should, without having to worry about, \u2018Oh, I always have to drain water one direction, which is to the outside.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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This results in a trail that requires much less maintenance long-term, according to Curtis Johnson, President of the Biggest Little Trail Stewardship<\/a> (BLTS) in Reno, Nevada. \u201cThe quality of trails and the sustainability and the longevity of the trail not needing additional maintenance, it increases the maintenance interval,\u201d said Johnson.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As well as lower long-term maintenance, the build process also requires less cleanup by hand crews. Hand crew cleanup is often done by volunteers or conservation corps crews, but with this technique, it\u2019s unnecessary.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With a standard bench cut, after hand crews have cleaned up the backslope (the uphill side of the benchcut), the bench is fully dug into the hillside and requires a few years to grow back in and look more natural. But with this elevated technique, there\u2019s essentially no backslope to clean up or grow back in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wentz explained that the trail in the photo above is just minutes old. Despite the trail tread only being about two and a half feet wide, he built it with a five-foot-wide excavator \u2014 and still, there\u2019s no handwork required by a secondary crew. \u201cThere\u2019s no crew, there was just me and a rake, and there\u2019s no work behind the machine, basically, if it\u2019s done right.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Hopper trail in Reno, also built by Wentz. Photo courtesy BLTS.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It might be more expensive, but it\u2019s worth the price<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Yes, with a time commitment somewhere between 50% and 100% higher to build a trail this way, it\u2019s going to be more expensive. \u201cThis is something where I feel like it\u2019s done the right way, and that\u2019s not always the $1 per foot way, which is how most projects are bid,\u201d said Wentz. He went on to say that building a high-quality trail from the get-go is well worth the expense, and Johnson, who has hired Wentz for multiple projects, agreed wholeheartedly. Whenever possible, Wentz prefers to build projects at a daily rate, instead of a per-foot rate, to help ensure a better quality of trail construction.<\/p>\n

The upfront cost can largely be covered by the longer maintenance interval on the trails. In a previous interview, Shane Wilson, Principal for Trailhaus, said they recommend land managers and local clubs budget 5% per year of the trail installation cost for ongoing maintenance. But with this elevated trail tread technique, the installation cost might be higher, but that means the ongoing maintenance budget can be much lower.<\/p>\n

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This is a major boon because it\u2019s usually easier for local clubs to raise money for a new trail build than for ongoing maintenance. \u201cIt\u2019s very easy to get funding to build new track, but the ongoing maintenance is hard to get,\u201d said Mark Upshall, Operations Manager at the Rotorua Trails Trust.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wentz told us that while plenty of other trail builders use this elevated trail building, it\u2019s mostly the bike park trail builders. He personally learned the technique while building in British Columbia. It\u2019s much rarer for builders digging classic backcountry singletrack in the Lower 48 to dig such labor-intensive borrow pits to excavate the rich mineral soil. But with all of the benefits it provides, it wouldn\u2019t be surprising to see more builders adopt this technique.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!–<\/p>\n

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Golden Fleece Trail, built by Steve Wentz using this technique. Photo: Hollow Photography, courtesy BLTS For decades, the bench cut singletrack trail was the gold standard of mountain bike trail building techniques. But in recent years, a variety of new, more advanced techniques have been on the rise that create a better-quality trail and require […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,274],"class_list":["post-1817478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-singletracks-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1817478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1817478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1817478\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1817478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1817478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1817478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}