Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Property Projects & Construction Walking path around pond ideas

It is one half mile around my pond and I use it as my walking area for exercise. I walk about an hour every morning during the week and an hour and half on weekends.

It is great in this dry weather but I am concerned it will be too wet in areas this winter--not standing water except on my spillways but slick clay in areas.

Making an asphalt path would be very expensive.

Has anyone seen anything or done anything along these lines?

We don't have a house on the property yet, but did make a fire pit area and on the outside area of the firepit we dumped loads of mulch and then spread it.

As to cost, the tree companies many times will drop for free if you can find one that is working in the area....check to see who your power company uses for trees/limbs and contact them. It is typically 100% waste for them and wood chips are easy to walk on / will decompose into the soil over the years.

Another easy thing to do is use your tractor and a box blade to "pull up" a walking path in your low, wet areas. Build the terrace to follow exactly along a contour line as much as is feasible.

Make a cut on the uphill side with the box blade pushing the dirt to the center line of your path. Then make a cut on the downhill side, also pushing the dirt to the same center line. Go back with your blade level and flatten the top of your path. You can then surface the path with your choice of material - mulch, low growing grass, crushed gravel on landscape fabric, etc.

Your path terrace is also going to CREATE A DAM. In the low spots that are on a slope where the water collects uphill, you will need some version of a pond outlet! It can be a pipe, but frequently it is just a low, cut-out in the terrace to allow water to pass through. In areas where the cut out is sometimes subjected to significant water flows, it needs to be topped with larger rock.

(If you don't own a tractor, I can rent a 32hp tractor and box blade pretty darn cheap in my area. I suspect you can also rent one, and you will go up the learning curve for simple dirt work pretty quickly.)

The typical ground up hardwoods that tree companies will drop off for free here last for 3-4 years before disappearing. They are pretty good at drying up wet bare dirt.

Gravel will last a lifetime, but it ain't free.

I've got a path that I maintain with mowing. It's just a gross path but it works well. Keeping a mower on site would be cheaper than asphalt. I also have a gravel path that takes much less maintenance but does require spraying once in a while. Less maintenance than grass but slightly more costly in the beginning. Asphalt would be better than both grass and gravel, but if initial cost is a thing then the other two options can work.

I agree with the idea of contacting tree companies. We arborists generate 10, 20, even more cubic yards of chips each day per chipper. We like to get some compensation for delivering it, but often we'll drop it for free if it means we can get the truck back to the job site quickly.
My 10 yard chip truck makes a substantial pile of mulch. Many housing subdivisions will take all the chips we want to give them. They have crews spreading them on walking paths throughout the summer months.
I'll spread chips on our nearly bottomless, sticky clay soil if I'm planning on taking heavy vehicles over the ground. A layer of chips will cut down on soil erosion of bare ground.

good ideas

thanks everybody