Repairing a path in the woods

A 'community' wood place near us just had a dumpy bag dropped at the entrance with a sign to take a carrier bag full and spread it on a bad section of path each time you go. Not the most engineered solution, but it did help and got people in the mindset of sorting it out themselves and pruning a few bits back too.

^frogstomp beat me to it - I had the same thought!

You do need to be clear who owns it and have you got permission...

I've often wondered the same at a couple of really boggy bits on a ride that I do.  What I don't know though is if it's worth trying to dig some form of drainage channel to help move the water as well or if some form of chippings is enough.

What you're after is called Crusher Run.

Doesn't Crusher Run have fines? AIUI without fines its called... no fines eg: https://www.ash-aggregates.co.uk/products/20-80mm-no-fines-aggregate/ That sounds like what you want. Having carried plenty of 20kg sacks of stuff, I'd say one at a time without a yoke. Transfer it to a 20kg sack and carry it like you are hugging it. When you get to the site you can hold the bottom of the sack, let it fall forwards and it it'll pour out just where you want it. Saves moving it three times. Don't pile it up first, its a right pain to shovel.

Don't do what they did in a local woods to me a few years ago. The town council offered a christmas tree recyling facility, stuck them all through a chipper and then spread it all along the paths that got the most boggy in the woods. They still got boggy, just that now they had a nice layer of organic material on top to hold the water like a sponge and then slowly compost down. The end result was pretty much back where it started.
We've moved to the other side of town since but a recent visit to the woods and they've done it properly now.

What I don’t know though is if it’s worth trying to dig some form of drainage channel to help move the water

Not an expert but I'd try this first as a cheaper and easier solution.

Find where the water is coming from - is that easy enough to fix i.e. a drainage channel might be blocked with material - if cleared out will it get the water removed so it doesn't pool on the path?

Type 1 hardcore could work, but might not...and as Matt has said, best getting permission as you could end up in a world of pain yourself just by trying to be helpful.

If you have permission, if might need a bit more than just dropping some hard material, perhaps a pipe to help the water run under the path - so dig out a channel, add a pipe and resurface the rest of the channel - that is a lot more work but may mean it remains intact for much longer.

What's the micro-topography in the vicinity of the muddy path?
If it's at the bottom of a basin, you're not going to solve the problems just by dumping aggregate on it.
However, if it's on a side slope you may have more options.

@nickjb's link is to 20-80mm. I would think that's for vehicle tracks. For pedestrians I wouldn't go bigger than 20mm (single size) which is what I have as car parking / drive for my house.

Or is there still a nice path under years of old leaf mulch?

Depends what the stone is, we use 40mm to dust for sub base and 20mm to dust for a top coat when building trails if that helps. The fines bind it together. That's limestone, sand base aggregate isn't nearly as good as it doesn't bind.

As others have said why is it Bobby, if it's a low section you'll need a lot more material than you think, we get about 2m out of 300kg spread 4 to 6 inches deep, its depressing how much we have to shift to build or repair a trail.

20mm gravel in 24kg bags from B and Q is actually cheaper than type 1 but it's not sharp, looks like river gravel. As for permission I think I may just do it guerilla style, it's a very small thing. Probably about 4m all in. The reason it's boggy? Just a depression in heavy clay soil and glacial till. For that matter I could nick rocks out of the stream bed.

These https://www.screwfix.com/p/ndc-polipak-mini-skip-bag-500-x-500mm/575pf might be useful for your guerilla activities.

I'd avoid the gravel it won't bind together very well. You're better with angular stones/rock and fines to bind together.

20mm gravel in 24kg bags from B and Q is actually cheaper than type 1 but it’s not sharp, looks like river gravel. As for permission I think I may just do it guerilla style, it’s a very small thing. Probably about 4m all in.

If you're in B&Q... under the sacks of gravel there'll be wooden pallets - ask them if they'll give them to you. About four of them would do the job - a boardwalk over the 4m of boggy path

Then you just need to come up with a system of discreetly depositing a pallet down your trouser leg

A DIY boardwalk would be more of a problem than gravel on someone else's land I reckon.

Agree re the gravel needing to be sharp.

A DIY boardwalk would be more of a problem than gravel on someone else’s land I reckon.

easier for them to remove if they don't want it 🙂

The trouble with using pallets is at some point they will collapse when trodden on leaving broken bits of wood with nails sticking out embedded in the mud.

20mm gravel worked for me. I had a few boggy bits on a regular dog walk I do. Land is scrub which is not maintained by anyone. Mostly just an inch of gravel or less worked. One bit needed a shallow 2 foot channel dug to allow a puddle to drain. In my case underlying soil was firm with just a few inches of mud churned up by school kids using this 100 yard path as a shortcut.

I had an old rucsac and just took 10kg at a time when I was walking the dogs. After a season of leaf fall it blends in but is still firm underfoot compared to either side.

How's the drainage? Putting stone into mud can be pretty effective but getting water out/away is generally going to be better if it's possible, and generally less invasive. It'll silt up again- especially the first time, it'll silt super fast- but clearing drains is much easier than digging them and it'll get better every time.

coarse chippings like they use for the base for roads, but I don’t know what it’s called.

Where I live it's called road base funnily enough. Typically gravel mixed with crusher dust that sets once wet and dried.

As for permission I think I may just do it guerilla style, it’s a very small thing.

I might well be tempted to do the same but there's always one person who will find a reason why your community spirited endeavour is actually evil.  Perhaps the neighbour who now thinks there will be loads of footfall past her house, the person who believes the boggy path keeps dog walkers away and so the dog shite down, the part-time ecologist who thinks the boggy habitat is good for the local newts/tadpoles, bike hater who realises you want to cycle along a better path, the old guy who thinks he owns the communal land even though he doesn't, the 'elf n safety type who thinks your lifting and carrying technique is wrong and should have involved hi-vis, a crane and six foot high safety barriers, the contractor who gets paid to do this sort of work and thinks you've undercut him etc.  One of them is probably manageable, if they all exist then its going to be messy!