TRAILSCAPE - YOUR LAND. YOUR LEGACY. YOUR WAY.

Exploring, enjoying and fully connecting with nature is one of Randy’s passions. He weaves that passion into his trail builds. As a business, Trailscape truly believes the ability to fully enjoy one’s property is essential to every home. Trails enable an instant connection to the land thus allowing homeowners to access otherwise inaccessible areas. In many ways, trails are becoming as important as driveways providing access to multiple points of interest.

In addition, trails offer a higher level of safety, security and value. “Our trails are constructed in a way that they are wide enough with clearance on either side of excess brush that they naturally create effective fire breaks which help protect our clients, their families and their properties.” 

Randy Martin has an award-winning team of professionals who design, build and maintain trails for private landowners and public entities. He often likes to share that “Trail building is both art and science. The art is augmenting nature’s beauty and giving the user a sense of flow, while the science involves navigating terrain challenges to create trails that bring joy and fun for decades to come.” Making memories with family and friends on the trail is such a legacy gift. 

How did you begin the business of building trails?

Randy was first introduced to the trail building business at a conference in 2007. He took the idea of public trails on public land and shifted the focus to private landowners. He knew trails were an amazing resource and to be able to offer this precious resource on their own land is incredibly valuable. Since 2008, Trailscape has built hundreds of miles of trail almost exclusively on private property. 

What unique services and products do you provide to help your clients enjoy beautiful living? 

Trailscape builds trails for private landowners and public entities. Our trails are functional because they allow people to access previously impassible land and act as an effective fire break to protect families and property from fire. In addition our trails provide endless hours of enjoyment  and exercise whether hiking, running, or biking.

What makes you and your team a leader in your industry? 

What distinguishes Trailscape is the depth of our experience. Our team of five core lead trail builders combines creativity, problem-solving skills, and a desire to inspire others to explore their property. We are all kind people who listen to our clients’ needs and help them acquire what they want while also giving them amazing and unexpected surprises along their personalized trail. Those surprises could be capturing a spectacular view or gaining access to a babbling creek.

How are you helping clients feel good about themselves and their home? 

We believe the challenging work we do to clear tenacious undergrowth, make a path, and provide our clients more freedom to access their beautiful property gives them a deeper sense of belonging to their land. Our trails become a feature for every home and a desirable selling point.

What are you doing in business that nobody else is? 

Private clients of Trailscape are given access to an experience on their own property that most people must travel to enjoy. Furthermore, rather than needing to go to public sites and hike with everyone else, our trails offer calm and tranquility in our clients’ private estates.

How are you staying ahead of the competition? 

We continually invest in state of the art digging and brush clearing machinery that enables us to efficiently transform the property with the least amount of interruption to the client and the land.

How are you disrupting your industry and thinking outside the box? 

We are establishing a trail as a standard feature for private estates. A trail is as significant to our client as a driveway. Our trails protect people and their homes from fire and allow access to previously impassable land. 

Do you or your business have a unique or notable history in the Bay Area? 

Our business is notable from San Francisco to Tahoe and Mount Shasta to San Diego. We also have several contracts nationwide. 

What new innovation/service/product do you offer? 

We build our trails about 4 to 5 feet wide. This allows our brush masticator (Chewer) to be attached to our mini excavators which delicately reaches out about 5 feet either side of the trail to initially remove brush. In doing this, our trails become an effective firebreak. Furthermore, we can come back at a later date to maintain the trail for years to come thus giving our clients a legacy to pass on to their family.

What do you want people to know about your business?

We want people to know we are addicted to the grins of gratitude that we receive from our clients when they no longer have to imagine access to beautiful places because they can experience it directly every day.

What makes you or your team trailblazers?

Trailblazing has a literal meaning in our industry. Our skilled crews specialize in revealing breathtaking vistas, enjoyable meanders, and providing access to previously inaccessible land. We are also experts at utilizing our trail construction to double as fire breaks, protecting our clients’ families, homes, and property from fire. Our company’s business is to build trails, but our interests all revolve around the great outdoors. We enjoy skiing, biking, trail riding, walking, running, and hiking, which we believe gives us a unique perspective on trail building.

Describe how you use innovation and resourcefulness to stay ahead of the pack.

While it may appear that trail construction is simple “landscaping”, this is not the case. Trail building is both art and science. The art part is augmenting the natural beauty and giving the user a sense of flow. While building a trail is not “rocket” science, it is the science of solving multiple terrain challenges and making the trail last for decades.

Our clients frequently inquire as to how we are able create a path through seemingly impossible terrain, It is due to our experienced crews and specialized equipment. In our arsenal of tools we have jack hammers for breaking rock as well as small percussion charges. One of our most recent advancements is the use of minor explosive devices, about the size of a handful of firecrackers, that we place deep within a boulder to crack and then remove the pieces with our excavator. It’s a delicate process that enables us to take only what we need and leave the rest.

How are you boldly paving the way in your industry?

We lead the way by what we leave behind: what we leave behind is a blend of practicality, a path to take, functionality by acting as an effective firebreak, sustainability by fashioning a product that will last for decades, and beauty. 

How do you raise the bar and offer your clients or customers the ultimate in customer service — letting them know along the way that they are working with the best?

We raise the bar by making sure we hire good, solid people. Our crews are made up of people who care, people who communicate well, and people who listen, listen, listen so that we can give our clients exactly what they want and exceed their expectations. Furthermore, we can keep our trails in top shape because we have an in-house maintenance crew. Our ongoing support for our client’s trails ensures it will be a legacy that will last for decades. Thus providing an opportunity to grow in relationship with our clients.

How are you disrupting your industry and thinking outside the box?

We have taken a service that is mostly offered to municipalities along with state and federal agencies and make trails available and affordable to private landowners. In addition, we build trails for ski resorts. In our experience in building trails for Sugar Bowl, Tahoe Donner, Northstar, and China Peak (with Dodge Ridge on the books for this Summer) we have found that our trails bring clients to the slopes in the off season. Many ski guests will come to hike or bike their favorite resorts during the months when snow is scarce or simply not present. Therefore, providing resorts multiple streams of people and income opportunities.

What separates you or your business from the pack?

To begin with, our industry is so specialized that there isn’t much of a pack. Trailscape understands the land and all of the natural and physical elements to build long-lasting trails. We visualize the meanders and hills which will provide the most enjoyment for all users, and we can maintain and expand our trails in the future. In most cases, our clients are simply astounded at what we can accomplish in terms of overcoming difficult obstacles and then further astounded when something that began so rough is finished exquisitely. In addition, our trails have helped save families and homes from the devastating impacts of fire. We aim to build trails that provide enjoyment and protection. In fact, during the Glass Fire (Napa/Sonoma), our trails saved 8 family homes. The fire burned right up to the trail and stopped.

Do you or your business have a unique or notable history in the Bay Area?

We are not in the public eye because the majority of our work is private. However, we have grown significantly in the last few years solely through referrals. Trailscape offers a recreational and functional way to improve the land. What I believe we have accomplished is to make landowners realize that a trail is required in order to access their property and use it to its full potential while also protecting them from fire.

Have you launched any new products or started new services/trends in your industry?  

Yes, we launched our maintenance side of the business and have a crew that can service the approximately 350 miles of trail we have built over the last 14 years.