Building
If you have a lack of trails in your area there's often only one option left, and that's to build them yourself.

Here's some advice and photos, on how to build and dig your trails to the best they can be.
First, get some help as its much easier to build, with two or more extra pairs of hands and tools. If they complain, then explain if they don't build it, they can't ride it. (Or if this fails, threaten to hit them with your shovel)
Once you have help you can then assign each person to a task. This may include someone digging, someone transporting, someone clearing and someone shaping.
This will also increase efficiency and allow variation in the work if you swap round every 5 minutes.
Don't forget to plan how the part will look, depending on what you want, always thinking about how it will work.

Berm:

To build a berm, think carefully with ridden practice, how the berm will help you in cornering. Its position is crucial to give you the edge over any course. Once done, find some logs or branches depending on the size you want. Lay them in place as the inside structure for the berm. You may want to use sticks to peg the structure in place for extra stability. Then, dig up your soil and lay it on the structure, creating your desired berm shape. Continue with this until finished, ensuring careful moulding is solid. Allow to dry and then enjoy.

Here's a progress sequence of building:


Tabletop:

A nice jump for everyone, as you can start small and
build right up to the big moves. Tabletops can also easily be made from doubles, by filling in the middle. Start by collecting lots of logs and branches, then lay them down width ways, forming a two staircase and a middle. Again pegging for extra stability. When completed you should have a wooden structure, resembling a tabletop. Next, you collect any material you can find such as leaves, loose soil and moss, filling in as many gaps as possible. This will give you a base to add your soil to. Once
 a good soil layer has been applied, compact and shape to your requirements adding further soil if needed. Again, allow to dry firm before riding.

Root Section:

This one's easy to do and will give your course a technical edge wherever you want it. (As long as you're near some trees of course.) Once you've located a good stretch near reasonably large trees, start digging. Sharp edged spades work the best to get soil out from between the roots. Depending on the technical level you want, dig accordingly leaving surface roots or perhaps staircasing drops with deep crevices. Leave any dug out soil to the side, in case you need to make adjustments. Also, if you want to add stones before, with or after your root section to make it even more technical. Remember though, they hurt a lot if you fall onto them, so ensure its safe to do so.




Drop Off:
A cool part of any course, due to the many ways in which you can take it. You could jump off it and clear any sections below, or absorb the landing early for more speed. Once you've decided on a good place
 to build, (best if its on a good downslope.) Collect branches or logs and start digging up some soil behind where you want your drop off to be. Position the logs so they fill in the ground ahead, leaving a level plain above. Peg in the logs or branches to stop them rolling down the slope. Again, fill in the gaps
with loose soil and leaves before adding the soil onto your flat layer above. Compact the soil down, making sure the whole structure is solid enough to ride and you're finished.