Orginally they were mostly mining roads. This area was once full of copper mines. The quarries Kayleigh goes swimming in are actually abandoned open pit copper mines. The trail directly out of my yard is actually the pipeline reserve. If the Alaska Highway pipeline is ever built, it could go right there.

Current purpose is just a network of trails--people hike, bike, mush, ski, run, ATV, camp ect on them, but they don't go anywhere specific anymore and aren't used by a company. Vehicle traffic is minimal, at least anything bigger than an ATV. The widest trail is barely wide enough for a single truck. There is no room to pass an on-coming vehicle. A head on pass with another dog team can be tight in some sections.

They are completely unmaintained. Some of them are within the city limits, but the municipality takes no responsiblity for them. There's no gravel added to the trails. That's just what the dirt looks like around here. Black top soil is a rare thing in the Yukon. Rock, sand and clay are much much more common.

The local snowmobile club does maintain a trail network, but not the trails I use. They graciously fixed one of the trails I use alot last winter after some moron took his 4X4 truck on it, but that was an exception, not something they normally do. They maintain the TransCanada Trail, which I can access pretty easily from my house. I don't go over there much though. It's pretty heavily used, especially on weekends.

There are two full time residents back there, well off the grid. Occasionally they will plow the main part of the trail(the part in that picture) in the winter, but that's only when they need to go to town!

Some volunteer labour maintains the trails at times. 3 years ago we had a windstorm that knocked down thousands of trees(We lost 200 trees on our property alone). A bunch of people who use the trails got together with chainsaws and cleared the most used sections. I always have an axe on the dog sled and clear a few fallen trees every year. Other mushers and snowmobilers do the same.

There are thousands of miles of trails back there. If I knew where I was going, I could probably get to Anchorage without crossing a major road.