<div dir="ltr">"I'm totally open to suggestions for alternatives.  Gravel certainly doesn't describe that kind of coarse crushed rock to most people, but what do you call that concisely?"<div><br></div><div>The roadway in the OP's opening post has what I would definitely tag as a gravel surface but it has obviously been groomed to carry heavier traffic than many similar roads. Thus surface=gravel or surface=unpaved along with tracktype=grade1 (wiki: grade1 = <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:16.625px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(249,249,249);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline">Usually a paved or heavily compacted hardcore surface). Whether such roads have actually been mechanically compacted isn't obvious from their appearance. Perhaps some sort of final step was employed to prepare them for use.</span></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Apr 19, 2018 at 2:48 PM, Paul Johnson <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:baloo@ursamundi.org" target="_blank">baloo@ursamundi.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="auto"><span class=""><br><br><div class="gmail_quote" dir="auto"><div dir="ltr">On Thu, Apr 19, 2018, 16:41 Dave Swarthout <<a href="mailto:daveswarthout@gmail.com" target="_blank">daveswarthout@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">" <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline">I'm kind of thinking that the gravel surface in the wiki would be better redone as surface=ballast. "</span><div><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline"><br></span></div><div><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline">-1</span></div><div><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline"><br></span></div><div><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline">I hope you won't push for this. </span></div></div></blockquote></div><div dir="auto"><br></div></span><div dir="auto">I'm totally open to suggestions for alternatives.  Gravel certainly doesn't describe that kind of coarse crushed rock to most people, but what do you call that concisely?</div><span class=""><div dir="auto"><br></div><div class="gmail_quote" dir="auto"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline">In my experience, the only association the word "ballast" has with any sort of roadway is with railroads. </span></div></div></blockquote></div><div dir="auto"><br></div></span><div dir="auto">It is definitely a thing for pretty much any kind of improved road, though there are some exceptions that usually turn out worse than unimproved.  Many paths in metro Portland were paved in asphalt without ballast and have degraded rapidly as gophers have dug out the dirt under the asphalt allowing the asphalt to collapse into the gopher tunnels over the years.  And generally, the more ballast under the surface, the heavier the loads and higher the speed the road is capable of handling reasonably.</div><span class=""><div dir="auto"><br></div><div class="gmail_quote" dir="auto"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline">And, as I said before, the idea of actual railroad ballast being used as the surface of a road is totally foreign to me. </span></div></div></blockquote></div><div dir="auto"><br></div></span><div dir="auto">It is relatively rare, largely limited to agricultural and temporary applications, at least in the US.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div class="gmail_quote" dir="auto"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="m_-7391526013005948648m_-2601089500671835823gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"></div>
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</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr">Dave Swarthout<br>Homer, Alaska<br>Chiang Mai, Thailand<br>Travel Blog at <a href="http://dswarthout.blogspot.com" target="_blank">http://dswarthout.blogspot.com</a></div></div>
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