It's a picturesque morning on a softly rolling hill a couple of ridges away from the south fork of the American River. The world here in the low Sierra foothills feels calm and perfect.

This is oak woodland, with fields of tall grasses, now mostly straw-colored, covering the swells of the hillsides. Dotted here and there are single oaks, and larger stands, and the occasional small forest of trees. Somewhere in all this are scores of chirping birds.

The ridge closer to the river is steeper and all dark green chaparral. It frames this semi-meadow and makes it seem a quiet paradise.

Then you hear it. Clanking and chugging and rattling in the distance. It sounds mechanical and huge, like some giant doomsday machine the evil inventors were always building on "The Wild, Wild West." If that reference means nothing, think a locomotive-size contraption with whirling arms or claws.

Over the rise, it approaches steadily. First the cage on top comes into view, then the yellow, boxlike body, then the bulldozer blade. It's so cute.

Seriously, it's cute. And so surprisingly small. What we're looking at is a Sweco Trail Dozer 480, the very thing you want for blazing modern mountain trails.

It's a legit bulldozer, only smaller – 4 feet wide, 11 feet long and 6 feet, 4 inches high. It looks like, as its driver, Dan Lusby, said, someone left a grownup bulldozer in the wash too long and shrank it.

Lusby is a heavy-equipment operator for the Bureau of Land Management, and he's both respected and envied for driving all the BLM's really cool, and sometimes really big, toys.

"He's like an artist with a dozer," said Jeff Horn, the man running the show up here this day as they're building what will be a gorgeous stretch of multi-use trail.

This is the prized final piece to what will likely become a recreational wonderland along some of Northern California's most dazzling river canyons, and it's something the BLM and the American River Conservancy have been working on for 20 years.

When this chunk of trail is completed and opened – maybe in 2010, maybe 2011, depending on whether you're talking to the optimists or the pessimists in the process – there will be a hiking, biking and equestrian (in spots) path from Coloma and the place gold was discovered all the way to Old Sacramento.

The last riverfront parcel was bought by the nonprofit ARC in February, and that allowed the BLM crew to build a bit more than five miles of new trail. The group raised and spent $23 million on this effort over the years, and donated 3,600 of the 5,600 acres that hold the 20-mile network called the South Fork of the American River Trails System. ("We like the name," Horn said. "We're not thrilled with the acronym.")

When it's done, these trails will travel from Highway 49 in the east, through the existing Cronan Ranch Park and these newly trailblazed foothill meadows. Then it will hug the river canyon above the American River and then snake down to Salmon Falls Bridge at the top of Folsom Lake. From there, it will connect to the lake's 20,000-acre recreation area, then to the bike and foot trails of the American River Parkway beyond.

Cronan Ranch, by the way, gives you some hints of what the rest of this area will become. It's a lush network of trails and grassy hills and dales that gets hundreds of hikers, runners, mountain bikers and equestrians on summer weekends. It's both easily accessible and blissfully far into these wild foothills.

During a break in his trailblazing, Lusby, who also works his bulldozer magic fighting fires and doing chores big and small for the BLM, was saying he's particularly proud of Cronan Ranch.

"That just turned into a special place," he said.

Horn gives Lusby props for his work at Cronan, and all over these foothills.

"Dan's the best equipment operator I've ever seen," Horn said. "We get illegal, abandoned houses on BLM land. I've seen him dig a hole the size of a swimming pool with a dozer, run over the house three times, bury the house, bury a car, fill the hole, and it looks like nothing was ever there."

Call The Bee's Rick Kushman, (916) 321-1187. Listen to him Thursdays at 8:40 a.m. on NewsTalk 1530 (KFBK) and 8:50 a.m. on Armstrong & Getty, Talk 650 KSTE.