Roxburgh Gorge Trail Charitable Trust chairman Stephen Jeffery said the organisation was considering alternative options "should we fail to get easement agreements over the entire proposed route".
He said the easiest of these options would be to find a commercial operator to take the cyclists over Lake Roxburgh by boat, while another option being considered was using a section of marginal strip, yet to be determined, that ran around the lake.
Roxburgh and District Community Plan Trust chairman Rod Lambert said: "The great majority of people we talk to are strongly in favour of the trail ...
there was huge support for it at the Teviot Valley Community Planning workshop last Saturday."
Opinion from landowners, however, is much less favourable.
Jack Miller, of Shingle Creek, said he understood no landowner over the entire proposed route of the trail had signed an agreement with the trust giving access to their land.
"We will not allow access through our land. If they offered us compensation, which we would have liked, that won't fix it now ... they want us to give them our land for nothing so they can turn it into a trail but we will still have to pay rates on that land."
Mr Miller's sister Devon said the trail would have a negative impact on farm property.
"There are lots of issues, including insurance, people wandering off the tracks, dogs and people shooting. The trail will not be regulated, so we would be opening up our land to potential problems.
"We also have concerns over the overall viability of the trail and maintenance costs.
"We don't think it is fair that they are talking about starting to build on the basis that they will get agreement from landholders in the future."
Mr Jeffery said the first 10km of the trail, on marginal strip land (at the Alexandra end) was ready for construction, which could begin "as soon as we get the sign-off from Linz".
Leigh Johnston, a landowner in Alexandra, said the trail would wreck the environment.
"They want it here because it is so beautiful, but the trail will wreck that and once it is gone, we won't get it back."
Her husband, Bruce Johnston, said: "We never said they couldn't go through our land, but we had some concerns and conditions.
"Then we got a letter to say they had opted to use the marginal strip instead."
