# 2 acre backyard loop?



## BykerMike (Aug 3, 2016)

I'm moving soon to to a house in Elk Rapids Mi right on Grand Traverse bay. The house sits on about an acre of land that slopes down to 150ft of frontage. The house sits pretty much in the middle with a front yard that is mostly woods and a back yard that is mostly sand. The kicker is that right across the street I'm also getting another 1.5 acres of untouched woods. 

My thought is a couple loops through the wooded lot with a lot of bermed switchbacks and jumps to keep it interesting. The terrain is pretty hilly so I think I could make an overall fast flow to it. Then have it cross the street and continue around the house and end down by the lake where you could just grab a beer and chill on the beach, or loop around and do it again. 

What do you think? Is 2-2.5 acres worth while or am I too limited by space? Or do you think it would be possible to create a fun loop worth riding? 

This would be my first attempt at trail building and being that I will own the land means I can pretty much build without permission, however I am a little concerned about possible liability if someone gets hurt while trespassing?


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## Cotharyus (Jun 21, 2012)

To address your last concern first, liability and legal issues vary from state to state, and sometimes even more within parts of states. That's something to check out locally.

What you have sounds like an ideal place for a couple of jumps and a pump track. A pump track can be a serious boost to your trail riding skills once you get the hang of it.


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## BykerMike (Aug 3, 2016)

Here's what I found on Michigan.gov. Seems to say I'm good? Maybe put up a "no trespassing enter at your own risk" type of sign if needed? If theres any lawyers here that wouldn't mind disecting this I'd appreciate it. 

NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ACT (EXCERPT)
Act 451 of 1994
324.73301 Liability of landowner, tenant, or lessee for injuries to persons on property for
purpose of outdoor recreation or trail use, using Michigan trailway or other public trail,
gleaning agricultural or farm products, fishing or hunting, or picking and purchasing
agricultural or farm products at farm or “u-pick” operation; definition.
Sec. 73301. (1) Except as otherwise provided in this section, a cause of action shall not arise for injuries to
a person who is on the land of another without paying to the owner, tenant, or lessee of the land a valuable
consideration for the purpose of fishing, hunting, trapping, camping, hiking, sightseeing, motorcycling,
snowmobiling, or any other outdoor recreational use or trail use, with or without permission, against the
owner, tenant, or lessee of the land unless the injuries were caused by the gross negligence or willful and
wanton misconduct of the owner, tenant, or lessee.
(2) A cause of action shall not arise for injuries to a person who is on the land of another without paying to
the owner, tenant, or lessee of the land a valuable consideration for the purpose of entering or exiting from or
using a Michigan trailway as designated under part 721 or other public trail, with or without permission,
against the owner, tenant, or lessee of the land unless the injuries were caused by the gross negligence or
willful and wanton misconduct of the owner, tenant, or lessee. For purposes of this subsection, a Michigan
trailway or public trail may be located on land of any size including, but not limited to, urban, suburban,
subdivided, and rural land.
(3) A cause of action shall not arise against the owner, tenant, or lessee of land or premises for injuries to a
person who is on that land or premises for the purpose of gleaning agricultural or farm products, unless that
person's injuries were caused by the gross negligence or willful and wanton misconduct of the owner, tenant,
or lessee.
(4) A cause of action shall not arise against the owner, tenant, or lessee of a farm used in the production of
agricultural goods as defined by section 35(1)(h) of the former single business tax act, 1975 PA 228, or by
section 207(1)(d) of the Michigan business tax act, 2007 PA 36, MCL 208.1207, for injuries to a person who
is on that farm and has paid the owner, tenant, or lessee valuable consideration for the purpose of fishing or
hunting, unless that person's injuries were caused by a condition which involved an unreasonable risk of harm
and all of the following apply:
(a) The owner, tenant, or lessee knew or had reason to know of the condition or risk.
(b) The owner, tenant, or lessee failed to exercise reasonable care to make the condition safe, or to warn
the person of the condition or risk.
(c) The person injured did not know or did not have reason to know of the condition or risk.
(5) A cause of action shall not arise against the owner, tenant, or lessee of land or premises for injuries to a
person, other than an employee or contractor of the owner, tenant, or lessee, who is on the land or premises
for the purpose of picking and purchasing agricultural or farm products at a farm or "u-pick" operation, unless
the person's injuries were caused by a condition that involved an unreasonable risk of harm and all of the
following apply:
(a) The owner, tenant, or lessee knew or had reason to know of the condition or risk.
(b) The owner, tenant, or lessee failed to exercise reasonable care to make the condition safe, or to warn
the person of the condition or risk.
(c) The person injured did not know or did not have reason to know of the condition or risk.
(6) As used in this section, "agricultural or farm products" means the natural products of the farm, nursery,
grove, orchard, vineyard, garden, and apiary, including, but not limited to, trees and firewood.
History: Add. 1995, Act 58, Imd. Eff. May 24, 1995;Am. 2007, Act 174, Imd. Eff. Dec. 21, 2007.
Popular name: Act 451
Popular name: NREPA


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## bsieb (Aug 23, 2003)

BikerMike- I think it would work, I managed to get 1/3 of a mile of singletrack on my 3.5 acre lot, sort of near the perimeter but not really hugging it. Fortunately I have a small "canyon", a ridge, and a meadow, so there is 94' of climbing in the loop. 

If you keep it for personal private use, liability shouldn't be any more of a problem than the rest of your backyard. The law referenced above would seem to apply to public and incidental use, and depending on the definition of a Michigan trailway. I don't live in Michigan and am not a legal pro, just saying.


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## cmc4130 (Jan 30, 2008)

BykerMike said:


> I'm moving soon to to a house in Elk Rapids Mi right on Grand Traverse bay. The house sits on about an acre of land that slopes down to 150ft of frontage. The house sits pretty much in the middle with a front yard that is mostly woods and a back yard that is mostly sand. The kicker is that right across the street I'm also getting another 1.5 acres of untouched woods.
> 
> My thought is a couple loops through the wooded lot with a lot of bermed switchbacks and jumps to keep it interesting. The terrain is pretty hilly so I think I could make an overall fast flow to it. Then have it cross the street and continue around the house and end down by the lake where you could just grab a beer and chill on the beach, or loop around and do it again.
> 
> ...


When it comes to jumps and pump tracks (or a blend of the two), you can put a lot in a backyard.

Backyard trails, pumptracks and plywood playgrounds: what do you have? - BMXmuseum.com Forums



















https://forums.mtbr.com/urban-dj-park/dj-pump-track-plans-402237.html

https://forums.mtbr.com/trail-building-advocacy/project-jump-line-law%92s-house-835659.html


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## BykerMike (Aug 3, 2016)

That top pic is sweet! I'm not looking to do anything quite that epic, and looking for more of a trail style than dj, but that definitely gets me thinking. 

Thanks


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## KeithNorCal (Jun 7, 2016)

bsieb said:


> BikerMike- I think it would work, I managed to get 1/3 of a mile of singletrack on my 3.5 acre lot, sort of near the perimeter but not really hugging it. Fortunately I have a small "canyon", a ridge, and a meadow, so there is 94' of climbing in the loop.
> 
> If you keep it for personal private use, liability shouldn't be any more of a problem than the rest of your backyard. The law referenced above would seem to apply to public and incidental use, and depending on the definition of a Michigan trailway. I don't live in Michigan and am not a legal pro, just saying.


I agree with bsieb. I'm building a trail on our 5-acre property and expect I'll be able to get a 3/4 mile loop with 200+ feet of ascent/descent per loop.


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## twd953 (Aug 21, 2008)

KeithNorCal said:


> I agree with bsieb. I'm building a trail on our 5-acre property and expect I'll be able to get a 3/4 mile loop with 200+ feet of ascent/descent per loop.


You can probably get more mileage than that if you're not set on a single loop concept. When I was in high school, I built about 1.5 miles of trail in a 2.5 acre plot of woods that my parents owned. It had a lot of criss-cross options that really kept things interesting/fresh since you could ride it all both directions and do endless combinations of trail segments.

I'd get bored riding a single loop over and over, but I'd invite my friends over and play follow the leader chasing each other around not knowing when the guy in front was going to dart off onto a different trail or link together some new combination of trail segments you hadn't though of before.

This was in pretty hilly glacial terrain, but it probably wouldn't work as well if you are in a really steep area.


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## KeithNorCal (Jun 7, 2016)

twd953 said:


> You can probably get more mileage than that if you're not set on a single loop concept. ... This was in pretty hilly glacial terrain, but it probably wouldn't work as well if you are in a really steep area.


Our property is quite steep so it may be challenging to get much more than that. We'll see. I'm mostly a singlespeeder and I want to be able to ride it in both directions for variety so I'm going to try to keep the grade pretty reasonable. So far I have about 1/4 mile of trail flagged and mostly cleared. That represents hundreds of hours of work, but the property was pretty overgrown. After I pull a bunch more poison oak and do a little more clearing, I'll be ready to ride this first section to test the flow. I probably won't be able to ride all of it prior to actual trail construction, but hopefully enough to test the flow. Maybe I'll take a video of that first ride and share it here. Should just be a couple of weeks from now, I hope.


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## fitek (Nov 25, 2014)

Looking forward to hearing more updates. I'm in CA as well and just started planning for a 1.5 acre property that is quite steep. We're going to try a short straight run first and see how it goes.


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## KeithNorCal (Jun 7, 2016)

I'm getting closer to that first test ride on my new trail (although calling it a trail before I've done any actual work on the trail tread doesn't seem right ;-). Regardless, I think 95% of the clearing is done on my first 1/4 mile section and I should just have one more bag of poison oak to pull. Currently I have poison oak rashes on all four limbs and a minor spot on my eyelid. The worst rash spots are on one forearm and one thigh, so it doesn't seem like it actually came from one of my poison oak pulling sessions because when I pull poison oak I wear long pants and long sleeves (and gloves, duh). Otherwise I mostly work in shorts and short sleeves so I'm guessing that some of the branches I dragged uphill to a burn pile were actually poison oak. Unfortunately, that means the poison oak is still in the burn pile. :eekster: Oh well. All in the name of riding. Gotta take a few days off from trail building to finish some other work around the property but I hope to do that first ride by the end of next week.


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## KeithNorCal (Jun 7, 2016)

I did the first ride of my new trail, but it's not worth posting a video yet. ;-) It's on a steep hill and I need to do some re-routing, minor in some places and maybe not so minor in other places. I'm more or less trying to follow IMBA guidelines but there will be challenges with some of the turns (e.g., too tight and/or steep). Perhaps I'll start another thread to discuss the technical details of designing & building turns on steep slopes. I think wood will be involved in some spots, just for fun.


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## fitek (Nov 25, 2014)

This is the problem I'm facing trying to figure the design out. The hill's slope is 40-65%. It's going to be a lot of work to build turns. I figured a 16 foot diameter turn would lose 11 feet of elevation unless it is built into the hillside or fill slope (and all the fill in the area uses retaining walls, so I'm guessing those would be required to hold this earth together). Either solution is a lot of effort. More excavation is also a problem because there are some structures and lots of trees on the hillside and they need to stay stable.


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## KeithNorCal (Jun 7, 2016)

fitek said:


> This is the problem I'm facing trying to figure the design out. The hill's slope is 40-65%. It's going to be a lot of work to build turns. I figured a 16 foot diameter turn would lose 11 feet of elevation unless it is built into the hillside or fill slope (and all the fill in the area uses retaining walls, so I'm guessing those would be required to hold this earth together). Either solution is a lot of effort. More excavation is also a problem because there are some structures and lots of trees on the hillside and they need to stay stable.


Wow, that is indeed steep. I'm just dealing with 20-30% right now, although there are a few spots on our property that might be steeper than that. I did start a new thread about turns on steep terrain: http://forums.mtbr.com/trail-building-advocacy/turns-steep-terrain-1027671.html


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## Johnnyvox (Jun 20, 2008)

My wife and I built close to 3 miles of trails on our 13 acres in the NY Finger Lakes area.
The plot is a tall thin trapezoid with about 200' of climbing from bottom to top bordered by 2 gullies. Nothing crazy but some logs and log piles (with go arounds for my wife) and a combination of fairly straight stuff and tight and twisty. Most has been rake and ride (although with one or two people working it's not quite that easy!) and some benching.

I've altered lines after I've ridden them a few times for better flow. There have been a few areas I've looked at and walked a bunch of times before I've flagged. As traffic is light on the trails, I can get away with stuff that wouldn't work in an area with more riders.

Yes, it can get a little boring riding the same trails, but there's lots of ways to alter my routes and having them in the back yard is a huge plus. I can go out and ride for an hour or so and get a good workout. I really enjoy the building and maintenance (all the trails are named with signs made by my wife)-it's very rewarding in itself. Good luck-the building is half the fun!


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