And so it begins, my blank canvass to paint, mold, er, something.....

[CS]

Haven't been around these parts in a while. Life has just kind of gotten in the way. Well, that and living in the mountain biking non-mecca. Back in August last year we moved into a larger spread and I've finally had a chance to bring the riding home, so to speak. This is my evolving thread of trying to figure out just what to do with my back acre or so. I have some sort of pump track/trails combo in mind, but who knows. I just know I've got a LOT of work to do, but at least I have a tractor at my disposal and I've finally gotten started....

And yes, these three rascals can also explain my lack of skiiing/riding the last few years.



Oh, and the weeds will be gone by Saturday. A guy is coming over to disc the whole area, then I'll get a tractor and scrape it nice and flat, getting lots of dirt to play with in the process.

[toast2266]

Sick! That's exciting. Lots of potential there.

[smmokan]

Color me jealous... if I lived in your area I'd be happy to help. My dream is to one day own 30-40 acres with my own pump track, skills course, and longer XC trail.

Depending on how much time and money you want to spend, I'd go with a pump track for the kids and a little skills course with bridges, drops, and some rock features. Nice!

Edit: Not sure how much experience you have building features, trails, etc, but this MTBR forum probably has some useful information:

http://forums.mtbr.com/trail-building-advocacy/

[Skipig25]

picnic table/BBQ in the middle to hang out at. Pump track around that. Skills/skinnies around the pump track. Jump line around the outside of it all. Epic backyard.

[rideit]

Some shade somewhere is always nice.

[toast2266]

Some shade somewhere is always nice.

Yeah - make sure you build big enough jumps so that they provide some shade.

[stuckathuntermtn]

Children make great jumps and log drops and stuff like that. Depending on how and how often you ride, you may have to replace them every summer or so, though.

[CS]

Children make great jumps and log drops and stuff like that. Depending on how and how often you ride, you may have to replace them every summer or so, though.

Heh, depending on the day, my wife just might endorse this idea.

At the moment, no plans for any skinnies or anything such, just dirt features. As for shade, I want to plant 50-75 or so eucalyptus trees and water the crap out of them so they grow fast. Should be nice and tall within a few years. Yeah, it tends to get warm here in the summer so shade would be nice.

[jamesp]

most eucalyptus trees don't provide good shade - they turn their leaves so the thin part faces the sun. Some adaptation that came from surviving Australian droughts. Do you know they are also renowned for dropping branches randomly once they get bigger? The insides of the boughs rot out.

[Dantheman]

Sweet looking project dood. Can't wait to see what you come up with.

[smslavin]

Color me jealous... if I lived in your area I'd be happy to help. My dream is to one day own 30-40 acres with my own pump track, skills course, and longer XC trail.

same here. pretty stoked for you. it's going to be a fun project.

wifey and i just started talking about scoping out some land and building a place. i told her i'd like to do this and she laughed saying go for it. grab a shovel mokan. beer's on me.

[Sirshredalot]

most eucalyptus trees don't provide good shade - they turn their leaves so the thin part faces the sun. Some adaptation that came from surviving Australian droughts. Do you know they are also renowned for dropping branches randomly once they get bigger? The insides of the boughs rot out.

They also explode horrifically and contribute to spreading fire, or at least that's the old wives tale. Not that it looks like this is a location that is likely to burn.

[smmokan]

same here. pretty stoked for you. it's going to be a fun project.

wifey and i just started talking about scoping out some land and building a place. i told her i'd like to do this and she laughed saying go for it. grab a shovel mokan. beer's on me.

Oh, I'm game. As long as you return the favor in a few years.

[jamesp]

They also explode horrifically and contribute to spreading fire, or at least that's the old wives tale. Not that it looks like this is a location that is likely to burn.

Lots of natural oils yes, but any old pine tree will also explode in flames in a hot enough fire...

looks like farmer neighbours, they're going to have a little conniption when the OP turns his field into a treed covered bike park

[Crinkle]

i whole heartidly endorse this thread and can't wait to see where it goes. I would suggest maybe building some non-dirt features to reduce the amount of maintenance it needs.

When I moved my yard got 30% smaller, but i moved closer to biking. This back yard will build rippers out of your wee ones. My little guys love the local jumps, they would blow a fuse (in a good way) if I built something like this in the back yard, then my wife would blow a fuse (in a bad way).

Get dirty!