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I just bought myself a piece of the local woods

stino

Monkey
Jul 14, 2002
201
0
belgium
>>>> go to page 3 for a final update! <<<<

getting sick of starting new trails only to find them being removed by landowners, and not getting any reponse from the local government/other landowners on questions if we can dig somewhere legally, I decided it was time for drastic measurements, as I really like digging and riding my own trails.
Also, I have no car (and don't want one either) so it would be nice to have something closeby.

Solution: I went to a pulic sale planning to get myself either a piece of agriculture ground or something with trees on it. It was kinda stressfull, being the youngest guy in there, having to bid against much older (and probably much much richer) farmers etc who came to claim the land they've been hiring for years. Ebay is ridiculous child's play in comparision to this, it comes complete with the notary knocking the hammer three times etc.
Few hours later I started bidding on plain ground but price quickly went waaay out of my range, so I had only one chance left, a piece of the woods, only about 11acres, but that's enough for a couple of nice lines.
Man, was I happy when the hammer finally went down for the third time and the piece was mine! My own piece of ground where I can do whatever I want!

Tiny detail: everything had to go in a rush (only found out about the sale on monday, sale was on tuesday), so didn't get a chance to have a look at the piece in real life, only saw it on LiveSearch :imstupid: (or waaaay to impulsive)
Tomorrow I should finally have time to go and check it, hopefully it's usable.
 
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joelalamo45

Monkey
Jun 25, 2007
741
1
Idaho Springs, Colorado
Dude 11 acres is huge. Thats enough for a ton of lines. Think of it this way, an acre is roughly the size of an American football field. You bought a big ass piece of dirt.
 
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WaveDude

Chimp
Sep 7, 2001
77
0
TX
As soon as I win the Lottery I'll have my own private playground. No Dig, No Ride.

Hope you can keep up with the property taxes.
 

RideRMB

Monkey
Aug 29, 2007
394
0
'Da Hood
Definetly get some pictures, d'love to see what you have for ground and all. And yes, 11 acres is certainly enough for a few loooong lines.
 

stino

Monkey
Jul 14, 2002
201
0
belgium
thx for the support; one thing though: pardon my english, but appeareantely dutch 'are' is not translated as 'acre' but is it 'are' in english as well. and one are = 10x10m = 100m^2, so the terrain isn't exactly the size of x football fields -]
nonetheless, I guess it's approx. 20x60m, plenty of area to start with; I'm still getting in touch with the owners of the pieces around it to check who they are, if they are trailfriendly, and eventually if they'de be willing to sell.
will get pics tomorrow.

k, i'll be the first to bite...how much did you pay???
/a couple of paychecks
 

stino

Monkey
Jul 14, 2002
201
0
belgium
No Dig, No Ride.
that's one of the main reasons for me to get private terrain indeed.

Hope you can keep up with the property taxes.
should be fine: there's no way building a house will ever be allowed over there, so you don't get to pay a lot of taxes for it either: it's worthless in the eyes of the moneyseekers
 

stino

Monkey
Jul 14, 2002
201
0
belgium
went out there this afternoon, got some pictures (some say a picture says more then x words, well I guess not in this case, there's just trees :])

advantages:
- the terrain is on a little plateau, about .5 to 1 m higher then the surrounding area. moreover, of the 4 corners, 1 is lower then the other 3, the left side is slightly lower then the right side, and there's a path on both sides that got carved out by water through the years. getting the drainage won't be hard.
- the whole thing is really covered up, you can't see it from any road nearby, you can't get there by cars, it's plain rural area. not much chance of getting vandalism or posers there.
- the soil is super. toplayer is humus (d'uh), everything below goes from dark yellow to light yellow. same stuff as in the other places here, that yellow soil makes fantastic sheens and is pretty easy to repair
- my mom has a fireplace, no need to buy dry wood anymore, I have plenty of it now ;-

minor unpleasantries:
- with this weather it's unreachable by bike, surrounding fields are way too muddy
- see the pics: going to have a nice time clearing the area before digging can even start

conclusion: it'll be worth the money as I'm going to be working my ass off and I happen to like that (my day job is engineering, not exactly very heavy on the physical side)







 

WaveDude

Chimp
Sep 7, 2001
77
0
TX
Nice...I'm jealous. Save as many trees as you can...trails thru the trees are much more fun than a completley tree-less DJ park. And look out for Poision Ivy and Oak (I guess you have that stuff over there).
 

jerseydirt

Turbo Monkey
May 6, 2007
1,936
0
dirty jerz
Congrats on the land! Im so jealous. Remember, Poison Ivy/oak is your friend,
She comes on like a rose
But everybody knows (don&#8217;t cha know, don&#8217;t cha know)
She&#8217;ll get you in dutch (awww)
You can look but you&#8217;d better not touch

Poison ivy, poison ivy
Late at night when your sleeping
Poison ivy comes a creeping around

She&#8217;s pretty as a daisy (pretty as a daisy)
But look out man she&#8217;s crazy (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
She&#8217;ll really do you in (really do you in)
If you let her get under your skin (let her get under your skin)
(repeat chorus)

Measles makes you mumpy
And mumps will make you lumpy
And chicken pox will make you jump and twitch (make you jump and twitch)
A common cold will fool ya
And whooping coughs will cool ya
But poison ivy loves to make you itch (make you itch)

Your gonna need an ocean (gonna need an ocean)
Of calamine lotion (oh, your gonna need it)
You&#8217;ll be scratching like a hound (boy, you&#8217;ll be itching)
The minute you start to mess around
(repeat chorus)

Your gonna need an ocean (big, big ocean)
Of calamine lotion
You&#8217;ll be scratching like a hound (you&#8217;ll be scratching, you&#8217;ll be scratching)
The minute you start to mess around
(repeat chorus)
 

stino

Monkey
Jul 14, 2002
201
0
belgium
Save as many trees as you can...
off course; only those that are already half dead will be teared down.
afaik poison ivy doesn't grow here, guess it's an american thingie. I lived next to a small forest during my childhood, the only really dangerous plants overhere are mushrooms (although they can be fun and educative when used right)
 

t1maglio

Monkey
Oct 29, 2001
855
0
southern wisconsin
A little forest fire could take care of a lot of that brush and fallen stuff :-)

Good for you for picking up some land. I hope to get my hands on something before I'm to old an broken to ride.
 

stino

Monkey
Jul 14, 2002
201
0
belgium
A little forest fire could take care of a lot of that brush and fallen stuff :-)
lol and the suroundings as well likely

Good for you for picking up some land. I hope to get my hands on something before I'm to old an broken to ride.
reminds me: is there a thread about age already? I'd really like to know what the 'max' age of riders is, so I know how many time there's still left or me :]
 
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don

Turbo Monkey
Nov 8, 2001
1,319
0
Rumson, NJ
I am very stoked to hear about this. Very nice job. And from the pics it looks like a great place to build trails. I like how you plan to keep as many trees. I'd go as far as try to transplant the little ones in bare spots to keep it totally grown in. I've always been impressed seeing footage of trails like the old 'Nam where everything was green even the middle parts.

As far as age. Damn, I don't know. I just turned 38 but feel like I have a bunch of riding left to do. Kelly Baker was jumping 40 foot sets on his 40th birthday a couple years ago but he's in a league of his own. Brian Foster still murders trails and is just a year or 2 younger than me. I play ice hockey with dudes that kick my ass and are in their 50's and surfers and skiers going into their 60's that still looking good and having fun. So who really knows.
 

Axis

Monkey
Jun 9, 2004
471
0
I am just about to turn 40. I am feeling it this year too... but I still ride. This summer I logged a little over 4000 miles on my ss road bike and I ride rays a few times a week... I stay on the small and medium stuff though. Too many injuries.. the good news is that I haven't had a real wreck in 4 years. Now I have 2 boys who are starting to ride too.
 

Savage_Animal

Monkey
Feb 3, 2008
658
0
Norcal
Thats awsome. Good luck on the building. Maybe you should build a small fence around your proporty to remind people they can't ride there unless you want them too. And your probly already doing this but its always nice to completely plan it out before you start digging.

Make sure to keep us updated.
 

stino

Monkey
Jul 14, 2002
201
0
belgium
thanks for all the support, again. getting a fence will be one of the early things we'll be doing there (was planning to do it all in wood actually)
@don: can't agree more on the green. not that I'm a real treehugger, but I really like nature and trees, or any plants in fact. our last spot was like that as well: we'd never even walk on the parts not strictly being part of the trail, and it looks so much better than having one large area cleared of any plants.

must say I'm quite glad, both for me and for you guys, to hear it shouldn't be a big deal to keep up riding practically almost till I die ;]
I guess the main deal would be to never give up and avoid long breaks; I'm 27 myself, but I already noticed that when I don't ride or do much other sports for a couple of months, it takes longer to get to the same level I stopped at, then like 5 years ago.

will get back with pictures once we cleared the area, could be over a month or more, first I have to finish the renovations at my house :[
 

TortugaTonta

Monkey
Aug 27, 2008
539
0
A quick comment on the age thing, digging ages you more than riding.

My hands are a little messed up from swinging the pick and hitting rocks and roots. I have a finger that dosen't really work in the mornings, but it tends to loosen up as the day goes on. My wrists ache a lot from slappin jumps with a flat shovel and shaving with the flat shovel and hitting rocks jamming them up.

My girlfriend is a bit younger than me and in the spring she is like "whats with all the moaning and groaning in the morning" my reply is "diggin season baby, get used to it, I'm old"

Me, I'm 40 in a couple months. Riding better than ever, but don't have the ballz, takes a little longer to man up and try bigger jumps. I feel more pumped than ever when I ride and I look forward to the next ride more than ever.

Besides, what would I do if I didn't ride?

P.S. congrats!
 

Leethal

Turbo Monkey
Oct 27, 2001
1,240
0
Avondale (Phoenix)
If you can you should buy some hardwood trees to plant-oaks, cherries etc and you will be able to harvest them around retirement for a good bit of money.
 

Cru Jones

Turbo Monkey
Sep 2, 2006
3,025
2
Hell Track
Just saw this... nice!! Having your own piece of land to do whatever you want on it is every trail builders dream! Keep us updated with pics.
 

stino

Monkey
Jul 14, 2002
201
0
belgium
little update: started clearing the area;
learned that cranberries are f*n agressive and a pain to get rid of properly. bought a chainsaw to clean up all the trees that are lying down.

before:


after:




just a tiny part of what's yet to come:
 

cmc

Turbo Monkey
Nov 17, 2006
2,052
6
austin
Will you be building by hand or are you going to get some heavy machinery in there ?
 

stino

Monkey
Jul 14, 2002
201
0
belgium
Well the spot is practically unreachable for normal cars, unless you'd drive straight over the fields and want to piss of all farmers in the neighbourhood. There's a path that comes close, but you either need a tractor or a vehicle with a small wheelbase and chassis at least .5m above the ground. But even when following that path you'r not at the spot yet, there's still some pedestrian sized path left.
So to answer your question: I don't know yet. We're first going to clean the entire spot, then make plans for at least one line we want to ride this summer, then start thinking about the practical side. Although I like digging, doing everything manually is really satisfying, I reckon we might not get it done before winter kicks in again.
 

stino

Monkey
Jul 14, 2002
201
0
belgium
Here I am again with an update that kinda breaks my hart a little.
Long story, short outcome: someone filed a complaint against my trails and we had to tear everything down since the area is considered valueable nature or something like that, although that was never stated in any contract I got when buying it. Basically you can't do anything in there, and certainly not modifying the terrain. Stuff is still going to court etc but that will take a long time, following the advice of the (btw very friendly) 'nature police' we restored the relief now already else there's a chance I'd have to pay someone else to do it.

We kept these trails private and secret, in fact only 3 people ever rode them, but after it came to a brute end I'm like 'let's share this on ridemonkey where people understand my misery and went through the same process already'. Or something like that :)

Picture story from beginning to end, sorry to the low bandwith crew.

I. Start
this is what it looked like originally:




the after doing lots of this


it started looking like this


and after a month or two everything was prepared for building


II. Dig, dig, dig then dig some more
we're not exactly experienced dirt riders, in fact not even moderately skilled, oh face it we suck, so we started with rather tiny sized jumps


and a little berm to get enough speed


nonetheless it was decent enough to try out euro tables, of which my hope was to finally learn how to get them flat


spending hours improving my smear packing skills


and at the start of the summer we had our first 'practice' line finished


the ratio digging-riding had been like 95-5 so still no flat tabletops :D
and notice in the background how the plants are rising skyhigh again, made us wonder why we took all the effort of removing them in the first place


this is how I ride when none of the buddies has time to drive me there


special enlightened water to keep us going


first line kinda finished


III. Rise of the Machines
clearly we'd break our backs if we'd execute all plans springing from our minds so we started the beginning of the end by getting machinery do the digging work.
berm!


the start/end point of the berm was supposed to be a hip as well, or a spine when approaching it from the right, where another berm would be mirrored


machines are fun and help you remove nasty stuff in no time


a bit of an overview; top middle is a funbox, supposed to have a ledge and all, took tons of dirt.
all the pits used for the dirt are not visible but on the left, plus a HUGE hole behind the berm.


IV. Shape like it's the last time you'll ever shape here.
low and fast start of the second line with an option to the left



the very first jump took me hours to shape and it still wasn't super. this one got it's shape in about half an hour and was the best jump by far. yay we learned something!


the day I got the news all this stuff was actually not legal, I realized this berm that was only partly shaped, would never get a chance to shine in all it's glory.


V. The end.
the day before the sad end, still trying to get those f*ing tabes flat, not even close, but at least I managed to get the bars in a proper 90 degree angle.


didn't get a lot of pictures of tearing down everything as I wanted to get it done quickly and without to much reflecting on the subject
yet this one did hurt a lot.


here's the result, the terrain is definately flatter than ever.


won't be needing this one anymore, served well though.



final destination: art gallery.



ok that was it.
On a positive side: in the weeks between getting the news and destroying the trails which were not even close to finished, we rode like never before, we never had that much fun on a bike. We never rode decent trails before, the feeling of doing one rythmic section of jumps right for the very first time will never let us go.
Next monday I'm going to the cityhall to get me informed on what exactly I need to do get legal trails, what kind of land, which documents etc.
 

TortugaTonta

Monkey
Aug 27, 2008
539
0
Its such a bummer when you try to do the right thing by getting you own land to build on and you still get phucked.

Sometimes I worry about someone finding what I have going on behind my house, if my homeowners insurance company ever saw what goes down on a typical sunday they would sh!t a brick.

How did they find your jumps? What did they tell you exactly?

good luck on the quest for trail. . .