You are blessed to have that much space to roam on. I hear you on the need for new scenery... but my purpose is much different than the average Joe. I have grandchildren that will be needing a place to putt around when they get old enough to ride and come visit Grandpa. On another note. I inted to use my area as a teaching ground for novice riders to learn on and practice on without subjecting them to the dangers of trail riding with others more experienced zooming about.

Too often, we have commented that there are not enough riding areas... what is even more scarce is a practice ground that lets junior riders "Learn" their skills in a safe environment. Important too, will be the training of the responsible adults ie parents. Too often we fail to concentrate on teaching THEM what to look for, and how to properly teach responsible riding to their kids once they are turned loose on the world. The minimum recommended rider training area used for our national rider training programs is 5 acres, so a little extra will be just about right.

The area will not be for expert riders to blast around on. Only for skill building. Plus I will open it up for parents to use so their kids can practice too. Nothing commercial, purely an old man wanting to give a little back to the industry I love.

 

Draggin, I applaud you for sharing with the have nots and the maybe-somedays. I hope to do the same, when I get some land. I picked up the sport this last summer to have something to do with my 17 yr old. Lack of places to ride, close enough to where we live, prompted me start asking friends with land if we could ride. People are pretty nervous, mostly about liability, I guess. Gotta respect that. So I guess the only thing to do is get something for ourselves, a lifelong dream that I'd almost given up on...until now.

Started looking in the fall, and settled on a 27 acre triangle with a creek running through it. Maybe 10 acres of it farmland that could continue to be leased out OR plowed around for some mudding and jumps and racing (what the boy wants). Back of the creek, enough land for a little bit of trail. Almost went for it. But the "little bit of trail" was the undoing. It would be okay for having people out and showing a newbie a good time, but it was clear it wouldn't be enough for us after riding it a while. We decided to look further.

I went back to an old thought: 40 acres of trees is enough to get secluded from the outside world. A friend that let us ride his property for a little this summer (until he got nervous) had such a quarter mile square. Nothing but trees. It was great. I decided this was the MINIMUM I would settle for. Now we're looking at a 75 acre plot (mostly trees), just trying to figure out to $wing it (always an issue). Should happen, I think it will be perfect for our family and friends. Just my two cents.
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That would be great if you can swing it. I understand your need for more space. If you can afford it, that sounds like what you need. That is the great thing about this... even a small landowner like me can make use of anything. Our needs clearly do not meet your needs, but they meet ours. I get by liability wise because the insurance is covered by the training organization. For those of you interested, becoming an instructor has it's own benefits. One of them is that you can offer land owners a no liability option in return for them letting you use their land.

Small tracts can be great. It all depends on how it is all laid out....

 

>I get by liability wise because the insurance is covered by the training organization.
>For those of you interested, becoming an instructor has it's own benefits. One of them
>is that you can offer land owners a no liability option in return for them letting you use
>their land.

Draggin, I'm interested. What training organization do you instruct for? I thought about becoming a safety instructor and trying to promote the sport that way (and keep it safe). The liability issue is a major concern.

 

Check out ASI.

 

I only allow relatives to ride and hunt on my place. Since it is only a couple miles from where my Dad was born and grew up, there are a lot of people that use it. I have insurance on it just in case, but I figure a relative is less likely to sue me than a non-relative. I can always make their Christmas dinner miserable the rest of their life...... It helps cut back on the trash and general destruction as well.

 

thank you DB for wanting to give back to the atv community. there needs to be more ppl like you in our sport. and dee we got over 200 acres up by warroad we got trails on and i will let you ride them if you let me ride your 160 acres in fourtown [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

Thanks Weez, I am glad you are still hanging around. Last time we talked, you were fed up with the locals and ready to sell out and move. I trust things have gotten better since then? Funny thing about greener grass, it loses it's sheen rapidly once you walk on it...

 

yeah the locals will always make me upset but what ya gonna do [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] i am just gonna keep riding. i been kinda staying out of this part of the forum cause i used to get to fired up as to what ppl are wanting to do to our sport that i love. and DB i thought you were coming up sometime to go fishing [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

weez, let me know whats up with that. I have tons of relatives up there, and most ride wheelers. Maybe we need to organize some sort of politcal group?