My Singletrack

My Singletrack

When I first bought this almost two acres where my house sits ten years ago, there was a 3 acre lot directly behind me that I tried to buy at the same time. I was told that was a subdivided and platted lot and they were going to build homes on that and others, but I could have it for $25,000. I laughed, and told him That'd be fine, he could build all the homes back there he wanted, and I wouldn't stop him. Well, lot's changed since then.....he died a year and a half later, and his widow took over the company. Then came a natural catastrophy that I'll elaborate on later. The end result was the lady came by yesterday and offered to sell me not only the lot behind me, but ALL her remaining lots that all adjoined each other and mine...... all for $1,500. Quite a difference. I bought! It's definitely Jungle! But, I got to thinking how much singletrack can I build, looping back and forth, and whatnot on ten acres, and I thought probably a LOT. So here's the start, I selected a spot in the back of my lot that looked less intimidating than the rest, and started clearing.....



And this is where I stopped for now.....The going is tough with all the vines, roots, brush, poisin ivy, wild roses, blackberry and raspberry, but I made a little headway. Actually got about 150 yards cleared and built into a rudimenary trail before I tuckered out.



This is the trail that goes back toward the road, and the river.



Now comes the fun part. The reason the owner was willing to part with her high dollar land so cheap. After I got to the county road, here is what it looked like.....



My property is all along the left side of the road. If you look carefully at the road, you'll not see a single vehicle track on it, in fact it looks as though there hasn't been for a while....Here's why.....



The county barricaded off the road and closed this entire section for over half a mile. This barricade is put up before you get to my land or hers. Well, you say, what about coming in the other way....... OK......lets go for a walk. Less than a half mile the other direction was this.......



A couple years ago we had a big 12" rain and flood, and the river swallowed up a large portion of the road. So....the county closed it off rather than repairing it. The outcome was..... those ten acres have NO road access.....only through my property, and I wasn't in the mood to give any easements. Hence, the humbled price. And....I now have a ten acre someday singletrack and wildlife sanctuary, but also over 1/4 mile of my own personal road AND personal river access.



All for $1500. Granted, it's not the most usable land in the world, but it's certainly worth what I paid for it, and it should be fun... Heck.....it even has a substantial fence that they threw in.....

This is shortly after I aquired the land and hadn't done much with it yet. I realized I didn't have a basis for the later posts, so here it is. I now have about a half mile of usuable trail cleared, and as you can see from some of the later posts, I have been using it! It's definitely been an experience.