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So, our local forest has been pretty much destroyed leaving trails unrideable, the local ranger has a dedicated DH area (untouched) but doesnt cater for xc anywhere and wouldn't tolerate new cheeky too well.
As there are no trees any more the chance of building any cheeky without getting caught (ranger lives at the edge of the forest) are remote so we are fortunate enough to have a section of land near us that holds very good events and is large enough to accommodate our MTB needs....
I am thinking of asking the landowner if we (15people max) could have access to his trails at night time (shooting goes on during the day there), obviously we'd form a proper club with insurance to cover us on his land etc etc agree to maintain the trails and build new ones for races and help regulate uninsured MTB trespassers (currently an annoyance for him).
Can anyone think of the best possible way/angle to approach this? and possible pitfalls, I'd like to make it so we can offer him something to make our proposition attractive (hence the offer to maintain the race trails and build new ones) whilst ensuring that our club using his land won't open up the floodgates for lots of other bikers thinking its ok to ride there at any time.
Your biggest problem is the shooting. If he is making money from it he won't want loads of bikers hanging about cutting trails and scaring off the game.
I'd pitch for limited access on existing trails and focus on keeping off trespassers
If he accepts that, negotiate for more access?
ye thats why i went for night time access only...doubt he'll go fo r it but have to try!!
problem i can see even with night time access is disturbance to birds, i assume the birds are being shot?
Not quite the same thing, but when I put on a trailquest, there was a footpath past a house and a private farm track I wanted to use to link up other bridleways.
Normally I would just ride them anyway, but for an organised event I needed the land owners permission.
I just knocked on the door, explained how many bikes I was expecting and that it was for one day only and got the OK with no problem from both of them.
Just ask, it can't do any harm.