Study Shows Bellaire Mountain Bike Trail is Worth Millions

Could a Bike Trail at Traverse City’s Commons Bring Similar Results?

By Patrick Sullivan | June 10, 2017

When folks from the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy decided to construct a mountain bike trail near Arcadia more than a decade ago, they got a lesson in trail building.

“We hired a mountain bike specialist from Colorado, supposedly one of the best mountain bike trail designers in the country,” said David Foote, GTRLC’s stewardship director. “He said he wouldn’t [take on the project]. But he would teach us how to lay out trails.”

The trail guru trained two staff members on how best to approach and build Arcadia. In 2013, GTRLC members took the skills they’d acquired and used them to bring another bike trail to life, this one in Glacial Hills, near Bellaire. According to an economic impact study unveiled last month, that simple swath through the Glacial Hills landscape might prove to be far more than just a fun ride; it could mean $25 million in economic activity for that small community over the next decade. 

SOMETHING FROM NOTHING
The study for the Glacial Hills Pathway and Nature Area estimates the trail brings $1.4 million to Bellaire each year.

The study also predicts that if trail use increases by 10 percent each year as it becomes better-known, the trail will have generated $25.4 million for Bellaire in a decade.

The study arrives at these figures by calculating an array of consequences, like estimates of how much visitors spend on lodging or gas, how often users visit places like Short’s Brewery, and how much the trail and protected land mean for property values and tax revenue. The study also takes into account other uses of the trail, like hiking and cross-country skiing.

The Conservancy typically isn’t in the mountain bike trail-building business, but it made exceptions at Arcadia and Glacial Hills, Foote said, because GTRLC had helped preserve those properties, and the land was ideal for mountain biking.

If Bellaire does realize all of those millions of dollars, it will be a remarkable return on investment, not least because Glacial Hills trail was built almost entirely from volunteer sweat equity.

“It was built all by volunteers and with the Conservancy staff,” Foote said. “Most of the hands-on work was done by members of the community.”

Mountain bike trails typically cost $6 per foot; Glacial Hills trail spans 31.5 miles.

Had a private firm designed and built the trails for Glacial Hills, Foote said, the project would have cost around $1 million.

ANATOMY OF A GOOD TRAIL
What GTRLC staff learned through construction of the Arcadia trail was how to design a bike path that’s “flowy,” meaning it flows over hills and curves through the land in a way that’s fun for anyone. Beginners can take it slow and easy; experts can hammer it and make the ride a challenge.

“It needs to be designed so that it’s fun for everybody, no matter what your skill,” Foote said.

Trails also need to be designed so that they don’t erode through use and weather.

Dean Crandall, a construction company owner and an early and influential proponent of the Glacial Hills trail, spent countless hours on his Kubota excavator, using its 5-foot blade to carve the start of a narrow, level trail into the earth. Someone followed Crandall with a rototiller, and someone else followed behind them with a roller that packed down the earth. And then they were followed by volunteers who spent thousands of hours finishing the trail, making sure the edges along contours tapered so that water would run off and covering exposed dirt with beds of leaves to hold the hills together.

“The trail has held up incredibly well,” Crandall said. “But it continually takes maintenance. It continually takes volunteer work.”

This year on Earth Day, 50 volunteers performed spring maintenance on the trail, a sign of how beloved it is.

“I tell you, people that come here, they always come back,” Crandall said.

CAN GLACIAL HILLS BE REPLICATED?
Would a trail at the Grand Traverse Commons have a similar economic impact for Traverse City? Some people think a world-class trail at the beloved park would be great for the city.

Tim Pulliam, president and co-founder of Traverse City-based Keen Technical Solutions, an energy conservation consulting firm that also runs a cycling team, said he thinks a well-designed trail at the Commons would be an amazing draw for Traverse City.

Pulliam said a great trail at the Commons could have a bigger economic impact than what’s happened in Bellaire because Traverse City has an even wider selection of post-biking opportunities: great restaurants, breweries, wineries, beaches, and more.

“I think we’d also take advantage of people who are coming here anyways,” he said. “I think we could get them to stay here longer and come more often. If I had a trail like Glacial Hills, plus everything else, I’m going to be more apt to go for that.”

Pulliam thinks the trail could also help in less tangible ways. It would be something that would make businesses like Keen better able to attract young talent.

Hans Voss, executive director of Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities, agrees that a bike trail at the Commons would be a great asset for Traverse City.

If Traverse City developed a world-class mountain bike trail, Voss said, the city could attract visitors who would come just to ride it, the same way Voss was recently lured to East Burke, Vermont, specifically to ride mountain bike trails — or, closer to home, the way he’s made Glacial Hills a regular recreation stop.

“I’ve been out there a dozen times, and I never would have gone there,” Voss said. “I’m getting to know more about Antrim County and the community, and I wouldn’t have made those trips if they didn’t develop Glacial Hills.”

On the other hand, Woody Smith, president of Avenue ISR, which conducted the Glacial Hills economic impact study, said he hasn’t considered the impact a world-class mountain bike trail at the Commons might pose, but he suspects it might be negligible because Traverse City is already such a draw for so many other reasons.

CHALLENGES OVER THE RIDGE
So why not just build such a trail?

“It is a bit tricky to incorporate mountain biking at the Commons,” said Tom Vitale, parkland steward at Grand Traverse Conservation District, which manages the Commons trails for Garfield Township. “That’s not to say it’s not doable.”

Trail building in an area of established trails can be a tougher climb than creating one new; the effort requires accommodating the existing users, he said.

First, Vitale said, all of the land holders — Garfield Township, Traverse City, the city-township recreation authority, Munson Medical Center, and Grand Traverse Commons — need to get together. They’ve got to come up with a plan. And then users need to be surveyed about what they want.

The current trail may be beloved, Vitale said, but it’s also unsustainable. Those current trails grew out of the way the land has been used for more than a century, and there are sections that climb almost straight up and down steep hills.

“We still hope to develop a greater trail plan out there,” Vitale said. “We need to figure out how to manage for all users.”

Julie Clark, executive director of TART Trails, said she cautiously supports exploring new trail designs at the Commons.

On one hand, she said, it’s a wonderful system of trails that has organically developed over the years into a magical place for runners, walkers, dog walkers, bird watchers, artists, and foragers; on the other, the trail system is largely haphazard, and has been developed without planning and, in some places, without an eye toward good trail design.

“It is one of my favorite trail systems in the city, in terms of its scenic beauty and its vistas, and it’s an opportunity to feel a million miles away when you’re in the city,” she said. “The Commons is a beautiful place that could benefit from some thought and process.”

Pulliam said a well-designed mountain bike trail at the Commons could make everyone happy if it did something the current trails don’t: keep bikers and other users separate.

“You take the trails that are already there and sustainable, and you designate them hiking and walking trails,” he said. “We designate those, and then we come out with real mountain bike trails that parallel or cross those.”

He believes there’s enough space in the upper section of the park to install six or eight miles of trail and keep it away from most of the hikers.

AN INSPIRATION FOR A TRAIL
Earl Gervais only took up mountain biking a couple years ago, but the retiree has gotten into the middle of talks about how to build a mountain bike trail at the Commons.

Gervais, who has known Commons developer Ray Minervini for years, showed the developer Glacial Hills, prompting Minervini to ask Gervais to help get a trail like that constructed at the Commons.

“It’s kind of a junkyard out there now, but it could be the most beautiful park in all of northern Michigan,” Gervais said.

The vision Gervais and others have for the Commons is for the construction of separate dedicated mountain bike and hiking trails that connect the Commons to Hickory Hills. Gervais also believes an existing gravity trail (aka a steep hill with a series of jumps for thrill-riding) that’s been at the Commons for years should remain but must be better marked so that hikers know to stay out of the way of the bikes speeding downhill.

Raymond Minervini, Ray’s son and a partner of the Minervini Group, which operates the Village at the Grand Traverse Commons, said the trail would be a welcome addition, and he support Gervais’ advocacy.

“We’ll try to support it as much as we can as neighbors,” Minervini said. “We’ve been very supportive of Earl. He’s been working very hard as a community member to bring people together.”

Pulliam said it’s going to take a grassroots spark to make a great trail happen, and he believes that it will take someone to organize a group, come up with a plan, and then get the support of the Chamber of Commerce or Rotary Charities to be a partner.

“I just want someone to get it done. I’m happy to do it. We just need everyone to be on board with it,” he said. “Who takes credit or ownership for it doesn’t really matter. Getting it done is what really matters.”

DEED RESTRICTION CAUSES DELAY
Any plans to construct mountain bike trails are on hold, however, following last year’s sale of 40 acres in the park from the State of Michigan to Garfield Township.

There is a deed restriction, Gervais said, that dedicates the land for recreation and specifically mentions hiking but does not mention mountain biking.

While one might consider mountain biking a perfectly good recreational use, Gervais said the deed restriction has been a problem, even though people have been mountain biking in the Commons for generations.

“There’s a few people — it’s not a group — but there’s a few people who, if we started to do something, they’d probably threaten a lawsuit or something like that,” Gervais said. “Once we got this deed restriction, it’s just like the wheels came off the wagon.”

That’s put a pause on the trail envisioning process, but Gervais hopes the delay will only last four or five months.

Rob Larrea, director of planning for Garfield Charter Township, said his office is working with the state for clarification of the deed language.

Another challenge for a Commons trail is that it would likely cost much more than Glacial Hills did. Because of its topography, and because the Commons’ existing trails are so often used by hikers, the effort would require the construction of separate hiking and biking trails — something that would require professional engineering and is likely to cost a lot of money, Gervais said.

“We were looking at that, and what that requires is professional trail builders. You’re going to have to bring in every group under the sun — the hikers, the bikers, the birdwatchers, the walkers, the runners, the dog walkers,” he said. “You’re going to have to organize all these groups, and you’re going to have to develop a plan and do your best to satisfy all these people.”

The connection to Hickory also poses a challenge. Gervias said there are five options to connect the trails, and each would require purchasing private property.

COMMONS CHALLENGES
Tom White, director of trail development for the Northern Michigan Mountain Bike Association, and a respected trail builder himself, is skeptical of the Glacial Hills study; he wonders how many people would visit Bellaire anyway, even if the trail wasn’t there.

He’s also somewhat skeptical of efforts to bring a mountain bike trail to the Commons. The Commons is complicated because it’s so beloved by different kinds of users who’ve been there forever and feel like the place belongs to them.

White said it will take lots of planning and a well-thought-out strategy. He said current users need to be surveyed to make sure everyone’s interests are accounted for before anything could move forward.

White also questions whether the time, expense and effort to build dedicated mountain bike trails at Commons would be worth it — especially if what’s constructed is a standalone bike trail that isn’t connected to Hickory Hills. White said “destination trails” nowadays must be at least 20 miles long, or riders don’t feel like it’s worth the effort to travel to them. The Commons, he said, could accommodate a few miles of trails, at best.

At any rate, White is more focused these days on another mountain bike trail in Traverse City, one that’s already established, tested, and approved: the Vasa Pathway single track, which will host an NMMBA-sanctioned event July 22, the Short’s Brewing Traverse City Trails Festival at Ranch Rudolf, offering mountain bikers the opportunity for 25- or 40-mile races and rides.