This defunct golf course in Michigan has found new life as a mountain bike trail

Water hazards and sand traps have been traded for jumps and berms in northern Michigan. At the beginning of 2020, the Little Traverse Bay Golf Club near Harbor Springs permanently closed its doors. But instead of covering the land with condos or a shopping center, the former golf club is now a nature preserve, complete with singletrack.

Shortly after the golf club closed, the Michigan-based non-profit Little Traverse Conservancy (LTC) purchased the land for $2 million. The former golf club received a change of name, now called the Offield Family Viewlands, and a new status as a nature preserve.

LTC was founded in the early 1970s with the mission of protecting natural areas in northern Michigan. In some cases, such as with the Little Traverse Bay Golf Club, this means jumping at the opportunity to restore the land to its former beauty. While LTC’s mission is about preserving land and natural spaces, it also aims to keep those spaces open to the public. The conservancy currently maintains 100 miles of trail across nearly 50 preserves, some of which accommodate mountain bikers.

From golf course to mountain bike trails

After LTC purchased the former golf club, the nearly 300 acres of land were reopened as a nature preserve. Shortly after that, the Top of Michigan Mountain Bike Association (TOMMBA) reached out to LTC to inquire about the potential of adding mountain bike trails to the Offield Family Viewlands.

“Even as they were acquiring it, I was pulling on [LTC’s] coattails, asking, ‘Can we build a mountain bike trail?’” Lynn Wolf, TOMMBA’s Board President, told us.

TOMMBA was founded in 2012, and their first projects consisted of building trails for public schools in the northern Michigan area. Since then, they have continued to develop relationships and work with different schools, cities, conservancies, and the Department of Natural Resources in their area.

Wolf went on to explain that walking 18 holes wasn’t really an option for this golf course. Patrons almost always used a golf cart to navigate the up-and-down terrain of the Little Traverse Bay Golf Club. While that may seem somewhat of a chore for a golf course, for a mountain biker, the rolling hills that make up the area are perfect terrain.

However, mountain bike trails didn’t come immediately to the new Offield Family Viewlands nature preserve. Part of the reason was that golf courses don’t transition to nature preserves easily. “[The LTC] said, ‘time out, give us one year to just let the property come back to natural and figure out what we want to do,’” Wolf explained.

While the LTC took some time to let the land heal, they also considered what they wanted to offer as part of the Offield Family Viewlands. Mountain biking was an easy choice and easy addition, so the LTC and TOMMBA began looking for a part of the property that would best suit a new trail.

“We started working very closely together on what area of the property we could build trail,” Wolf told us, “and then how to link [the new trail] into the existing North Country Trail.”

TOMMBA hopes the plans for this new trail in the Offield Family Viewlands will expand past one nature preserve, connecting communities and trail systems throughout their small part of northern Michigan. TOMMBA is building nearly four miles of trail that will link to the 5.2 miles they just finished on the Offield Family Viewlands. They hope the Offield project will link to the North Country Trail, which takes riders to a local ski hill called Nub’s Nob. While Nub’s Nob doesn’t have mountain bike lift access, TOMMBA is working with the ski resort to allow mountain bikers to ride through. From there, riders can cross the street from Nub’s Nob to The Highlands at Harbor Springs lift-access bike park. After some quick math, Wolf gave us an estimate of roughly 20 miles of trail that will be connected.

The Offield Viewlands Mountain Bike Trail

Once TOMMBA got the green light to build a trail on the Offield Family Viewlands, they wasted no time hiring a professional trail builder. Wolf mentioned they had worked quite a bit with local trail builders Flowtrack Mountain Bike Trails, making them an easy choice for the job.

“Matt with Flowtrack is like a mad scientist in his head,” Wolf told us. She praised the crew for working with the terrain to create a truly unique five miles of singletrack, even if it meant changing the plans once or twice.

The new trail is known as the “Offield Viewlands Mountain Bike Trail,” or “the Viewlands,” which consists of over five miles of beginner/intermediate flow trail. The flowy singletrack incorporates modern trail features — jumps, berms, and drops — but typically has the features as a “side hit” with an optional go-around. In total, the Viewlands works with an impressive 500 feet or so of elevation.

The Viewlands is a multi-use trail, with hikers and joggers also allowed. Class 1 pedal-assist e-bikes are also allowed at the Viewlands.

TOMMBA and LTC raised $385,000 to build the Offield Viewlands Mountain Bike Trail. “So I wrote grants for finding the smaller funds, and [LTC] went after some of the bigger funds,” Wolf told us. “We raised $385,000 for that trail system and got Flowtrack to start building.”

The Offield Viewlands Mountain Bike Trail was finished this spring and was officially opened at the beginning of the summer. Wolf and TOMMBA would love to add more trails in the nature preserve, but she told Singletracks that possibility is still a ways off. First, they must make sure it is a need.

“One of the things the [LTC] likes is data,” Wolf explained. “We’ve just obtained trail counters [and] we’ll start to see how well received this trail is — how much use is it getting, whether it’s mountain bikers, whether it’s hikers — and then start building and progressing more from there.”