Nestled in the hills of Pisgah Forest, NC, is a house—a basecamp made for mountain
bikers, or anyone who loves the outdoors.
It’s called the Berm Peak Ranger Station, and we are taking reservations to stay here.
The Ranger Station has a host of amenities not only for people, but for bikes.
There’s a secure place to store your bike downstairs, and a place to work on it.
In the yard, you’ll find a bike wash station.
Inside, there’s even a place for all your gear.
But back in September the Berm Peak Ranger Station was just a normal house.
It had plenty of space, a great location, and a peaceful setting, but it also had some
issues.
The decks were less than safe, the floor had seen better days, and while the bathrooms
looked okay at a glance, they didn’t smell all that great.
There was a lot lurking under the skin of the Ranger Station, so to make it an actual
destination, it would need some minor upgrades.
Kitchens used to be for preparing food, but these days they’re mainly for hanging out
in.
So we took down the walls to make the main floor all one room.
We also did all new cabinets and a giant center island to make it an even better place for
hanging out.
The kitchen was the only room we actually took the walls out of.
The rest of the house was simply renovated and made to look like new.
Both bathrooms got invasive facelifts, and every door and trim piece in the house was
replaced as well.
Since we were down to the subfloor, we had a new commercial grade floor installed uniformly
throughout the entire house, by our friends at Miller’s Wholesale.
They’ll be staying at the Ranger Station this summer as honorary guests.
The house also got all new electrical wiring which was something we hadn’t planned on
doing.
But once the place was opened up, we tried to do all the things while we still could.
You see we’re in the midst of a building boom right now, so tradespeople can pick and
choose which jobs they take.
Headaches like this tend to be their last choice.
We got in right before things got crazy, and so the same company that built the Brevard
Bike House, Going Green Builders, did the renovation on the Ranger Station.
And having contractors work on the house really freed me up to do the fun stuff.
Like the bike room.
When we bought the Ranger Station the bike room was a straight up dungeon.
We started by cleaning it out and making it presentable.
Then we built a workbench, and loaded it up with everything
you need to repair a bike.
As for the bike lockup, we secured the entryways, installed a smart lock for guests to use,
and built a long rack for hanging bikes by their seats.
To get bikes down there, we graded a path from the front yard.
At the top of the path, is where we put the bike wash.
We’ve built a few bike wash stations on this channel, but none that can support multiple
bikes at once.
We wanted to make it as easy as possible for guests to clean off all their bikes and get
back to hanging out in that kitchen.
The deck keeps you dry while you’re hosing off your bike, and the gravel keeps the ground
around the bike wash from getting muddy.
So let’s say you go for a ride on one of Brevard’s amazing trails and then return
to the Ranger Station for dinner.
You wheel your bike down the path to the wash station, get it looking good, and then continue
down the same path to the workshop.
You enter using your entry code, and store your bike there for another day.
Then it’s just you and all your sweaty dirty gear.
So you enter the house through the mud room.
This was another idea that only materialized while we were renovating
the house.
Sooo we decided to turn it into a mudroom.
A place to hang up your gear, change your clothes, and do your laundry.
We also know that in many cases your feet and by extension your shoes are going to get
wet.
So rather than guests lighting up our dryer, we left them a much better option.
A forced air shoe dryer, complete with a timer, and even a glove dryer.
I’ve only seen these in ski cabins, but never a bike specific rental.
But not everyone who stays here will be a mountain biker, and of course you need to
use the house during your stay for sleeping and eating, so we made sure the inside would
be as comfortable and functional as possible.
The kitchen sink features a reverse osmosis water filter for hospital grade drinking water
to take on your ride.
And for hot water we upgraded to a tankless heater so guests can shower consecutively
without it getting cold.
There’s plenty of seating all over the house, including bean bag chairs in the bedrooms,
and for the work from home crowd there’s 300 megabit internet service, which is pretty
good for around here.
Actually the side tables in the living room double as laptop desks, and the master bedroom
has a real desk for those private zoom meetings.
The work from home revolution is upon us, and the Ranger Station is ready for it.
That’s why we also built a dedicated charging station, and set up the name that should not
be spoken in the kitchen.
We also wanted the outside to look better, so Kevin put in a ton of landscaping work.
The original yard was covered in puddles and drainage issues, so Kevin just treated it
like a mountain bike trail and made it drain right.
We also brought in tons of stone, literally.
This place is rock armored so we’ll never need to worry about mud again.
Now a good amount of these considerations were thanks to my wife, who has a much better
sense of how to set up a house to look and function well.
But we also did a test run with real mountain bike family.
The Porters lived here at the Ranger Station for a week, before it was even done, and they
gave us input on the things they noticed.
When you stay someplace overnight, you get a unique perspective, like how we needed additional
window coverings in certain places, and how the hot and cold water were actually reversed.
And then there were the bunk beds.
I decided to take them apart and just make them normal beds.
By the way these are twin XL mattresses so they’re the same length as king sized mattresses.
In short, we tried our very best to make the Berm Peak Ranger station a blueprint for mountain
bike vacation rentals.
And we will continue making improvements ongoing.
We still haven’t set up that RC crawler course, and there’s still lots of artwork
we’re planning on hanging, but that’ll all come in time.
It’s the season now, and so the Ranger Station needs to be in service.
So check the link below to see our listing on Airbnb.
And in case you were wondering, I’m not the one handling the bookings, I would suck
at that.
We have a property manager.
To my regular viewers, thanks for your patience.
I’m itching to do other things besides set up a rental house, as I’m sure you’re
itching to watch other things.
Someday we’ll set up another Ranger Station, but for now, it’s time to get back to riding
bikes.
Thanks for riding with me today, and I’ll see you next time.