The trails here in Marathon County,WI have been open for 3 days or less, depending on the area of the county. It is amazing the number of instances of sleds off trail riding already. This is not the UP. This is central WI farmland. We depend on many generous private landowners every year. If you ride off the trail, you are trespassing and risking a trail closure. Please stay on the trail, or stay home. This problem gets worse every year, and sooner or later will result in trail closures that never open again. GET WITH THE PROGRAM, OR STAY HOME!
Stay On The Trail......
- Thread starter jr37
- Start date
pclark
Well-known member
It's to bad we can't put up a forum for the idiots and violators that are the culprits. I know there is a lot people on here that spend countless hours volunteering their time to put in the trails and maintain then every year which includes having to sit down with frustrated landowners when this type of activity happens. I also feel that it's not the people that read or post on this forum that are the violators. Every year we spend countless hours staking, brushing, maintaining the trails so everyone can enjoy them and we get people that can't even keep their sleds between the stakes. It would not matter to some of them where we staked a trail, they would not follow it. As a guy that is now in his sixties with not a lot of young people coming up in our club (I belong to a club in Waukesha County presently) it certainly would be a breath of fresh air to just see everyone abide by the rules. We just received about 4" of heavy packing snow by us with a couple more coming so perhaps the trails down here may even open this week for the first time this year. Like most of us I wouldn't do it unless I liked it, keep the faith and ride safe!
EXACTLY! still amazes me that people just don't get it, there is a serious lack of respect for rules these days and like I say.... entitlement is no longer just a government program...
Go Fast or Go Home
Active member
Snowmobilers and ATV'ers are our own worst enemy.
Don~
Don~
Just more of the "I don't care" attitude! It's all over everything now days!
Just like them Dang Woodchucks!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LT1tlOcLVHI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zto6FJRD56Q
Seriously though, it's getting worse and it'll be harder and harder to find land owners that will allow trails.
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The people who commit trespassing on private, or public property, are the same ones who cry the loudest on law enforcement doing their jobs! No way around it!
On a positive note. My 13 year old and I were out today and I was impressed with all the courteous riders that we met. Not 1 idiot flying on the wrong side of the trail. Everyone stayed right, slowed down, some waved. It was a great ride with my son. Doesn't get much better than that.
snobuilder
Well-known member
We had a similar experience this weekend on the 100 miler and LMT trails. A few brake stabs from both directions but no one made it too scary.
Heavy use of hand signals is warranted on these twisties.
Those trails must have been nuts traffic-wise.
I'm not sold on hand-signals anymore, I see many slow riders have guys catching them which creates a false-signal (last guy showing no more in their party) and even myself who slowed down this past Friday riding alone allowed 4 guys (or gals, was Women on Snow weekend) to pass me.
It's a nice concept but may be outdated now. Especially in WI, I saw 20-25 year old sleds riding in packs doing hand-signals and were getting lapped.
A young kid with a family was darting all over (riding like a 1987 Poo Touring) and gave me a hand-signal and came over the center-line near McCauslin Golf Course in Lakewood. Parents probably taught him to be kind with the signals but just my 2 cents.
Bear
snobuilder
Well-known member
Yea I get that but I still appreciate the effort from the fast guy up front letting me know how many buds are trying to catch him....like I said we rode mostly blind corners past 2 days....plus I wanted to let them know that my precious was not far behind...lol
Hand signals are great if you can safely do them, but are not necessary. You should ride as if there is a sled coming around every corner. This past week when it was cold, I ran gauntlets. I can promise you it is more dangerous for me to pull my hands out of the gauntlet, signal, and try to get them back in the gauntlet, than simply not doing anything than keeping my hands on the bars. With my wife and kids who are less experienced, I tell them not to hand signal. I just want them to focus on keeping their machine under control.
snobuilder
Well-known member
A 30 MPH average is quite decent, I rode with some fast fellas (you know who you are) with top sleds 2 weeks ago and we averaged 37 MPH riding 25% grades.
Bear