The commonality of many of the posters here support one premise, and that is that most have had several encounters with riders who were going too fast for the conditions including line of sight, and or were very much inconsiderate and put the other fellow riders into a very uncomfortable spot.
I am no different. My group usually consists of riders who are young, therefore inexperienced, and even those who are older and have never even been on a sled before. They are learning...to stay right, and learning to check the mirros, and learning to not string out...all the things that most of us learned while we were going thru the learning curve this sport more or less requires.
I have been riding a long time. The more I ride the more I find that I have just been lucky that nobody got hurt for all the same reasons that others have already posted.
Trying to stay in the vein of this thread, it seems to me that folks who would otherwise be decent drivers in a car or truck...just plain lose it when they get behind the handle bars and throw caution to the winds.
I don't like riding flat land...it bores me. Railroad tracks are like going across a lake...can't wait to get to the other side.
I do like to see the sights, and the going and coming is part of the fun, but it loses all aspects of fun if you have a "close call" on the trail.
So not that long ago, I decided that ALL the close calls that have occurred to me/us, have been on the trails. And NOT just on the weekends, though clearly the bone heads are most abundant at that time.
When you almost got someone hurt, the fun is gone. It has been transformed into things, like how fast can I get off this trail and onto backwoods riding where I won't have to put the group into harms way.
I have this need to get folks home again after a nice run and to NOT have a close call as the primary event that occurred to them when they go for a ride with me and my group.
That being said...I stay OFF the trails. I figure I don't belong there anymore. I use them ONLY to get to my riding areas and if I can take the LONG cut to avoid a trail I do it.
Don't get me wrong...I like to hit the flipper along with everyone else. But I just don't see the point in wrecking a sled, or worse getting somebody hurt just for the "thrill of speed". I don't need that to get excitement from sledding.
I have long thought about why trails were not made one way, or some trails exclusively for families and folks who don't have to go fast to enjoy the sport. Yes speed limited....this would give those who are learning a place to go...afterall, we don't put skiers on the black diamond run if they don't have a clue how to stop..do we?? Seems that all trails are wide open to folks who have to use their own good judgment to decide how fast is fast enough. Trails that are up down, right and left can be dangerous if some fella decides he had to get "caught up".
You know of who I speak....the folks who are wide eyed and all over the turns when ...imagine that--- somebody else is coming the other way? They turn me off of trails completely.
So I go off trail....logging roads and fire trails that means that we are very likely not to put "big miles" on the machines...but we are tired, happy and most importantly safe at the end of the day.
To me that is important....to the others who have already posted it...I agree, change the sport from within with reasonable and prudent measures, or...let those who do not know the sport at all...make those decisions for you. It has been my experience that the former is more productive and desired. The latter is always way too restrictive and unreasonable...but is NOW the LAW because we did it to ourselves. Police from within. Make the changes, or watch the sport go the way more socialist places have already gone.
Not sure of the outcome, but I know that there have been plenty of posters on here who are going to make self policing a pretty tough up-hill struggle...because they are selfish and inconsiderate, and they think that what THEY do....is just fine.
I hope that some can grasp the concept that if you have "never been passed" or that you "ran that sob...off the trail" or "sprayed that dude with ice pellets"..that you are NOT part of the solution....but rather part of the problem. It is not too late to reform.... sometimes we look back and realize that LUCK had more to do with our being around to tutor our grandkids than any intelligence we might like to pretend we possessed.
So the next time you come upon a slower machine...realize that it might be because the machine is limpin home, or the driver has a kid in his lap or the old guy is making one last run before selling the sled....stuff like that.
Nobody cares if you decide to take out a tree or two...and leave the family in a heck of a mess...but please remember that you are ruining it for the rest of us...slowly but surely. Lighten up...let others enjoy the sport so that you can continue to enjoy it too. Life is short enough without having to "give it up" because you don't enjoy it anymore...and that should NEVER be the reason that you can't continue to snowmobile...right?
