Miners Castle Snowmobile Trail 422 Closure

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mburchart

New member
any chance the MSA can start a change.org petition? maybe we can get enough signatures to cause a rucus and get some media attention at the road commission's door.
 
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buddah2

Member
mburchart said:
any chance the MSA can start a change.org petition? maybe we can get enough signatures to cause a rucus and get some media attention at the road commission's door.
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Consider what you're dealing with up here......1st off there's not enough population in all of Alger county to raise anything remotely resembling a ruckus.....secondly, the road commission doesn't answer to upset people who correspond with them via the internet but rather to their own constituents, the majority of whom don't like sledders anyway...... but have at it if it makes you feel better......I've been beating my head against this "wall" since the early 2000's..........
 
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snobuilder

Well-known member
Thanks for the link.... so as speculated it is a pissing match between the dnr and the Road comm. and the solution these asshats come up with is to hold the trail hostage like we'll take our ball and go home!... and for what?.... a lousy $5900 road fund ain't sqwat when you stand to piss off sledders from a 1000 mile radius that pump hundreds of thousands a $$$ if not millions into your otherwise dead winter economy?...i'm thinking a $.50 cent bed tax would cover that sum in the 1st month a winter alone!
 
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snobuilder

Well-known member
Buddah, or anyone else....if you live in the area please do us a favor and take a look at that 1/2 mile stretch and compare it to the road just before and after where the trail runs. The general cond. of the road in the video looked like every other road in da UP to me. fercrysakes .... sleds crossing road bridges is nothing new!
 
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buddah2

Member
snobuilder said:
Buddah, or anyone else....if you live in the area please do us a favor and take a look at that 1/2 mile stretch and compare it to the road just before and after where the trail runs. The general cond. of the road in the video looked like every other road in da UP to me. fercrysakes .... sleds crossing road bridges is nothing new!
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That particular stretch is about 35 mi. from me.......Alger county is HUGE land-mass wise........approx. 25 mi. deep and dang near 80 across.......and it's not even the largest county up here.........it's not really a bridge per sa but rather where there's guardrails where the road passes over culvert(s) so I guess that constitutes a bridge......

The story we got in the groomer training meetings was that the dispute was about damage to the road/bridge from the groomers, not the sleds themselves.......it's actually legal to ride the side of virtually any roads in Alger county with the exception of the actual right-of-way of M-28 and then it's even legal when you have to cross a bridge etc....
Bottom line in all of this is the ACRC is trying to extort the DNR for money from the trail maintenance fund for "road repairs" and the DNR doesn't want to set a precedent by paying.

My other great complaint about this reporting is they make it sound like the road commission has the power to close the entire trail.......that is totally incorrect.......the only portion they have control over is the roughly 1/2 mi. section where the trail actually ran on the road right-of-way......in fact the northern portion of the trail to Miner's Castle, north of H-58, is a road that remains unplowed all winter and is therefore legal to ride (the trail cuts through the woods for 1/4 to 1/2 mi. to get to that road but then it's really road all the way to the overlook).......and since as I previously mentioned it is legal to ride any road in Alger county Miner's Castle itself is not closed off, it simply will become more rough as the season goes along since we can't get the groomers to it..........
 
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mburchart

New member
I'm curios to how they can stop us from riding the shoulder? technically snowmobiles are allowed on the shoulder of all alger county roads. i understand they will probably plow it down to dirt there. however if its good we will just run from bear trap all the way down and get back on the trail.

they wont stop us from going to the castle. and if any one of us sees a road truck maybe we give them the friendly wave as we pass them.

are they going to put gates up so we cant access the 422 trail or just not groom it? bunch of D bags.
 
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snocrazy

Active member
$5900 *** - Pay It! Open trial for this winter. thats 131 trail permits...
Next summer plan and make actual long term improvement.

DNR wont budge so they close it.... This will get their attention. That part of the Road Commission plan sure has worked.
 
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snobuilder

Well-known member
I might be dum but i always figured that part of my out of state trail pass went to fix things like road damage much like down here where we compensate farmers for any crop damage.

Also....I see construction and farm equipment using riads to access whatever. ...would not a groomer also fall into the same category?
 
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frnash

Active member
Is this excerpt from the (click →) Michigan Snowmobile Regulations (PDF) the Alger County's "gotcha" as relates to the portion of trail 442 as lies along county highway H58?:

A Snowmobile May Operate on a Public Highway Under the Following Conditions:
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• Snowmobiles may be operated on the shoulder of an open county roadway or its right-of-way, outside the corporate limits of a city or village, which is designated and marked for snowmobile use by the county road commission having jurisdiction.
…
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If they pull the Alger County Road Commission's "designation and marking" by removing the trail signage along that section, Gotcha! (?)
 
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snobuilder

Well-known member
buddah2 said:
There's no such animal as an out-of-state trail pass.....we all have to have the same sticker, resident or not......
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It doesn't matter, my point wasn't about who has to buy a trail pass. Point was why not apply those funds to repair damage if indeed it was caused solely by a groomer.
Besides, the damage would have been caused in previous years by the ousted groomer contractor, not the new he guy so referring to the new contractors groomer with metal cleats as being the problem is a moot point....damage is there now!
 
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buddah2

Member
snobuilder said:
.....the damage would have been caused in previous years by the ousted groomer contractor, not the new he guy so referring to the new contractors groomer with metal cleats as being the problem is a moot point...
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The damage is from previous seasons as you correctly pointed out. There is no "new guy"......there is a new organization responsible for and answering to the Munising Area Visitor's Bureau (MAVB) who is the actual grant holder.......the new organization is the Hiawathaland Trails Association (HTA) and they will be supplying the groomer operators this year from their membership, however the operators will be considered employees of MAVB for tax purposes. This is all new to all of us so I can't elaborate until we actually get into the season........excuse me, IF we actually get into the season ;(

The point about the groomers was to point out that even had this impasse been resolved only one of the 2 groomers that will be used would have been "allowed" on that road anyway.......
 
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snobuilder

Well-known member
buddah2 said:
The damage is from previous seasons as you correctly pointed out. There is no "new guy"......there is a new organization responsible for and answering to the Munising Area Visitor's Bureau (MAVB) who is the actual grant holder.......the new organization is the Hiawathaland Trails Association (HTA) and they will be supplying the groomer operators this year from their membership, however the operators will be considered employees of MAVB for tax purposes. This is all new to all of us so I can't elaborate until we actually get into the season........excuse me, IF we actually get into the season ;(

The point about the groomers was to point out that even had this impasse been resolved only one of the 2 groomers that will be used would have been "allowed" on that road anyway.......
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Thanks for the correction, buddah....i mistakenly thought new org/contractor and different equip was being used.

That trail was always rough the past few years....at least when we were there....I hope this gets resolved so we can see if the new org will do a better job. I think there was some positive feedback at the end of last season already.
 
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buddah2

Member
snobuilder said:
....i mistakenly thought new org/contractor and different equip was being used.
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Partly.......the John Deere is the same unit (the DNR actually owns all the equipment) but was sent out and completely refurbished.......the Pisten Bully is a completely new unit.......both Dubie drags are new, relatively speaking......one was used for the last month of the season last year, the other is new....
 
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buddah2

Member
My last comment on this subject (I hope).......the issue I have with all of this reporting, etc. is that they make it sound like the ACRC has to authority to close the entire trail to snowmobile traffic......they do not.......they have only closed the stretch that actually runs along the right of way of the road (H-58).......since the groomers are no longer allowed to traverse this section of road the trail to Miner's Castle north of H-58 will not be groomed. A decision was made not to groom the section of trail from Trail 8 to H-58 since there is nowhere to go once you reach H-58.

The trail to Miner's Castle overlook is primarily a road(all but approx 1/2 mi of it) which is unplowed during the winter......this road is still there and is accessible just the same as any other unplowed road in the county it simply will not be groomed which means it will get progressively worse as the season progresses.

This will get really interesting if the ACRC tries to enforce this trail closure since snowmobiles are allowed anywhere along H-58 just so long as they are off of the roadway itself. You can legally ride the side of H-58 all the way to the Bear Trap and beyond but most people choose not to given that the ACRC already plows that entire road as bare as they can get it all the way to the 4 corners.
 
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