Trucks on the trails Marrinette county, is this normal?

[dawolf]

I just returned from a trip to NE Wisconsin. We stayed in Pembine and found the trails in the county to have some beautiful scenery and didn't pass 6 sleds all weekend. Had the place to ourselves.

Only downside was it seemed most of the trails had big truck ruts. Trail 1 and trail 3 were both torn up pretty bad for long stretches. I thought maybe someone drove up to recover a groomer or something of that nature, but I never saw any evidence of that.

We'd go back to the area again, but a little gun shy given how torn up things were. It seemed a lot of the trails were on fire roads which I absolutely love, but the ruts were horrible.

Is this a normal occurrence up there or just a fluke?

Different subject....does anyone find that bridge on trail 2 between IR and IM with no guard rails on it a little unnerving or was it just me? We hit that icy thing and was very grateful we weren't going very fast. My wife wouldn't go across it again, we had to detour south towards Dunbar (and got "misoriented" on that loop and did a couple of circles) on the way back. Stumbled into a place called C&R in Aurora stopped in for some food and had a nice time. Thanks folks.

 

[packerlandrider]

I have done tons of riding in the Northern Marinette area over the years, and have only encountered it once (although, it is the only time I have come upon a stuck vehicle on a snowmobile trail). About 8 years ago, came upon tracks on the trail between Athelstane and Dunbar. Follow them for a few miles, eventually coming to a stuck jeep trying to get up a hill. The guy said he was on the trail to show his girlfriend his hunting shack (although, we felt he might have been wanting to show her something else), and had gotten stuck. We ended up pulling the jeep backwards with a snowmobile to a plowed road about a half mile back.

Anyways, sorry to hear you encountered this. The area is truly a great place to ride with great trails and low traffic (as you found out), please don't allow this to deter you from trying the area again.

 

[russholio]

Don't know as though it applies in your case, but we've run across vehicles on the trail because they were following their GPS and that's where it told them to go!

 

[indy_500]

Sure it wasn't fourwheelers or maybe a ranger with tracks? I used to see a lot of ATV's when I rode in that area.

 

[dawolf]

Don't know as though it applies in your case, but we've run across vehicles on the trail because they were following their GPS and that's where it told them to go!

I guess my real question is, are vehicles other than snowmobiles allowed on those trails? I can't imagine they are. It's a shame what a couple vehicles did to those beautiful trails. Ruts were over a foot deep in many spots and of course they were sliding and spinning from side to side. I've not used a modern groomer, the old ones I know would have taken a few passes to fix the damage.

 

[lt250rfd]

haven't came across vehicles on sleds but atving have. most trails are dual purpose atv/snow and run fire roads so imagine they are allowed. have seen tire tracks but have never been torn up unless in logging areas.

 

[dawolf]

Sure it wasn't fourwheelers or maybe a ranger with tracks? I used to see a lot of ATV's when I rode in that area.

Too wide between the tires for an ATV or SxS.

 

[SLED_DOCTOR]

ATV's and UTV's are allowed on the Marinette trails during the winter. IMO, Some of the newer UTV's are big enough to be confused with small vehicles. This could be construed as a negative to snowmobiling but after seeing how much flattening, graveling, brushing, and bridge building that the warm season riders do for the trails, I think it has been a huge positive on the trail system. The Marinette trail system is a hidden gem when they have adequate snow fall.

Just my two cents-

 

[srobak]

Over Christmas week I came across 3 vehicles up to their wheel wells (all cars in fact) on 2 different trails in Marquette county. One on Trail 8 just south of CR 480 (just west of Crossroads), another on the trail 8 spur to KI Sawyer near Scorpion and another on 322 on the north side of Marquette Mountain. The one at 480 I had ticketed after I called it in and both MSP and DNR showed up. They others got out of there before PD arrived, though I did turn in the plate numbers. I believe MI DNR has laws in place that state marked, groomed, DNR registered trails cannot be operated on by non-tracked vehicled from Dec 1 to Apr 1... but maybe that is just Marquette County.

A few years ago - and I posted it here on the forum - I was on trail 8 near the KI Sawyer stoplight and came across 2 jacked up 4x4's buried on the trail right at the bend and a wrecker was down there on the trail trying to pull them out - getting himself buried as well. They absolutely wrecked the trail and they caught an earful from me - but they tried telling me since they had ORV stickers they could run the trails. Wrong. At that point I called the cops as well...but left after being delayed there 20 minutes already.

Gotta do something to keep wheels off the trails in the winter.

 

[srobak]

Here is the old thread, actually. Strangely enough - I had to do a google search for it, as searches using the forum search engine yielded no results. Odd.

Several other people posted their interesting stories about cars on the trails in the thread too, so it might be worth a read.

http://www.johndee.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?24472-epic-stupidity-on-trail-8

 

[yoopermike]

Unfortunately, if a trail is officially designated as dual-use, any wheeled/tracked vehicle can drive down a trail, groomed or not, at any time of the year.

 

[ranger_x]

Be sure to read some of the signs that are posted on the trails. Some are logging routes and some are shared trails for people too have access to their cabins. I ride my side by side on the trails during the winter we have permission to do so. That is what so nice about the Dunbar tails IMO.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

I believe MI DNR has laws in place that state marked, groomed, DNR registered trails cannot be operated on by non-tracked vehicled from Dec 1 to Apr 1... but maybe that is just Marquette County.

Depends on what kind of trail it is. If the trail is also a seasonal road, dual use ORV/Snowmobile trail, etc in the off season then legally you can drive your truck down the trail.

So depending on what kind of trail you were on, if those people were ticketed it is an easy ticket to fight and win.

 

[dawolf]

Thanks everyone. I appreciate the education.

Sounds like it could be a problem anytime, but isn't most of the time.

These were big truck ruts like f150 etc. UTVs wouldn't make ruts as consistently deep as these were. I saw a couple ATVs out but they didn't hurt anything.

I'm sure we'll be back.

But gonna pass on that bridge between Iron Mtn and Iron River on #2. Chicago girl is still complaining about that one lol. We stayed at the 4 Seasons so she didn't sleep in her riding gear this time.