Me and my buddies were always riding on a sand pit and gravel pit this summer in canada and the owner caught us once. The only thing he told us was to not do donuts to messup the road so the truck could still come in. He also told "If you guys get hurt, you werent on my property... got it !!!"

 

THAT, sounds like a really cool guy. I hope you thanked him!
I wonder if he could post No Trespassing signs, but they would be like, "No Trespassing"(wink, wink) so if somebody did get hurt, he would be off the hook.
The donut in the middle of the road is just common sense. Some dufus must have done it before, so he had to warn you about it because assumed everybody who rides in there was trashing the road.

 

I had to jump in on this one. I grew up in Northern NY, about 100 miles South of Canada. Where I lived (parents still live) we own approx. 600 acres, of which The Power Authority Of The State Of New York (P.A.S.N.Y.) has not one, not two, but three transmission lines (power lines) running across OUR property. the last and largest line was erected in the late '70's - early '80's and is a 765 KV (765,000 Kilovolts) line, 1/4 mile between structures. P.A.S.N.Y. sent over 20 different people to try to negotiate a fair price for what they were about to do, clear cut our property through the best part of our sugar bush. To make a long story shorter, after they agreed to OUR terms they put up their power lines on OUR land, THEY and only THEY have the right of way to maintain the lines. WE OWN the land, WE PAY the taxes on the land, and after problems with poachers WE had to fence off the power line property and gate and lock the access roads. We have on numerous occassions had to explain to would be trespassers (snowmobilers) who think they are free to trespass, that the land is NOT OWNED by the power company, and because of a few bad apples WE had to put a stop to trespassing and had a few arrested on their FIRST offense. Word travels
fast. Also, someone wrote in an earlier post something like "if you don't see a "NO TRESPASSING" sign, that it must be alright",
WWWRRROOONNNGGG! Another post said something like " you have to be warned first before you can be arrested ... WRROOONNNGGG again.It's just like if you hunt, if you don't know who owns the property, find out before you go trespassing, it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to do this and this is what will ultimately answer any question about ownership and how the owner feels about YOU on THEIR land.If you respect the landowners and ask, chances are you might find yourself a new riding partner, after all who knows the land better?
In many States the land does not legally have to be posted with "NO TRESPASSING" signs in order to arrest a trespasser. It is the trespassers fault for not finding out who owned the land before they decided to cross it. Could you imagine driving across someone's land not knowing if they were hunting or sighting in a rifle or cutting trees, where you riding, because you didn't know, because you didn't ASK??!! Because you weren't RESPONSIBLE!!!???
Let me pose a hypothetical scenario for you all who ride on property that you don't know how the landowner feels about people riding any kind of vehicle on.....
Your riding home one evening and you have to take a stretch of trail that goes across property that you never got specific permission to ride on. You don't give it a second thought as you turn onto the property in question, you've done it hundreds of times b4 and never had a problem. As you hit a straightaway you open it up and are flying along when at the last second you see something reflect in the light of your headlights that you've never seen b4, but it's too late to stop and as your brain is trying to decipher what this new thing is, you realize as it is confirmed by the fence post, that it was a barbed wire fence, just as you hit it and the second wire high lops off your head.
Sound a little melodramatic? It's not. It has happened and more than once. I personnally know of it happening three different times and all three times the people killed, were riding on property they didn't have permission to ride on. It didn't necessarily happen the way I posed it, but all three died from hitting a cable or wire that they didn't know about. And when the press got wind of the story guess what was to blame?
Not the person riding w/out permission, the ATV they were riding was to blame ....it was going to fast. How do you think that makes the rest of us responsible people look in the eyes of anti ATVers? How do you think the landowner must have felt?! Do you think they would ever consider in a million years a request by someone like yourself to be allowed to ride on their land?
Do yourself and all of the rest of us who ride ATVs, just go ask.
Jeffman, I'm not going to call you any names our try to brow beat you, but I guarantee you,that if you get a set of nads and go ask if it's alright, the outcome in the long run will definitely be better than if you do nothing and wait until you've pi$$ed off the landowner and they ban you and everyone else from crossing the proprerty. I also agree like someone posted earlier, get a liability waiver and take it with you when you ask, this shows the landowner that you are responsible. Offer to help the land owner out in some way, i.e. pick up trash on the property your riding, help put up no trespassing signs, help keep roads or trails cleared / maintained, try to offer something that shows you appreciate the fact that you are being allowed to ride on land that someone else has to pay taxes on and encourage others to do the same, it will definitely increase the odds of them saying yes.
BE SMART, BE SAFE, AND SET A GOOD EXAMPLE FOR THE YOUNGER RIDERS.....ASK FIRST! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif[/img]

2001 HONDA 450S
WARN A2500 WINCH
MAIER HANDGUARDS
PELICAN CASE 1500
WYALUSING, PA "THE ENDLESS MOUNTAINS REGION"

 

I guess I'm lucky...the land that the powerlines I ride on is owned by my Grandparent's, and they don't care about people riding there.

 

Another post said something like " you have to be warned first before you can be arrested ... WRROOONNNGGG again

Well, b/4 u say WRROOOONNNGGG maybe you should note in my post that i wast told this by both LOCAL LAW ENORCEMENT,AND MY COUNTY BOARD OF OFFICIALS. Which you are neither of, so i guess you may just be WRROOONGGG.

 

This topic is beginning to get out of hand...

I think that you would have to be warned first before you can get arrested...only a stupid idiot would go back and do it again after being warned...

 

Hey twist,
you live in Michigan right?
Do the laws that you speak of apply to Shelby, NC where jeffman is from? per your quote, "I was told this by both local law enforcment and my county board." Do they apply to anywhere else in the country? Do you really feel comfortable telling everyone that it's ok to trespass until you get warned or receive a letter, with Michigan laws as your precedent?
Cause I know if you tried using that story as your defense in New York or or here in Pennsylvania where I am familiar w/ the law ......and a landowner wanted you arrested, you'd be wasting your breath and sportin' a new pair of shiny bracelets and an embarrasing trip to the local law enforcement's establishment where you would ultimately go before a judge and be tried and if you were over 18 have a permanent record that you'd regret for the rest of your life, all on your FIRST offense.
You are right, I was in error by not saying which state I spoke of regarding the law. However if you followed my advice and you lived somewhere where Michigan law DOESN'T apply, you wouldn't face possible arrest would you!
And let me get this straight about Michigan law, you say that you can trespass on someones property all you want, do God knows what, and unless you actually get stopped by the land owner and get warned, or receive a letter in the mail you won't get a ticket!!!??? What if the trespasser doesn't stop to be warned??? I don't know if your state requires license plates or any official identifying feature that would help in identifying a trespasser who is speeding away, but it sounds like a law that isn't very landowner friendly doesn't it?

 

Did you read in my post where i said, "WHERE I LIVE" i did not say this was the law in every state, or anything i said "WHERE I LIVE" this is the law. I never told anyone that this law was everywhere i openly stated that this was where I was. This is the second time you have chosen to only point out a portion of what i said in order to criticise me. Try reading the entire statement, it might help a bit.

 

I guess this IS getting off track w/ this side debate between you and me twist. The original question was,if anyone could help out jeffman.
I'll just leave it at this ...and this is only my personal opinion, it's better to ask permission to go on someones property, than be caught, warned or have something worse happen later. And twist, ...no hard feelings

 

of course no hard feelings, and i agree, that permission should be gotten b/4 riding on someones land. All i was doing was adding what i have learned about tresspassing in my area b/c it had been brought up. So go get permission, and have a fun and safe ride.