I just had a close call on the trail, thanks to a 4-wheeler. I was going about 60 mph on my snowmobile, which is not particularly fast for that machine, when I suddenly hit ruts in the snow dug by a four wheeler. I was on a railroad bed and was darn near thrown down a steep embankment alongside the trail. I recovered and went around a sharp turn at a much slower speed and nearly ran up the tail pipe of a 4-wheeler that was chugging along the trail. Darn it! We had one good week of snow and the trail gets devastated by 4-wheelers.

Keep those 4-wheelers in the barn when there?s snow on the trail. I ride both a 4-wheeler (when there isn?t any snow) and a snowmobile, but I can tell you I keep a low profile about my 4-wheeler when around snowmobilers. I?ve heard so many snowmobilers cursing 4-wheelers, and they are vehement! I can assure you that we atv?er don?t need another group hating us. In our area, there are so few days of the winter when the trails have enough snow for snowmobiling. Leave your atv?s at home on those days. Snowmobile registrations still pay for about half the trail costs, so give them a few days to ride.

 

What trail? Around here the snowmobiler's tend to drive on a lot of private property(including ours)......if it was public-trails, atvs should remain considerate, however private land is another thing.

 

My incident happend on the (public) Wild Rivers Trail between Sarona and Spooner WI. I'll cool off about it in a couple of days.

 

Those darn snowmobilers! They think they rule the trails. They feel that only they should be allowed on them. They have no consideration for sharing the trails with others. They go way too fast and are very dangerous. They should be banned!

Sound familiar? Don't bash someone elses sport because it doesn't fit nicely in your perfect closed up personalized world. There is plenty of room for all of us. Slow down. 60 MPH is too fast. Even if your sled can do it, that doesn't make it the right speed for a public trail.

 

I have never rode a snowmobile, I love my quad and I ride mine in the snow, just not enough of it this year yet. Give respect to everyone on the trail wheather on a snowmobile, quad, dirt bike, or walking, public land is public land, share and share alike.

Everyone can act like an idiot(some dont act, they just are) it doenst have any rule to just atvers.

 

Its too bad it took skill to ride through the obstacle that the 4wheeler created.
If it pleases the sledders, we could suggest nice easy flat terrain where riding wouldn't be too difficult.


Or, learn how to ride through it and get over it.

 

OK, I'm cooled off a little now. It was a little crazy to make such as posting on an ATV site, but as I said, I ride both an ATV and a snowmobile.

I'm not sure it is totally a matter of sharing the trails, at least not at the same time. Snow is softer than dirt, and therefore gets rutted easier, expecially when the temperature approaches the upper twenties and warmer. Ride your ATV on the soft snow and you've ruined it for snowmobilers. At the very least, you are creating potentially dangerous conditions.

ATVers and snowmobilers should be allies working together to expand trail systems. But, when you go ripping down a trail on your 4-wheeler just after the snowmobile club as paid to groom that trail, you are turning potential allies into enemies.

The best option I can see is to let the snowmobilers have the trails when there is enough snow on the ground. That is only about three months of the year in the snowbellt, tops. There hasn't been a normal winter in years, so the snow season has only been a matter of weeks--days for this year...speaking for this area.

 

Ah, would you like some cheese with your whine? Ya know where I ride there are dirt bikes, ATV's and snowmobiles.
And a you know what, the dirt bikes often are the one's making the ruts on the trails, but I rarely hear anyone complain because people like you that bitch and moan are the one's who gets the trails closed down for everyone. You need to stop thinking that when it snows people should put there ATV's away. Do you even know what ATV stand for?

 

smooth trails who wants that? well i'm guessing ur riding a multi use trail for both machines if u want no ruts go to a all snowmobile place to ride. where i live in new england i feel bad for the sledders for the bad winters and the people who don't give em space. i tried sledding this yr , and sure is fun, but the ruts from atv's did'nt bother me. thats part of being outside offroad.

 

In Mass they have a SAM (snow mobilers association of Mass) pass for snowmobile trails. I honor those trails along with private property signs (posted by land owners only [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] ) If heard some stories of quads broken down on the SAM trails and when the operator went back, his quad was gone or destroyed. I can understand getting mad because an atv is on a sled trail, but that is no reason to destroy someones property..............anyhow a public trail is fair for anyone to ride. I would be pissed if someone was going 60 on a trail I ride on, sled or not, thats too fast when most trails barely fit 2 quads on em....