xj: You hit the nail on the head......which is really unfortunate for all of us. The rash of closures is often due to a few retards that simply don't have the brains of a cat, yet they're allowed to run around wild like you describe. What are we to do? You're not allowed to beat them when caught in the act. You try to run them down and if they hit a tree you'll get sued for endangering their life. It's simply easier to bring in an excavator and close the trail......tragedy of the commons.

This gets to the root of the access problem. Maybe we need to start having drivers licenses for ATV use. Can't use one unless you're 16 or over, or you're accompanied by an "adult". My buddy's land is always ripped to shreds from a couple of local pea-brain yahoos on sport quads. Last time they got stuck in the mud pit they created, he buried them both out of sight with his backhoe. They used to think it's funny. Where is the common sense? I was no picture of youth perfection by a long stretch, but at least I had respect for adults and people's property. ****es me off to look on You-tube and watch these fools do donuts on soccer fields and rip the grass down beyond the roots. ATV are easy to come by and every half wit in our area has one unfortunately.

It's a really tough issue, because 98% of the people that use the lands are responsible, productive folks.

 

The trail system we ride is a rail road track that was around in the 1800's and has long since been dismantled and bought by a private owner who just happens to ride atv's. We get free use and of course, he is not liable for any crashes.

 

That is such a great picture in my mind!!!! Love it...! We have two large sections of trail that our club set up in cooperation with landowners in Newport and Claremont, NH. Each is on the opposite side of a main street. They used to be connected by a trail that led from a Burger King (tons of places to eat and gas up in the area) into the woods. Somehow, one of the landowners along this connector got fed up by some idiots and now the connector isn't usable anymore. The trails we save will be our own. Honor the landowners.

 

So one kid's father comes up to his house with attitude and demands the bikes back. He was laughed at and told to leave. A couple of days later the two high school kids and the father were contacted and told they could have them back. So the three of them come up to retrieve the bikes (thinking he has them in stashed in his garage). Little do they know they're buried in the pit, about three feet under to the top of the bars. If you can imagine, he dug around them on their sides and worked them down into the mud pit. He then escorts the three down the road and shows them where to start digging......He said their mouths were just open....total silence. They realized they needed shovels and stumbled down the hill mumbling and cursing. Two days later they got the bikes out and they've not been seen since. He loves telling that story. -Seems to be an effective way to deal with these type of situations.

 

Those guys are lucky the your friend didnt make them pay for damages to his property once he found out who the punks were. Thats what the USFS does in some places if they catch someone rinding in a no OHV area...pay for damages!!! I think they got off lucky only having to dig up the graves to get their rides !!

 

I think several good arguments were made here. Deeplaker is up Nort where there is competition for the old rail liines from many different types of recreational enthusiasts. the biggest one in his area is probably the bicycle crowd. Not sure about the other areas in teh NE, but in Deeplaker country, that woul dbe the main competition. Bikes and ATV's just don't mix very well. These rail lines do make for the perfect ATV highway if you are into cross country riding, bar hopping etc. They are wide, smooth etc. I do not however condone riding an active or semi active rail line. As someone who rode trains daily for many years commuting to Washington DC every day, I can tell ya. I have on several occasions seen what a train can do to deer, people, cars, trucks etc. It isn't pretty. And with an ATV blasting along, you are not going to hear them coming. As far as stopping a train... They take MILES in some cases.. so don't expect any help there. I can understand why some riding areas have been discouraged.

I agree that when representing a local club etc, it is important to go into a meeting well prepared with statistics, and plans for set up and care of the trails, policing, committment of fellow riders to make it work etc.. In short, you have to bring a lot to the table to be credible. It also helps a great deal to involve the local elected officials if you can so you have a sponsor working for you behind closed doors.

Deeplaker is blessed with a lot of trails within a couple hours drive.... Some of us here on teh Right coast have to trailer it no matter how close or far away they are. My closest public riding area, Legal one that is, is a good 2 and a half hours away, and it costs me $25 for 5 hours of track time. So count yourself lucky if you can jump on your machine right outside your back door and ride off into the sunset.

 

An earlier writer noted that ATVers need to speak up. How true! Here in Maine snowmobilers (which I am one) kill and injure 6 or 7 times as many riders as ATV's do. Motorcyle riders (I am one of these also), who kill and injure dozens, have had phenominal sucess stopping helmet laws eventhough the state pays many hundreds of thousand in Maine Aid injuries and nursing homes (a hospital nearby has a sign in the ER: What do call a motorcylist with out a helmet? A ORGAN DONOR!). The bottom line is these organizations are well organize and funded and are very vocal ANY time an issue arises that affects them. Not so with ATV's. We just want to be out in the woods and do our own thing. If we're going to ride, we have to get organized effectively. That means going to the State House and fight!

 

My house sits about 50 yards from an old abandoned and torn up railroad trail. The rails themselves are long gone, but the trails remain. People ride their atv's, dirtbikes, horses, regular bikes and walk along the trails.

Mostly, the people who ride them, also take care of them. Cleaning the trail of fallen trees and even clearing brush to widen the trail when it washes out. Last year, some idiot kids on quads started running over things they shoulnd't, like gas pipeline signs and such. Several riders started setting up signs on the trails warning them of doing things that would get the trails closed, those too were run over. It took bringing an off duty cop down the trails to get them to help out. The state patrolmen in the area periodically started checking riders to make sure they weren't doing things illegal. That seemed to stop it.

That being said the damage was done. A few people who have land that borders the trail, blocked the trail by their property. Some of us are trying to figure out if we have any legal recourse to stop them. As far as we know its not their property it belongs to the state, their property just happens to sit next to it.

Its a work in progress.

 

Behind my house there are a few old rr beds that we take care of and ride on. Knock on wood we have had very few problems with people makeing a mess out of them. So we are lucky. However in the last few years a portion of 1 of the rr beds was turned in to a pedal bike path. Because of this we lost access to a lot of places we used to ride. Now I will sometimes ride with some local cops ( really good guys ). But they still use the old rr bed / new bike path to go places. They will ride it for 2 miles or so. I try to tell them not to be so short sighted. The speach I get is we are careful and do you think we (cops) are going to be cuffed and stuffed. But I will not ride my atv on the bike path. Its not worth it for me. I bring my daughter to the bike path and I see all of the little kids with training wheels and baskets on there pedal bikes and I dont want to see anyone get hurt. Just 1 more example of how a few riders screw up everything for the rest of us.

 

i like what im seeing. people buring the guys atv if it is left there. someone needs to teach riders how to be respectfull. there are a few atv trails on old railroad beds. but alot of them are turned into walking/biking/horse riding tho. i think of it this way. there are more atvs than horses. and there are alot of people who dont like to bike. but would like to ride and atv trail like me. do the gas staions make any money by bikeing? horse riding? not un less the bike or horse take some type of gas or diesel!!! i think not. also the state would be making more money of of fuel. and atvers would be buying food. im going on about a 400mile atv ride here in mn. but i have to drive 2hrs to get to it. since the old railroad bed atv trail runs though part of the state that no one would ever bike or walk on. theres miles between towns. and goes though large wooded areas. youd think if the state seen dollar signs theyed do it. since the taxes on anything keeps going up. persoanly its gona seem all the trails are gona be gone. and the atv is only gona be a farm use only. since theres really nota whole lot you can do with them here soon. and its only seeming to get worse.

i wouldnt mind pay a little bit to get a trail sticker to ride on any rr bed in mn. but then again. i dont get it. how in winter can a snowmobile get use of the trail. but then in summer it belongs to biking, walking....... if its a snowmobile trail in winter it should be a atv trail in summer..... not? the state makes money in winter and summer. and it also seems mn is getting less snow.

i havent been on a old rr bed with an atv but i will soon. and im shure im gona enjoy it.