Here in Michigan there are ORV Trails and ORV Routes. Trails are for motorcycles and 50" or narrower ATVs. Some of them are actually too narrow to fit an ATV down because they aren't maintained very well. There are also motorcycle only trails and some parts of those are for street licensed bikes to ride from trail to trail. Routes are for anything you want to drive down it. Some are nice smooth dirt roads or snowmobile trails. Others have been torn up pretty bad but most I've seen are still good. IMO if the trails were widened out enough to fit jeeps and trucks they would wreck them like they did with some of the routes.

 

It is inevitable. With side by sides really hitting their strides, they are going to have to accommodate them. Hatfield McCoy has already gone the direction of allowing ALL UTVs and ATV's regardless of width. And we all know, where HM goes, so does the industry.

 

Yeah Frank, Michigan has been a cat fight for decades. I made the mistake of getting involved once. BIG Mistake. What all the infighting really did was turn everyone against the other enthusiasts at a time when they should have been working together as a one front to present realistic goals to the DNR. The DNR got tired of the infighting and basically turned off the funding in the hopes that they could get their crap together. Unfortunately the hot heads still are bickering and there you go. Lost trails and a hostile attitude towards all of them. Some people never learn. The really sad thing is that many guys really were in two of the three, and sometimes all three groups. they rode ATV's, single track dirt bikes and snowmobiles in the winter. And half the time they were arguing with themselves.

 

I think there should be some restrictions or there will be idiots running the trails with 4X4 F350s.

 

A couple of the guys I ride with ride ATVs, dirt bikes, and snowmobiles so they can hit the trails year round. I think everyone should have a place to ride but not all vehicles on the same trails. As far as I'm concerned SxSs can ride the truck trails and leave the ORV trails to bikes and ATVs. 2 kinds of vehicles on each type of trail is enough. If they had ATV/SxS trails that didn't allow dirt bikes that would work too. Bikes can fly on trails wide enough for SxSs and usually take the inside of the curves no matter which side of the trail they're on. I wouldn't want meeting them head on at that kind of speed to be a regular part of my ride.

 

When we were making a trail around a National Guard base to replace the one we used to go on that went through the base, they had just graded the dirt airstrip and the road that was our trail. (They decided they wanted to use their base again.) We had to hack a 1/2 mile x 12 ft. wide trail through the dense brush in Maine. North Woods Law (Animal Planet TV show) and the warden service was there to watch over the whole process. Warden was sitting there on his quad with a cameraman on the back rack. Guy in a big Dodge Ram blew through the gate past the No Trespassing signs and the warden. He proceeded to do donuts in the freshly graded airstrip. Warden finally caught his attention and gave him several tickets.

 

I'm glad they caught that guy and ticketed him. I don't think people doing stupid things like that get caught in the act very often. It only takes one @$$hole to ruin it for everybody. Tread Lightly.

TREAD Principles

Travel Responsibly on land by staying on designated roads, trails and area. Go over, not around, obstacles to avoid widening the trails. Cross streams only at designated fords. when possible, avoid wet, muddy trails. On water, stay on designated waterways and launch your watercraft in designated areas.

Respect the Rights of Others including private property owners, all recreational trail users, campers and others so they can enjoy their recreational activities undsiturbed. Leave gates as you found them. Yield rightof way to those passing your or going uphill. On water, respect anglers, swimmers, skiers, boaters, divers and those on or near shore.

Educate Yourself prior to your trip by obtaining travel maps and regulations from public agencies. Plan for your trip, take recreation skills classes and know how to operate your equipment safely.

Avoid Sensitive Areas on land such as meadows, lakeshores, wetlands and streams. Stay on designated routes. This protects wildlife habitats and sensitive soils from damage. Don’t disturb historical, archeological or paleontological sites. On water, avoid operating your watercraft in shallow waters or near shorelines at high speeds.

Do Your Part by modeling appropriate behavior, leaving the area better than you found it, properly disposing of waste, minimizing the use of fire, avoiding the spread of invasive species and repairing degraded areas.

https://www.treadlightly.org/

 

You guys are lucky. It is a 6 hour drive to the NEAREST trail system for me. (Hatfield-McCoy) I usually haul my ATV's so that isn't much of a problem, but I do like to use the UTV once in a while. Easier for these old bones to drive and stay dry.

 

Going to have to change my photo. Both the Lab puppy and cat in the picture have since passed into the great beyond. Have two new rescue puppies. Lab mixed. OMG, wasn't thinking when we got two puppies from the same litter. Mom was a lab, dad? One has to be a boxer but I am told that there are such a thing called a Brindle Lab, but not sure about my black one's lineage. Same mother, and he has the Lab coat, web toes, broad tail etc, but his head is small for a lab.

 

Glad he got busted. I can't imagine it was cheap to repair the dirt airstrip, and he should have paid for that rather than the tax payers.