Might be easier to just say, Mutt. Nice looking, content dogs.

 

It cost the National Guard $85,000 to get the dirt airstrip ready for touch and go landings, and smooth the road back out. I miss the airstrip. Was one of the few places you could open it up and have a mile to reach top speed.

 

He should have had to pay the $85,000 rather than the tax payers.

 

Being retired military myself, and the son of an Adjutant General that was in charge of the National Guard in a MidWest state, I have a special kind of respect for all Service men and women, and that includes Active military and Reserve, AND Guard personnel. For some idiot to do this is just plain stupid. I'd have charged him with a terrorist act and shipped his butt to Cuba where he may never get a trial. At the very least, I'd have taken his truck as it was used in the commission of a criminal act, and depending on the amount of damage and the cost, it could have been a felony. Airstrips and federal lands are off limits. They are there for a damn good reason and are vital to our national defense. They are there to help defend us, and train those that do.

 

The term "Mutt" reminds me of an old girlfriend that used the term as a nickname, and the Pups are way better than that. OMG now the bad memories are coming back. Thanks Moose.

 

He had to pay a $500 fine to the state of Maine for trespassing. I'm sure the government will charge him every penny of whatever damage he did.

Saw the North Woods Law show that included the trail work. I saw a glimpse of my jeans leg (certain stains and rips) on one of the segments. They did a longer segment on Warden Spahr giving the guy the ticket. Stupid truck driver was giving him lip about how it was always open for years. Warden said something to the effect that there were not any no trespassing signs then. There are now.

 

$500 isn't near enough. I hope he had to pay the entire $85,000.

 

WOW!! An old topic.

Wider trails bring wider machines. Wider machines bring more HP and speed which makes the trails less safe.

I live here in Utah and I can only speak about the trial system that I live within and that I am fairly involved with.

Fish Lake National Forest has 2884 miles of roads/trails for OHVs. 508 miles of that 2884 are restricted to 50" machines. And 50" being the widest point of the machine and not just the wheelbase. This is a big misunderstanding that a lot of people have.

If you wanted to get technical and you added a rear view mirror that made the widest point of your machine exceed 50" then your machine is not legal to be operated on any 50" trails.

There are a few sections that we have opened up to 60" machines and this was done back when 60" was the widest of the SxSs, I believe it was the Rhino and we did this so they were capable or travelling the entire loop which is about 280 miles.

We are not going to open up any of our 50" trails to wider machines. 50" trails account for less than 18% of everything open to OHVs.

Utah is very diverse. We have hiking trails, equestrian trails, single track trails, 50" trails, 60" trails and trails that are open to everything.

Its a constant debate here with people wanting the 50" trails opened up to wider machines and its not going to happen.

A friend of mine and I were guiding a ride for one of the local jamboree's a couple of weeks ago. There was a couple in a Polaris 900 Trail and he said he had a bone to pick with us. He told us that his RZR scrapes and barely fits thru our steel 50" barriers because they weren't wide enough.

We informed him that these barriers are 52 1/2" wide and the problem is that his machine is actually wider that 50" and technically it was illegal for him to drive it on 50" trails.

He told us that the salesman assured him it was OK and would fit.

The problem?? His salesman. His salesman was uneducated and more interested in the sale.

Utah is very OHV friendly. We have over 76,000 miles open to OHVs.

We will not open out trails to appease the manufactures. If you want to ride on our 50" trails buy a 50" machine. Its that simple.

 

Specta needs to add that the 50" trail designation was a National Forest Service edict that was put in effect by the Clinton administration. Without a lot of political effort he wouldn't even be allowed to change the trails. My thoughts. Get a good map before you venture anywhere and find out about any restrictions to size. There are ways around most 50' trails for wider machines.

When we were out on our first trip to Paiute Trail that Specta watches over we went on a trail that was 60" restricted that had drop offs from 50-200 ft. or more. Our 4 machines, 2 quads, and 2 50" RZR's were going down when I saw a group of 10 RZR's coming up the trail. We had to park our machines anywhere there was a slight space to let them pass. It took us over an hour to get them by. That extra foot of machine that all their RZR XP's had made it very difficult. We were very close to bumping our rentals off the edge of the trail. If we hadn't pushed on the roll cages as they went by that would have been the end of them. Talking to the owner of the inn we stayed at later, he said they had widened the trail a long time ago from 50" to 60" and the quads lost over the edge went from something like a few dozen down to 18 or so. I could only imagine how much work it was to dig into the hillside to get that extra foot or so going down a hill full of switchbacks and ledges. I think I would have left it alone. I enjoy all trails. Again, get a map and find out what's going on before you head out.

 

On a side note, out of the 114,000 machines that rode the Paiute Trail in 2017 65% were ATVs.