I was met by snowmobiles in a ditch in front of my Grandmothers house, which trailed off through a small section of her land. There were 3 sleds, met up head on with me, I pulled over to let them go by, only to be flipped off, and the last snowmobiler got in front of me and goosed snow all over me. This group came by my grandmas almost twice every day. After that happened, I was pissed. You should see how mad snowmobile riders get when you bury fresh gravel under snow. With the aid of grandpas tractor, and a rock pile, it sounded like scratching your nails over a chalk board, along with the bouncing rocks off the nice pretty snowmobiles from the sled in front goosing what he thought was snow.

 

70MPH on the trails is illegal around here, its 50KMH speed limit and on the lakes anything goes.
I haven't done much snowmachining and here atv's aren't allowed on the trail plan.

Once I have more time i'll see how the ruts that my tracks make.

 

on our trip was saw tons of sleds... some folks would come over to shoot the **** while we were stopped and most gave us dirty looks. ...

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: Wolvydude

&lt;blockquote&gt;Quote
Originally posted by: Augie
only doing about 20mph</end quote></div>

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>That will do it right there.

I just sold my snowmobile recently, and absolutely hated rolling up at 70 mph on a group of atv's doing 20 mph. Not saying it's right to feel that way, but that's the way it is...

Even tho I've owned both sleds and atv's at the same time, I for one don't like sharing trails with atv's when on a snowmobile. To me atv's and sleds go together like oil and water.

Feel free to flame me on this, I don't care...</end quote></div>

I,m into both sports but our twisty and hilly sled trail would never let you get much over 40 mph let alone 70mph before your into the trees.

ATVs are not allowed on our organized groom trails because they cause ruts,but if they were allowed I would think the trail groomers could fix the ruts up easy enough.


Maybe the sledders were angry because they have to park there toys soon while your season on your ATV never ends.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

(Here Is The Real Deal)
ATV riders pay license money and some areas allowed to ride on some mixed trails allowed by both Atv & Snowmobibblers. We had lunch at Club37 it's a bar restaurant in Baldwin, Mich. A couple of weeks ago and we had talked to the waitress about some possible trail info, and of course a couple of snowmobibblers chimed in telling us about the law etc. My reply was thats good why else do you think I'm asking where we might not be able to ride legally. It's funny the bar/restaurant owner did not say much, becuase he knew for eight months of the year he would be spending our money to help support his community, he did tell us they are in the process of making it (LEGAL) opening-up more trails for Atv's.

Here is what I say to you Snowmobibblers who don't like it (****-Off) You bunch of jerks. "If you dont like the current law work to change it"

I like the one comment on how one guy rode onto a group of ATV's driving at 20 Mph and was in his way, my two son's were almost killed two weeks ago in two seperate almost accidents. Both times we were in our right lane minding our own business and one snowmobibbler was driving so fast around the corner he went out of his lane and my son drove to the extreme side of our lane and the jerk barly missed him by a couple of inches.

Same thing happened an hour later again this snowmobibbler Jerk at a high rate of speed ended-up deep into our lane going around the corner and he just missed my other son and he caught traction at the last minute and high fived my son as he was passing us by, we gretted him with a one finger salute.

Quads cause ruts in the trail (Yah-Right) If the ground is frozin that is not possible we dont run studs in our tires to cause any damage at all. Maybe the ruts in the trail will slow your *** down to a safe and respectful speed. Those trails are a two lane road and you keep in your lane we will not have any problems with us.

If we are going to slow to-bad go around, we usually go off the side of the road to let snowmobibblers go by us all the time. Speed kills and put a jerk behind the handle bars with a 100Hp plus motor with a bulls--t attitude there will be accidents. I propose speed limites to the trails and if a quad if taring up the ground creating rutts they deserve a ticket for damaging State Property, also quads need clear numbers on the side of the vehicle so you can write it down incase you have a problem with them, other wise that small sticker says nothing about any ownership to go after them for accident info or complaints.

Lets face it Folk's there is Jerks on both sides of the trail, but the law makes it possible in some areas for us all to ride together get over it. We actually helped a Snowmobibbler one day he was broke down on the trail and we pulled him back to his trailer 14 miles out of our way. I would hope he would of done the same for us.

garman

 

Hay Hoopie:
I like your comment how Atv's should stay off winter trails shared by snowmobibblers and stick to the Atv trails.

90% of Atv trails are not groomed at all in the winter. It's funny we pay for license fees the same as snowmobibblers but most places we go our big 4x4 quads would never make it down any trail that is completely snowed in, all you can see is the top of the trail. We tried that in Higgons Lake Atv trails a month a go after twenty miles of hell plowing through the very deep snow we turned around and went back home. I noticed our money spent real good at the local gastation and the restaurant we had lunch at, no problems there.

All Snowmobile trails should be open two both Atv's & snowmobibblers, with new laws.
* Tare up State property you get a severe fine, tire rutts etc.
* Speed limit's for anybody driving at a high rate of speed to be given ticket
* Atv's have clear registration tags so you can identify the owner

Nobody needs a snowmobile with 100 plus horse power driving down trails at 50 plus miles per hour, Yah thats a joke considering they go over 100 Mph now!

It's the same as the Harley mentality, they only wave at other Harleys and snub-off the Jap bikes going down the road. It's funny Harleys have 50% or more parts made with Jap parts, or how about Honda's they are made in America, same crappy argument that is totally stupid.

garman

 

As a rider of both snowmobiles and ATV's, I do get a little frustrated to see the ATV's on "our" snowmobile trails.

While yes, we do pay licensing on both, however, I do have to pay an extra $230 to use those trails on my snowmobile.

It's not the fact that I rip through the trails and come up on slow moving ATV's, it's the fact that, in the milder seasons (which seem to be happening more often than not, especially up here in Northern Ontario) they make extremely large ruts, which the groomers have to go out and fix.

Not only does this cost allot in maintnance, which leads to peotential permit price increases, but can also be dangerous, comming up on those ruts at speed, especially at night when they aren't as clearly visible can be very dangerous to a rider and their equipment.

ATV's have full run of these trails however in the off season, and they are quite fun.

We do have allot of trail policing (the S.T.O.P) program, they are out usualy daily and if ATV's are caught on the trail it is quite a large fine and you do have to find a way to get it off the trail without driving it.

It would be neat to find a shared trail design system, keep sleds on one part, ATV's on the other, however this would be costly and include widening of trails, etc, and on an all volunteer base it could take awhile to implement but maybe one day.

I personally have no interest in riding my ATV in the winter, not that it would go very far (outlaw 525)

The thing that urks me the most, people walking their dogs on the trail, I have no problem with this, however, don't give me a dirty look when I slow down and ride by and wave, remember you are walking for free on the trail I pay to use.

And for the love of god PICK UP THE STICKS YOUR DOGS LEAVE [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

Just my 2, or, 3,4,5 cents worth [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

The weekend befor last in Maine there were five deaths on sleds... all due to speed and some alcohol. On our trip (on our wheelers equipped with trax) up around Katahdin we had a few close calls with sleds going down through the narrow tight and windy ,BLIND parts of the trails alot faster than they should have been going for the visibility of distance they had. A couple times we had to run off our side of the trail and in one instance I gave a group of sleds the sign for 1 more behind me after running off tyhe trail as they were going to fast to stay right... it didn`t do a bit of friggin good as the guy behind me almost had a collision with their lead sled. I have to say here that the speed demonds were in the minority as we came across plenty of folks riding sensable... hey you got a good open streatch can see a long ways ... have at it give it to her ... not in the spots where you can`t see 150 feet down the trail!
I love my tracks on my wheeler. I never like the UNcontrol of a sled even at 30 let alone 70... butt to each his own.
As far as wheelers (with tires on) rutting up the trail it has to be very warm and pouring rain for that to happen on any groomed trail. Now in deep fresh powda thats another story.....

 

Wheeler, glad to hear no one in your camp was hit or hurt. Every area had it's local idiots that just don't think before putting the throttle to the bar.

I enjoy the speed of my sled, but as you mentioned, on long straights with lots of visibility, or out in the pits, or lakes.

As for the ruts, it really doesn't take much for the wheels to make them, starting and stopping are the biggest causes.

It's not so bad if you have sensibile riders like you seem to be that would ease into it, but you get the clowns that ruin it for all that hammer on the gas and let it spin untill hook up digging holes and whatnot.

But every sport has it's morons.

 

Yup it sux that a few bad appels spoil the barrel. Last winter we went in to a buddies camp with tires on and never left a rut... butt as you said ya get the peel outs and the dognutts and I imagine it wouldn`t be good hitting one of them at a decent clip.In Maine you can only go directly to and from your camp on an ATV with tires on this time of year.If stopped by a warden you better be in direct route from where you off loaded to camp (vice versa) or esle ya gonna get spanked HARD.
Even during the summer you get people doing dognutts in the middel of road and it creats a dish and water collects makes a soft spot and if the loggers are hauling 100,000 pound loads of trees out to the mill before you know it theres a bad spot. I won`t get into the extra wear and tear on the trucks... butt I will say I have seen great riding places close because of a few knuckelheads... we have to police our own sport... I am not saying be a bunch of tatteltales.... just you know ... kinda like heay a**hole smarten up befor you wreck fo all of us... go find a sand pit to tear up will ya....