I just wrote a great and lengthy response to several of your questions and thoughts, only to have the Web server bomb out on me. So, I must make my second attempt shorter for the sake of my sanity.

First, ditch riding is legal all year. Just be careful to avoid plantings. Some ditches with plantings are state or county maintained. Some rural residents might maintain ditch areas with plantings close to their private property. The Two Rivers ATV Club, representing the Quad Cities (Iowa and Illinois), had about 50 riders hit the ditches about two weeks ago. It as wild!

Iowa's legal riding areas are spead out over a large land mass. I live in Davenport and must travel 2.5 hours our more to get to any decent riding area. I haven't been to Solon, which is relatively close. But, it let in the big four wheelers which tend to ruin it for ATV'ers. Nothing against those people. They need places to do their thing, too. However, Iowa needs more ATV riding areas so more riders have less travel but more variety. More people need to be coming to Iowa to spend their money. Instead, a lot of Iowans head out of state, spending their money elsewhere. I realize other states will take the same view, but all states consider what is in their interest, as they should.

As for the area near Ft. Dodge, all I know is that the state has some kind of legal restriction, so consideration can be given to how to use the land. In other words, time is needed to study the issue before politicians take action.

Last, if you don't belong to an ATV club, I highly encourage you to join one. The cost is generally cheap. You will make new friends and learn a lot from people with with experience. The more people who join these clubs, the more that the public will realize that ATV riders are very serious about wanting more high quality places to ride.

 

I hear that, the more clubs the better chance we have of getting heard and in an organized professional manner, i will have to take advantage of the legal ditch riding though, I could have swore that i read that was still not legal but lets hope it is, I have seen a few people ride in them so who knows.

 

It isn't legal to ride in a ditch that is a designated route for snowmobiles or anything else...in that case you would have to have consent from the governing body, like the snowmobile group. That makes it hard to know what ditch area is legal and which is not. Upcoming legislation is trying to change the law so that the ditch riding is available for designated routes...this would mean, if you have an area like a park that connects to another area by road, the ditch can be made into a designated route for OHV's to use legally. That is how it was intended to be written in the first place.

Fort Dodge is coming along pretty well. There is a lot to be done before it is a park, though. Funding needs to be approved and fencing has to be put up all around it (potentially 5mi of fence?) before it can be a park.

There is a big race going on in Fort Dodge this week...the 12-Hours of America race. It's pretty cool! Saturday, October 25th, then there is a poker run on Sunday the 26th. Here's more info on the race.

 

that is the same thing that i have read that the law was written wrong and that is isnt legal to ditch ride as of right now but they are trying to get it passes for designated paths