More bad publicity for atv!

[Scott K]

I am sorry these people tore up your land, it is your land and you can do what ever you want with it! I cant say I would have done any different. I myself ride at my farm, I ride on my own land, and I ride in Wisconsin. I have used MN trails 1 time. I have own atvs since 86, I have buying my tabs every year. Thinking that somehow the state would create more trails. .

You are right there are alot of bad apples giving us bad names, more dnr, more people ticketed, more trails, these are things I expect to see with my money I pay into the state for my tabs. So far the neerest trail to me is over 100 miles one way. I am yet to see a C.O. My rant is I dont think our money for the atvs are being put back into the atv fund, and if it is, it is not anywhere in the south half of the state.

The problem with the trails on the rail road beds, are they arent designed for atvs, they are very dusty, and very boring. It would be like if the state set up some state land for deer hunters in the middle of a 10,000 acre field with no trees and no crops, not quite the ideal deer hunting area, they dont fit together.

I can tell you have been done wrong by a few bad atv riders. I just want you to know we arent all like that. And it is to bad that all of us in general get punished for the few! As I stated before, you can compare it to driving a car. Just because some people or even alot of people speed, squeal their tires, drink and drive, should we all be punished, should we get our roads taken away, or not build more roads? I dont blame private land owners for not wanting an atv trail on their lands, because all they hear about is people complaing about people on atvs. What I do blame is our govt. they sure are willing to take the money, and even raise the dollar amount for tabs, but when anything about atvs in congress comes up, they are right there to shoot it down!

Hammer Handle, dont take this post as being against you, its not intended that way. As I said before it is your land do with it as you please. I just dont like the thought that because a few jerks brake the law the rest have to pay. The sad part is those few jerks that [PoorWordUsage]ed you off, arent being affected by you closing your trails, they found somewhere else ilegal to ride. The ones that are being hurt by it is the rest of us that wouldnt be going off the trail, or tearing up your land.

[Hammer Handle]

Great reply 4wanderingeyes. Did not take offense to it whatsoever and everything you said makes total sense.

Thanks for replying.

And, it is just not ATVs. Funny, a few years ago I was bow hunting and a girl wearing brown with a blonde ponytail come jogging down the trail.

All I said (as I stepped out in my camo and startled her) "Wow, you looked just like a deer!" Haven't seen her again.... But, she was kind of cute....

[Dave S]

hammerHandle,

thanks for your post. I agree with your decision to shut your land down. I would have done the same. 4_eyes and I have some incredible pieces of land near us that would be ideal for ATV's to ride on, some owned by cousins of mine. But they have no interest to open it as a GIA because they just don't want everyone and their brother tearing through the valley.

Another frustrating thing for me is being an ATV instructor for the state of MN, is for the number of ATV's in my area, and very very few people from this area enroll their kids for the course. I am about to give up and travel to other areas to conduct the training. 4-eyes (Scott) has brought his kids to my classes, but he is of the minority. It just amazes me how clueless people are.

I bought my machine knowing that I would have to drive no less than 2 hours to find some trails. I plan on heading down to Se MN in a few weeks for an end of the year ride before the trails close on November 1. Otherwise, it's ditch riding or township roads for me. Not very exciting. But it's riding either way.

Thanks for your posts Hammer. You backed up everything I said in an earlier post.

[luckey]

LEP7MM,

I see your point about me referring to ATVs rather than the drivers. I guess I was keeping in line with the thread title "more bad publicity for ATV". Nothing there about the drivers. The good news is these particular drivers were not tearing up the place, just driving through. It just happend to be at a time and place where I was hunting. Also, I suspect they didn't think I would be there in the middle of the week. It's just very discouraging when I go out hunting thinking no one's been in the area for a week only to find out people have been crusing through on 4 wheelers possibly just hours prior to my arrival.

[Slothin'02]

I have been fortunate in that all the ATV'ers that I have run into have been very considerate, law abiding people.

However, we have recently had problems with one particular land owner. His group flies up and down the gravel road (private/association road) at 40- 50 mph, causes ruts by doing "donuts", tears up the ditches, ruins the ditch dams by using them as jumps, tears up the run off area, allows 10-15 year olds to fly up and down the street on 500+cc machines with no helmets, leaves a tral of beer cans in the road/ditches, rides on other peoples property (just land, no houses or anything) and the like.

I ran into another land owner recently and we started talking. The first thing out of his mouth was "people like that ruin it for everyone!". So true. It only takes one.

Sad thing is...with all the anti-ATV groups that we all know are out there, you'd think that everyone would go the extra mile to show that we can be responsible and trusted not to abuse the privilege. Until then, the only stories the general public will see are the negative ones and no one will be in any hurry to support additional trail systems.

Just my $.02.