I am a relatively new rider [third season] … as such I do not have the experience that many of you folk do when it comes to understanding the ‘ins and outs’ of those who represent and perhaps, typify, our sport. Being such a new rider, for the past couple of years I have avoided riding on the major holiday weekends … in some respects, this is due to my shyness regarding the display of novice riding skills for such an old fart … but also, it made sense to me that I should stay off the trails and out of the way of all the more skillful riders who can only ride on the weekends. Anyway, this morning I was watching the weather forecast for the upcoming week only to be informed that today would be the last sunny day for about a week … my wife could tell I was a bit perturbed and suggested I go riding today despite the fact it’s a holiday weekend. Without much of a plan, I jumped at the offer and took off for Houghton Lake … my thought being that I would ride the new ORV Route connector trail from Denton to St. Helen and then maybe poke around on the Loops south of I-75 … all this assuming that the trails were dry enough to permit such a ride.
Well … this whole day turned out to be sort of a bust … I did get to ride for about an hour, but every trail I took wound up turning into a swimming pool filled with mud! On top of the relatively poor trail conditions, I got exposed to the “Riding Public” in their full glory. I’m typically not a ‘downer’ type person nor do I like to complain about other folks and their actions … but I felt I had to talk about this with someone in order to get these things off my chest and perhaps gain some perspective from you folks if you have the time to read and respond with some words of wisdom.
On approaching the Denton Trailhead, on Waco Road off M-18, one passes by a considerable portion of the Denton trail and its surrounding landscape while driving north on M-18 … about a mile from Waco Road I see a pack of dirt bikers riding down the side of M-18 going south … they are not on, in, near or even approaching any of the marked trails … by the way, these were not Dual Sport bikes. When I finally get to the trailhead I find it completely full and there were so many folks parked in the entrance, on the sides of the entrance, on the sides of the road, in the road, in the ditch, and folks going every direction on bikes and quads that I had a hell of a time just turning around to get out of there. I thought to myself … man, am I glad I haven’t run into these folks before. There was one gentleman, wearing no riding gear or helmet, just doing donuts on a quad in the entrance the entire time I was jockeying my rig around trying to get out … the dust was incredible and everyone in the area was totally immersed in the cloud of this one guy … he was still going at it when I got turned around and was driving out. At this point I almost lost my nerve and headed home … but I thought this is my trail system too … why should I be the one to leave … on thinking about it now, I guess I should have just come home.
Ultimately I opted to park on the side of a seasonal road at the entrance to the ORV route leading over to St. Helen … there was a lot of space along side this road which is also part of the ORV route for the Denton Trail … several other folks had also parked here. Before I could get my bike off the trailer a series of riders came down this road riding incredibly fast and they were only a few feet from our parked vehicles on a patch of deep, sandy & dusty road bed … amazingly, they circled back immediately, racing each other right through the area where there were also several small children running around unattended by their parents as far as I could tell. Next these same guys teamed up with some other folks on Quads and they all headed north on the two tracker that follows M-18 and is clearly marked for no ORV traffic. By the time I got ready to ride they were back and one of the Quad riders stops at the sign post and removes the white sign which designates the trail as off limits to motorcycles and ATVs and is waving it around in the air while he rides by me. By now I’m hurrying to get out of the area an onto the connector trail … the first couple of miles are dry, dusty sand … then the puddles begin to appear … first small, then larger, then deeper, until finally I hit one that was about 2 feet deep as the water went over the tops of my boots … I made it through but could see an even bigger one coming up … being that I was alone, I turned around and headed back toward Denton. While motoring along the ORV route on the east leg of the Denton loop I noted considerable traffic going both directions … a mix of Quad and bikes … most riding at reasonable speed for the congestion level … but several riding at outrageous speeds risking injury not only to themselves, but to others including some younger folks out riding with their parents. At virtually every intersection with old trails, two trackers or seasonal roads … all clearly marked for no motorcycle or ATV traffic … I can see several folks riding off in the distance. In one newly clear cut area there were two guys with pickup trucks doing donuts out in the middle of a field with no trails at all leading to their position … they apparently drove over virgin land to get out there and then decided to really tear up the countryside?
Finally, I hit the section of the trail that goes through the big swamp and there is a huge puddle that is over 100 feet across and almost 2 feet deep … the ATV guys had already cut a new trail along the side of this puddle but it was nasty and muddy … and I could see more big water ahead … so I turned around and headed back to my vehicle again.
On the trip back I witness the final blow for my day. Ahead of me is a father and son pair riding 4WD Quads … the old man is constantly reaching into a cooler on the back of his ride and pulling out stuff to eat and drink. On finishing consumption, the wrappers, boxes, cans and plastic pop bottles are being casually tossed onto the trail. To make matters worse, the old man is drinking beer … so the trail is being littered with beer cans! I stopped to pick some of the stuff up but realized I didn’t have any way to carry it on my bike … then I got mad, caught up with them and tried to be as reasonable as possible and asked them to please not litter up the trails and that drinking beer didn’t set a very good example for his son … yup, I got the classic gesture and verbal response … then he told me to mind my own business, which I glibly stated I was … this trail is as much mine as his and I am offended by folks such as him acting so irresponsibly. Even the kid had an obscenity for me as I rode off.
Well, I did get in about an hour’s worth of riding … it wasn’t the best time I’ve had on a bike … it is however, the first time I have come home feeling sorry that I went. I’m not sure what gets into people’s heads on holiday weekends … but activities such as I witnessed today are certainly the stuff that environmentalists can use to depict our community in a light that is not flattering. I don’t know where the DNR folks were today … they could’ve made a fortune handing out tickets … this is one time I actually wish some of them had shown up in the area.
I’ll get over this … I like trail riding too much to give it up over one bad experience … but somehow, I do think we need to figure out a way to provide better supervision to trail riding on the big weekends … otherwise this type of behavior may continue to grow.
For those of you who didn’t get out to ride this weekend … maybe, just maybe, in a small way it might be sort of a blessing … ???
terry nestrick :(
Well … this whole day turned out to be sort of a bust … I did get to ride for about an hour, but every trail I took wound up turning into a swimming pool filled with mud! On top of the relatively poor trail conditions, I got exposed to the “Riding Public” in their full glory. I’m typically not a ‘downer’ type person nor do I like to complain about other folks and their actions … but I felt I had to talk about this with someone in order to get these things off my chest and perhaps gain some perspective from you folks if you have the time to read and respond with some words of wisdom.
On approaching the Denton Trailhead, on Waco Road off M-18, one passes by a considerable portion of the Denton trail and its surrounding landscape while driving north on M-18 … about a mile from Waco Road I see a pack of dirt bikers riding down the side of M-18 going south … they are not on, in, near or even approaching any of the marked trails … by the way, these were not Dual Sport bikes. When I finally get to the trailhead I find it completely full and there were so many folks parked in the entrance, on the sides of the entrance, on the sides of the road, in the road, in the ditch, and folks going every direction on bikes and quads that I had a hell of a time just turning around to get out of there. I thought to myself … man, am I glad I haven’t run into these folks before. There was one gentleman, wearing no riding gear or helmet, just doing donuts on a quad in the entrance the entire time I was jockeying my rig around trying to get out … the dust was incredible and everyone in the area was totally immersed in the cloud of this one guy … he was still going at it when I got turned around and was driving out. At this point I almost lost my nerve and headed home … but I thought this is my trail system too … why should I be the one to leave … on thinking about it now, I guess I should have just come home.
Ultimately I opted to park on the side of a seasonal road at the entrance to the ORV route leading over to St. Helen … there was a lot of space along side this road which is also part of the ORV route for the Denton Trail … several other folks had also parked here. Before I could get my bike off the trailer a series of riders came down this road riding incredibly fast and they were only a few feet from our parked vehicles on a patch of deep, sandy & dusty road bed … amazingly, they circled back immediately, racing each other right through the area where there were also several small children running around unattended by their parents as far as I could tell. Next these same guys teamed up with some other folks on Quads and they all headed north on the two tracker that follows M-18 and is clearly marked for no ORV traffic. By the time I got ready to ride they were back and one of the Quad riders stops at the sign post and removes the white sign which designates the trail as off limits to motorcycles and ATVs and is waving it around in the air while he rides by me. By now I’m hurrying to get out of the area an onto the connector trail … the first couple of miles are dry, dusty sand … then the puddles begin to appear … first small, then larger, then deeper, until finally I hit one that was about 2 feet deep as the water went over the tops of my boots … I made it through but could see an even bigger one coming up … being that I was alone, I turned around and headed back toward Denton. While motoring along the ORV route on the east leg of the Denton loop I noted considerable traffic going both directions … a mix of Quad and bikes … most riding at reasonable speed for the congestion level … but several riding at outrageous speeds risking injury not only to themselves, but to others including some younger folks out riding with their parents. At virtually every intersection with old trails, two trackers or seasonal roads … all clearly marked for no motorcycle or ATV traffic … I can see several folks riding off in the distance. In one newly clear cut area there were two guys with pickup trucks doing donuts out in the middle of a field with no trails at all leading to their position … they apparently drove over virgin land to get out there and then decided to really tear up the countryside?
Finally, I hit the section of the trail that goes through the big swamp and there is a huge puddle that is over 100 feet across and almost 2 feet deep … the ATV guys had already cut a new trail along the side of this puddle but it was nasty and muddy … and I could see more big water ahead … so I turned around and headed back to my vehicle again.
On the trip back I witness the final blow for my day. Ahead of me is a father and son pair riding 4WD Quads … the old man is constantly reaching into a cooler on the back of his ride and pulling out stuff to eat and drink. On finishing consumption, the wrappers, boxes, cans and plastic pop bottles are being casually tossed onto the trail. To make matters worse, the old man is drinking beer … so the trail is being littered with beer cans! I stopped to pick some of the stuff up but realized I didn’t have any way to carry it on my bike … then I got mad, caught up with them and tried to be as reasonable as possible and asked them to please not litter up the trails and that drinking beer didn’t set a very good example for his son … yup, I got the classic gesture and verbal response … then he told me to mind my own business, which I glibly stated I was … this trail is as much mine as his and I am offended by folks such as him acting so irresponsibly. Even the kid had an obscenity for me as I rode off.
Well, I did get in about an hour’s worth of riding … it wasn’t the best time I’ve had on a bike … it is however, the first time I have come home feeling sorry that I went. I’m not sure what gets into people’s heads on holiday weekends … but activities such as I witnessed today are certainly the stuff that environmentalists can use to depict our community in a light that is not flattering. I don’t know where the DNR folks were today … they could’ve made a fortune handing out tickets … this is one time I actually wish some of them had shown up in the area.
I’ll get over this … I like trail riding too much to give it up over one bad experience … but somehow, I do think we need to figure out a way to provide better supervision to trail riding on the big weekends … otherwise this type of behavior may continue to grow.
For those of you who didn’t get out to ride this weekend … maybe, just maybe, in a small way it might be sort of a blessing … ???
terry nestrick :(