How far do you go?

cruiseroutfit

Cruizah!
Moderator
Vendor
Location
Sandy, Ut
At what point do you decide to be quiet and not vent your frustrations at the oxygen thieves that are destroying our sport.

I spent a couple of wonderful days in the American Fork Canyon area, the weather was perfect, the company was equal. Just as you think things couldn't get any better, a few select decide to change that.

We spent the morning exploring trails and mines in the Mary Ellen Gulch area, headed back down and decided to make a quick afternoon jaunt up to Forest Lake. About 3/4 of the way up, there is a section of trail gaurded on one side by buck-board fences, and on the otherside by thick woods and shubbery. Each year the snow stops most people at this point of the trail, slowly, as the snow melts, the trail becomes passable. By the time we arrive at the snow bank, 4x4's had already busted through the bank and trekked onto the lake at the head of the canyon. A quick shift into 4 wheel drive, click on the lockers and we were good to go, we cruised through the 50 foot section of snow without much trouble.

After reaching the end of the snow, I stopped to make sure my followind freind, had made it through the soft snow. While we waited for him to catch up, I notice something VERY disturbing. A large group of ATV users were renegading throught the trees adjacent to trail, obviously trying to avoid the deep snow that was sure to stop them. Their "bypass" intersected the trail at the exact spot I was parked, thus causing them to stop and wait for me to proceed. Being the loud, opinionated person I am, I ask the leader of the group "is it OK to make a new trail in the case that you cannot sucsessfully conquer the normal trail"... He replies "others have been using this trail".. to which I reply... "does that make it right?, it is obvious that the trail was not ever intended to weave through, over and around the trees and shrubbery." He acknowledges his mistake but refuses to tell the rest of the group following him to not use the trail, a few more explicit remarks are excahnged and I pull forward enough to allow them to proceed.

Why should I have to sit back and watch complete idiots ruin everything that I live for?

Am I out of place, yelling and cussing at these people? Should I be worried that they had wives and children present?
 

Caleb

Well-Known Member
Location
Riverton
IMO, I applaud you for what you did. If the guy was truely ignorant or just uneducated he will think twice now about proceeding with a new trail now. If more people would stand up like you did I think there would be a lot more educated people out there. One person at a time is what its going to take;)

It would be cool if we could setup a website that would inform people of land use and land use issues (I know your site is there, and its awesome, but something like utahlanduse.org would be easy for people to remember and make it easy to point someone there.) We could lso include a violators section if we wanted to get that involved.
 

BlackSheep

baaaaaaaaaad to the bone
Supporting Member
Wasn't there some talk once about 'trail monitors' (or if you really want, call them trail police, but I'm thinking 'hall monitors' like in school) whose mission it is to educate people out in the backwoods? I know that there were bike clubs involved in this type of thing back in california when I lived there.

I agree with Caleb. I applaud your efforts, and I think that guy will think about it in the future (whether he does anything about it or not is another story...). It really is a shame how uninformed most people are out in the woods. Unfortunately, it seems that I see a lot of motorcycles and atvs cutting trails (that doesn't mean 4x4s are not guilty of it..) where no trail existed before. There is even an ATV bypass on the eagles nest now. Apparantly, some rigs have gone through there as well.
 

Caleb

Well-Known Member
Location
Riverton
BlackSheep said:
Wasn't there some talk once about 'trail monitors' (or if you really want, call them trail police, but I'm thinking 'hall monitors' like in school) whose mission it is to educate people out in the backwoods? I know that there were bike clubs involved in this type of thing back in california when I lived there.

I agree with Caleb. I applaud your efforts, and I think that guy will think about it in the future (whether he does anything about it or not is another story...). It really is a shame how uninformed most people are out in the woods. Unfortunately, it seems that I see a lot of motorcycles and atvs cutting trails (that doesn't mean 4x4s are not guilty of it..) where no trail existed before. There is even an ATV bypass on the eagles nest now. Apparantly, some rigs have gone through there as well.


yeah, there was talk and even some classes about the trail patrol but I haven;t heard anything about it for a while. I think the main reason you see more ATVers and M-cyclers cutting trails etc. where there isn;t supposed to be one is its VERY easy to do on those machines. To get a 4x4 through a lot of areas around here you ahve to physically remove trees and such, whereas ATVs can get through most places without the removal of trees and large brush... :-\
 

EZRhino

KalishnaKitty
Location
Sandy, UT
Pat on the back for Kurt!!

I have done the same thing myself before, nearly the same situation but in a different location. Geez, it sucks. Someone remaining nameless on this forum calls ATV's "trail maggots" for this reason. Next time take pictures! Tell them you are posting their pictures, the incident, and close up photos of their OHV sticker with number all over the internet and we will simply manage trails by humiliation!!!

Jackasses......
:(

EZ
 

Shawn

Just Hanging Out
Location
Holly Day
I took the family out today (Monday) to ride the ATV's up by Strawberry. The amount of snow was not as bad as it was two weeks ago but it was still deep. What is funny is I recall thinking to my self how cool it is that my ATV will out wheel my Cruiser in the deep stuff. We ride Grizzlies and are 4x4 with lockers. I was amazed how many tracks we saw off the trail, How many tracks we saw go right pass the brow sign that say's Road Closed No OHV Allowed... :rolleyes: People are so fawkin stupid!

I ride an ATV, I ride to see the sites, I ride on the trail! .
 

Shawn

Just Hanging Out
Location
Holly Day
I would also like to add, that most of the ATV riders that have been tearing up the land that I have seen have been kids. Lack of B!tch slapping from the parents and education.
 

EZRhino

KalishnaKitty
Location
Sandy, UT
Shawn said:
I took the family out today (Monday) to ride the ATV's up by Strawberry.


I ride an ATV, I ride to see the sites, I ride on the trail! .

I expect no less from you!! :) Good job Shawn. Try to teach the others while you're out there.

EZ
 

EZRhino

KalishnaKitty
Location
Sandy, UT
Yeah, you got it. The answer is education. Unfortunately, some people are impossible to educate.

That's where humiliation comes in. We need to build a big kiosk in AF that says LOOK AT THE MORONS and post pics of people doing that kind of thing.

EZ
 

Shawn

Just Hanging Out
Location
Holly Day
EZRhino said:
Yeah, you got it. The answer is education. Unfortunately, some people are impossible to educate.

That's where humiliation comes in. We need to build a big kiosk in AF that says LOOK AT THE MORONS and post pics of people doing that kind of thing.

EZ
:rofl: :rofl:
 

EZRhino

KalishnaKitty
Location
Sandy, UT
OH OH OH!!!!!!! I GOT IT!!!!!! THE SOLUTION TO ALL OUR ENJAMACATION PROBLEMS!!!

Ok........you know at certain places in Moab, and even up on the Snowbird hill how photographers will wait and take pics of people as they go buy, and you can go by their store later on and see pics of yourself in action!??

We can do the same thing with idiots driving where they shouldn't!!!!!!!!! Take their pics, then hand em a business card with RME.com address on it with a note like "check the land use forum for your pics!" Then when we get home we post their pics and flame them to death for being stupid!!!!!!!! Ye haw this will rule!!!!


EZ


note to self: never ever go anywhere in the jeep ever again for fear of being flamed....... :rofl:
 

PierCed_3

I drive Frankenstein!!
Location
Brigham
I have a post about me going off the trail and I know it was wrong, but along the road there were doughnuts and long peelout marks from atv's. Makes the roads really choppy! Perhaps something can be done about this behavior also.

I also hate it when I am going up the trails and some Jacka** on a 4 wheeler or a dirtbike comes flying down the trail and almost run into me. I drive really slow and responsibly around blind corners but I almost killed 2 people yesterday because the were flying down the road. One of them went off the trail and hit a tree avoiding me and then he smiles at me like ...woops! The second hit the skids and locked up her backtire and it made her go sideways and she lost her bike. It was kinda funny but I was still mad. What if I had hit her. People just need to slow down around blind corners. Both times I was at a complete stop since I had seen them up the trail.
 

cruiseroutfit

Cruizah!
Moderator
Vendor
Location
Sandy, Ut
Glad to see you all feel my frustrations... but amazingly the frustration is widespread. I know I have met with representatives from the Utah Trail Machine Association.. they cite the same figures we do... about 2% ruining it for the other 98%.

In regards to the "trail monitoring" program, it does exist, but needs volunteers... It is called "Trail Patrol" and is sponsored by the BLM, USFS, etc. I will post more info. on Trail Patrol soon (Todd Adams is VERY involved in Trail Patrol)

Olly, Sully, and I spent over an hour talking with the USFS Rangers in their TJ up at Forest Lake, they spent the day telling OHV'ers to stay out of the lake and on the trail or get a ticket.. they did write several tickets for trucks in the lake that morning. They were two cool rangers... they themselves are avid 4x4 guys, and were instantly impressed in the fact we carried garbage bags on our rigs (amazing how many people don't PACK IT OUT)... They are frustrated by the problem just to the extent we are... they joked about the fact they (all the Rangers) want to have IQ tests before allowing people to enter AF Canyon, some are just that stupid. They went on to tell us about a couple of campers that moved two rocks out of the way at one of the reclaimed tailings piles, they then drove in and set up camp... 10 feet from the road, in the middle of a capped tailing pile at Forest City... WTF were they thinking? (BTW, they got a ticket)

The forest rangers did speak highly of U4WDA, UTMA, and several other clubs. They recognize the fence building work done by the clubs as well as the "rockgarden repair" that involved alot of RME'ers too!

We exchanged contact info and will be helping them pull at least 3 abandoned cars out in the next couple months...

Thanks for all the kind words... I know you guys would all do the same!

:)
 

cruiseroutfit

Cruizah!
Moderator
Vendor
Location
Sandy, Ut
Hickey said:
They should be ashamed for exposing thier children to such reckless abuse to our land. Way to go Kurt. :cool:

I agree, to the point I mentioned that to the gentleman...

BTW, he started the profanity...

I don't want to come across as a selfish vigilanty, but I love AF Canyon among many other places in Utah... I refuse to stand by and watch it be degraded...
 

cruiseroutfit

Cruizah!
Moderator
Vendor
Location
Sandy, Ut
Shawn said:
...I ride an ATV, I ride to see the sites, I ride on the trail! .

I needed you there to help verbally acost these relentless jerks... :D;)

ATV'ers are out there to do the same thing as us.. enjoy the serenity of Mother Nature... The problem doesn't lay in the machine, rather the attitude of the operator... 2% doing the damage... :(
 
Top