well, it looks like we lost another trail in our area. there was a section of trail closed until the end of bowhunting, but some arrogant prick snowmobilers thought that they should be able to run it. they did, and now the trail is CLOSED. a buddy of mine was hunting there and he said as soon as that first inbred son of a bitch ran down the trail past the signs and fence, it was follow the leader. really sucks. i have seen so many fields ripped apart and people running off trail this year and it is not even January yet!! this particular trail was from glenbulah to the marsh park. here is a link to the clubs site with some pics:

http://www.nkmsnow.com/

this is our biggest enemy........ fellow snowmobilers with no regard for anything other than their own enjoyment. if anyone on here ran that trail this seaon.... THANK YOU and if i ever meet you i will hit you in the head with a baseball hat.



rant over.

Sheboygan-area snowmobilers have, for the time being at least, have lost a valuable, long-standing trail.

Sheboygan Press

The path between Glenbeulah and the Marsh Lodge, which runs about 4 miles, is off-limits after the private land owner whose property the trail ran across closed off public access.

As much as he loves to snowmobile, Plymouth’s Gene Blindauer said the local snowmobiling community has some of its own to blame and nobody else.

“It’s a sad day for snowmobiling in Sheboygan County,” he said. “A couple of people had no regard for the rules, and ruined it for others.”

Blindauer, a member of the local Greenbush Club and secretary for the North Kettle Moraine Snowmobile Association, said he doesn’t fault the private land owner for shutting the trail.

“He had (temporarily) closed the land for bowhunting, and some (snowmobilers) just ignored the ‘trail closed’ signs and went through,” said Blindauer, an avid snowmobiler for 35 years.

“He became upset and I don’t blame him at all for that.”

The trail, which first opened in the late 1960s according to Blindauer, is now closed. Trespassers are subject to fines and/or arrest.

While Blindauer isn’t sure whether or not that trail will ever open again, he wants the snowmobiling community to come together so future trails aren’t lost.

“What we’re trying to do is spread the message to do the right thing,” Blindauer said. “If there’s a sign that says the trail is closed, stay off the trail.

“Ignorance of the rules and regulations is no excuse, whether you’re driving a car or a snowmobile.”

Never fails a few dumb asses spoil it for everyone. Ever try to talk to a really pissed off land owner. Not very easy I had to a few years back after he settled down he agreed to let us keep going through his property within two days a few sleds screwed it up again. After that no more trail. Not really hard to figure out keep landowners HAPPY obey the signs!!!!

It's a real shame. It sucks that people don't have enough brains to respect the private property and just enjoy the trail. That was a nice convenient trail to the lodge too! Let this be a lesson.

Now that all the trails have opened again tonight I can see there being problems with dumb dumbs still going on that closed trail.

I guess I could find fault if the trail was used like a highway if the trail closed signs were up. The other night I stopped a guy and his son from heading on one of our trails that is closed until Jan for bow hunting. He thought the sign had been forgotten and followed the tracks. He felt bad and wasn't aware. If everyone stopped allowing activities because of a few bad eggs we wouldn't have anything left to do. Most of the trouble we run across is hyper sensitivity by the land owner and stupidity by a few idiots on the trail. Now I don't condone trespassing or off trail excursions yet when some of our problems occured on areas of unusable land in a foot of snow what was the 'true' harm. Now I don't excuse the tresspassers and if caught should be dealt with, but to take away the enjoyment of so many because of so few doesn't seem right.

I agree with what you are saying and I wish more people had your attitude. Unfortunatley it is not that way and when shit like this happens year after year to a landowner you just tend to get fed up and say enough is enough. It is too bad that a few can ruin it for so many. Stupid people are everywhere. It's just a fact of life.

I have never been there, but getting hit in the head with a baseball hat wouldnt really be that bad.... now a baseball BAT on the other hand would suck.....

We have people in our area closing trails for the same reasons,people tearing up the mans fields and wrecking newly planted christmas trees. When people can't respect the landowners wishes we will see more and more of this. The trail that closed causes sleds to now go down the side of a blacktop road and we all know what kind of problems this can produce. I was on this streach of road the other day..speed limit 35 signs and some kid flys by me going at leat 80 mph on a blacktopped public road. We can all bet how long this will last before the complete trail will be closed because of people complaining. This type of behavior has to stop before the sport is ruined for everyone. Btw i caught up with this guy on the sled at the next watering hole and chewed his ass bigtime. He acted like it was no big deal and more or less told me to mind my own business. I felt like hitting him in the head with my helmet.

Thats a shame, especially considering that trail had been in use since the '60s. It happens all over though.
A couple weeks ago I was riding in southern Wisconsin with my brother, his wife and a friend of their's. We came upon this guy and his kid riding their ATVs on the snowmobile trail. My brother pulled up next to the guy and was like, "what are you doing???" The guy on the ATV argued that he had the farmer's permission to ride on the trail (which we know is total BS). I thought for sure it was going to end up in a fistfight after the one guy were were riding with went up to talk to the guy on the ATV and the guy slapped his hand out of the way while he was talking to him.
You have people all over who have no respect for the landowners and for all the hard work that goes into creating and maintaining a snowmobile trail. A lot of people dont realize that the snowmobile trails are a privledge, not a right and that the landowner can shut down a trail any time they want for any reason.

You can thank the DNR for there great thinking on this one what do we need 5 months of bow hunting for. I think that the bow hunter have the state buy a string ( yes I am not a bow hunter). Bow hunting should end at December 31. This is just my opionion.

blame the DNR for people trespassing!?!

now i have heard it all

and i meant BAT, not hat, LOL!!

I agree. There will ALWAYS be a few idiots, it's not a perfect world and never will be. There was a trail closed to snowmobiles in Michigan recently because ATV's were riding on it WTF? And because the local snowmobile club couldn't gaurentee that atv's would never go down the trail again the landowner wouldn't re-open the trail to snowmobiles-and the landowner is a snowmobilier himself. And I'm not exaggerating, the landowner was demanding something which was obviously an impossible request. I think that Some of these landowners are just looking for an excuse to close the trail for what ever reason. Why not be a good samariton and deal with a little inconvience from a few so that thousands of people can have a lot of fun?

And another thing-if everyone decides to close trails for reason's like this, we arn't going to have any trails and there isn't anything anyone can do about it because if the landowners are demanding perfection(which is what they are doing) there ain't anyone that can deliver it.

Thats easy to say when you arent the person who has to deal with all the BS. Its kind of hard to keep a good attitude about it when people have no respect for the land and no appreciation for the people who allow trails on their land and for the hard work that goes into making and maintaining the trails.

how can the landowner be over sensitive? it is his property and he wanted no one on it until bow hunting is over.

This totally sucks. But your right you see guys going off trail all the time. Too bad the landowner or the club couldn't have gated it off until bow season finished.

And don't get me even going with ATV's. There cool and everything for ice fishing or plowing your driveway but they don't belong on snowmobile trails.

So what are the chances that these people who ride on the trails when they are closed belong to a snowmobile club and realize how hard people work to keep and maintain the trail system?

I dont doubt that quite a lot of them do belong to snowmobile clubs, they just dont care as long as they get their riding in.
In NE Wisconsin, a lot of the locals are out riding before the trails are open. They ride what trails they can and in the parts where the gates are still closed, the just go around the gates by riding the ditches or whereever else they want.
I know of one guy from that area who has his own internet forum and earlier this year he was telling people the they could ride the trails, even though they werent open.
A lot of people in that area seem to think the northwoods is like the old west and that they can do whatever they want, regardless of the laws. Its an, "it not illegal until you get caught" kinda mentality.

Bow season is still open till Jan 6 FYI

Funny how you guys bring up stories of ATV riders.

First, I ride both ATV and sleds... why they can't share trails is beyond me. If you say they rut stuff up... well so do sleds, if proper maintenace is done by clubs and what not we could all come to a happy medium but this is a whole other topic. ATV riders = 365 days a year of revenue vs. Sleds that bring in a few months. The business owners that I know want ATV riders on the trail system. Moving on...

When it comes of riding off trail... if the owners want to close a trail they should have the proper gates in place to close down the trail. Every place I ride that has any open trails (off trail) have sled tracks going down them. If I don't want people on my property I close it off and post signs. If you give people the chance to go on your land they will. Signs WILL not do the trick. So, IMO... the land owner that we are talking about here wanted to close off his property no matter what. End of story.

I can't believe some of the replys to this post. The opinons expressed here make me sick to my stomach. If i owned hunting land with a trail going though it and wanted to hunt on the property i pay taxes on so be it. You better have some common courtsey to my wishes or the trail will be closed. I have seen alot of property damaged by snowmobiles going off trail and the people think nothing of it. And to blame the dnr for making hunting season too long surely makes me shake my head. It is a privlage to use private property for our enjoyment so lets start acting like guests on their land and obey property owners wishes.

So what you are saying is that we need thousands of gates on every landowners property?? This makes no sense at all. Also, when you say that if you give people the chance to go on your land they will. This is the whole point of this post!! People are to stay on the marked trails. End of argument. If they do not, the landowner has every right in the world to close it down. It's not the DNR's fault or the landowners fault for not gating off every entry to his property. It's the idot's fault that has no respect for using something that is not even his!

IMO, ATV's OK when the trails are closed for sleds...basically I say April to November OK for ATV's. The rest of the year they should stay off. In regards to maintenance were lucky to have what we currently get. Those groomer operators get paid like $9 hr. They are doing us all a favor. Of course if I didn't live in the city and lived in rural Wisconsin or Northwoods I would gladly run a groomer a few times per week. Get a break from the wife and kid and catch the sites of the woods. Im sure those guys see all kinds of huge bucks, bear, yotes etc.

stop and think about this-Every person alive deals with bs every day. And just what BS are we talking about in this case anyway? a couple people driving snowmobiles down a trail when they weren't supposed to? I'm not condoning what they did but people need to be reasonable. And why is it so hard to keep a good attitude because A SMALL # OF PEOPLE HAVE NO RESPECT...? People who get this pissed off about something this petty (I don't believe any damage was actually done in this case was there?), are going to be constantly pissed off because IT'S NOT A PERFECT WORLD. Why fuck with a lot of innocent people just because a couple people pissed you off? Just doen't sound reasonable to me.

Stop and think-what if everybody did what this landowner did? EVERTHING would be closed because sooner or later someone would break a rule! highways- oh someone went over the speed limit-CLOSED PERMANENTLY Grocery store-someone shoplifted-CLOSED PERMANENTLY; hunting season-someone started before the season opened-CLOSED PERMANENTLY. Common Sense for God's sake. I've been a victim of crime several times myself-including having my house broken into and having a snowmobile stolen-that cost me $5,000. Does this give me an excuse to be unreasonable to every snowmobiler because one of them stole from me? No and it doesn't give this guy an excuse either.

Id be pissed too. I mean it's my land and I dont want no one messing with me, So therefore them guys or girls who were out there are some dumbasses who like to ruin it all for us.

This is a tough topic... first off, know that as a landowner, with a trail running through my property, it pisses me off when I watch people (all kinds: old, young, fast, slow, etc.) riding when the trails are closed... so, they're out rippin' (and trespassing), while I'm eager as hell to ride, but since I follow the rules, I can only watch.

I think some riders simply don't care, while others simply don't know... trust me, it's hard not to hit the trails once we get decent snow, but as a landowner and club member, what kind of example would I be setting if I'm out there when the trails are closed?

Back to the landowner perspective though... I'm not going to close my portion of the trail just because of a few bad Apples, but I have to admit, while I'm tweaking the sled in my garage and waiting for the trails to open (officially), it would be kinda' fun to have someone with authority sitting on my property and writing tickets... not because I'm a hater, but because we can then keep ALL of our trails open.

You guy need to understand that alot of people have no knowledge that the trails are alot of time on private property. They think its just like the roads they, believe that there are right of ways for the trails. Alot of people on here talk about running off trail guess what if you are off trail most likely you are on someones land.
To further dig my self into the well the tresspass issue that luvthemud brought up there most likey wouldn't be a problem if the bow season ended when the trails historicaly open.
Buy the way I believe in riding the trails that are open and thats all. I have the utmost respect and thank you if you are land owner and let me ride on your land.

The way I see it, it's his land that he hunts on. If he were on his stand and saw the monster buck he has been waiting to get a shot at, and some asshole comes riding through, ruining his chance at it, I'd be pissed off enough to close the trail! I know it's not a perfect world, but that guy can now hunt on his own land without some complete jerk ruining his day! It's not the land owner that is at fault here! Sounds to me like he was nice enough to allow a trail for 30+ years, he just had enough.

i blame dnr
why do we have all the deer problems why not hunt deer all sumer long?
why do we wait till one sport effects the other not very smart but most if not all wisconsin dnr are idiots just talk to them
they say they have no money in the budget but every year they have new vehic. new atv,new sleds,ect...
when did the slogan help the pubic and educate the public on consevation turn into ticket and harass
fuck the dnr all of them

I just don't understand how in the hell you can blame the DNR on this one! Some asshole rode on a closed trail, probably not the first time either, how is that the DNR's fault? It sure seems like too many people want to blame the DNR for everythng.

x2, DNR is not the problem here. Just easy to blame them i guess.

I would have to agree with yamahaha on this one. The guy was gracious enough to let the trail go through his land since the 60's. So, you know the actions of stupid people struck a nerve. And he has every right to not let the trail go through his land.