Jump to content

Trail work


Recommended Posts

13 minutes ago, Bontz said:

My condolences :sad:

Thanks.  I didn't know them super personally but got to know them when mnusa convention was here a few years ago and Rum River Sno Riders worked with our club. Either way it sucks. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

48 minutes ago, Sled_Hed said:

Sounds like it was something to do with a tree,  whether it fell on him or something else. Sucks either way. Local business owners in Milaca too.

That's sad.  Condolences to his family.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wish I would have taken some pics, but it was cold enough we just wanted to get shit done :lol2: We got the rest of our trail system done yesterday, and I have to say ... was damn proud of the crew we had.  We've been pretty fortunate the past few years, getting some "new blood" in the club and the added bonus of the new members being younger and willing to work.   Yesterday was a perfect example ... we had two groups work from opposite ends of the trail system, and the younger guys did most of the stake pounding (through quite a bit of frost) while the older guys laid out the route & signs.  I pounded a few signs, too, but thankfully the younger guys were willing to take on that task.

Unfortunately, due to hunting season and crops, this is what we're forced to do & going out after Thanksgiving ... when it's COLD.  But getting the job done feels good, and hopefully we get a quality season to actually use the trails down here this year.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/30/2022 at 1:05 AM, racinfarmer said:

For all the times we used to ride around Ashland/Bayfield, that was somehow never on the list of places to stop. 

We need to make a stop there with the wife.  Maybe she needs to rid herself of a bra or something.  

There’s a few bra trees around Michigan. I think I’ve taken the wife to a couple of them, no dice. :lolz:

41 minutes ago, Bontz said:

I wish I would have taken some pics, but it was cold enough we just wanted to get shit done :lol2: We got the rest of our trail system done yesterday, and I have to say ... was damn proud of the crew we had.  We've been pretty fortunate the past few years, getting some "new blood" in the club and the added bonus of the new members being younger and willing to work.   Yesterday was a perfect example ... we had two groups work from opposite ends of the trail system, and the younger guys did most of the stake pounding (through quite a bit of frost) while the older guys laid out the route & signs.  I pounded a few signs, too, but thankfully the younger guys were willing to take on that task.

Unfortunately, due to hunting season and crops, this is what we're forced to do & going out after Thanksgiving ... when it's COLD.  But getting the job done feels good, and hopefully we get a quality season to actually use the trails down here this year.

We have a gas powered auger for posts. Then again, we don’t have to take ours down between seasons. Riders tend to take plenty of them down during the season though and sxs riders think they are fun to hit as well. :bashhead:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, SayatodaU.P.eh? said:

There’s a few bra trees around Michigan. I think I’ve taken the wife to a couple of them, no dice. :lolz:

We have a gas powered auger for posts. Then again, we don’t have to take ours down between seasons. Riders tend to take plenty of them down during the season though and sxs riders think they are fun to hit as well. :bashhead:

We did have one husband & wife combination that, I would say, worked "efficiently" :)  She would drill the post hole, and he would pound the marker(s) in.  Thankfully the majority of the work was in areas where the posts went in relatively easy after a few swings of the 3-pounder.  But in the water runways that we use in various fields ... it was like pounding into concrete.

We don't have shared trails, so ATV/UTV traffic doesn't hurt us .... but we still have morons who think it's cool to mow down signs from time to time :wall:  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Bontz said:

I wish I would have taken some pics, but it was cold enough we just wanted to get shit done :lol2: We got the rest of our trail system done yesterday, and I have to say ... was damn proud of the crew we had.  We've been pretty fortunate the past few years, getting some "new blood" in the club and the added bonus of the new members being younger and willing to work.   Yesterday was a perfect example ... we had two groups work from opposite ends of the trail system, and the younger guys did most of the stake pounding (through quite a bit of frost) while the older guys laid out the route & signs.  I pounded a few signs, too, but thankfully the younger guys were willing to take on that task.

Unfortunately, due to hunting season and crops, this is what we're forced to do & going out after Thanksgiving ... when it's COLD.  But getting the job done feels good, and hopefully we get a quality season to actually use the trails down here this year.

Definitely a good feeling to have that done. How many miles of trail does your club maintain?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, Sled_Hed said:

Definitely a good feeling to have that done. How many miles of trail does your club maintain?

At one time, I think we were at 65 miles of trail but due to changes over the past few years I think we're closer to 55 or so, now.  Not a huge amount, compared to some, but it's enough to keep us busy! LOL

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, Bontz said:

At one time, I think we were at 65 miles of trail but due to changes over the past few years I think we're closer to 55 or so, now.  Not a huge amount, compared to some, but it's enough to keep us busy! LOL

Definitely a more manageable amount.  100 plus gets overwhelming this time of year when you're short on help.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

54 minutes ago, Bontz said:

We did have one husband & wife combination that, I would say, worked "efficiently" :)  She would drill the post hole, and he would pound the marker(s) in.  Thankfully the majority of the work was in areas where the posts went in relatively easy after a few swings of the 3-pounder.  But in the water runways that we use in various fields ... it was like pounding into concrete.

We don't have shared trails, so ATV/UTV traffic doesn't hurt us .... but we still have morons who think it's cool to mow down signs from time to time :wall:  

I’d do anything to keep the ORV/wheeled traffic to their own trail system. It’s a huge problem over here.
 

We have 115ish miles of trails in our system and only 12 of that is marked as shared use. Problem is, almost all of the remainder of our system is on some sort of county/state/federal seasonal road so the SXS are allowed on it year round as of now.

There is a big bill in the state legislature to keep wheeled traffic off groomed sled trails from D1 to A1 right now but it still hasn’t passed through everything.
 

Our club doesn’t have the means to  groom the dirt so we finally this year got a grant from the DNR to have it done professionally. $40k spent. Wife and I drove some of it doing sign work a few weeks back and that section was already tore to shit by the SXSs. :flush:

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, SayatodaU.P.eh? said:

I’d do anything to keep the ORV/wheeled traffic to their own trail system. It’s a huge problem over here.
 

We have 115ish miles of trails in our system and only 12 of that is marked as shared use. Problem is, almost all of the remainder of our system is on some sort of county/state/federal seasonal road so the SXS are allowed on it year round as of now.

There is a big bill in the state legislature to keep wheeled traffic off groomed sled trails from D1 to A1 right now but it still hasn’t passed through everything.
 

Our club doesn’t have the means to  groom the dirt so we finally this year got a grant from the DNR to have it done professionally. $40k spent. Wife and I drove some of it doing sign work a few weeks back and that section was already tore to shit by the SXSs. :flush:

I totally agree. Here in MN atv trails are very cost intensive to maintain  them to the DNR standards. My opinion is atv registration should cost a little more to help better fund those trails.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 12/4/2022 at 8:50 AM, Bontz said:

We did have one husband & wife combination that, I would say, worked "efficiently" :)  She would drill the post hole, and he would pound the marker(s) in.  Thankfully the majority of the work was in areas where the posts went in relatively easy after a few swings of the 3-pounder.  But in the water runways that we use in various fields ... it was like pounding into concrete.

We don't have shared trails, so ATV/UTV traffic doesn't hurt us .... but we still have morons who think it's cool to mow down signs from time to time :wall:  

You take up donations for a post pounder. That would take the manual work out of it 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We really should consider that ... but we haven't just for the fact most years we're not dealing with a ton of frost to break through.  The other aspect is, the way our signs are set up, there's not a lot of room between the top of the sign and the top of the post itself.  So we'd need to customize the post pounder.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Bontz said:

We really should consider that ... but we haven't just for the fact most years we're not dealing with a ton of frost to break through.  The other aspect is, the way our signs are set up, there's not a lot of room between the top of the sign and the top of the post itself.  So we'd need to customize the post pounder.

A lot of guys in our club use an old socket that fits over the fiberglass post, and we’ve positioned the signs themselves on the post far enough down so it doesn’t interfere since forever.  

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

A lot of this in northern Minnesota (and I suspect central MN, as well).  Gonna be a lot of work before the groomers can can start making the magic carpet.  I'm shocked by how many trees are down after this last storm.

IMG_8399.JPG

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

35 minutes ago, p51mstg said:

A lot of this in northern Minnesota (and I suspect central MN, as well).  Gonna be a lot of work before the groomers can can start making the magic carpet.  I'm shocked by how many trees are down after this last storm.

IMG_8399.JPG

Yep - same thing going on down here in the SE part of the state.  Despite the work ahead of us, with the cleanup being needed, things couldn't look better to start the season!

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, p51mstg said:

A lot of this in northern Minnesota (and I suspect central MN, as well).  Gonna be a lot of work before the groomers can can start making the magic carpet.  I'm shocked by how many trees are down after this last storm.

IMG_8399.JPG

Nice wet snow brings tree's down everytime 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rant session ...

We're barely even starting the season here, and already dealing with land owners who are pissed about morons who are trespassing on their property.  I spent a couple hours this morning fielding the complaints & working with our club to get out and do whatever we can to excessively sign the affected areas.  Why are people so fucking dumb!?!?!  It absolutely pisses me off that we're on the verge of a fantastic season, with good snow and colder temps, yet we're threatened with losing trail access ... and it's not even January yet!!  I hope our one land owner who has a bunch of trail cams out, can get a clear enough view of registration numbers and turn these idiots in.  F'ing douche bags :wall:

Rant over ... 

  • Like 2
  • Sad 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, Bontz said:

Rant session ...

We're barely even starting the season here, and already dealing with land owners who are pissed about morons who are trespassing on their property.  I spent a couple hours this morning fielding the complaints & working with our club to get out and do whatever we can to excessively sign the affected areas.  Why are people so fucking dumb!?!?!  It absolutely pisses me off that we're on the verge of a fantastic season, with good snow and colder temps, yet we're threatened with losing trail access ... and it's not even January yet!!  I hope our one land owner who has a bunch of trail cams out, can get a clear enough view of registration numbers and turn these idiots in.  F'ing douche bags :wall:

Rant over ... 

IF they are even registered…

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, Bontz said:

Rant session ...

We're barely even starting the season here, and already dealing with land owners who are pissed about morons who are trespassing on their property.  I spent a couple hours this morning fielding the complaints & working with our club to get out and do whatever we can to excessively sign the affected areas.  Why are people so fucking dumb!?!?!  It absolutely pisses me off that we're on the verge of a fantastic season, with good snow and colder temps, yet we're threatened with losing trail access ... and it's not even January yet!!  I hope our one land owner who has a bunch of trail cams out, can get a clear enough view of registration numbers and turn these idiots in.  F'ing douche bags :wall:

Rant over ... 

You're not alone unfortunately. This will be the demise of trail access in the Midwest.

Screenshot_20221219_053459_Facebook.jpg

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I live right on a busy trail and also right next to the trailhead with parking.  The one bad apple really does ruin a whole bunch.  Hundreds of sleds go by every day and it's great, I'd even call it enjoyable.  Until the one dumb fuck with a can rolls down the road and this is also the same person that has to constantly brap their piece of shit everywhere they go.  Literally just brap the fuck out it every second even when they could cruise through an area with a couple houses.  It makes me want to go knock the dumbasses off their sled.  Shut the fuck up.  And that's coming from a sledder.  Imagine what a normal person thinks.  Cans themselves aren't the worst thing ever if you're not a douche bro, but 90% of people who put cans on are douche bros.  Just go on the f7 FB page.. every post is asking about which can, and they say they don't care about losing horsepower they just want to brap.  And that's the majority of opinion on those pages.   

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Trying to pay the bills, lol

×
×
  • Create New...