Stopping a snowmobile without injury

[wawajake]

Similar to MossRoad............I've been there done that , won't again. Had cottage land that had official Snowmachine trail cross, I had a landuse agreement with them even for liability. But too much yahoos ! Including those in the summer on ATV's that follow the winter trails and ASSUME they can cross private land. I had too many of both kinds wander off the trail and see what they could see. One point not brought up is when you let them cross your land , then they see what is on your property and near your house and then the thieves have quick access. Now adays that is my biggest concern thieves and yahoos doing damage to fences, trees etc. If you want a place to ride buy your own land or find paid for trails. And if it hurts a restaraunt's bottom line then maybe they should help pay for new trails and my damages.

 

[super55]

Moss and Jake I understand where you are coming from and they are legitimate concerns. I don't tolerate trespassing with ATVs either. Dirt bikes especially leave ruts and break loose my sandy topsoil and usually take at least a year for the damage to regenerate and like you both stated they seem to go hand in hand unfortunately. I do thank you both as a former snowmobiler for giving it a try before completely shutting it down.

If there was government owned land in the area your idea is sound. In most cases there usually isn't or it's piece mealed that no matter what you cannot get to one parcel to the other without crossing private land.

You're absolutely right about thieves. The truth is crime is everywhere and it is a very legitimate concern especially if it is only a summer residence and the place is not kept open in the winter.

As with anything in life it is the actions of a few that ruin it for the masses. Until some miraculous drug comes along to cure idiocy we are stuck with it. Even if it did come along it would probably never be for sale because it would infringe on freedom of expression. I know I'm arguing a losing battle here but for me maybe I'm just a nice guy, naive or just haven't eaten enough crow yet to be bitter but I try not to let the actions of a few automatically make me resentful towards all except maybe democrats.

I'm just very very thankful that long ago the US stated that river and lakes were considered transportation routes and therefore publicly owned otherwise every lake association in the country create a pact that their lake was private property and unavailable for public use and I would have no place to fish or go boating anymore.

 

[MossRoad]

I hear ya. We lived on an ox-bow lake that was once part of the river. We had riparian rights to use the water. The entire lake was bordered by a public park, a cemetery, a historical landing (where LaSalle portaged between the great lakes and the Kankakee river), the county(later city) and 4 homes, including ours. It had over two miles of shoreline. The four homes all had steps down the steep embankment and we had landings for swimming, boating, etc... The public park had no swimming signs posted. Every year, some new park policeman would try to arrest us kids for swimming. We'd have to explain that we had water rights. They wouldn't believe us. We'd kindly disregard their orders to leave the water and tell them to talk to our folks and give them the address and phone number. Many times we had the police over. It was quite amusing. We usually ended up being pretty friendly with the park police the rest of the summer. A friendly wave as they patrolled.

Anyhow, many times we had to call the police for people trespassing that thought they could walk around the lake. You have to understand the a quarter of the lake was a sheer 90' escarpment with barbed wire on our property line that they had to climb over, under or through, frequently damaging the fence. I learned a lot about private property, permission and respect from my parents. That's why it cheesed me off that people would come onto our property and intentionally run down rows of trees, use chainsaws to clear trails on my property, nail signs onto my trees and leave tire ruts that caused massive erosion on our sloped sandy soil. Despite the no trespassing signs and the clearly marked snow mobile trail, it was getting worse and worse. So, yes, a few bad apples spoiled it for the rest of the folks that followed the rules.

You'll be happy to know that I do allow hunting on my property by permission only. I find that hunters with permission tend to keep an eye on my place better than I can. They want a place to hunt and won't tear up the place. And they give me some of the meat from the deer from time to time. :licking: