Hidden Bear ATV Trail ATV Club Newsletter #1, 2019
CLUB MEETING: We held our first membership meeting of 2019 on Saturday, June 22nd at the Halfway Bar. A total of 45 members were in attendance. Thank you to all the members that were in attendance. After the meeting we took our first club ride starting at 11:00 am, the weather was beautiful and we ended up with 21 machines and 35 total people on the ride. We left the Halfway Bar and went over to Brad’s Wouter’s Front Bar & Grill on White Potato Lake for Lunch. Brad served us outside and did an excellent job in serving us all in a timely manner. After lunch we started our journey back, there was a lot of ATV’s/UTV’s on the trail that day but we all got back a little dusty but arrived back safe and sound!! Thanks to our members that went on the ride. Please visit our website (www.hiddenbeartrailatvclub.com) for pictures of our club ride. Our next club ride is scheduled for the last Saturday in September.
LANGLADE BRIDGE PROJECT UPDATE: Our last report in our September Newsletter 2018 informed all members that we did receive approval for funding from the Governor’s Off-Road-Vehicle Council and the Governor’s Snowmobile Council to build a new stand-alone bridge in Langlade over the Wolf River and an ATV/UTV trail to the new bridge from the east and to the west to the Wolf River Trail. Since that time we also received approval from the Langlade Park & Forestry Committee to move forward with the project. Currently we are in the process of getting some bids for engineering plansets from 3 civil engineer firms to design the trail system from Fish Hatchery Road to the new bridge. We are meeting with the engineer firms on July 9th on site. Once we receive the bids we will decide on which firm will be hired. The engineer company will develop a planset for the trail system that we can present to the Rhinelander DOT office for their approval/disapproval. Part of the new trail system will be on the DOT Right-of-Way and they have required a set of engineered plansets prior to their decision to allow ATV/UTV travel on their Right-of-Way. As we get further with this project we will try to keep everyone informed of our progress. This has been a very large and slow process but we will keep moving forward with this project!!!
2019 TRAIL MAINTENANCE: Our contractor just completed our yearly Trail Maintenance with much of the work between Island Lake Road and Star Lake Road on some of the hills that we have had problems with washouts in the past. We also installed 2 new type waterbars between Island Lake Road and Star Lake Road. These waterbars are made of conveyor belt material buried in the ground with 2 -12′ x 6″ treated lumber, above surface is approx 5 to 6 inches of the conveyor belt. The belting is designed for ATV’s/UTV’s to go over and designed for the water to run to one end and off the trail. These waterbars are something that we want to try that will require less up keep than the current waterbars that we have installed on the trail east of Highway T in Doty. If the new ones work, you will be seeing more of these on select hills where we have issue’s with washouts. We also had our President Shawn Fidler do some grading of the trails in the sand areas of our trail system. We received a total of $4,847.00 for our yearly DNR Maintenance money that we spend this last week. FYI: The Nicolet State Trail is the responsibility of the Dusty Trails ATV Club and the Red Arrow Snowmobile & ATV Club. We maintain the trail system to the West of Highway 32 over to the Town of Doty and over to the Boulder Lake Area.
YOUR REGISTRATION: At our membership meeting on Saturday we discussed where your ATV/UTV Registration that you pay every 2 years is spend. Currently the registration fee is $30.00 for 2 years that goes to the WI DNR. The WI DNR administers the ATV/UTV Registration Program. After the DNR takes out the administration cost the following is the order that the money is divided: Any Law Enforcement Costs which include time that the DNR Wardens spend on ATV/UTV patrol (our local warden is Paul Hartrick, we are also scheduled to get another warden that will be stationed out of Lakewood) also under the Law Enforcement Program their is a contract with the DNR with certain Wisconsin Counties that pay for a County Recreational Officer up to 60% of their cost from the ATV/UTV Registration Program, the Snowmobile Registration Program and the Boating Program. Oconto County has 2 Recreational County Officer’s, their names are Officer Jim Plotkin and Officer Woodke (Troy Sherman was our previous Rec Officer). After the DNR Admin cost and the Law Enforcement Cost the remainder of your registration money goes to Trail Maintenance and any New ATV/UTV Projects. The current trail maintenance comes out of the fund first and then what every is left goes for any Rehab Projects such as Bridge Rehabs and Trail Rehabs. The other projects include new year round trails, new Troute requests, new summer trails, new winter trails, new support facilities and acquistions. Along with the Registration Money the ATV program also receives a small percentage of the gas tax that is paid when you fill up your ATV/UTV. Last year’s (2018) State Wide Maintenance Budget was $2,059,903.09 and total projects budget was $4,934,102.39. As you can see your $30.00 registration adds up to some large dollars. In 2018 Oconto County received a total of $68,119.78 for yearly maintenance and our club received $4,847.00 of that. Their are 4 other clubs that received the remainder of the $68,119.78. Over the years we have also received money from the program for bridge rehabs, trail rehabs, etc.
ANNUAL FUNDRAISER: Our annual fundraiser is scheduled again for the 3rd Saturday in August on August 17th at Animal’s Bear Trail Inn from Noon – 6:00 pm. We will have Meat Raffles, 50-50 raffles, Packer Football Raffle and other raffles. We will also be serving food and refreshments as usual. This is our only fundraiser of the year so please tell your relatives, friends, etc to mark their calendars. We also have a sign-up sheet for members to help the day of the event. We are looking for food server’s, one or two cashier’s and some meat runner’s. If you can help please contact Jim via email at hiddenbeartrailatvclub@centurytel.net or call Jim at 920-562-7872. We also will be looking for set-up help on Saturday Morning at 9:00 am prior to our membership meeting at 11:00 am. This is our only Fundraiser of the year and the money raised helps maintain the trails and keeps our club financially sound. Please plan on attending.
WATVA NORTHEAST MEETING: Our Wisconsin ATV Association (WATVA) will be holding their annual Northeast Meeting this year at the Northland Camp & Conference Center in the Fine Arts Building, W10085 Pike Plans Road, Dunbar WI 54119 on Saturday July 27th starting at 8:30 AM Registration and 9:00 AM with the Northeast Meeting, Lunch at Noon (Nominal fee of $6.00) and then a trail ride after lunch. You can register for this event on the WATVA Website or Facebook Page. Website at: https://bit./y/2XtZSib.
NEW TRAIL AMBASSADOR PROGRAM: The Wisconsin ATV Association has revised their Trail Ambassador Program and they are looking for new Trail Ambassadors. Brian and Diane Fitzpatrick from our ATV Clubs are the new trainers in our area and part of the new program is to be able to train new Trail Ambassador in a more local area. I will be forwarding more info via email regarding this program, if you are interested in being a Trail Ambassador please look for this email in a few days.
BUSINESS MEMBERS: Please welcome the Paul Bunyan Ski Hill Bar as our newest Business Member. Please help support the following businesses: Lakewood Hardware, Lakewood Super Valu, Mulligans, The Beach Club, Lotter’s Shell, J&J Contracting, Animal’s Bear Trail Inn, Maple Heights Campground, Echo Valley Campground, Boulder Lake Camground, Tebo Lakewood Realty & Cellular, O’Neils Halfway Bar, Firelite Bar & Grill, Waubee Lodge, The School House Bar & Grill, Sandtrap Bar & Grill, Lakewood Motorsports, Anderson Supper Club, Binder Lake Lodge & All Seasons Rider ATV Club.
NEXT MEMBERSHIP MEETING: Saturday August 17th at Animal’s Bear Trail Inn at 11:00 am. Our Annual Fundraiser starts at Noon the same day!!!