Hidden Bear Trail ATV Club Newsletter #1, 2016
MEMBERSHIP MEETING AND CLUB RIDE: Our first membership meeting was held on Saturday, June 18th at the Schoolhouse Bar in Downtown Mountain, WI. We had a total of 34 members in attendance. The meeting started at 10:00 am with the Pledge and adjourned at 10:45 am. At 11:00 am we left the Schoolhouse (see pictures on our website at www.hiddenbeartrailatvclub.com) on our way to Waubee Lodge for lunch. The owner of Waubee Lodge (Russ) met us and thanked the group for coming for lunch. The weather was beautiful and we arrived at Waubee at 12:30 for lunch. After lunch we took a detour on a trail in the Crooked Lake Area which was very wet and fun. We arrived back at the Schoolhouse Bar at 3:30 pm. Thanks to Chrissy & Clay from the Schoolhouse for opening early for our meeting and Russ from Waubee for a fantastic lunch!!
MEMBERSHIIP REPORT: We have a total of 157 paying members and a total membership of over 300. Thank you all for being members!!!
BRAT FRY: Our club will be at Lakewood SuperValu next Saturday, June 25th from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. If you are in the area please stop and support our club. Loren Nelson is heading this event and Don Jackson will be doing the cooking again this year!!
DONATIONS: Our club continues to help support local events and businesses in the area. This past year the board of directors has approved the following donations: $250.00 to both the Mountain and Lakewood/Townsend Ambulance, $300.00 to purchase a gun for the Oconto County River Kids (this organization helps terminally ill children with hunting opportunities), $250.00 to the Northern Oconto County Trout Association (this organization opened up the Lakewood Trout Rearing Station, all Trout that are raised are by volunteers and the troute are released in Oconto County), and $100.00 to the Mountain Business Association Kids Fisheree. Your board of Directors has been very generous to support these events and it helps portray a positive image in our community.
NEW ATV ROUTE AND DONATION: Our club worked with the Oconto County Highway Department to establish a new route off of the Nicolet State Trail by Chute Pond using Bonita Road, Highway W and Town Roads to connect the southern portion of the Nicolet State Trail over to Doty and Langlade County. Our club payed for 1/2 of the cost of the signs (Dusty Trails payed 1/2) and installed all of the signs on the Town Roads, we also had to pay the County to install the signs on Highway W. A local business and members of our club heard about the cost and donated $500.00 to help pay for these expenses.
FOREST SERVICE REPORT: On Monday June 13th we met at our quarterly forest service meeting and discussed the project connecting the Wolf River Trail at White Lake to Oconto County via the snowmobile trail from Boulder Lake to Langlade. The FS will be starting a NEPA study of this project and will be going forward with this request. The White Lake ATV Club has gotten all the written easements from the land owners to get from Fish Hatchery Road over to the Wolf River Trail. They are also working with the DOT to use the existing bridge at Langlade to cross the Wolf River. With any luck this connection could be open sometime next year, but no promises!!
MAINTENANCE ON ATV ROUTE: Our club just finished with the help from our local contractor to repair two washouts on the ATV route between Star Lake Road and Island Lake Road in the Town of Riverview. We also repaired a washout earlier this spring on the trail between Blue Spruce Road and Highway T in Doty.
DNR ATV CERTIFICATION CLASS: Our club along with the Red Arrow Club will be holding our annual DNR ATV Certification Class on June 28th & June 29th at the Town of Doty. Anyone at least 12 years old and born on or after Jan 1, 1988 must have a certificate to drive an ATV. It is not too late to sign up for the class by visiting the WI DNR Website.
WATVA ANNUAL MEETING: Tom Suidzinski and I attended the WATVA Meeting in April in Wausau WI. A few highlights of the meeting are that WATVA has a plan to try to get their Safety Enhancement Grant that the Governor vetoed last year. More information regarding this will be coming out this fall. A new UTV law was passed regarding driving a UTV, prior to the change no one under the age of 16 could drive a UTV, the law was changed to allow anyone between 12 to 16 to drive a UTV under 200 cc’s.
LAKEWOOD PARADE: Our club will again particpate in the Lakewood Parade on Sunday July 17th starting at Noon. We will line up at the Lakewood Cemetery at 11:30 am. This year we will have beads again to hand out and parade candy. We plan on inviting anyone from the Red Arrow Club to ride also.
CASH RAFFLE AND GUN RAFFLE: We are getting very low on cash raffle ticket for our event on August 20th. Anyone that would still like to get a $100.00 ticket can contact me, I am pretty sure that these tickets will all be gone by July 1st!! We also have a gun raffle that started and currently the gun is hanging at the School House Bar until the middle of July and then it will be at Animal’s Bear Trail Inn until the day of our raffle. The gun is a Savage 308 Bolt Action, with Nixon Scope. Tickets are $10.00 for one ticket or 3 tickets for $20.00.
FUNDRAISER: Our main fundraiser is on Saturday August 20th, 2016 from noon to 6:00 pm at Animals Bear Trail Inn on the Corner of Hwy T & 64 in the Town of Doy. If anyone has not signed up to help and would still like to please contact me at 920-562-7872 or via email. We will have meat raffles, 50-50 raffles, food, beverages and fun. We will also have our club clothing for sale that day. Please mark your calendars!!!
BUSINESS MEMBERS: The following is a list of Business Members, please help support their Business: Lakewood Hardware, Lakewood Supervalu, Lakewood Powersports, Mulligans, The Beach Club, Lakewood Shell, J & J Contracting, Animals Bear Trail Inn, Maple Heights Campground, Echo Valley Campground, Boulder Lake Campground, Tebo Lakewood Realty & Cellular, O’Neils Halfway Bar, 9 mile Resort, Firelite Bar & Grill Waubee Lodge, Prospect Bar & Grill, Sandtrap Bar & Grill and The Schoolhouse Bar &Grill.
NEXT MEETING: Our next membership meeting will be at 11:00 am on August 20th before our Fundraiser at Animal’s Bear Trail Inn.
Thanks
Jim