Hidden Bear Trail ATV Club Newsletter #1, 2020
CLUB MEETING AND CLUB RIDE: Our first membership meeting for 2020 was held on June 20th at Mulligan’s Sport Bar in Lakewood. Due to the weather the meeting was held inside. Sanitizer and Masks were furnished by the club. We had a total of 41 members in attendance. Due to the very wet conditions we only had 6 UTV’s and 10 brave souls on our ride. The rain somewhat subsided and we had a very nice ride thru many mud holes and no dust!!! The 10 of us met up with 5 other member’s to have a very nice lunch at 9 Mile Resort. Thank you Shelia and Suzie for preparing and serving us a great lunch.
TRAIL WORK AND TRAIL CLOSURE’S: Our club has replaced 8 of our old waterbars with 17 new type waterbars. The new type are a very heavy belting between 2 – 6 inch treated lumber. The treated lumber is buried in the ground with only about 4 to 5 inches of belting above ground. The heavy belting is meant to be traveled over with your ATV/UTV. The waterbar is positioned on a hill to allow water to run off of the trail on the side to eliminate washout’s. Our club has also repaired the crossing at the end of the trail where it crosses Hwy F at Knowles Creek Road. We also repaired about a half mile of a very rocky area, removed the boulder’s and put gravel over the top between Star Lake Road and Island Lake Road. We also repaired a temporary fix at 3 mud holes on the trail over to Boulder Lake. A permanent fix will be completed next year with a ORV grant that will be approved this August. Trail Closures: The ditch line going east from the Beach Club to the trail that comes from Crooked Lake has been closed permanently. The county was concerned with the erosion that was happening in that area and the potential safety concerns for ATV/UTV Rider’s. Temporary Trail Closures: Currently the Nicolet State Trail south of Breed is closed. The exact location is between Hill Road and Central Road, a detour is in place. The ORV Council approved an emergency grant last Wednesday for $15,000.00 to repair this section of trail. Hopefully this will be completed soon by the County. Dusty Trails Closure: There is a temporary closure south of Hwy 64 at Pete Defoure Road over to the Pipeline, not sure when this will open up due to high water.
DUST CONTROL: Our club and all other ATV Clubs are working with the DNR and County to attempt to create less dust on the Nicolet State Trail especially in the area around Chute Pond, Mountain, Lakewood & Townsend. You can all help by reducing your speed in these area’s. By going 10 MPH in these area’s it reduces the dust greatly. We have put up new dust control signs along with putting up some solar flashing lights to remind rider’s to slow down. There is some early planning on using recycled blacktop in some area’s that are major problems. The first step in this process is to follow-up with the DNR to be able to use this material on the Nicolet State Trail. More info to follow.
LANGLADE BRIDGE UPDATE: After the engineering study that was performed on a possible ATV trail between Fish Hatchery Road and Memorial Drive within the DOT Right-of-way the study showed the 12 foot trail could fit in the ROW but we needed 2 temporary easements for land owners that were not granted. The committee is in the process of finding another possible route to the bridge on the east side of the Wolf River. We also were informed that the Lawsuit that was filed in regards to the DNR property that was approved for ATV use was returned to the DNR from the Judge explaining that the DNR did not follow proper procedures in changing their master plan on this property. We are hoping that the DNR will follow-up on this decision to allow ATV travel on their property. On a positive note the Langlade County Board of Supervisor had a large change in leadership including the Park & Forestry Committee having 3 new members and a new chairman. We plan on meeting with them in July to give them an update on the project and hope that we will have better support for this project in the future.
CASH RAFFLE: Anyone that would like a $100.00 cash raffle can reply to this email or contact Jim at 920-562-7872. First prize is $4000.00 with 24 other cash prizes. Drawing will be Saturday August 15th at Animal’s Bear Trail Inn. Tickets are also available at: Animal’s Bear Trail Inn, The Schoolhouse Bar & Grill, Halfway Bar & Grill and at Anderson’s Supper Club.
ANNUAL FUNDRAISER: The Board of Director’s at their June meeting decided to table their decision till their July Meeting to decide to hold the Annual Fundraiser on August 15th. We will be looking for members to help after that decision is made. More info to follow!!
NEW ATV/UTV LAWS: You can visit the DNR website for changes to the ATV/UTV Laws. I will try to highlight the changes. 1. Definition of ATV/UTV has changed: No longer are low pressure tires required, now simply 4 or more tires are required for a UTV and for an ATV simply 3 or more tires are required. 2. The width of a UTV is 65 inches or less as measured laterally between the outermost wheel rim on each side of the vehicle, exclusive of tires, mirror and accessories. ATV is not more than 50 inches in width and measured the same way as UTV. 3. ATV Passenger Rules: Something that not many were aware of is that the previous law stated only on roadways (road routes) were passengers restricted only to those ATV’s that were designed and intended for passengers. Now that requirement has been extended to all other areas including ATV trails. Our Wisconsin ATV Association along with many lawmaker’s are looking into this change, more info to follow. 4. All ATV’s and UTV’s are now required to have your headlights and taillights on at all times. 5 Auxiliary Lighting Restrictions: No person (except EMS Personnel) may operate an ATV or UtV that is equipped with any of the following: A lamp that emits any color of light other than white or amber and that is visible from directly in front of the ATV/UTV, a lamps that emits any color of light other than red, yellow. amber or white that is visible from directly behind the ATV/UTV, and any person operating an ATV/UTV must dim their high-beam headlamps and any auxiliary lamps when within 500 feet of an approaching ATV/UTV.
UPDATE ON HWY T FROM BISMARCK TO OLD LOG SIDING: We will be meeting with the Doty Town Board in August to discuss the possibility to use Hwy T from Bismarck to Old Log Siding for ATV/UTV Travel. More info to follow.
BUSINESS MEMBERS: Please support the following businesses that belong to our club: 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 Campground, Tebo Lakewood Realty and Cellular, O’Neils Halfway Bar, Firetlite Bar & Grill, Waubee Lodge, The School House Bar and Grill, Sandtrap Bar & Grill, Lakewood Motorsports, Anderson Supper Club, Binder Lake Lodge and All Season Rider ATV Club