Hidden Bear Trail ATV Club Newsletter #3, 2015

MEMBERSHIP MEETING, CLUB RIDE & CLUB COOKOUT: We held our 3rd and final club meeting on Saturday September 26th at the Firelite Lounge in Lakewood WI at 10:00 am. We had a total of 34 members in attendance. Dave Thomson won the 50-50 raffle for $70.00. At 11:00 am we left the Lakewood Trailhead for our club ride over to Crooked Lake. We had 25 ATV & UTV’s on the ride, with a total of 40 people on the ride. We arrived at Crooked Lake Sportsman park at 1:00 pm and we all had lunch at the Dusty Trails & Crooked Trails Poker Run that was taking place that day. We want to thank both clubs for the excellent food that they served. We left Crooked Lake at 2:00 pm and arrived back at the Lakewood Trailhead at 3:30 pm. The club furnished all the food and drinks for our annual cookout which we had right at the trailhead in Lakewood. We had 50 members at the cookout. All in all it was a very fun day and we could not have asked for any better weather. Thanks to all the members that attened!!!

MEMBERSHIP REPORT: We now have a total of 164 paying members. The Board of Directors would like to thank you!!!

WEBSITE REPORT: Dave Pitterle has now posted pictures of our annual fundraiser that we had in August and also pictures of the club ride and cookout. Please visit our website at: www.hiddenbeartrailatvclub.com for more club info.

FOREST SERVICE REPORT: Our club is continuing to work with the Forest Service to create more riding opportunities and to insure your safety on the trails that we currently have. Currently our club is working on the ATV trail/route from the Nicolet State Trail over to Doty in widening parts of the trail and repairing wash outs that occur during the year. As I write this newsletter, Oconto County is working on the trail at Highway 32 & Thelen Road, widening the approach and putting in more gravel. Our club obtained a $5000.00 grant from the DNR to complete this work.

NEW OCONTO COUNTY LOCATOR SIGN: In 2016 when traveling the ATV trails and Snowmobile Trails you will notice a new “three” digit locator sign. This new sign will replace the 2 digit intersection signs that you have seen in the past. The new sign will have a 3 digit number along with a GPS Location Number on the sign. In the past the Oconto County ATV Map and the Oconto County Snowmobile Map each had different 2 digit intersection numbers, with the new map the 3 digit number will be the same for each map. This project was worked on by the Oconto County Trails Committee which our club is part of. The three digit locator numbers will be 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 & 600. The county was divided into 6 parts, the south west part will have the 100 series, southeast will have the 200 series, the middle part of the county will be 300 & 400 series, the northwest part will have 500 series and the northeast part will be the 600 series. If you are riding in Oconto County North of Mountain you will see the 500 & 600 series locator signs. The new maps both snowmobile that will be coming out shortly and the ATV Maps that will be out next spring will have these new numbers please destroy any of your old maps.

NEW ATV ROUTE BONITA ROAD TO MOUNTAIN LAKES ROAD: We have a tenative agreement with Oconto County to use part of Highway W in the Town of Doty to get from Bonita Road to Mountain Lakes Road. We are waiting to get an agreement from Oconto County that our club needs to sign. More info and detailed riding instructions will follow once the agreement is signed. PLEASE DO NOT TRAVEL ON HIGHWAY W IN THE TOWN OF DOTY UNTIL THE AGREEMENT IS SIGNED AND WE INSTALL ALL THE SIGNS!!

ELECTIONS: At our membership meeting we had our annual elections for officers and the following were the results: President: Shawn Fidler, Vice President: Loren Nelson, Treasurer: Tom Suidzinski, Secretary: Jim Wisneski, Membership Secretary: Dawn S, Board of Directors: Tim Stephani, Gene Dunsirn, Jim Schommer, Dave Pitterle, Mike Richling & Kathy Steinbach. Congratulations to all!!!

BUSINESS MEMBERS: The following is a list of Business Members, please help support their Business: Lakewood Hardware, Timberline Restaruant, Lakewood Super Valu, 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 and The Schoolhouse Bar & Grill.

ATV LAW: One of our members suggested that each month we cover some of the ATV/UTV Laws so here we go!!! Operation of a Utility Terrain Vehicle (UTV): All UTV Operators at least age 16 and born on or after January 1, 1988 must possess a valid ATV safety certificate issued by this state or an other state or province. Operators must be in possession of this certificate while operating in an areas open to the public such as trails, routes and frozen waterways and display it to a law enforcement officeer upon request, (page 13, Pub-LE 500, 2014).

NEXT MEMBERSHIP MEETING: Our next membership meeting will be June of 2016. Date and place will be announced later.

LAST NEWSLETTER OF 2015: This will be our last newsletter of 2015, any important information will be mailed, emailed or put on our website as they occur. Remember the Oconto County ATV Trail system close on Saturday October 31st!!!