Re: Michael Soldan OT Reply

Posted by Michael Soldan on February 28, 2005 at 15:11:09 from (66.203.172.221):

In Reply to: Michael Soldan OT Reply posted by Butch WI on February 28, 2005 at 03:09:48:

Butch, good to hear from you. It sounds like your State is very much like Ontario. The Motor Vehicle Registration has got into the act with the trail permits and you have to show proof of insurance to get you trail permit and your machine must be registered with the province. We don't really have a problem with people using the trails without a permit for a number of reasons. If you are caught you must buy a permit on the spot or be charged with tresspass. The Ontario Provincial Police have officers on the trails with sleds and radar to enforce laws such as Max 50kmh, no alcohol consumption etc. The trail rangers and the groomers can stop you and ask you to produce your trail pass, can radio the police if you do not cooperate. For our $220 we get to use the trails. Our local club gets to keep about half to run their groomers, the rest goes to OFSC for trail management, map production,safety, advertising on tv etc. There is no choice in the matter, if you are going to run on the trails you need to payb $220 and you become a member of the club that sold you the permit. Local clubs have fun days , family days, poker runs and year end banquet. It is recommended that you buy your permit in the area you live in to support your local club. OFSC uses the rest of the money to maintain trails in areas where it is less populated and there are less people to support a club. They manage to use our money up every year, even if we get poor snow, the argument is that further north there is snow and to maintain the network of trails in Ontario, every club has to contribute. There have been a few seasons when the snow didn't arrive or stay , but in the long run it averages out. "Stay on The Trail" signs work well here, everyone knows the trail is safe, signed and marked, wheras leaving the trail could take you into a deep ditch or a buried cultivator in a field or a barbed wire fence. There are few problems with noise as trails are laid out away from dwellings. Towns allow you to take your machine up the street to the nearest access to the trail, riding around town can get you fined, there is really nowhere you can ride without a trail permit unless it is along roadside ditches, which really isn't much fun. Even then you must have a vehicle registration that is current and insurance. Back in the days we used to be constantly awakened by snowmobiles at 2 or 3 in the morning, people driving across your lawns and so on...since the inception of OFSC we no longer have these problems. There are less accidents, less fatalities, less complaints about tresspass and noise. You are correct when you say that the tourist factor is big. I see guys from Michigan filling up their sleds at the local gas bar, couple of pubs near the gas bar do a booming business on the weekends,parking lots are often full of sleds. So I'm not sure what else to tell you other than this system works well and that groomed trails are like driving down a highway in an arm chair, very smooth and comfortable. We have Friday planned for another outing, we like week days when the "Citiots" aren't around, we are going to do a run south of where we live, again we'll run maybe 75 or 100 miles south, lunch and jug up and then ride home. I don't like travelling hell bent, I like to look at the country and the farmland, enjoy it all, and run maybe 35-40 mph, running faster is more dangerous and you use up a lot of fuel to go 10 mph faster. I've had machines since 1971, I've got a 74 TNT , 5 Massey Fergusson Ski-Whiz and a Bombardier Formula S that is my main ride. The guys that go are neighbours from just up the road at the farm. We do a lot of short hops, I just like taking the machine around the back of the farm, through the bush and the neighbourhood, then we try to have a few good excursions, day trips and sometimes we trailer several hundred miles north for a big 4 or 5 day run. I don't know about the big run as I have cattle and can't really get away for several days in a row...anyway I'm starting to ramble, stay in touch and e-maile if I can give you any more info, Inviting everyone who reads this to tell us how Snowmobiling is handled in your State/province/Territory...Mike in Exeter Ontario

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• Re: Michael Soldan OT Reply Butch WI 19:57:37 02/28/05 (0)

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