Silent Sports Sounds Off

Early December snow kick-started cross-country skiing in Wisconsin but came before deer hunting season had closed in many state and county parks. Via the Silent Sports messageboard, I tried to spread that word that guns and skis may not mix at Nine Mile Forest and Blue Mound State Park, among other places. Yet it didn’t occur to me that by skiing around the closed gate and through the parking lot of Portage County’s Standing Rocks Park I risked running into hunters. No such encounter took place, thankfully, but I was rightly scolded after I posted my Standing Rocks trail condition report on Skinnyski.com.

Last week, while skiing at Greenbush in the Northern Kettle Moraine State Forest, my skiing partner and I did cross paths with another category of trail users that made us more than a little nervous: snowmobilers. Well before our trail crossed theirs, we heard that annoying “RRRREEEEEEEEE” grow louder and louder. Twice we found ourselves bottoming out on hills just as two helmeted sled riders passed in front of us.

On neither occasion did the snowmobiler in the lead show any sign of seeing us. In fact, the first time, sledhead No. 1 slowed in the middle of the intersection before jumping off to get a closer look at a posted trail map. Luckily, sledhead No. 2 saw my brother-in-law Adam snowplowing down the hill, and allowed him and then myself to pass between their vehicles. Not until Adam had begun climbing the hill on the opposite side did sledhead No. 1 notice us.

I was in front of Adam the second time we met snowmobilers. (I don’t know whether they were the same guys; they all look the same to me.) Again, sledhead No. 2 saw me as he passed in front of me, from right to left. He waved his left hand as if to make other members of his clan aware of my presence. But since he was bringing up the rear, only I saw the gesture.

The lead snowmobiler was just as oblivious as the earlier one had been. And I reckon the guy on the second sled gave no further thought to us as soon as we were out of sight. We skiers, however, were left to listen to them well after their disappearance and fear that we’d run into them again.

For years now, the Northern Kettle Moraine Nordic Ski Club has wanted to move the snowmobile trail to the east of Kettle Moraine Scenic Drive. In fact, that was one of the group’s seven listed goals in its 10-year master plan adopted in 1998.

Obviously, due to our experience, I hope the club can get the snowmobile trail moved to the periphery of the ski area. As much as I enjoy the 25K of ski trails at Greenbush, Standing Rocks and other ski trail systems are all the more attractive because they are not intersected by snowmobile trails. If I can just remember to stay away from these public trails open during the hunting seasons, I’ll get to enjoy their quiet beauty without worrying about being shot or runover.

– Joel Patenaude

Although it has not yet been decided who will use the still undeveloped 23-mile Seymour to New London rail-trail in east-central Wisconsin, the topic made the agenda of the last two Outagamie County committee meetings, first as “ATV Trail Discussion” and then “ATV Trail Proposal.”

Nevertheless, the airport and property committee heard cogent arguments for keeping the trail nonmotorized from Vicki Milde, president of Fox Cities Greenways Inc.; Dale Schaber of the Fox Valley chapter of the Sierra Club; and myself.

We pointed out, as we have in the past, that the Seymour-New London rail corridor would provide a vital link between the nonmotorized Wiouwash, Friendship, Mountain Bay and Fox River state trails. It is not a connector to any existing ATV trails and therefore would give ATVers “nowhere else to go,” as DNR Regional Trails Coordinator Gary Hanson informed the committee a month earlier.

Nevertheless, the Trax Trail Riders Club of Black Creek, which lies along the abandoned railbed, is pressuring the county to allow both motorized and nonmotorized users on the trail. Club members want the county to green-light ATVs on the trail which would then allow the club to seek from the DNR up to $450 per mile in maintenance funding annually.

Hanson, who has helped other counties build ATV trails and motorized recreation parks, said $450 per mile won’t be enough to maintain a trail surface suitable for ATV’ers, bicyclists and hikers. If true, then the county will be on the hook for the additional, and probabaly annual, trail maintenace costs – as well as overtime for sheriff’s deputies patrolling the trail for speeders, intoxicated drivers and off-trail vandals. In contrast, a nonmotorized trail rarely need to be resurfaced more often than once every 10 to 12 years, and law enforcement needs would be minimal.

Rail-trails designated for bicycling typically include fine limestone screenings over a crushed stone base. “This material does not hold together during freezing conditions, even with a large amount of moisture, making it vulnerable to the spinning wheels of misused ATVs,” points out Sam Tobias, planning and parks director for adjoining Fond du Lac County. (For this reason, Tobias recommended against allowing winter ATVing on the Eisenbahn State Trail. But the county board permitted ATV access to the trail, beginning Dec. 10.)

The question remains why any county officials believes an ATV club is capable or the least bit motivated to properly maintain a “multi-use” trail at the higher surface standard the DNR requires for trails used by bicyclists. The ATV club will only want to patch those inevitable ruts and washouts ATVs create with a coarser, larger-diameter material through which bikes can not be safely or comfortably pedaled.

“We can share the trail,” the ATV’ers like to say. (Or, as the over-powering and oblivious ATV’er in the cartoon above says, “For crying out loud, there’s plenty of room for all of us!”) Clearly, there are Outagamie County Board members who believe that. But I wish them luck finding a hiker or a biker who will use this trail once they know they could run into or get run over by an ATV, or know from experience that the trail surface will not likely be walkable or rideable because of previous ATV traffic. The fact is, if ATVs are allowed on the trail, it will become a de facto ATV trail.

As the Appleton Post-Crescent reported today, the property committee plans to meet again in January, probably on the 22nd, “with a special advisory committee appointed several years ago to determine whether it can make some headway toward a decision about use.”

In the mean time, snowmobilers are riding the trail largely illegally and without recourse. There are only three short sections of the Seymour-New London Trail, totalling 1.5 miles, that snowmobilers are allowed to use as connecting routes to club trails on private land, yet they are reportedly running the entire 23-mile length of it.

– Joel Patenaude

I’m diggin’ this T-shirt design. Although only the obvious bike/car comparison is relevant, it is still good to remember that a songbird is quieter than a triceratops.

Incidentally, dinosaurs ought not to be allowed on nonmotorized human trails. How long will it take for the DNR to agree?

“Sound Advice” by Olly Moss, available on Threadless.com.

– Joel Patenaude

The first snowstorm of the season brought challenges and opportunities to the upper Midwest. For me, it meant tricky running, even trickier driving and early season skiing.

Although I was aware of the forecast for Saturday (snow, drizzle, freezing rain and more snow; the order to be determined), I had made up my mind to run the 32nd annual Stevens Point Frostbite 10 Mile at noon. Still, I waited to register until the morning of the race. Of course at 10 a.m. when I did that, the pavement was still clear and dry. An hour later, nearly blizzard conditions had moved in.

For the more than 400 of us (three-fourths of whom were smart enough to run the 5-mile option), every step on the course required negotiation. Was it better to follow the tire tracks or find traction in the unblemished inch-deep white stuff on the far sides of the road? If you wore glasses, as I do and must, was it better to carry the fogged up lenses in one gloved hand, or peer over the top of the frames and through the snowy haze? And once your eyelids froze together, did it really matter?

I’ve run trail races in thunderstorms that were easier. But as sore as I still am, especially my feet, I feel stronger for surviving the aptly named Frostbite.

Sunday warmed to just above freezing, so some of that snow was lost to those of us who also cross-country ski. Still, a public golf course in the Fox Valley beckoned. There were slushy spots that slowed down my waxless rock skis. But rather than a gruesome slog, the first ski outing of the ski season was quite pleasant. Again, my feet hurt inside those combi boots, but I knew I was waking them and my legs up to skiing once again.

I can imagine the classic tracks now criss-crossing that golf course are icy and abrasive. But with another snowfall, which could come mid-week, they’ll be inviting once again.

– Joel Patenaude