Silent Sports Sounds Off

From Friends of L.O.G. Greenway, Inc.:

Eau Claire, WI — In a closely watched and very significant case for users of Wisconsin’s state trails, Polk County Judge Molly GaleWyrick issued a decision earlier this week which prohibits the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) from allowing the use of motorized all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) and snowmobiles on the new Amery to Dresser State Trail in Polk County, Wisconsin.

The Amery to Dresser State Trail is a segment of the over 1,700-mile newly designated “Aldo Leopold State Trail System.”

The court decision for the petitioners, a trail conservation and recreation group named Friends of L.O.G. Greenway, Inc. and individual property owner Richard Roos, came after protracted litigation in two different cases against DNR over its decisions to approve a motorized trail plan approved by Polk County. The plan would have allowed ATVs and snowmobiles to be used on the scenic and environmentally sensitive Amery to Dresser State Trail, which the petitioners and the City of Amery had expected to be used only for walking, bicycling, cross-country skiing, and other non-motorized uses.

In her decision against DNR, Judge GaleWyrick ruled that the state trail statute, Wis. Stat. § 23.175(2)(a), “plainly limits state trails to non-motorized use”; that DNR’s environmental assessment (EA) for the Amery to Dresser Trail was “unreasonable” because it considered the trail as a local resource rather than as a segment of the much larger statewide trail system; and that DNR violated a 2005 stipulated court order with the same petitioners by once again accepting Polk County’s motorized master plan for the trail when it approved the final EA.

The court remanded the matter to DNR “for further proceedings consistent with Wis. Stats. § 1.11 and Wisconsin Administrative Code Ch. NR 150.” The decision also stated that: “The DNR is specifically ordered to prohibit use of motorized vehicles on the trail unless they meet the limited exceptions found in Wis. Stat. 23.175 or Wisconsin Administrative Code § NR 51.70 to 51.75.” (These exceptions are only for “riders of electric personal assistive mobility devices.”)

According to Attorney Glenn Stoddard, who represented the petitioners in both cases, “This decision is a victory for everyone who is concerned about adverse environmental impacts of ATVs on Wisconsin’s state trails. It is also a major victory for the petitioners and all non-motorized users of the Amery to Dresser State Trail, because ATVs and snowmobiles conflict directly with the non-motorized uses of such trails. Hopefully, it will be a wake-up call for DNR that will enable the agency to do a better job of addressing environmental issues and use conflicts on state trails in the future.”

Read and add to messageboard thread here.

I’m a bit late reading Bill McKibben’s thin volume Long Distance: Testing the Limits of Body and Spirit in a Year of Living Stenuously about the environmental writer’s serious training as a cross-country skier in 1997 (the book came out in 2000). But with temps in the 40s and incessant rain over the last couple days robbing me of skiing opportunities, I’m back to running (puddle hopping, is more like it), spending more time on the basement NordicTrack, and reading.

The current meltdown brings to the fore every cross-country skiers’ lament and particular sensitivity: Winters aren’t what they used to be.

“Winter, and especially the recent lack of it, makes Nordic skiing a tenuous enterprise,” McKibben writes in Long Distance. “I’ve obsessed about global warming for more than a decade; my books on the topic have been translated into 18 languages; I’ve written hundreds of articles, given hundreds of speeches. But I’ve never found an audience as receptive as the ski salesman.”

McKibben and skier/Silent Sports columnist Mark Parman exchange grievances over global warming in the current issue of the magazone. You can read the article here.

On the ground here in central Wisconsin, Iola Winter Sports Club ski trail groomer Phil Johnsrud told me yesterday he was remaining optimistic the base would hold in spite of the rain. But he’s hearing plenty of worried grumblings from skiers.

“I’ve seen this happen too many times,” Johsrud said of promising early ski seasons done in by a warm spell. “If we just get a couple inches of snow, I think we’ll be OK.”

If not over the long term, as McKibben warns, we can still hope to be skiing again in the short term.

– Joel Patenaude

Another long, silent sports weekend was had, if not by all, by myself and a couple family members.

Sunday, my brother-in-law and I spent a great couple hours skiing the Zillmer trails in the Northern Unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest near Campbellsport, Wis. I broke out my waxable classics for the first time this season but didn’t get the grip wax right. I had to resort to the flying herringbone – a dying art, according to Lee Borowski on one of his videos – on all the inclines.

Speaking of Borowski, he considers the Zillmer ski trails among the best in the state. After skiing there Dec. 20, the Silent Sports columnist reported on Skinnyski.com, “The inner brown loop is perfect for youngsters and beginners. The southern loops have rolling terrain that is not too severe and the northern yellow loop has all the climbing any Birkie trainer could want.”

Needless to say, Adam and I did two laps of yellow and a lap of green for 12 miles even. There were lots of cars and skiers coming and going in the parking lot but the trails were uncongested. A snowmobile-mounted groomer passed us twice, first to improve the classic tracks then to grade the wider skate lane.

On Monday morning, my Madison-based sister bravely ventured unaccompanied to Neenah to run the New Year’s Day 5K. Called in to work, my wife was unable to join her as planned. (They both received calls the night before from no less than race director Gloria West asking them if they would accept a race hat in a color other than what they ordered. Talk about hands on.) My sister returned to report that it was a well organized event with a great post-race spread – which, as a professional cook, she would know.

Her run inspired me to venture outdoors late that afternoon. But I was a bit crazier for donning snowshoes and trying to high step on down the local high school cross country course. Within a quarter mile of leaving the parking lot, I was gasping for breath. The temp had dropped to about 12 degrees and I was not yet into the woods and out of the even colder wind. Footing was tricky and exhausting thanks to drifting snow a foot deep in places and uneven where others had previously hiked. I had barely covered three miles in 40 minutes when I called it quits. My calves are still complaining this morning.

Still, there’s no better way to welcome a new year than by challenging yourself by something out of the ordinary. I hope it sets the stage for a physically varied and adventurous 2008.

I wish no less for you, too, my fellow silent sporters.

– Joel Patenaude

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

David Vogt, the new deputy director of the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin and now an at-large Friends of the Badger State Trail Board member, has left some excellent comments on the Silent Sports messageboard.

The rallying of more than 100 bicyclists to elect him and two others to the Friends board last Tuesday in Belleville, he wrote, “was a beginning, not an end. The silent sports community must realize that activism and advocacy are integrally woven into their activities of choice. Like it or not, voting and advocacy are now just as important as base training and intervals.”

In a seperate post, Vogt wrote, “The BikeFed has never, nor will we ever, assemble our members for the purpose of taking over the governing board of a designated ATV trail with the intention of changing the trail’s primary intended use. Never. The ATV community cannot say the same.”

He rightly called ATV’ers trying to gain access to nonmotorized trails as “4-wheeled scavengers.” That’s exactly what the Wisconsin ATV Association is as it joins efforts to motorize the Badger, Eisenbahn, Gandy Dancer and other state rail-trails.

The BikeFed’s successful Friends of the Badger State Trail election campaign may be a sign of the “new direction” promised by the BikeFed’s board of directors after it fired executive director Dar Ward earlier this year – a move that surprised and troubled many of the organization’s rank-and-file members.

Moving forward, new hire Vogt and Jack Hirt, promoted to head the BikeFed, soon saw the need to defend the Badger State Trail with a large-scale, wheels-on-the-ground mobilization. And with a lot of help, they pulled it off.

Defending the integrity of rural biking and hiking trails and confronting the ATV threat to them is important for an organization that has been seen for too long, both fairly and unfairly, as an urban Madison- and Milwaukee-centric group. It’s called the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin, after all. Taking stands like this one should win the BikeFed allies out here in the hinterland.

As Vogt says, we silent sports enthusiasts need to get involved and vocal if we want to continue to enjoy the activities we do.

– Joel Patenaude

Taking a page from the local motorsports lovers’ playbook, more than 100 bicyclists showed up at the annual meeting of the Friends of the Badger State Trail last night and swept three of their own into the open positions on the board.

The mobilization led by the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin – involving the Bombay Bicycle Club, Trek, Saris, REI and other big names in the state’s bike industry – increased the biking advocates on the board from one to three.

That still leaves the Friends group with a four-member majority which favors ATVing and snowmobiling on the rail-trail. The newly minted Friends group was packed with motorsports enthusiasts last January, prompting Tuesday night’s response from the bicycling community. While the entire trail is open to snowmobiles when the conditions are right, ATVs are only allowed winter use of the 11-mile stretch between Monroe and Monticello and only on a trial basis this year and next year.

Who uses the trail is determined by the Natural Resources Board and overseen by the DNR. The Friends group has input but no authority on the matter.

The new Friends board members had the support of most of the 149 people who paid $15 in membership dues Tuesday night for the privilige to vote. They now have a mandate to promote bicycling on the 40-mile trail. The surge in membership added $2,235 to the Friend’s coffers which had little more than $1,400 before the meeting.

Sharon Kaminecki, owner of the Earth Rider Bicycling Boutique and Hotel in Brodhead, is now vice president. Avid Monroe area cyclist Bernie Robertson was elected treasurer. And David Vogt, the new deputy director of the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin, won overwhelmingly one of two at-large seats.

Shortly before he was elected, Vogt told the crowd, “I am particularly interested in seeing the Badger State Trail’s northern connection to Madison completed.” That statement was greeted with considerable applause. The trail currently stretches from south of Paoli to the Illinois state line.

Rob O’Connell, vice president of the Wisconsin ATV Association, had a front-row seat at the meeting in the Belleville High School Auditorium. He had to be wondering how his side was so convincingly outplayed.

– Joel Patenaude

Group warm-up sessions precede the Berbee Derby (Photos by Joel P.)

Blame the tryptophan. I haven’t posted since before Thanksgiving, and I don’t have a better excuse. I will say now, however belatedly, I had a nice long weekend in the Madison/Mt. Horeb area, which saw its first semi-serious snowfall (and by that I mean barely an inch fell, and it was mostly gone 36 hours later) on Thanksgiving eve.

The snow relegated the rollerskis to the car, but at least the running shoes got some use.

Turkey Day dawned with pre-race jitters. For once the nervous Nellies were not my brother-in-law, Adam, and I. Rather, it was butterflies for my wife and sister, both of whom had trained to run the Berbee Derby as their first 10K. Starting and ending in Fitchburg, the road portion of the course was salted and clear, but the Capital City Trail (the second half of the route) remained icy, according to the announcers on site. With temps in the mid 20s and a chill wind blowing, it was sure to be a first time to remember for the girls.

Left to right, Dena (the author’s sister), her friend Liz and Noelle (the author’s spouse) displayed the right attitude at the race start.

Suffice it to say, they did fine, finishing the race at their respective paces. As their support crew and cheerleaders, we surprised them with words of encouragement hand-painted on our long-sleeve thermal underwear (pulled on over our coats, of course). They seemed pleased, both with their performances and our gesture.

And we were very proud of them.

Dena and Noelle had barely showered before they were scheming about running the 5K Jingle Bell Run in Madison in a couple weeks. Adam and I plan to run the Stevens Point YMCA Frostbite 10 Mile (there’s a five mile fun-run, too) a week earlier on Dec. 1.

Inspired by the ladies, Adam and I got out for a couple cold but invigorating runs over the weekend. And we, too, were thankful for the support of our families as we train and race year-round.

– Joel Patenaude

At the front of the 10K field, with less than a half mile to go, former UW-Madison runners Matthew Tegenkamp (735), Chris Solinsky (685) and their coach, Jerry Schumacher (641), were far and away in the lead. The 37-year-old Schumacher beat his young charges in 32:48, two seconds ahead of Tegenkamp, 25, and Solinsky, 22. (The top three were among 40 UW staff and alum who ran as “Team Lincoln’s Roadrunners” in memory of 4-month-old Lincoln Wilber, son of the UW’s assistant director of compliance, Benjy Wilber, and his wife, Erin. Lincoln died last September.)

While the trio led the team to victory, it wasn’t too difficult considering the talent they held in reserve. This year, Tegenkamp took ownership of the American 2-mile record (8:07) and finished fourth in the 5K at the 2007 World Outdoors Championships. Solinsky, whose 5K PR is 13:27.94, has five NCAA titles to his name. Tegenkamp and Solinsky – the first Badgers to run a sub 4-minute mile (they finished first and second in the same race) – graduated in 2005 and 2007 respectively and continue to train for the Olympics together in Madison under Schumacher’s direction.

Silent Sports columnist Tom Kaufman ran a very respectable 40:02 10k for third place in his age group.