As part of our ORV Trail Improvement Grant, we keep the trails clear and passable. One aspect is brushing, which for the 50″ trails means keeping the branches trimmed back and fallen trees/limbs removed. The minimum specification is 50 inches wide by 8 foot tall.
One of the DNR’s more frequently applied forest prescriptions is the “clear-cut” meaning all of the trees in a given area are cut and removed. The stumps are left and the slash (the stuff left over, such as branches) is also left scattered about. Unfortunately, the trail is not a consideration by the DNR when making such prescriptions. What was a well protected section with great site lines and smooth trail deteriorates into something less pleasant.
With the forest canopy removed, the sun now can dry out the trail bed and the wind and more easily move the soil. Less canopy means less organic material being deposited and mixed into the trail bed, so it will lose structure and shift more easily. Basically, it becomes “more sandy”. Whoops form more easily and of course there’s more opportunity for erosion. The trail itself will sink or cut into the surface as well. Just a host of negative-for-trails sorts of things happen.
As the trail bed sinks, the stumps left on the edges of the trail “rise up”. The stumps will lift as there is no longer the weight of the tree pushing it down and as the trail sees erosion from the effects described above, it will sink/lower compounding the exposure to these stumps.
With the canopy gone, the poplar and other softwoods will thrive and grow in a dramatic fashion. The stumps in many cases will put up new shoots as well, resulting in “flowers” of saplings popping out from the stumps. All of this new growth will crowd themselves looking for any available sunlight. That includes the space occupied by the trail.
Typically we find the trail will crowd in during the second year after the clear cut. Substantial effort is required, and I mean walking the trail with saw blade equipped weed whackers and hedge trimmers, to cut this growth back. It’s normal to encounter 3-4 foot of new growth (up as well as over) during each season. In five to ten years, the trees will establish a new canopy and the massive effort to keep the trail brushed back will get back into the “regular” amount of effort.
There is still the issue with the trail-side stumps and loss of sight lines in this younger growth. As we brush these areas, we are not just cutting back everything, we are also trying to keep trees and encourage the canopy to fill in. Usually that means leaving a fairly close tree but taking all of the branches off.
Some photos below show the before, during (with slash laying on the trail) and after (mostly cleared off). All of the slash laying on the trail is just the stuff that was hanging into the trail, which is about half of what was cut as the other half landed outside of the trail.
One of our trail improvement projects for 2023 was to shore up several slopes on the snowmobile trail south of Atlanta. We had local contractor Team Elmers deliver 26 tons of aggregate to a location near the trail which we then hauled and spread on the trail.
The first of the photos shows a “before” section on the trail that had a rain-rut develop even though stone had been in place on the slope for a number of years. Of course it would have been much worse had that stone not been there. The project included filling in that rut, adding more stone and shaping that slope and a couple others nearby.
Snowmobile Trail funds were used to support this project on State Land.
GLDS has been an active trail grader on the Geels ORV Trail system since 2016. This is an 50″ ORV Trail. In Michigan, anything wider than 50″ is considered a Route, not a Trail, for the ORV Program.
We run 2 Yamaha ATVs, one to pull the grader and one to pull a roller.
The grader is a custom built unit from The Shoppe Industrial that we’ve repaired and modified over the years. It is based on a typical snowmobile-trail drag with multiple cutters designed to pull in and mix the material and level it at the rear of the drag. Far from perfect, the unit does a nice job keeping the trail fun and rideable.
The roller is also a custom built unit from Grahl Manufacturing. We run it loaded with liquid which puts it in the 1500 pound range.
We do not make the trail “sidewalk flat” but level out the whoops and maintain the corners, keeping the berms at an angle and height that is conducive to managing traffic flow. The less sharp corners and fewer start/stop or acceleration points, the better the trail will stand up to traffic. We also try to cut the sides to bring material back into the trail and also eliminate sharp trail edges that are good for catching ATV front tires.
“Whoops” or corrugation are caused by traction loss and exacerbated by acceleration. As the machine powers forward, any slip will cause the surface to be dug, moved and deposited and each machine afterwards adds a bit to it until you get into the big roller whoop-de-doos. That action compacts the soil, so that when a grader is run over it, moving the top of the whoop into the bowl, the resulting trail may be level but the now-filled bowl is soft and relatively easy to “blow out”. To properly remove the entire whoop means cutting below the bowl and that means moving much more material than is available on an 50″ trail, unless you want 3 foot deep “slots through the woods” for trails. Our 2 machine setup brings a roller to help compact the freshly moved material and keep it flatter longer. Compacting that material in the bowl as well as other areas, keeps the trail in better shape for longer. Timing it to have a good rain afterwards helps even more.
Techniques we use:
Two passes, (there and back). This helps to catch things from either direction and our equipment is really just not heavy enough to accomplish this with a single pass.
Shape corner berms. Remove the “quad ruts” (2 tire tracks) an cut the top of the berm down, pulling the material back into the corner. We still want a berm to keep a good flow and prevent braking/exit bumps.
Shape the sides. Cut the sharp side edge of the trail to eliminate catching a wheel. This also helps to bring material back into the trail and keep from making a “big slot in the ground”.
Put curves in long straight whooped sections. Whether through grading or other techniques, any good flowing curves will help to eliminate whoops on long straight sections of trail. Even if this means to “grade in a curve”, that form of traffic management can help keep trails in better shape and more fun for longer.
In 2023 GLDS has started grading ORV Routes. Specifically we’ve added the Atlanta and Indian River ORV Routes to our ORV Grant for grading during the 2023 season. Part of the reason for this is to help grow the ORV Program and get more Clubs grading more of the Routes and put ORV dollars back on the ground. Our Club also manages the Snowmobile Trails in Atlanta, which share much of these ORV Routes, so by keeping the trails/routes in good shape during summer, they will be that much better in the winter. The better kept and more fun the ORV Routes are, the more people will want to use them, keeping more of the traffic off of the county and forest roads.
We are running an older Champion 710A motor grader, which has an 12 foot wide blade. This allows us to cut under the whoops/chatter bumps and move the looser material to the side. Depending on the terrain, we may put 1 pass or need to make 2 passes. For 2 pass areas, we cut a bit deeper to one side and spread towards the middle/other side to allow for better water management on each pass.
Ideally the motor grader would be used once per year to do the heavy lifting and then a tractor with a pull-type grader/drag would be used to maintain the Routes for the other passes during the year. Our Club does not yet have a tractor and drag to perform those summer “maintenance” passes and so will be running the motor grader for all three sessions per system in this initial year.
Questions we’ve been asked:
We run 2-4MPH. The grader weighs over 34K pounds but does not have front wheel assist. The deepest/fluffiest sand is a challenge if it’s dry. It takes several days to grade a system the size of Atlanta. We currently camp and it takes three trips to haul the camper, the support trailer and the grader.
Lots of Dirt is movedFirst of 2 Pass sectionSingle Pass sectionBeforeAfter2 Passes Made SectionStarting Return PassWith ATV for perspectiveGradedCamp GraderGrader on ORV Route
For the 22-23 snowmobile season, GLDS has signed up as a grant sponsor with the Snowmobile Program. We are now maintaining ~65 miles of snowmobile trail in the Atlanta area.
Canada Creek Ranch Snowmobile Club had been the grant sponsor for this system for many years and this year, they opted to step away from the program. Our thanks to them for all those years of hard work put forth by their organization.
Duties for our Club include brushing and signing, like we do on the ORV Program and also Grooming, also very similar to what we do on the ORV Trail side. Of course, the scale is a bit different running a full size tractor and drag versus our 50″ gear on the grooming side, plus the increased frequency of snow grooming.
It’s also nice to be able to brush and sign from a pickup compared to hauling everything on the quad or bike. If one is foolish enough, some tasks can even be done at night by light of the truck.
Grooming the full system covers 82 miles and generally takes 12 hours of seat time.
As part of our ongoing efforts to improve and maintain the Geels ORV Trail, GLDS continued fixing areas of the trail that have degraded over the years.
Similar to our project in previous years, the Club worked to stabilize, and rebuild the trail bed in various areas. Decades of use leads to areas that need more attention than regular grading and re-shaping, usually due to hydraulic erosion, where a section will retain water and then have the trail bed removed/shifted or “splashed” out so that the trail bed depth increases. This in turn continues to exacerbate the issue, leading to what most of us call a mud hole.
Update 7/2/23 – MISORVA found a new representative to take up this legislation. You need to share your thoughts with both Representatives and Senators. The bill has a new number, now referred to as HB 4459. Details on the draft legislation is available: http://legislature.mi.gov/doc.aspx?2023-HB-4459 and as of 7/2/23 it has not left the House committee.
Great Lakes Four Wheel Drive Association also has information in opposition to this draft: http://www.glfwda.org/
Update 1/2/23 – The Senate did not pick this bill back up and it “termed out” at the end of the 21-22 session.
Update 3/25/22 – thanks to public input, this bill was put back for review but has not been dropped. Your input remains important.
10/24/21 – Thousands of miles of County roads, forest roads, ATV Routes, ATV Trails and even motorcycle-only trails set to be closed from Dec 1 through April 1 in Michigan. Hundreds of thousands of acres of public land will no longer be accessible to property owners, hunters and recreational users due to closure of sections of access roads that are also snowmobile trails.
Legislation has passed the House and now needs to pass the Senate. House Bill 4535 (was supported and driven by the Michigan Snowmobile Association which later changed to the Michigan Snowmobile and ORV Association, MISORVA).
Contact your senator NOW and tell them not to support any legislation that seeks to limit your public access by restricting usage of roads that are also shared with snowmobile trails. Tell them not to support HB 4535 and any senate version of that bill.
While the legislation has already passed the House, PLEASE contact your Representative to ensure they hear your voice as there is still opportunity to stop this.
The legislation states that any snowmobile trail that is snow covered and groomed will now be closed to motorized vehicles except a snowmobile. That specifically includes cars, trucks, motorcycles, ATVs, UTVs, Semis and even battery assisted fat tire bicycles.
If you are not a Michigan resident, you can still contact the committee members this legislation has to pass through:
During the period from December 1 through March 31 annually, a person shall not operate a motor vehicle other than a snowmobile on a trail if both of the following apply:
(a) The trail is part of the statewide trail network established under section 72114 and is designated for snowmobile use.
(b) The trail is snow covered, and the snow is groomed for snowmobile use.
Most snowmobile trails are existing roads. Those roads are public county-owned or public forest roads on public land. The snowmobile trails are allowed to share those roads during the winter.
Those roads are used by hunters, residents, and property owners for access, in addition to recreational use. That includes roads that are not snowmobile trails, but the only way to access an area or road is using another road that is a shared snowmobile trail.
Many of those roads are also shared by ORV Trails:
To connect across a stream or other wet area.
To connect public land separated by private land.
To reach services such as food and fuel.
To access parking lots.
Anywhere that the ORV Trail shares a road that the snowmobile trail also shares, that section of ORV Trail will now be closed. This effectively closes the entire ORV Trail.
Any ORV Routes that are also shared with snowmobile trails will now be closed for 1/3 of the year.
The legislation presents much uncertainty and doubt for a wheeled vehicle user.
No definition of “snow covered” is provided. Does it mean no bare sections of dirt showing anywhere? What about when the snow is compacted to effectively be ice, is “ice” considered to be “snow covered”. How thick and uniform does it have to be. Should one assume that if there is ANY snow ANYWHERE on the road, that it is considered “snow covered”. If there’s a warm day and certain spots melt to expose dirt for 80% of the road width, does that constitute “snow covered”.
Would either of these situations constitute “snow covered”:
No definition of “Groomed” is provided. The dictionary.com definition of groom as a verb: “to clean, brush, and otherwise tend (a horse, dog, etc.).” Does “groomed” only apply to when an implement is used to smooth and compact the snow on the road surface? Most of the public do not know if a “groomer” is a person or thing and would have no idea if that “groomer” has performed any “grooming”. No signage or reporting requirements of groomers has been established to notify the public if a “snowmobile trail” has been “groomed”. Does “groomed” mean once in the last 24 hours or once in the last 90 days?
Here’s a snowmobile trail groomer in action:
Are any of these trails “groomed” (answer is no, they had not been during that season):
A few real-world examples of the indirect impact:
UTV riders will no longer be able to park in St Helen, access the Motorsports Area nor travel to Leota.
Hunters will no longer have access to the popular Avery Hills area east of Lewiston due to interconnecting “snowmobile trails”. See Map for the Avery Hills Area.
Hunters and property owners will no longer be able to access over 20,000 acres of State Land between the Fox River and Highway 77, north of Seney as the only public access road is also a snowmobile trail. See map for the Sunken Lake area.
There are 108 designated ORV Trails and Routes that will be directly impacted by this legislation and will be closed. Not because the entire trail is also a snowmobile trail, but because there are shared sections of trail/road/snowmobile trail or the roads leading to or from the parking area are shared snowmobile trails.
That’s over 4000 miles of ORV Trails and Routes closed, not because they are shared with 4000 miles of snowmobile trails, but because they share a section of a road that has allowed a snowmobile trail to be designated upon it.
List of State Designated ORV Trails and Routes closed due to this legislation:
Motorcycle Only Trail:
Bass Lake Cycle Trail
Beaver Creek Cycle Trail
Big O Cycle Trail
Birch Hills Cycle Trail
Brevort Cycle Trail
Foreman Lake Cycle Trail
Grand Traverse Cycle Trail
Holton Cycle Trail
Hunt Creek Cycle Trail
Kinross Cycle Trail
Lincoln Hills Cycle Trail
Little Manistee Cycle Trail
Long Lake Cycle Trail
Michigan Cross Country Cycle Trail
Moss Lake Cycle Trail
Newberry-Brevort Cycle Trail
Newberry-Sandtown Cycle Trail
North Missaukee Cycle Trail
Porterfield Cycle Trail
Sandtown Cycle Trail
Tin Cup Cycle Trail
Tomahawk Cycle Trail
ORV Trail (50″):
Alcona ORV Trail
Atlanata ORV Trail
Baraga Plains ORV Trail
Bay City Lake ORV Trail
Big Bear ORV Trail
Black Lake ORV Trail
Bull Gap ORV Trail
Bummers Roost ORV Trail
Cedar Creek ORV Trail
Cranberrry Lake ORV Trail
Crapo Creek ORV Trail
Danaher Plains ORV Trail
Denton ORV Trail
Drummond Island ORV Trail
Forest Islands ORV Trail
Frederic ORV Trail
Geels – St Helen ORV Trail
Geels ORV Trail
Huron ORV Trail
Kalkaska ORV Trail
Leota ORV Trail
Little O ORV Trail
Meadows ORV Trail
Mio ORV Trail
North Missaukee ORV Trail
Norway ORV Trail
Ogemaw Hills ORV Trail
Old State House ORV Trail
Pine Ridge ORV Trail
Rose City ORV Trail
Silver Creek ORV Trail
St Helen ORV Trail
Tomahawk ORV Trail
Two Hearted ORV Trail
West Higgins ORV Trail
White Cloud ORV Trail
ORV Route:
Hermansville-Escanaba ORV Route
Marquette-Manistique Trail
Pioneer Trail ORV Route
Republic-Ishpeming ORV Route
Soo-Raco ORV Route
Keweenaw ORV Route
A-D ORV Route
Atlanta ORV Route
Beaver Creek ORV Route
Bill Nichols ORV Route
Black Lake ORV Route
Champion-Republic ORV Route
Days River ORV Route
Denton ORV Route
Denton-St Helen ORV Route
Drummond Island ORV Route
Felch Grade ORV Route
Forest Islands ORV Route
Four Mile ORV Route
Freda Grade ORV Route
Frederic ORV Route
Grand Traverse ORV Route
Gwinn – Arnold ORV Route
Hancock-Calumet ORV Route
Hiawatha East ORV Route
Indian Gardens ORV Route
Indian River ORV Route
Iron River ORV Route
Iron Mountain–Felch ORV Route
Lake Linden ORV Route
Leota ORV Route
Lincoln Hills ORV Route
Little Manistee ORV Route
Marquette-Manistique Route
Mio ORV Route
North Branch ORV Route
North Missaukee ORV Route
Norway ORV Route
Ogemaw Hills ORV Route
Old State House ORV Route
Ottawa East ORV Route
Powers-Arnold ORV Route
Roscommon ORV Route
Sidnaw-Bergland ORV Route
St Helen ORV Route
St Ignace-Trout Lake ORV Route
State Line ORV Route
Strongs – Raco ORV Route
Tin Cup ORV Route
West Higgins ORV Route
Wisconsin-Bond Falls ORV Route
We are not advocating for wheeled vehicle use upon groomed snowmobile trails. We are advocating against closures of our Roads, Trails and Routes that are paid for and maintained by our ORV Program Registration dollars and our tax dollars. Divisive legislation such as this, whether well intentioned or malicious, is bad for all of us.
GLDS maintains the Geels ORV Trail as part of a grant from the MI DNR. We brush and sign the trail; also we grade the trail as an additional part of the grant.
In 2018 we added a “special maintenance” project as part of our grant to fix and restore the trail bed in certain areas of the trail.
Effectively, there were “mud holes” in spots along the trail that had developed from a low spot that would collect water. Riders would slosh through and splash mud out or carry it down the trail with them, which would then make that spot even deeper and hold more water. All of these spots were dry for 2/3 of the season, no running water. If the trail bed was even with the surrounding grade or slightly higher than the original grade, those muddy spots would be eliminated.
Our project included filling in those sections and reshaping the trail bed to give water someplace to properly drain to, instead of pooling on the trail. Once the trail bed was restored to its original or correct height, we put down a light layer of aggregate (ie gravel/stone) to help stabilize the trail and ensure longevity. All material was native, either from the site directly or nearby. We were not trying to make gravel roads, instead trying to keep the trail as much of a “trail” as we could.
The Club invested in equipment, such as the Bobcat mini-excavator and powered dump trailers to make this happen. Many Club Members helped with the project and well over a hundred hours were spent on the various areas.
Some areas we were able to use material at the location, others required us to haul in using our ATV and dump trailer. The Bobcat did all of the material moving and preliminary finish work. It “just” fits on the 50″ trail but at 3 ton still has plenty of size to get work done.
Gravel/stone was hauled in to all of the locations using the same ATV and dump trailer. Our ATV and grader were used to put a finish on the stone work.
In total for this major phase, more than 35 spots on the trail were restored/improved which covered more than 3 miles of trail.
We hope to make this a “dry boot” in-the-spring trail and this work has gotten very close to that goal. Given this trail has been in use for 40 years, we hope the restoration, improvements and continued maintenance sustain it for another 40.
This is a Club Charity Function, it’s not an event. No money, just come help out a great local charity. There’ll be some riding too, if you are interested. Food included in the price and the price is still FREEEE. Dinner on Saturday.
Please bring a new toy to donate to the local Toys for Kids charity (not required, but highly recommended). Toys can be for any age and of any value. New toys only, please.
This is a Club Ride, it’s not an event. There are no entry fees, no donations, no membership requirements, nothing. Just come ride with a few fellow Club members. Don’t worry about crowds – these are small, social functions. We also provide dinner on Saturday night. Feel free to bring a dish to pass, but don’t feel obligated.
Two loops. Street legal bikes only. There is also direct trail access.
