Leave hiking trails for hiking

Written by Barre Montpelier Times Argus

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Thomas W. King

Mr. Mason's letter to The Times Argus/Rutland Herald (July 19) is arguing in favor of ATV riders being allowed to use their machines on Vermont's hiking trails.

As treasurer of the West Rutland ATV Sportsman's Club, I'm sure he is an avid supporter of riders of four-wheelers and dirt bikes. However, "Hiking Trails" are just that. They are for people interested in hiking and getting some exercise and being out in nature. Anyone who spends any amount of time on hiking trails and in the woods has seen the damage that ATV riders do to the trails. As they spin their treaded tires they create huge tire tracks, mud holes, destroy water run offs, causing streams to run down the trails which erodes the soil and makes the trails, impossible to use for hikers.

As the riders zoom by on the trails, speeding around corners and through the mud holes they have created, they make it to the top of the mountain in no time flat. This really sounds more like a race track then a hiking trail. After passing the test of time and thousands of hikers for years and years, the beautiful, manmade trails are then destroyed.

Why do Mr. Mason and his ATV-rider club members want to take their machines on our beautiful hiking trails in Vermont? Why don't they use the hiking trails like the rest of us in Vermont?

No, Mr. Mason, we don't want your ATVs on the hiking trails. I think you should take a hike and enjoy the trails for what they were intended for.

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Community Voices

“During the past decade, I have personally had six out of seven elk hunts ruined by the careless intrusions of ATV operators. This epidemic has forced me to abandon one prime hunting area after another, only to encounter the same situation elsewhere. The shameful part of this picture is that the overwhelming majority of these ATV’ers are young and healthy, not decrepit or physically challenged. Maybe these riders would be more respectful of other people's outdoor experience if they knew we could ID them."

- Bill Sustrich, Colorado Backcountry Hunters and Anglers