6
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You build your dream home in the middle
of the woods - VERY SECLUDED - Now you have to worry about
your belongings disappearing from your own property or just
being destroyed. It is unlikely they get caught because of
the Seclusion. You have at least 10-20 riders driving by your
house on any given day and when you are out there, they don't
even have the courtesy to slow down let alone stop to visit,
even if it is to say "Hi, my name is Joe, I am your new
neighbor, I live just … from here……"
7 - Timber-land
owners (type of land that most ATVer's prefer) also have had
problems in the past with "TIMBER THIEFS". They
cut veneer trees down and cut the logs into 4' lengths and
skid them out with their 4-wheelers. One tree could be worth
$5,000! The thief's don't take the cheep logs. The more powerful
the ATVs, the larger load that can be hauled at one time?
8 - Not
to mention the damage (ruts mainly) down access roads or on
trails that the bikes make. The DCNR comes in and fines you
because of the soil & sediment erosion.
9 - You
decide to open up your property into a place that the public
can ride "legally" and enjoy the great outdoors
-after all- this is your favorite sport and the whole family
enjoys it so much.
10 - You
hire a dozer to do some work for you, if costs you $4,500.
The contractor is fired, as work was not progressing the way
you were told it would. You still have to pay the $4,500.
11 - You
decide to hold off on building your new house. You buy a Dozer
& Backhoe ($100,000 investment) so that you can build
ATV trails that are in high demand. You settle for used equipment
as new is way out of your price range. "Your new House
can wait another 5-years till Dozer & Backhoe are paid
off"????? Big decision dig into your saving for the down
payment and pray that you can keep up with the payment in
addition to your current mortgage and taxes on the land.
12 - You
spend every spare moment after work till dark, every weekend,
day light to dark running dozer - clearing trails. Work on
the home front is put off till next year. Kids want to know
why you are always working?? You know kids; parents should
always be doing fun things with them instead of working!!
13 - You
start a corporation for the new trail system (almost $1,000
later you have a full fledged corporation).
14 - The
county comes in and increases your property taxes to double
of what you were paying - as you are changing the use of your
land!
15 - You
have a neighbor that lives in a junkyard and is now complaining
about noise & dust!
16 - You
re-route the entry of your trailhead as to try and not bother
the junkyard neighbor.
(Ya-know, just to try and keep the peace so he doesn't try
to stop everything total).
17 - You
spend your whole summer building trails. Most of it a new
experience but enjoyable - body out of shape but get into
shape after many, many backaches.
18 - Finally
- after putting in approximately 20-miles of trails you decide
you better try a dice run to see how it goes. You are now
into late September.
19 - You
have your 1st dice run. You make and hand out flyers. You
have no prior knowledge of the Internet to pass the word.
45 - riders come and ride (8-dark). Every rider filled out
questionnaires. Not ONE Complaint - all were VERY PLEASED
with conditions of trails and signage. We asked how we could
better our trails: 99.9% said don't change them - they are
GREAT the way they are. Could however make it longer. One
trail (easier = 7 miles), 2nd trail (more difficult 10 miles).
Things went real well and all the riders were GREAT PEOPLE!
We really enjoyed meeting with these people. No trail crossed
each other, complete circle, no 2-way travel, no paved road
and very little logging roads. WOW - you felt great - you
are actually doing a good job and you have never done this
before and people really liked what you have done!
20 - You
have your 2nd dice run - another successful day. You had 49
riders; again, ALL were great people to ride with. Most rode
very responsible.
21 - You
decide since people had so much fun, you decide to leave the
trails open year round (weekends only) as you have to work
during the week. You now have plans to expand the trail system
to at least 30-miles by end of next season hoping you have
enough income to cover costs of building the trails. You also
would like to build a motor cross track, put in facilities
at trailhead and build campsites (you think to yourself -
Where will the money come from?)
22 - Winter
now sits in and you can relax till weather breaks. Then all
hell breaks loose at work and you end up working 24/7 during
winter.
23 - BEST
ONE OF ALL - You find out in January that there were grants
available for businesses to build ATV Trails etc..... Why
didn't you know about that!..... Man you could have had a
good start on your plans and maybe done more than you planned
~ if only YOU would have known! ...
24 - You
now know about the Internet. You get to know several sites
where you can talk and read about what is really going on
in the ATV arena (thank you ATV riders, as they are the ones
that told you about it). You meet several GOOD people on the
Internet and many that are willing to help you. It is a good
feeling!…
25 - You
start thinking; maybe you can apply for a grant next year
- Great idea. With the grant money you can do so much more
and faster. People can then ride and not have to pay. You
don't care where the money comes from to pay the bills, as
long as the bills get paid.
26 - You
start doing research on it; you find out that a grant is only
awarded at the 80% level. You still have to come up with the
20%. Oh well, 80% is still better than nothing. Maybe I can
still get everything done with another loan and maybe not
charge as much if we didn't have the grant.
27 - NOW,
developments being read on the Internet after grant awards
were announced. It seems all of the ATVer's are mad and are
going to try and change the grant process because they don't
want the grant money to go to any one that is going to charge
a fee to ride! WOW! Another hope looks like it is diminishing
for our trail system. Isn't it ironic, even the ANF has to
charge a fee for trail maintenance and look how much money
they have!
28 - You
now sit back and wonder if the grant application and all the
Bull… are worth going through. Maybe your idea was a
wrong one; maybe a trail system like you have planned is not
what the ATVer's want.
29 - Do
you still pursue the grant application process (which I'm
sure it will take at least $2,000 and lots of time & effort)
just to comply with the entire regulations etc. only to find
out that the money will not be available to you as you are
a "For Profit Corporation" or that you will not
be able to charge fees to cover your expenses.
