Terrain and riding styles

[Dredd 126]

What part of the world is that?

[Freedomflyer 1,885]

We have an area like that too, called the Beartooth Highway, closed 4 1/2 months out out of the year. Top of the pass is at 10,948 ft. Absolutely amazing in summer. As far as humidity goes uhmm.....yeah......no thank you. We virtually have no issue with rust, my pick up is an 02 GMC Duramax no rust, also have a little runaround car an 01 Nissan Altima and no rust on it either. Vehicle bodies last a long time here. Not uncommon to see cars from the 70's, 80's and 90's running around here.  I'll keep the dry cold winters here.

[Freedomflyer 1,885]

Riverec thanks, should be a good day.

 

Dredd,

the Beartooth highway and pass is about 2 hours to the East of us. Get to the top and you are in Northern Wyoming, then back into Montana to a town called Cooke City. It is a snowmobile haven  in the winter time. From there you can get into Yellowstone National Park,  it is the south entrance to the park.

 

Edited May 25, 2020 by Freedomflyer

[Dredd 126]

Takes a special breed of crusty ! to live in these parts. Lol. We like our coffee strong and our women large(reduces heating costs)😁😷  I've worked out in western canada, where it dips to -45ish during the winters. I'll take -45 with low humidity over -20 95% humidity! Goes right to your bones!

[Freedomflyer 1,885]

Just now, Dredd said:

Takes a special breed of crusty ! to live in these parts. Lol. We like our coffee strong and our women large(reduces heating costs)😁😷  I've worked out in western canada, where it dips to -45ish during the winters. I'll take -45 with low humidity over -20 95% humidity! Goes right to your bones!

I know exactly what you mean. I'll take our -30 to -40 anyday.!!!!

[Dredd 126]

And speaking of cars, my friend just bought a 2019 Silverado about a year ago, already had it back to the dealer for paint touch up. That's why I always drive old beaters. I swear that's the reason. Not cause I'm broke 😁

Edited May 25, 2020 by Dredd

[Freedomflyer 1,885]

Like I said,  my vehicles are old, our newest car is an 07 Toyota Camry.  If the body is good on em we drive till the mechanics of them wear out.  I have almost 300,000 on my Duramax.😁

[jeepwm69 7,602]

Sheesh, yall ! about your new cars.

 

I have two 85 Jeeps, an 83 GMC, and a 94 Accord.

 

People around here poke fun at me since the wife has a new Lexus GX.and I'm driving beaters.

[_Wilson_™ 6,564]

not me .... I'll take a beater any day over those new junk toy engines .... my best (back in the day) was a 81 toyota pickup diesel (2l pre chamber engine) 50 miles to the gallon on red high sulfur .... but one ugly truck!! .... she hauled many loads of firewood... these engines were interfearance engines... if the timing belt snapped it was over!! ... i got over 900,000 miles (no telling ho many engine hours) before the compression rings gave up.. 

[jeffo21 125]

I have one yes I said 1 2001 F150 4x4 with 280000 on it still going strong

[dadstillsurfs 18]

Boy are you guys lucky.. this pic is typical for our 7 acres. Wooded, sidehill, rubbly rock under the leaves and deadfall branches.

Edited January 4, 2022 by dadstillsurfs
tried to add picture file, can't add .jpg file

[WonderMonkey 720]

I travel to ride.  Either rolling farm land during hunting season, or old logging trails and forestry access roads about 4 hrs away.

[Freedomflyer 1,885]

WM,

Bummer that you have to travel so far to ride, but good for you that you make the effort to get out. Not sure I would stick with this sport if I had to make the preparations and time allotment to travel that far for each outing. Interesting that you are allowed to ride on old logging trails, ours are all shut down and closed off to OHV'S. Yet we have Forest service roads and specific trails designed and constructed for 50" wide ATV'S. You'd think the Forest service would utilize those old roads for recreational purposes,  I see them all the time while out riding but they are blocked off and closed with gates, rocks, and fencing. Still very thankful to have the access we do to trails that are nearly our back door. 

[WonderMonkey 720]

9 hours ago, Freedomflyer said:

WM,

Bummer that you have to travel so far to ride, but good for you that you make the effort to get out. Not sure I would stick with this sport if I had to make the preparations and time allotment to travel that far for each outing. Interesting that you are allowed to ride on old logging trails, ours are all shut down and closed off to OHV'S. Yet we have Forest service roads and specific trails designed and constructed for 50" wide ATV'S. You'd think the Forest service would utilize those old roads for recreational purposes,  I see them all the time while out riding but they are blocked off and closed with gates, rocks, and fencing. Still very thankful to have the access we do to trails that are nearly our back door. 

 

The places I go I used to backpack in, walking the old roads.  Since I have knees that don't like the miles, I now ride.  I don't go there and ride around for a few hours enjoying the sights and the ride itself, but rather I use the atv for transport.  When I get to where I'm going I park it.  As far as being allowed, well that's another story.

[Freedomflyer 1,885]

"As far as being allowed, well that's another story"😁

 

 It's sad that people do things so that the powers that be have to shut areas down for folks who just want to get out and use an area. The way it sounds, you don't leave any sort of footprint when you're out. I don't see you hurting one thing.

That is the one of main things that really concerns me about all the folks moving in here to our area, some of them have never had freedom to access to this kind of outdoor activity and have no clue how to be responsible when they get out in "Nature" and rip the crap out of everything. We have a few places here that rent ATV'S  and SXS's. Been out and met groups of people renting machines and they are just tearing the trails apart, taking shortcuts on switch back corners, cutting through forested areas to get to another point on the trail. Not good. We met one group one time on one of our 50" trails, one of the guys had a machine that didn't belong there, his machine was 62" wide. We had stopped on the trail to look out over a rocky cliff and heard them coming up the trail,  we quickly moved our 4 wheelers off the trail as far as we possibly could. We had just come through a tight spot to where we had about 2 inches on each side to get through and there was no way around. 60% slope going down and 60% slope going up on either side. There was no way he was going to make it and was going have back up for 100 yards around a couple of corners to get to a spot where he could turn around and then would procede to tear the snot out of the trail getting turned around. When he went by us, his tires rubbed and bumped our machines, actually moved  my friends machine about an inch. He wouldn't even wait for her to try to back it up farther, just pushed his way through.  Tried to stop him and tell him to turn around where we were while he could because he wasn't going to make it through, he went past us and stopped, his wife came walking up the trail behind him, we told her he wasn't going to get through and she said, as she rolled her eyes and shook her head, "There was no telling him he couldn't do something." I felt bad for her and  could tell she was not only embarrassed, but scared too. There were spots coming up on that trail that I would not have wanted to have been a passenger in that SXS, the tires on her side coming up had to have been right on the edge of a steep grade dropping hundreds of feet. He was followed by some friends on 4 wheelers,  we told them the same thing,  they said oh he'll get through. I said not today he won't, I asked them if they were from the area they said they had been here for a couple years and he was a friend visiting from southern Utah and had brought his machine up. Shame on them number one for even bringing him out on those trails, and number two for letting him lead their group. After they passed we moved on down the trail not wanting him to bump past us again. We moved down to a spot  to eat lunch, while eating we heard them coming back, there was a "T" further up the trail we passed coming  down, they couldn't go that way either as it was another 50" trail through a rock slide, steep up and down on either side. We just shook our heads as they drove by. Those are the type of people ruining it for everyone. Not even sure how  that moron got around the 50" gate in the first place.

[WonderMonkey 720]

5 hours ago, Freedomflyer said:

"As far as being allowed, well that's another story"😁

 

 It's sad that people do things so that the powers that be have to shut areas down for folks who just want to get out and use an area. The way it sounds, you don't leave any sort of footprint when you're out. I don't see you hurting one thing.

...

 

The reason why they stopped letting people take atv's etc. there is because of how tore up the trails would get.  No personal regard for the damage they were doing.  So the ruined it for everyone.  I've been going to this area for years and studied topo maps to find old roads and would explore them.  All by backpack.  When I got my atv last year, I knew a few of them would support riding them.  I load my stuff up and go, eventually ending up at a large creek that feeds a river about a mile away.  There are other places to go but that's my go-to.  Other people also go there as I can see signs of them, but since it's not an obvious path, it's low use.  I'm going there in Jan to spend a few days.  My brother lives in the town so I have his son (my nephew) meet me as my brother's business and take us to the get-in point around 6:30 am.  He then comes back around 10 am on Sunday and we load up and leave.  We make no fuss and am very friendly to my surroundings.

 

This area is awesome country.  I practice man-tracking (myself, usually), map reading, fishing methods, etc.  Very relaxing.  I take a little Bluetooth speaker and sometimes listen to music.  Other times I stare at the fire or the creek, contemplating life.

[WonderMonkey 720]

5 hours ago, Freedomflyer said:

"As far as being allowed, well that's another story"😁

 

 It's sad that people do things so that the powers that be have to shut areas down for folks who just want to get out and use an area. The way it sounds, you don't leave any sort of footprint when you're out. I don't see you hurting one thing.

That is the one of main things that really concerns me about all the folks moving in here to our area, some of them have never had freedom to access to this kind of outdoor activity and have no clue how to be responsible when they get out in "Nature" and rip the crap out of everything. We have a few places here that rent ATV'S  and SXS's. Been out and met groups of people renting machines and they are just tearing the trails apart, taking shortcuts on switch back corners, cutting through forested areas to get to another point on the trail. Not good. We met one group one time on one of our 50" trails, one of the guys had a machine that didn't belong there, his machine was 62" wide. We had stopped on the trail to look out over a rocky cliff and heard them coming up the trail,  we quickly moved our 4 wheelers off the trail as far as we possibly could. We had just come through a tight spot to where we had about 2 inches on each side to get through and there was no way around. 60% slope going down and 60% slope going up on either side. There was no way he was going to make it and was going have back up for 100 yards around a couple of corners to get to a spot where he could turn around and then would procede to tear the snot out of the trail getting turned around. When he went by us, his tires rubbed and bumped our machines, actually moved  my friends machine about an inch. He wouldn't even wait for her to try to back it up farther, just pushed his way through.  Tried to stop him and tell him to turn around where we were while he could because he wasn't going to make it through, he went past us and stopped, his wife came walking up the trail behind him, we told her he wasn't going to get through and she said, as she rolled her eyes and shook her head, "There was no telling him he couldn't do something." I felt bad for her and  could tell she was not only embarrassed, but scared too. There were spots coming up on that trail that I would not have wanted to have been a passenger in that SXS, the tires on her side coming up had to have been right on the edge of a steep grade dropping hundreds of feet. He was followed by some friends on 4 wheelers,  we told them the same thing,  they said oh he'll get through. I said not today he won't, I asked them if they were from the area they said they had been here for a couple years and he was a friend visiting from southern Utah and had brought his machine up. Shame on them number one for even bringing him out on those trails, and number two for letting him lead their group. After they passed we moved on down the trail not wanting him to bump past us again. We moved down to a spot  to eat lunch, while eating we heard them coming back, there was a "T" further up the trail we passed coming  down, they couldn't go that way either as it was another 50" trail through a rock slide, steep up and down on either side. We just shook our heads as they drove by. Those are the type of people ruining it for everyone. Not even sure how  that moron got around the 50" gate in the first place.

 

With what you told me, I'm a bit of a "right versus wrong" kindof guy.  There is a point where I'd take that guys keys.  He'd get them back but I'd make him go through quite a bit of stress before he got them.  It would be entertainment for me.  I'm a jerk like that.

[Freedomflyer 1,885]

That's awesome. We still have places like that that we can get to by ATV. I am now old The hygiene is not so friendly to me anymore. I'm not saying that everybody is like that tearing up the trails is just those that are  careless and non caring about the environment that they are in That happen along now and again. We can get way back in the boonies If we want to. Also there are  Certain times of the year that people just aren't out yet. Nothing like being out and having some solitude  With the fire and the campsite.  Glad you get to get out and enjoy it.

[WonderMonkey 720]

1 hour ago, Freedomflyer said:

That's awesome. We still have places like that that we can get to by ATV. I am now old The hygiene is not so friendly to me anymore. I'm not saying that everybody is like that tearing up the trails is just those that are  careless and non caring about the environment that they are in That happen along now and again. We can get way back in the boonies If we want to. Also there are  Certain times of the year that people just aren't out yet. Nothing like being out and having some solitude  With the fire and the campsite.  Glad you get to get out and enjoy it.

 

It certainly is the few that ruin it.  When near a creek or other water source, I take campsite baths, etc.  I go out for a week at a time into Canada so I've practiced keeping myself reasonably clean.

[Fishfiles 20,145]

A few of the trails we ride on are shown on  maps as logging trails , but they are on private property , use to be about every 15 the trees are harvested ---- last weekend we did trail clean up as it was bad from hurricane Ida ,  I was the chainsaw guy and there were some big ones across the trails 

 

We have some people who sneak onto the primary 440 acres we ride and the trash cans get unreal , we were talking about it this weekend , need to do a trash run soon , I know I seen 300 cans during the day 

[Freedomflyer 1,885]

Have never understood the thought process of chucking garbage on the ground. Even as a little kid I was taught by my parents that's just something you didn't do, adults were pretty verbal about it, didn't care who you were they told anyone to pick up their trash or went and did it themselves. That's something that has stuck with me to this day, when we're riding and I see cans and garbage I stop and pick it up. I've been stopping a lot more recently with all the transplants that have been moving in here.

We have one area we ride called Pipestone,  is BLM (Bureau of Land Management) and Forest service combined, it consists of about 30,000 acres, it is the only area around us that is open all year round. No camping restrictions, also no service amenities either and us pretty heavily used. When riding there I probably pick up the most trash of any place we ride. The Forest Service area around us is the Custer Gallatin National Forest, driving distance to any of the trailheads can be up to 2 1/2 hrs. but is over 3 million acres. I don't see quite a much trash on the forest service trails but it's still there, littering there is a federal offense. People don't give a crap,  I mostly pick up plastic water bottles and beer cans. All together we have over 17 million acres of forest service area,  I'm sure it gets treated the same all over the state. 

[jeepwm69 7,602]

It’s funny when the enviro hippies start bad mouthing ATV riders and jeepers, saying we shouldn’t be able to use the land.

 

In my experience, ATV riders and jeepers are the only ones out there cleaning up after everyone else

[Fishfiles 20,145]

6 hours ago, jeepwm69 said:

It’s funny when the enviro hippies start bad mouthing ATV riders and jeepers, saying we shouldn’t be able to use the land.

 

In my experience, ATV riders and jeepers are the only ones out there cleaning up after everyone else

When I was young I thought hippies were cool , as I got older , I realized hippie are dirty free loaders , LOL 

[WonderMonkey 720]

1 hour ago, Fishfiles said:

When I was young I thought hippies were cool , as I got older , I realized hippie are dirty free loaders , LOL 

 

And the bad part is that most of them feel they are in the right.