Trail Etiquette

[MVI]

Don't navigate with your primary phone ...I used to do this with a cheap smart phone with a GPS app. on long trail rides. It worked ok but the phone got tore off the bars by bushes and trees. I was lucky and found the phone in a couple of minutes. But others in our group have used there expensive main phone and had to circle back looking, more than once. If you loose a GPS unit it sucks but you still have a phone.

Tangent thought//

I ruined the camera on an old Iphone clamped on the bars. Seems they dont like the costant vibration, thus the image stabilization chip gets scrambled. Garmin 66St on the Bars does fine.

My "good" phone stays in my pocket for emergencies.

 

[Gravelcruiser]

I'll say this and then cease...more than a few of these "folks" appear to be intoxicated and wearing sidearms. So I'll do my best to avoid them.

I don't mind the sidearms so much, but yeah, the intoxication really bothers me. We call em beer carts around here. And the trash they bring in and don't haul out. That one really pisses me off.

 

[EGR]

Trail trash. About 1970 I was acquainted with Green Mountain NF chief engineer. He told me, and I asked him to repeat, that 80% of his ops budget went to trash removal. Sick.

 

[JohnQ]

I’ll put all my motorcycles in a pile and light them on fire before I “embraces these folks”

I'll say this and then cease...more than a few of these "folks" appear to be intoxicated and wearing sidearms. So I'll do my best to avoid them.

I don't mind the sidearms so much, but yeah, the intoxication really bothers me. We call em beer carts around here. And the trash they bring in and don't haul out. That one really pisses me off.

Nobody is defending bad behavior.
Pretty sure bad behavior isn’t limited to folks with 4 wheels.
These things are defined by operators, not machines.

My point was, smell the coffee. The peddlers. hikers and fake cowboys want everything for themselves. They don’t make distinction about wheel count.

Like it or not, the SxS community is going to be driving off road access into the future.
Cowboys, nope.
Peddlers, nope.
Off road MC, nope.
Hikers, lol.
Put all that in a pile and .gov is getting peanuts compared to the SxS community.

Doesn’t mean we have to like it, but it’s the reality. If .gov isn’t getting paid, the default is going to be zero access for anything powered.

I’m gonna do my part by promoting good trail behavior. Not hating the folks indirectly making my access possible.

Beyond that,
It must be different out west or something. All the this SxS “drama” everyone talks about never seems to be a thing at H&M where we ride.

My encounters have been nothing but positive. After 5yrs of sharing trail with SxS, getting a bike winched out, having cold water shared when we tapped out, the offer of the 12v tire pump in 85+ degrees and humidity, the offers to test mud lake depth for us, the local recommendations.

In literally 1000’s of trail miles since 17, I have not had ONE “hot encounter”. Not 1 instance of someone I suspected of being trail drunk. Not 1 instance where someone brandished a sidearm.
In WV...

I see things differently.

 

[Punkinhead]

Beyond that,
It must be different out west or something. All the this SxS “drama” everyone talks about never seems to be a thing at H&M where we ride.

My encounters have been nothing but positive. After 5yrs of sharing trail with SxS, getting a bike winched out, having cold water shared when we tapped out, the offer of the 12v tire pump in 85+ degrees and humidity, the offers to test mud lake depth for us, the local recommendations.

In literally 1000’s of trail miles since 17, I have not had ONE “hot encounter”. Not 1 instance of someone I suspected of being trail drunk. Not 1 instance where someone brandished a sidearm.
In WV...

I see things differently.

I haven't seen bad behavior on the Hatfield McCoy trails. I've seen very bad behavior on the surrounding outlaw trails since that's where the serious drinking happens. The Hatfield McCoy trails are bringing a lot of much needed money into West Virginia and there are hundreds of side by sides for every motorcycle.

 

[Gravelcruiser]

There are bad apples in every batch, ours included. But, in an OHV area that I get to ride once or twice a year, they kept sxs out until a few years ago, then only allow 50" or less now. In that short amount of time on trails with sharp switchbacks which can be difficult to navigate on a dirt bike, the new crowd has made new, highly erosive illegal bypasses. This is on usfs ground, that I can only assume will result in closure at some point in the future. This is a trail system that has been in operation since at least the early 70s. Opened with the help of a very dedicated group of motorcyclist. SXS owners didn't open these trails, but may well shut them down. That's all I've got to say about it.