Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By ZACHARY MARANO
The Gogebic Range Trail Authority will perform a spring cleaning on Saturday of the snowmobile and ATV trails going from Marenisco west to the Montreal River and the border with Wisconsin, trail authority president Steve Hamilton said.
GRTA members will use chainsaws to break down and remove fallen trees that are blocking the way, pick up trash and brush the trails, Hamilton said.
State of Michigan ATV trails officially opened on April 1 and multi-use trails are open all year, but Hamilton told the Daily Globe on Thursday that the GRTA has “significant concerns” about people using the trails at the present.
“We are currently asking riders to tread carefully on Gogebic County lands due to the late spring breakup. We still have a lot of frost near the hemlock stands — areas that doesn’t see a lot of sun. The trails are very vulnerable. We’re asking people to be responsible and not do big rides. However, we’re heading out of this phase and into the normal season,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton added that recent storms and heavy winds have knocked down many trees onto the trails. He said that they expect the storm forecasted today to blow over more trees, as they were softened up by the rain in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Hamilton also said that the GRTA is working with the Bessemer city manager and Kwik Trip to reroute ATV traffic to avoid construction of the convenience store in Bessemer this summer. He said that ATV riders will still be able to get to and from the trail in Bessemer, as well as through Bessemer on the trail.
The Bayfield County ATV/UTV trails and the Chequamegon-Nicolet Forest trails officially open today, according to a notice from the Bayfield County Forestry Department on Wednesday. The Vilas County Forestry, Recreation and Land supervisor said that their ATV/UTV trails also open today.
The Iron County, Wisconsin Forestry and Parks Department are getting ready to re-open their trails to ATV traffic in the next week to 10 days, department head Eric Peterson told the Daily Globe. He said that clubs like the Iron County ATV Association and Mercer Dusty Loons are inspecting the trails and assessing the winter damage.
