By: John Arkwright

We used to build our duck blinds in mid-July, over two months before duck season. Now we rush to get it done the week before opening day.

Back in the day, we were busy participating in spring and fall work weekends at deer camp, cleaning up and maintaining the hunt trails and, so many weekends in July, August and September consisted of the whole family, young and old, banging away at clay pigeons or shooting silhouettes or firing a few balls through the .308 to make sure it was ready for deer and moose season.

It’s different now and I attribute these changes to a few things. One, we’re getting older and while not lazy, our priorities change. For instance, when I was 15 or 16 years old you couldn’t get into an organized hunt club unless it was family owned.

Today I own my own camp and there are very few young people who enjoy spending time hunting and fishing like we did back then. Of course, we didn’t have cell phones, iPods or virtual reality video games. Our virtual reality was being outdoors and it was a great time to grow up.

Frankly, nowadays, too many of us put our guns away after hunting season ends and, locked away there in the gun safe, they collect dust for ten months. I was becoming one of those people, so last year I returned to our local gun club after a long sabbatical. I try to get out to shoot at least once a week and I really enjoy those outings.

One of the club members, Carl Giesler, comes out faithfully and brings his 14-year old grandson, Max, with him. Max has been shooting since the age of four and has probably been shooting skeet for seven years. He has developed excellent shooting skills. These outings make all of us try a little harder because this kid can really shoot and none of us old guys like to be beat by a kid.

On my dresser I have a picture of my daughter, Carrie, who was five at the time, with a duck decoy under one arm and her stuffed toy Snoopy under the other. We used to take off together for the day to hunt ducks or grouse with our black lab, Nugget.

We always had plenty of food and a Coleman camp stove to make our lunch and hot chocolate. Those were absolutely great days! Carrie, who is now 25, still loves fishing; she owns her own fishing boat, rides snowmobiles and recently has developed a love for ATVs. Every year we attend a few ATV rallies and she sure can hold her own.

I think I’m safe saying that when Carrie has children of her own, she will want them to have those same opportunities to go camping, fishing, and snowmobiling and ATVing. It seems like participating in these activities and the adventure of being together is what keeps us all young at heart!

Here’s my spin on this editorial: Spend as much quality time as you can with your kids when they’re young, because they grow up way too fast. In the blink of an eye you’re helping them fill out college applications. If you’re a hunter, join a gun club or, if you love riding ATVs, join an ATV club and get involved as a volunteer. Take your kids ATVing; it’s an awesome sport. Better yet, take them hunting, fishing and camping on ATVs, and make it a family event.

The emergence and popularity of ATVs is at an all-time high and provides families with unlimited options for enjoying the outdoors. Teach your kids how to be responsible, safe and to respect the environment, other people and private property. Most of all, just have fun together and create albums of memories that will last a lifetime!

By: Motorhead Mark Lester

If you’re like me you love riding off-road. For me, there’s something special about being in God’s creation, way out there, no pavement, no distractions; just me, my wheeler and my riding skill to get me there and back.

This spring I’ve had increased consciousness of what we’re doing out there, in the places we love to ride. Here’s what’s concerning me: There’s an increasing number of us who love the outdoors, love riding ATVs off-road and want to do it more often.

If an ever-increasing number of us are going to the same places more frequently it’s inevitable we’re going to wear out those great places to ride. This spring the Northeast has been exceptionally wet – way more rain than average on top of a record shattering winter.

It’s no secret ATV riders love to shoot mud holes. However, mud holes normally dry up by early summer, limiting deep ruts and excessive erosion.

This season the mud holes are virtually bottomless and the ever-increasing numbers of ATVs riding trails are making them almost impassable. When (and if!) this season ever dries out, these mud holes will be impassable trenches, degrading the riding experience for many of our fellow users.

If we use different trails every week instead of rounding up a whole herd of friends every Saturday and taking them to “our special spot” we might make things better.

Try to spread out your riding when the trails are most vulnerable – like in the spring as the frost leaves the ground and when there’s abundant rainfall.

We cannot continue to view trails solely as ours to do whatever we want. Many trails are on private land, many on public land. If you think ATV users are divinely ordained and will always have access to trails no matter what goes on, it’s time to wake up and smell the Joe.

This little diatribe on responsible use relates again to what we’ve repeatedly mentioned in this magazine: Start an ATV club and become consciously pro-active at preserving access to your favorite trails.

It’s exciting to see more and more trail sanctioning groups and ATV clubs performing seasonal repairs to trails. This is going to be key in keeping other trail users like hikers, bicyclists and equestrians, who don’t ride ATVs, on our side.

Next time you see what amounts to a rutted, tracked up mess when an overused mud hole dries up, think about how that looks to other users, particularly non-motorized types or, worse yet, the non-enthusiast media.

Proactive clubs and sanctioning bodies are quickly getting in front of this issue right now. Bulldozers and backhoes are being purchased or contracted to repair heavily used trails and restore them back to excellent condition.

With the explosion of ATV trail use across North America and the need for more riding areas and clubs to sanction and maintain these areas, we simply can’t continue to expect unlimited, unrestricted access without contributing to the maintenance and repair of the trails we love.