OCONTO COUNTY, WI (WTAQ) – ATV riders in the Northwoods have had to be patient as spring run-off and recent rains continue to create delays.
In Oconto County, the yellow tape is out and trails are closed.
They usually open up around the end of April, but Monty Brink, Oconto County Forestry and Parks Administrator, says they’ve pretty much been hit with the worst case situation.
“We got all the environmental factors that we don’t want to open,” explains Brink. “We got water on the trail, we got four-by-four trucks go down the trail this spring when the snow let up, it rutted up the trails.”
Part of the Nicolet State Trail north of Suring is washed out, while eight miles to the south, standing water covers a section of the trail near Gillett.
These trails typically open up at the end of April, or the first weekend in May.
“Even up north, as of last week we still had snow on the trail. So we could have gone snowmobiling last week up in the north,” says Brink.
The trails aren’t closed due to lack of effort, though.
Gillett Sno & ATV Riders members have been grading the trails for the past two weeks, trying to push the water away from the surface and into the already soaked ditches.
“If the ATVs would go on here right now, the ground is soft, we would rut it up, and it would actually wreck it,” explains Duane Mijal, Gillett Sno & ATV Riders. “So there would be more grading to make it work.”
Mijal says a couple days of sunshine will help dry out the section near GIllett, while Monty Brink says it will take about two truckloads of gravel to fill the washed-out hole near Suring.
“We’re not going to open the ATV trails until conditions allow for safe riding,” says Brink.
Oconto County leaders will evaluate the conditions soon and any updates will be posted on the county website.
