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Posted by: 99500scrambler
FirstTime -Do you know how the Fort Dodge area is coming along? Does anyone have an idea on when it is going to open? I used to ride ther all the time till this spring when they asked everyone to stop till it was legal and I am getting real antsy to go back. Sory I do not know of any abandoned rail beds. Around here they all get ripped out and farmed.
2000IAWarior- Bluff Creek is a great place to go if your closebut it is nothing at all compared to Fort Dodge. If The proposed land becomes state park it will be several times larger than all the rest of the state ohv parks put together, and that is just he tip of the ice berg compared to what is there to be had if it becomes availoble. I hope Fort Dodge becomes a state park, then Iowa will have a ohv park to be proud of.
Posted by: slimsiemer
I JUST READ IN NOVA NEWSPAPER THAT THEY SEND OUT EVERY TO MONTH THAT THEY JUST OPENED SOME TRAIL LIKE THAT.I WILL FIND OUT WHERE THEY ARE AND RE POST LATER
Posted by: 2000IAWarrior
were u from? i know fo great places to ride. pm me
Posted by: 2000IAWarrior
solon ohv park sucks. if i were you some day i would make the trip to Oskaloosa to Bluff Creek OHV. it is awsome 300 acres of abanded strip mines. there is everything im ageinable.. its great . more info pm me
Posted by: 2000IAWarrior
bussey is awsome. back in the day. ur dad might of gone to wilcox. that is were my dad use to go back in the day. i dotn know how ne one could not liek bluff creek. it is like 200x better then wloo and close for you to. i ride aroudn in fields. roads etc and go to 600acres a bit. but nto as much as bluff
Posted by: ATVGurl
It isn't legal to ride in a ditch that is a designated route for snowmobiles or anything else...in that case you would have to have consent from the governing body, like the snowmobile group. That makes it hard to know what ditch area is legal and which is not. Upcoming legislation is trying to change the law so that the ditch riding is available for designated routes...this would mean, if you have an area like a park that connects to another area by road, the ditch can be made into a designated route for OHV's to use legally. That is how it was intended to be written in the first place.
Fort Dodge is coming along pretty well. There is a lot to be done before it is a park, though. Funding needs to be approved and fencing has to be put up all around it (potentially 5mi of fence?) before it can be a park.
There is a big race going on in Fort Dodge this week...the 12-Hours of America race. It's pretty cool! Saturday, October 25th, then there is a poker run on Sunday the 26th. Here's more info on the race.
Posted by: GasGasMxRacer
alot of people dont like bussy but it is a good riding area and its been around for many a years my dad said they use to go there back in the day, I usaully go to the riverview park in waterloo, or stick to a couple local guys tracks that are located in montezuma, I am actaully from Brooklyn, I see 2000IaWarrior your from w'burg where do you ride around there, we are going to build a motocross in the next year for a practice track and trying to get a motocross track built at the brooklyn raceway to have a yearly series
Posted by: GasGasMxRacer
Also I was wandering on the ditch issue i never knew that was legal, how do you go about finding that out if our area is legal or not i thought the OHV messed up when designing that law and that its not actaully legal to ditch ride anywhere, i read an article at the iowa ohv site let me know .
Posted by: GasGasMxRacer
ya i hope that there are more state parks coming to iowa for us to ride fort dodge would be a step in the right sirection havent heard anything about it really though, it would still be a long drive for me, but now i go to waterloo which is a good 70 mile trip and bussey is prob 40 miles
Posted by: GasGasMxRacer
I hear that, the more clubs the better chance we have of getting heard and in an organized professional manner, i will have to take advantage of the legal ditch riding though, I could have swore that i read that was still not legal but lets hope it is, I have seen a few people ride in them so who knows.
Posted by: GasGasMxRacer
that is the same thing that i have read that the law was written wrong and that is isnt legal to ditch ride as of right now but they are trying to get it passes for designated paths
Posted by: FirstTime
Did you know that Iowa has about 800 miles of multi-use trails? Approximately 640 miles of these trails are developed or under development. However, besides hiking and biking, the only engine powered machines allowed on some of these trails is snow mobiles. Many of these trails are created from abandoned railroad beds. If you have heard of the Wisconsin Cheese Trail, it is basically a multi-use trail for hikers, bikers, ATVs, and snow mobiles. It was once a railroad system. It links a few small towns and provides some ecnomic benefits to them from the trail users who spend money for gas, food, lodging, etc. The scenery along this trail is quite appealing and their are a couple of approved off-road grass trails that can be taken for a more adventurous ride.
While various ATV riding clubs pursue public land for conversion to ATV parks, it is also nice to have one or more extended trail systems, especially if they link several towns together. If you know of any abandoned railroad beds that are not under development, please let me know and I will investigate. If you can provide me any information, like the different towns along the path, or a company that owned it, etc, this would be very helpful for tracking down a source to collect enough information so a proposal could be developed and submitted to the appropriate governmental bodies. If you are not aware of it yet, Iowa now has an ATV lobbyist. We have a long way to go toward improving good riding opportunities in this state. So, if you know of any possibilities, please help get the word out.
I can be reached at mtaylor41@hotmail.com.
Posted by: FirstTime
I would certainly like to know of new places, but..... They must be legal. I belong to the Two Rivers ATV Club in Davenport. We don't ride where it's not legal because we are trying work with various governmental bodies to get them and keep them on our side in order to get more land for the general public to ride on. If we don't operate that way, our freedom to ride is incrementally taken away from us all. I only know of four state run and approved riding areas and one privately owned area (Solon, IA). See http://www.iowaohv.com/DNRMapBook2002.htm. I always hear of places that are not official. The only other place I know that the state is looking at is a 1500 acre area near Ft. Dodge that used to be a quarry. Riding illegally can result in some big fines.
Last Spring, Iowa made it legal to ditch ride all year round. However, county boards of supervisors and municipalities can add restrictions to that law or ban ditch riding all together.
I'm not shouting at you, but just letting you know up front that unless an area is DNR approved, privately owned and operated to benefit the public, or ditch riding, it's illegal and can get people into trouble.
Still, I would appreciate any information that you can give on areas that have potential to be developed into legal riding areas, meaning that the appropriate govermental bodies need to be contacted by ATV club representatives to get the ball rolling.
Posted by: FirstTime
I just wrote a great and lengthy response to several of your questions and thoughts, only to have the Web server bomb out on me. So, I must make my second attempt shorter for the sake of my sanity.
First, ditch riding is legal all year. Just be careful to avoid plantings. Some ditches with plantings are state or county maintained. Some rural residents might maintain ditch areas with plantings close to their private property. The Two Rivers ATV Club, representing the Quad Cities (Iowa and Illinois), had about 50 riders hit the ditches about two weeks ago. It as wild!
Iowa's legal riding areas are spead out over a large land mass. I live in Davenport and must travel 2.5 hours our more to get to any decent riding area. I haven't been to Solon, which is relatively close. But, it let in the big four wheelers which tend to ruin it for ATV'ers. Nothing against those people. They need places to do their thing, too. However, Iowa needs more ATV riding areas so more riders have less travel but more variety. More people need to be coming to Iowa to spend their money. Instead, a lot of Iowans head out of state, spending their money elsewhere. I realize other states will take the same view, but all states consider what is in their interest, as they should.
As for the area near Ft. Dodge, all I know is that the state has some kind of legal restriction, so consideration can be given to how to use the land. In other words, time is needed to study the issue before politicians take action.
Last, if you don't belong to an ATV club, I highly encourage you to join one. The cost is generally cheap. You will make new friends and learn a lot from people with with experience. The more people who join these clubs, the more that the public will realize that ATV riders are very serious about wanting more high quality places to ride.
