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THE WILD WEST

ASSHATS ON THE TRAIL

Colorado Trail Rage…            
  ITS A REAL THING!

Almost everyone understands that there’s a reason for etiquette guidelines and rules for good manners in our society. Throughout our lives, people face behavior rules and the consequences of ignoring them.

Without proper etiquette, society would be a mess with free-for-all behaviors that would have rude people dominating those who care and infringing on everyone’s rights by having them taken away.

Bad trail behavior is no different…it makes all of us… including dirt bikers, atv riders, 4×4’s and all other forms of motorized trail vehicles look bad.

Our trails are in danger of being closed due to the irresponsible acts of a few. To stop this bullshit…it starts with YOU…it starts with some good ” Trail Etiquette” while out in the backcountry. Just a little common sense and common courtesy will go a long, long way in helping to protect our available trails for future motorized recreation.

We all know about “Stay The Trail” and “Tread Lightly”….. these organizations are at the forefront. What I’m talking about is behavior. My take on how to handle the Asshats misbehaving and trail raging out on the trail …. First ….”Stay Calm”. Trail Rage …is a real thing!!! Here are a few pointers on how I’ve dealt with these people….

The first step to avoiding becoming the victim of trail rage is to make sure you’re driving safely, calmly, and not provoking anyone else. Examples of aggressive trail driving include yelling at other drivers, excessive horn honking, trail tailgating, bad passing behavior, not yielding to other drivers and excessive trail speed…. In extreme cases, it can escalate into intentionally ramming other SxS’s or even a physical confrontation.

Trail rage is often a cycle (just like Road Rage) — one driver provokes another who responds aggressively until things escalate beyond reason. Even if another driver is doing something dangerous or inappropriate, do your best to calm your anger on the trail and avoid aggressive behaviors and rude gestures.

About 80% of my experience with trail rage drivers is they are usually in a hurry, so get out of their way without engaging. Once they pass, you can go back to driving normally.

If the angry driver won’t pass you but instead decides to trailgate you, avoid eye contact. Angry drivers may want to intimidate you or could be seeking out conflict. Ignoring them and focusing on the road can encourage them to move on.

If the driver insists on harassing you, contact the authorities to report the dangerous behavior if it’s safe to do so. Be vigilant and observe… just in case.
take discreet pics and video if you can. Be prepared to provide any identifying information, including a description of the offending vehicle, its license plate number if it has one, as well as your location and direction of travel.

If the other driver follows you or engages in more aggressive behavior like invading your space, ramming you, or continued verbal harassment, don’t go back to your camp (if your camping). Instead, drive to a busy public site with witnesses … like a staging parking lot.

If the other driver is especially persistent, they may follow you to the public place you’ve stopped at. If they get out and approach you, don’t engage directly. Honk your horn repeatedly or do anything to get attention from witnesses.

I think that when some people get into the backcountry, they think it’s the Wild Wild West…. lawless! And they can just act however they want!

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Disclaimer: The above article is just my opinion…I’m not a legal beagle or anything the like…. this is what I agree on from doing research about this topic, stories from other people’s experiences and my own trail rage experiences. I’m not saying don’t defend yourself or your loved ones or your property…what I’m saying is use some common sense…! The other thing I can say ….. in my experience most of these asshats know that most people take pictures and video out on the trail…. they don’t want to be a Star on your social media …. by exposing their behavior. This is how we police this problem ourselves. It starts with each and every one of us!

I personally have no problem exposing dumbass people out on the trail doing stupid stuff… most are uneducated, and I have had tremendous success just having a non-threatening conversation educating them. (When there isn’t a language barrier…I only speak English. Sometimes I have had good luck with someone interpreting). I have also had success stopping bad behavior by simply getting my phone out… video can be a huge deterrent.  But like I said…use common sense.

Be safe out there..

GET OFF THE COUCH, GO RIDING

The FIGHT is REAL ……And we lost!

For a quick day ride or to test …. this was my backyard trail.

Bunce School Road to Middle Saint Vrain to Coney Flats.

These 3 linked trails can be a short day trip. In and out … home before dark. I love these trails linked together because you have every type of terrain. Long speedy straight aways, rock crawling sections (mild to wild), scenic sections with plenty of spots for a lunch stop.

The caveat to link these three together is Camp Dick Campground…it has to be open to link Bunce School Rd trail to the other two trails by driving through Camp Dick. This is a little-known fact that only locals would know…… we tried to keep it a secret for a long time.

I will be honest with you…. I boycotted these three trails especially Bunce because the rental companies from surrounding areas had taken over the trail. But that’s not really where it started. It started way before this. It started back in about 2003. At least that’s when we old guys were younger, and I was a part of the same kind of fight for our right to use this trail. We even had a t-shirt that said screw Boulder County Ranger District and the Forest Service. It all started with Left Hand Canyon and that’s a totally different story for another blog and another time.

The inexperienced rental drivers made these trails very dangerous. Most of these companies didn’t care about anything but the money (so most of us thought). They didn’t teach their clients trail etiquette and pretty much just let them run amuck! The trails … especially Bunce … were filled with trash…. no pack in pack out being practiced at all. I was so discouraged and disgusted!

I was super angry. And to top it all off…the rental companies took over the parking lot… I was actually told by a rental company employee that I couldn’t park in it because he had customers coming. This is how bad it got up there. So, a bunch of us stopped riding there. Then I heard through the grapevine Bunce was going to be shut down and closed (I bet I’ve heard this same rumor for 13 years) and every time it was because of a single private property owner.

This private property owner, a fulltime resident up there and evidently, he had enough and was angry. I have had a conversation with someone (not sure if it was him?) more than once in the past and this gentleman hated us (this was 11 or 12 years ago). As far as I know these the trail sections never actually closed down.

The reason ….. because of one rental company owner Andy Hitch …. he understood what that meant not only to his business but also to the rest of the OHV community. For the next 9 or 10 years that man and his outfitter company (Backbone Adventures) did everything including kiss this property owner’s ass to keep him happy. The trail remained opened, and we all benefitted greatly. I encourage you to check out Backbone Adventures website and read this story…. what Andy and his Company did was amazing. Here is the link: https://www.backbonecycles.com/post/bunce-school-road-closed-to-atv-s-what-really-happened

Fast forward to 2023 …..Covid took its toll on all of our OHV trails (just like a bunch of us predicted) …. especially Bunce. The same landowner had his fill and had it out with the Forest Service and Boulder County in the legal arena. Not only did Backbone Adventures loose but the whole OHV community lost. Because it’s a very little-known fact that some of the trials up there are actually county roads and its illegal for unlicensed OHV”s (because Colorado doesn’t have a OHV license) to operate on them. Now it was official. No OHV”s signs were posted and are enforced.

This was one of my favorite local riding spots. My son learned to ride up there… my first real purposely built offroad vehicle I built specifically for this trail. My first real four-wheeler ride was on this trail. My wife’s first ever trial ride was on this trail. So, as you can see this trail has been a part of my family and friends for a very long time, over twenty years. Our club …

The Big Thompson 4 Wheelers and The Wagon Masters Four Wheel Drive Club adopted this trail…we spent countless weekends cleaning and maintaining this trail. Both clubs had an enormous amount of recordable volunteer trail hours. I was the first person through the Trail Patrol Program (supported by the Colorado Association of Four-Wheel Drive Clubs and The Boulder County Ranger District) to patrol this trail.

I went to countless Boulder County Ranger District meetings and Seminars. Spent hours and hours with representatives in a fight to keep this trail open….. hell, we even built and donated a Jeep Cherokee to the Ranger District just so they could better access these trails. But just like back then as it is today….. there answer to everything has always been ” just close it”. It truly makes me sick!

I want to thank Andy and his company for all their hard work. This thankless act for 10 years may have gone unnoticed and unappreciated back then but not today. Andy if you read this Andy, I applaud you and respect you… few would have done what you did. Please allow me to recognize you and your company.

And this story my friends is one of the reasons I started this blog ….. no sponsors…no bullshit…… I’m an average Joe OHV enthusiast talking about real things that hurt and help my passion for all things SxS. Will my Blog have an impact? Probably not! Most younger generations don’t give two shits about the rights there loosing until it’s too late. Besides …… I don’t have the fight in me anymore. I’m down to writing about it and sharing my experiences with you on this blog.