ATV critic has run-in with ATV'ers on Ice Age Trail

Brook Waalen, of Luck, who has on numerous occasions sought state and local restrictions on ATV riding on public land, said he and his wife were hiking the National Ice Age Scenic Trail in far western Polk County on June 5 when they came face to face with two ATV'ers illegally riding on the footpath. The encounter took place about 4 p.m. on the IAT's Sand Creek segment in Loraine Township near the Burnett County line, he said.

Four years ago Waalen took photos of ATV damage on the same section of trail and nearby wetlands. "Just once I wanted to catch someone in the act so I could give them a piece of my mind or at least sic the cops on them," Waalen said.

He got his chance last month less than two miles from the trailhead on County Road E. The Waalens saw ATV tracks and heard the rumble of engines before they saw two ATV'ers driving through a stream.

"They were chewing their way along the Ice Age Trail until it hit the stream where they went wherever they pleased. They pounded the Ice Age Trail to the point where it is completely unrecognizable as a footpath. I have no idea how anyone is going to fix that trail," he wrote in an e-mail to Silent Sports.

"The ATV'ers headed straight for us," he continued. "We moved to the side and I signaled to them to stop. They blew past us within inches, spattering us with mud. We couldn't read registration numbers behind the mud (or) their knees. So they made their escape."

Not carrying a cell phone, the Waalens couldn't contact authorities until they got home. They called the sheriff's office and the Department of Natural Resources' Violation Hotline (800/TIP-WDNR), Waalen said, "but without a registration number, we weren't much help to law enforcement. To their credit both agencies followed up with a phone call." Waalen also filled out a Wisconsin Trail Condition and Incident report for the DNR.

As unlikely as it is that the riders responsible will be apprehended, Waalen noted, it is almost certain "the local Ice Age Trail chapter won't get any help, money or otherwise from the so-called legitimate ATV lobby to repair the trail."

Waalen has lobbied unsuccessfully, as has this magazine's editor, for ATV fines and registration fees to go toward the repair of trail and wetland damage cause by illegal and reckless ATV riding.

"I've been around Wisconsin ATV'ers enough to know that they are adamant about pay-to-play on Wisconsin's public lands and trails," Waalen wrote. "Seems reasonable enough that they could pay to repair the trails they wreck."