A Land Owner’s Perspective Makes You Appreciate Our Trails

Editor’s Note: This Breaking Trail column first appeared in the October 2021 issue of Snow Goer magazine.

snowmobile trail
Snowmobilers are fortunate that landowners allow us to cross their land. Never forget that.

Imagine saving your entire life to get the car of your dreams. It doesn’t really matter whether it’s a classic (I’d lean toward a GTO or Monte Carlo), an exotic Italian sportscar (Porsche, Ferrari, Bugatti… so many choices!) or a modern rig (the mid-engine Corvette is appealing!). For the sake of this discussion, let’s just pretend it’s something elusive and expensive, and now it’s all yours. A life’s mission has been accomplished!

Then suddenly, one early fall afternoon while you’re sitting in your car soaking in its aura, there’s a tap on the window. Suspicious, you get out and find a jovial guy in his 60s wearing blue jeans, a plaid shirt and a ball cap.

“Yeah, hi there – this is Jalmer Nelson’s old car, right? Welcome to owning it, I’m sure you’re going to love it,” he says merrily.

“Well, um, yeah, thanks. I saved a long time to finally get something like this,” you admit.

“Yeah, she’s a beaut – it’s nice to see it fell into good hands,” the guy says before getting to the point.

“Well, you see, when Jalmer used to own it, we had this agreement whereby, for about three months each year, anybody could come take it for a spin – not a long ride, mind you,” Mr. Ballcap explains. “No, they’ll just use your car before moving on to your neighbor’s car, and the another car after that.”

“What? Who are these people that would use my car?! Are we talking about you and a friend, or…”

“Oh heck no, it could be absolutely anybody – I wouldn’t even know the vast majority of them personally,” he replies. “No, I’m just the guy who sets up the whole deal. I’ve got this lease paperwork that relieves you of legal liability. If you sign the papers and allow this, our little club takes liability if somebody crashes, and you won’t be sued,” he explains calmly.

“Is there a schedule or something for when these random strangers would be coming?” you ask incredulously.

“No, not really – day or night if conditions are right. Frankly, some might even come late at night and might accidentally wake you up,” he says. “The vast majority are good, salt-of-the-earth people, but as with any crowd there’s always 2 percent that are riff-raff.”

“Why would I do that? Even if you offered me $20,000 a year I still…”

“Oh, we wouldn’t give you any money – no, we can’t because then the legal liability would fall back on you,” he explains. “You don’t want that. We do have a Car Owners Appreciation Dinner every spring, though, where a handful of the people who run the program cook you and other car-owners a pork chop dinner. Some of the guys might also give you a Christmas card to show our appreciation.”

“Well, you’ve clearly lost your mind. There’s no way I would agree to that. None,” you say.

“Well golly, Jalmer did this with us for years and it was no problem – no problem at all,” he says. “I mean, yeah, there was a little wear and tear here and there some years, but generally when the borrowing season is over you’d hardly know we were there. And, frankly, if you don’t do it, then it kind of screws up our route that people use to take other cars for rides – we need your spot to maintain our path of usable cars.”

Sounds like a ridiculous situation, right? Well, now you know how snowmobile club members probably sound to new landowners in the exurbs when they seek permission to continue a snowmobile trail across their property.

Honestly, sometimes I wonder why so many people allow our trails – and all of us riders – to cross their property. But thank God they do. Mark sure to thank those land owners by respecting their property when you cross it. Without them, and their graciousness, our sport would collapse. Never forget that.

Editor’s Note: Every Snow Goer issue includes in-depth sled reports and comparisons, aftermarket gear and accessories reviews, riding destination articles, do-it-yourself repair information, snowmobile technology and more. Subscribe to Snow Goer now to receive print and/or digital issues.

2 thoughts on “A Land Owner’s Perspective Makes You Appreciate Our Trails

  • And this is exactly why tge state and fed need to make it a whole lot more ez than making every club become a 901c3 so we can get land owners to give us permanent easments for full value tax deductions .
    Yeah not all will but a lot will henc why our club is working on the long and expensive prosses of becoming 901c3
    Just think how much more ez this would have been even 15 yrs ago . A lot of the oldtimmers see the value of this and know they are not going any place till they are in the ground and are not happy about the thought of the kids selling it all off to a developer.
    Now you have the easment developers have to work with the club .

    Reply
  • This article really hits home! It’s easy to take our trail systems for granted, but the reality is that they exist because of the incredible generosity of landowners. We, as snowmobilers, need to do everything we can to show our respect – stay on the marked trails, keep our speed in check, and always be mindful of the impact we have. A simple wave and a thank you go a long way! Let’s make sure we’re doing our part to keep these landowners happy and our trails open.

    Reply

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