12 // Star Publications // Outdoor Adventures - February 8, 2022
Hitting the trails!
Longtime rider, Martin stresses safety first BY SARAH COLBURN | STAFF WRITER
RICE – Five or six machines, 15 to 20 people, an open weekend and the open trail. That’s what Ryan Martin looks forward to. The Rice resident has been four-wheeling and riding dirt bikes for years. He goes out once or twice a month for bigger, weekend-long rides and once a week for smaller rides. On a long weekend, he’ll travel 40 to 50 miles in a day over the course of four or five hours. “It’s the comradery of the people we’re riding with,” he said. “We meet people on the trail, it’s the overall atmosphere and what it means to be out there.” His group usually combines a ride with a camping trip, choosing sites where multiple RVs and campers can pull in
for the night and they can all hang out around the bonfire. For him, it’s a getaway and something he’s been enjoying for years. His group frequents Spider Lake in Cass County but has also gone to Gilbert, an off-highway vehicle recreation area on the Iron Range, for a four- or five-day trip, and he’s hoping to make it to Nemadji State Forest this summer. They mostly visit state forests or trails that are mapped out. Different trails, he said, allow for different types of vehicles and it’s important to follow the local postings. Some trails allow off-highway motorcycles/dirt bikes and others allow four-wheelers, while some offer both. He and his friends keep up to date on
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Trinity Trutwin (front left) jokingly covers her face for a photo while stopping for a break from riding at Spider Lake in 2019. Behind her in white is Corey Oldakowski, front center is Ryan Martin and next to him, Ryan Rolfzen and his son, Zach Rolfzen, are on the far right.
trail-riding information by following the Facebook pages of groups that maintain the trails, including Lake Country ATV Riders and Minnesota ATV Riders. Some
trails are maintained by the local clubs but permitted by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Martin has been riding trails across Minne-
sota for 10 to 15 years and said since the onset of COVID-19, and a move by people to get outdoors, there’s been an increase of traffic on the trails too. The demand has also
made it more difficult to buy new equipment but, even on the busiest holiday weekends, the trails
Trails page 13
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