Photo courtesy of Mi-Trale Originally called the Pioneer Trail, now signed as the P Trail, is an amazing trail right through the heart of the Ottawa National Forest. The trail goes from Rockland to Bergland and was built as a cooperative effort between TRALE-UP (defunct), Michigan DNR, Ottawa National Forest, Michigan National Guard, and the US Army Reserve. This trail was built over 20 years ago.

Even the heartiest off road vehicle enthusiasts may be surprised by what they did not know about one of the biggest forms of outdoor recreation.

Michigan has 103 State Parks. Only five allow ORVs to traverse to and from their campsite. Four of the five state parks are in the Upper Peninsula. This includes Twin Lakes State Park in Houghton County, Baraga State Park in Baraga County and Bewabic State Park in Iron County. Did you know that these designations were made possible by local clubs that pushed for two of those three to be open to ORVs?

Michigan also has 104 State Forest campgrounds. The DNR website does not list a single rustic State Forest campground in the Western Upper Peninsula that is open to ORVs. Of the nine State Forest campgrounds that are open to ORVs, the only one in the UP is in Luce County.

The Ottawa National Forest has seven campgrounds that are open to what the National Forest calls OHVs (off highway vehicle). The Ottawa National Forest does allow rustic camping along roads open to OHVs. However, a majority of the ONF Roads are not open to OHVs. Once you get a designated use vehicle map or go online for an interactive map, the vast majority of roads are a few miles long. They are to the benefit of hunters that trailer their ORV in to hunt.

Did you know that it was Trails and Recreation Alliance of the Upper Peninsula (TRALE-UP) that led the coordinated work between the Michigan DNR, ONF, National Guard, and Army Reserve to build the ‘P’ Trail from Bergland to Rockland? This beautiful trail was built right through the heart of the ONF. ‘P’ stands for Pioneer Trail. What you may not know is that it is Mi-TRALE that has and continues to get the DNR funds for the maintenance of this trail.

At the time that TRALE-UP disbanded, the ‘P’ Trail had gates 60 inches wide. At the time, no SXS/UTV was wider than 60 inches. A few years later, this reporter had to work with the ONF to move the gates to 65 inches. Why 65 inches? The intended users of the ‘P’ Trail were OHVs/ORVs, and not to open the trail to Jeeps, Trackers and street legal vehicles. This was simply done to prevent heavier vehicles to create deep tire ruts on segments of the trail that had seasonal wet spots, it was a safety concern.

Another great example of what our local clubs have done to build and maintain one of the best ORV trail systems in the nation is the cooperation between the Keweenaw ATV Club, Michigan DNR, and State-County-Local Officials. This was after 20 million dollars of damage was done by the 2018 Father’s Day Flood.

The KATV led the effort and did a lot of physical work on certain bridge washouts. The KATV club worked on finding re-routes, helped in getting easements, and worked with officials in getting bids to have work done.

The KATV Club that has their own grader to work on trails and is 100% volunteer run. By next year the KATV Club will have all the trails that were washed out by the 2018 flood open.

You may not know that it was Mi-TRALE that started in July of 2001 that worked on ‘writing’ of the law that opened specified sections of State and Federal Highway Right of Ways to be open to ORV use. This was to connect trails and to open certain State and Federal Highway Bridges. Mi-TRALE led the effort to get local and county roads open statewide. Mi-TRALE also got the Michigan Department of Transportation to change the Snowmobile Crossing Trail Signs to Trail Crossing, where that trail is open to both Snowmobiles and ORVs.