From Dave Searles

Brodhead

To the editor:

I took advantage of the opportunity to bicycle on the Sugar River Trail without paying the fee on Sunday, June 3, as part of the free weekend access to state parks and bicycling on trails. I rode from Brodhead as far as Tin Can Road northwest of Albany and back. 

It is no wonder that no one from out of town comes to ride on the trail anymore. The trail is in a terrible state. It is bad enough to run on; it is even worse to ride on. I have wide tires with steel rims on my bike; I’d hate to have a bike with narrow tires and aluminum rims. Riding on in it in places is a bone jarring experience. 

South of Albany, grass is growing all the way across the trail and there are weeds in the middle of the trail that are a foot high. This is because there is no longer any crushed limestone on the trail. There are low hanging branches in places so that one has to duck. There is a tree down all the way across the trail between the covered bridge and Golf Course Road North. It has been down long enough for people to wear the grass down getting around it. The grass and weeds along the trail have not been mowed. It is supposed to have been mowed before Memorial Day weekend, and again the weekend before Independence Day, before the first weekend in August, and before Labor Day weekend. 

It would be a financial waste for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to rebuild the trail, though, as long as they allow those snowmobilers on the trail in the winter. It is in such bad shape because of them. They continue to ride on the trail long after they have worn the snow off the trail. If the DNR rebuilt the trail, the snowmobilers would ruin it the following winter. At each road crossing there is a sign that indicates that motorized vehicles are prohibited on the trail. Snowmobiles have a motor, so they are motorized vehicle.