Freedomflyer

Depends whether you have nervous riders wth you or not.😁 Wouldn't bug me but have a wife that wouldn't be too keen on the idea, and a brother who is just a nervous Nelly!! He gets uptight if I even use words like "not sure exactly" , " I think" or "maybe try" even up tight if it starts getting a little late in the day. 😄 Try to sneak out without him one in a while just to have a more relaxing day🤣😂🙂.

😁that's nice too.

We're pretty spoiled in this part of the country, in fact our state is actually larger than New Zealand by 44,000 Square miles. Our population is just barely over a million, I think 1.069 million. So a very rural state. Pretty much the whole western 1/3 of the state is mountainous and forested with a ton of 50" wide trails and roads that are maintained by The U.S. Forest Service. Up until a couple years ago we were able to use all of them with a permanent license plate and sticker we we bought when registering and licensing our machines. Within the last couple of years they implemented an extra trail pass sticker for each machine that we have to purchase every two years now. It's a bummer but is still reasonably priced to give us access (legally) to the trails and roads. There are those of course who will go ahead and ride without it until they get caught then claim they didn't know about it. I have some friends, well more acquaintances than friends who are doing that. To each there own I guess. I'm thankful we still, at this point, have access to the public lands.

Yeah I think it's too easy to do, time passes quickly and before you know it loved ones are gone and you didn't do anything. He's 14 yrs. older was gone and in the Navy when I was 4 yrs old, after he was discharged and came home, there was such a huge age difference between him and the next brother (12 yrs) I just didn't really have any sort of relationship with them. It was like two different families, even the 6 years between my 3rd brother and I was so big that I was just a pain in the neck to him as well. Ot wasn't until I was in my mid 20's that I started connecting with them. And well into my mid to late 40's that was we were able to relate and develop our friendships. I was raising a family so that took a lot of time as well. Thankful for the relationships and time I get to spend with them now and the fact that we can share the same interest in ATV's and get out together. With failing health, will make a more concerted effort to get out more frequently. As of late have shared interest in Radio Controlled Rock crawlers. We have come across some great areas out 4 wheeling that have some awesome areas to use those. We plan on making some ATV outings this coming summer to go do that as well. One of the places we want to go is about a 10 mile ride in to some huge granite rock slabs, will be a fun outing. Hoping to talk the other two into each getting one as well. Do you get out riding much or have places you are allowed to ride?

I live in Southwest Montana, most of these pics are taken about 20 miles from my house. Well, 20 miles to the trailhead, then 5-10 miles in. Some of them are at one trailhead that is about 50 miles away but all of them are in southwest Montana. Bozeman area.

I do agree that they are an important part of the food chain. Unfortunately this whole program was horribly mismanaged and the reproduction rate was well above what they expected. There really are too many in the area, I know several ranchers/farmers personally that have been dealing with them for the last 2 decades. They are constantly at watch worried for their livestock, pets, and even their kids at times on these rural farms/ranches and have felt like their hands have been tied, but now in the past couple of years, are able to buy up to 10 tags and start protecting their livelihood. I found out today there was 2 other wolves with this one that was killed, they ran off and another one was killed by another rancher down the road, the 3rd got away.

MGoing to apologize in advance to those that have a soft spot for wolves. They are definitely not my favorite species of animal. They continue to grow bolder and bolder even with the population exploding all around us in this wide open valley floor. This valley is approximately 40 miles long by 35 miles wide. Was once mostly agricultural but over the last 25+ years, the kids of long time property owners have sold to the highest bidder. Developers buying up small farms and ranches for millions of dollars and eating away at the local agricultural way of life, destroying the rural Montana I, and many natives, once knew, covering up perfect farm land with urban sprawl, never again to produce a grain of wheat or barley, potato, canola seed, or any crop of any kind ever again. Lining developers pockets, raping and pillaging another rural area and leaving the infrastructure in a colossal mess and the local cities trying to figure out how to pay for the improvements to move the traffic, overloading an already overloaded tax base. FINALLY, after years of farmers and ranchers lobbying and legislation, they finally opened up a season to hunt the destructive and devastating consequences of the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park. These animals have become a huge problem outside of the park boundary. Did the powers that be actually think these killing machines would stay inside the park boundaries? Really? Hmmmmm, not the sharpest tools in the shed. Their population has exploded over their reintroduction into the park in 1995. They released 41 wolves into different areas in Yellowstone Park, then made it illegal to kill any of them that came out of the park boundaries. Pretty much leaving farmers and ranchers defenseless in protecting their livelihood without becoming a criminal. If they did ever shoot one the investigation process has been so stringent and stressful a lot of them have done the 3 S's. Shoot, Shovel, and Shutup! There are now over 1500 wolves in western Montana, over 1100 in Idaho, over 400 in Wyoming, and almost 150 in Eastern Washington. Who knows how many have migrated back into Canada. They finally delisted the wolves and opened up a hunting season on them, something that should have been done years ago before they decimated our elk population. A friend of ours was able procure a tag and was able to fill it yesterday morning. The wolf was down in the middle of the valley floor stalking his cattle on his family ranch, definitely deserved to be taken out. Personally would like to see more taken down, they have gone well beyond repopulation with this program and have spent millions on tracking and thousands of man hours, colossal waste. Glad to see another one gone.

MGoing to apologize in advance to those that have a soft spot for wolves. They are definitely not my favorite species of animal. They continue to grow bolder and bolder even with the population exploding all around us in this wide open valley floor. This valley is approximately 40 miles long by 35 miles wide. Was once mostly agricultural but over the last 25+ years, the kids of long time property owners have sold to the highest bidder. Developers buying up small farms and ranches for millions of dollars and eating away at the local agricultural way of life, destroying the rural Montana I, and many natives, once knew, covering up perfect farm land with urban sprawl, never again to produce a grain of wheat or barley, potato, canola seed, or any crop of any kind ever again. Lining developers pockets, raping and pillaging another rural area and leaving the infrastructure in a colossal mess and the local cities trying to figure out how to pay for the improvements to move the traffic, overloading an already overloaded tax base. FINALLY, after years of farmers and ranchers lobbying and legislation, they finally opened up a season to hunt the destructive and devastating consequences of the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park. These animals have become a huge problem outside of the park boundary. Did the powers that be actually think these killing machines would stay inside the park boundaries? Really? Hmmmmm, not the sharpest tools in the shed. Their population has exploded over their reintroduction into the park in 1995. They released 41 wolves into different areas in Yellowstone Park, then made it illegal to kill any of them that came out of the park boundaries. Pretty much leaving farmers and ranchers defenseless in protecting their livelihood without becoming a criminal. If they did ever shoot one the investigation process has been so stringent and stressful a lot of them have done the 3 S's. Shoot, Shovel, and Shutup! There are now over 1500 wolves in western Montana, over 1100 in Idaho, over 400 in Wyoming, and almost 150 in Eastern Washington. Who knows how many have migrated back into Canada. They finally delisted the wolves and opened up a hunting season on them, something that should have been done years ago before they decimated our elk population. A friend of ours was able procure a tag and was able to fill it yesterday morning. The wolf was down in the middle of the valley floor stalking his cattle on his family ranch, definitely deserved to be taken out. Personally would like to see more taken down, they have gone well beyond repopulation with this program and have spent millions on tracking and thousands of man hours, colossal waste. Glad to see another one gone.

I use Onx Offroad maps, download a satellite of the area you're going to ride, then start to record the track when you start your ride. It runs off satellites not cell service.

Boy jamo, I haven't had that issue with any of the machines I've had my plow on. Used a 2013 Honda Rancher, a 2018 Can Am Outlander, and now a 2016 Outlander Max. Never had my battery run down and have done quite a lot of plowing with all 3 machines.

A bit cooler than expected 🥶😕

Getting more snow, supposed to snow all day, not sure how heavy but have about 5 inches of new snow.

Finally got some snow, enough to mount the plow.

8hrs Had the opportunity to get out for a ride yesterday. A friend came for Thanksgiving from North Dakota so since I had a 5 day weekend this weekend, we headed to one of the few trailheads that are still open this time of year about an hour away. Was a fairly blustery day and only 28 degrees when we left the house. Pipestone (our destination) is about the same elevation at we are but for some reason doesn't seem to get the same amount of snow. Always seems to be bare there when we have snow on the ground. We got unloaded and on the trail at roughly 8:45 a.m. was only about 33 degrees, wind was a steady 20mph which makes it feel like it's around 22. I don't think he was too excited as we were unloading as the wind was biting at us in the parking area. I told him it would get better as we got down the trail and into the hills, and it did as we moved on. Took him to one of the places here that is very unique, even by world's standards We have a place called the ringing rocks and it is really strange how it works. It's a huge pile of rocks that are just sitting on one another, they are called sonorous rocks and resonate sound like a bell when struck with a metal object. Very unique areas, and very few places in the world, 4 or so that have these rock fields. There are only 2 areas in the U.S., one here in Montana, an area in Pennsylvania, an area in the United Kingdom, and one in Australia. Although a pretty cold day there were bits of sunshine that showed through throughout the day. Trails were pretty much dry and sandy. We had 3 small water crossings of about 14 or 15" deep where ice has started to dam up small creeks. These are fairly small and only 20' or so across. At 1 point we thought maybe we might have to turn back as skies were getting pretty black and dark but decided to push through and only ended up with a few flurries of snow that disappeared and then followed by patches of sun. We put on about 40 miles and had a great day stopping for lunch with some turkey sandwiches. One of my favorite places to go and would like to do a bit more exploring as there are hundreds of different trails there are hundreds of different trails that crisscross and connect. Lot of history here with mines and trestle bridges, there is also a spot where an airplane crashed and they never did remove the plane, that one I would really like to find. The landscape is just cool as there are huge house sized, and larger, Granite rock slabs throughout the Trees and hills. Another benefit is most of the trails are sandy type soil and pretty smooth. With all of the granite here they actually had a quarry that they cut huge slabs for the court houses in the surrounding counties. Unlike the trails that are close to us that have sharp protruding rocks, in a lot of our area, different type of rock. Was a great day as it always is when you're on the trails

Angle blade and run the length if you can, if you get large amounts of snow frequently and are able, pushed it WELL off each side of the driveway because it will build up making it more difficult to plow as winter drags on. Of you don't get it far enough off your driving lan will become narrower and narrower as winter progresses.