Night Riding Announcement from TMTC

[BrettinSanAntonio]

TO: TMTC MEMBERS & DAY USERS OF BMRA

FROM: BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF BMRA, INC.

DATE: MARCH 25, 2008

RE: NIGHT RIDING AT BARNWELL MTN.

Over night on March 22, 2008, an unknown number of persons in the Park,
broke the rules of the Park by engaging in night riding into the early morning
hours of Easter Sunday.
Two neighbors on the west side of the Park have come to us to register complaints about the disturbance the night riders created. Their story is particularly sad; that morning at 10:00 am had been the funeral of Mrs. Loy Skinner; the wife of one, and the mother of the other neighbor. Saturday night was a time of mourning for their family, and they had several extended family members as overnight guests.
BMRA hosted organized night rides during the first 2 ½ years we were open. Unfortunately, when the organized groups were riding, other individuals took it on themselves to go riding independently. The resulting noise and light pollution caused several neighbors around Barnwell to register complaints. The fact that our Property Managers could not patrol 1,800 acres all night long, and that we suffered bad public relations with surrounding property owners led to a decision by the TMTC Board of Directors to ban all riding after 10:00 PM. That rule still stands.
I have asked the Property Managers to provide me with the names and addresses of all persons who paid to camp overnight on March 22nd, and I am sending this memo to each of these persons. Please accept my apologies if you are one of the majority of folks who abide by the rules and show consideration for other campers and our neighbors.
However, if you are one of those individuals who spent the night out on the trails, this is a warning to you. Night riding is a violation of a rule established by the Board of Directors for the general well being of this Park. This incident has forced us to take additional measures to insure that rule will be observed. The rule will be enforced, and violators will be dealt with.
We want to be good neighbors, and welcome everyone willing to co-operate and work together to benefit the off-road community. We will not allow a small number of persons to ignore rules, and cause problems for the Park. We appreciate our neighbors, and our members who understand that public relations are an important part of our responsibilities. We thank those who observe our rules. To those unwilling to do so – Please wheel somewhere else.

BMRA, INC. BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Tom Mitchell, Chairman

[LandCruisers4Life]

Kind of ridiculous 'no night time wheeling', but rules are rules and they should have abided by them. I figure if people want to risk wheeling at night, they should know the consequences, or at least know the trail system very well and have adequate lighting on their rigs (and USE it). In this case, the park is a 'pay to play' with their rules/regs and it resulted in others being penalized for the acts of a few.

I like wheeling at night myself, but not dangerous trails. I find a lot of people who have lots of off road lights end up not using them... it's all for show, or they say they don't want to blind the driver in front. The way we always did it was to just turn our rear view mirrors and side mirrors to keep the light out of the eyes. All the light possible is the way we did it..... I realized the importance of light after I rolled my 40 at night, down a hill.... Drove back up, out and home afterwards too. However, off road lighting would have probably prevented the accident.

[ilikebigtires]

Someone always has to ruin it for the rest of us. Let's just hope they don't ban wheeling from dusk to 10:00 p.m.

[Green Lantern]

Night runs are getting bad press everywhere.
Those big lights necessary for off road visibility can be seen for miles and appear as distracting flashes across the sky. The engine noise seems louder as well because there's less ambient noise at night (fewer cars on the road, fewer planes, fewer people moving about).

Sorry to bear bad news, but night runs are dying elephants.
Happy Trails! N

[ilikebigtires]

So that's what the Marfa lights are???? Off-roaders in the desert? lol. Kelly, we figured it out!

[Green Lantern]

Originally Posted by ilikebigtires

So that's what the Marfa lights are???? Off-roaders in the desert? lol. Kelly, we figured it out!

LMAO...
No, the Marfa lights are the Jeepers walking back to camp with their flashlights.
;-)
Happy Trails! N

[TinStar]

Originally Posted by Green Lantern

LMAO...
No, the Marfa lights are the Jeepers walking back to camp with their flashlights.
;-)
Happy Trails! N

SWEEEEEET

[rrdogma]

Originally Posted by Green Lantern

LMAO...
No, the Marfa lights are the Jeepers walking back to camp with their flashlights.
;-)
Happy Trails! N

Dang. I wasn't too far off. They looked like ax murderers running towards us with flashlights to me as I recall. Maybe they were Jeeper ax murderers.

Kelly

[BrettinSanAntonio]

I'm afraid you may be right. I'm curious to see how they fare at the new TMTC park when it finally opens. It's more rural than Barnwell and has strong support from most of its neighbors. It will be interesting to see how it goes.

Originally Posted by Green Lantern

Night runs are getting bad press everywhere.
Those big lights necessary for off road visibility can be seen for miles and appear as distracting flashes across the sky. The engine noise seems louder as well because there's less ambient noise at night (fewer cars on the road, fewer planes, fewer people moving about).

Sorry to bear bad news, but night runs are dying elephants.
Happy Trails! N

[BrettinSanAntonio]

Originally Posted by rrdogma

Dang. I wasn't too far off. They looked like ax murderers running towards us with flashlights to me as I recall. Maybe they were Jeeper ax murderers.

Kelly

Maybe they thought you had spare parts or they saw you were driving a reliable off-road vehicle and wanted a ride.

I LOVE West Texas.

[ilikebigtires]

I think they were hoping that Kelly had a winch....

[BrettinSanAntonio]

Maybe it was the Boozer Cruiser! It comes out of the desert at night!

[LandCruisers4Life]

I've been there a bunch of times, and this last time I did see a REAL Marfa light... it lasted only a second, and then vanished. I stayed looking in the same area for about 15 more minutes before I had enough excitement. No it wasn't the cars over on 67, or the blinking RR lamp out to the right..... or the house lights off to the left....

West Texas.... great place. I can hardly wait to go back and do some more backcountry exploring.