I have been camping for a lot of years. I remember fondly our early years. We cut our teeth with the old pyramid shaped tourist tent. It was quite an experience. It would hold 100 people, four at a time! It was also low to the ground, and we literally crawled into our sleeping bags and were very cosy… until the rain runoff from the Smokey Mountains came in one side, surrounded our air mattresses, and oozed out the other side.
That wasn’t so good and while I remember it very well, I also remember the quietness that was only broken by the songs of the insects. We camped each year in primitive forest campgrounds, and with only a few exceptions it was comfortably quiet.
As the years passed by something changed. There began the steady roar of engines. These engines were affixed to a new creation called an all terrain vehicle. This runty 4WD sported 4 knobby tires, and could carry two people. Although it could have been made quieter, its muffler was imperfect then and it continues imperfect now. At first the
ATV found its use on farms and it also carried hunters and fishermen into remote areas. But before you could turn around, suddenly the ATV was everywhere. Noisy youths, beer cans and all, were roaming the roads, and visiting campgrounds. They didn’t just arrive, put up a tent, and relax, no, they had to roar in and out and all over the nearby places disturbing everything and everyone.
But that was only the beginning. Adults began hauling them to the campground in their toy-haulers, and the steady roar of almost unmuffled motors echoed throughout the campgrounds. It wasn’t enough to have one, but they needed one for mom, and another smaller one for the kids. Now the kids can circle the campground and pass by your campsite a hundred times… and counting.
I’ve noticed a trend to purchasing large side by side ATVs, which seem to be much noisier that the regular ones. They have kind of steady roar that you can hear for great distances. Last winter in the desert, where it used to be silent, there now were both kinds of ATVs running past, roaming the stream beds and generally travelling on untrammelled desert lands.
Sadly they also roam over mountain wilderness areas, carving new ruts where there were none, and destroying vegetation wherever they go. Many stick to the trails which now suffer from rutting and wear and tear they were not designed for. And wherever they go, their noise follows.
They are replacing quiet electric golf carts in Trailer Parks in the cities. People use them to run the park’s streets to visit with friends in the park, frequently leaving them running as they visit. If they are on gravel surfaces, their knobby tires rip and scuff the surface.
It’s time people woke up to the fact that they are destroying the same relaxing places they like to visit because they are quiet and different from city life.
One thought on “Have ATV’s Stolen Our Peace and Quiet?”
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Good, very true and annoying