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I heard the Hendrick deal is off. Junior is going with Mikey Waltrip... That way he'll get weekends off. 

Not as tipsy as a regular canoe.

If you buy it, you'll keep it forever. I've had mine now for almost 20 years now. I've had other boats come and go but still have my Gheenoe. They can be a little harder to paddle compared to a normal canoe because of weight the differance, but it shoudn't be enough to not buy it. I've also found it to be a bit more stable too.

I'm in too.

Hey, Check out www.muddywatersatv.org , that club is based in you area. They have monthly rides in and out of state.

Check with your area Community College or you could stop by one of your local fire stations and ask them.

TQG is right. Gun season is open until 1-21. Might be smart to wait until it's over.

Not that it helps our sport(atvs) but it was approx. a 20ish y/o riding a dirtbike at a high rate of speed and lost control and was ejected into a palmeto bush. Was flown out by helicopter, No real major external injuries. No protective gear

Thanks for the update , I never saw anything about it after that blurb on their website.

I just saw this on the FlaToday newspapers' website.

By ABRAHAM ABORAYA
FLORIDA TODAY    County responds to ATV accident
Brevard County Fire-Rescue is responding an accident involving an all-terrain vehicle in North Brevard.The driver may have run into a tree in the SR 5A area off of Interstate 95. The area, known for its trails and mud holes, is a hotspot for outdoor motor sport enthusiasts.

I was traveling east bound on SR528 heading to Merritt Island for some honey-do's. Watched the whole thing unfold through my windsheild. It truly was a bad day for the crew of Challenger , the workers and folks of the Space Coast and the USA. I was so bummed that I wouldn't look up to the sky for weeks. God Bless them all.

Bull Creek is out for off-roading. New change, only on main roads even during small game season. Any questions check the GFC site it has the new info.

Paul, Cocoa

Here's an article out of sunday's Florida Today newspaperDecember 18, 2005


IS BIG CYPRESS RIGHT TERRAIN FOR ATVs?

ATV debate rolls on

BY BYRON STOUT
GANNETT NEWS SERVICE

It's the season for 226,000 hunters to suit up and head out into Florida's great outdoors -- about 5.5 million acres of public lands equal in size to New Jersey.

To get around the Sunshine State's expansive pine flatwoods and legendary swamps, the majority use off-road vehicles ranging from monster swamp buggies to camouflaged golf carts.

Which raises the question: What does that do to the environment and Florida's 111 species of endangered plants and animals that call the state's uplands and wetlands home?

One type of off-road four-wheeler already has been banned from most of Florida's public land.

These high-speed four-wheelers are known as all-terrain vehicles, or ATVs. Land managers view them -- many are used for off-road racing -- as disruptive to hunting and destructive to habitat.

By the same token, federal and state authorities acknowledge hunters couldn't access vast tracts like the 884-square-mile Big Cypress National Preserve in Collier County without other types of off-road vehicles, or ORVs.

The disputes arise over how restrictive -- some would say protective -- ORV rules should be.

Some environmentalists believe hunters are methodically destroying the lands they love. Hunters say claims of damage they do to the environment are overstated.

Nowhere are those issues more contentious than in the Big Cypress.

Environmentalists and sportsmen each have sued the National Park Service to preserve the land via vehicle restrictions or, conversely, to use it as they see fit.

Some issues have been settled, but how vehicles will fit into the picture was debated again this past week when the Park Service held public hearings on 146,000 acres being added to Big Cypress National Preserve.

'Mismanaging' land

Neither faction is happy about the management.

Fort Lauderdale travel agent and environmental activist Brian Scherf is among the most vocal of Florida's defenders of public lands.

Scherf's outrage stems from an experience he had in the Big Cypress in the early '90s.

"I was hiking in there, and I had to cross one of these big (wet prairies) that was almost annihilated by off-road vehicles," he said. "The ground was turned into a slurry by the vehicles. I just sank into this mud that had been churned over so many times, it was almost like quicksand.

Scherf said he sank to his knees and had to wedge himself out with a walking stick.

"To see the soils in such condition, it looked like Rommel's tank corps had run through there," he said.

The Park Service, he said, was mismanaging the preserve.

"The place is supposed to be managed in perpetuity for future generations, and here we were in this field of destruction," Scherf recalled.

So he formed his own environmental organization of six people -- the Florida Biodiversity Project -- and sued the Park Service in 1994 under illegal-dredging provisions of the Clean Water Act.

The suit claimed in part that swamp buggy tires picked up and moved mud in the preserve without the required permits.

The Park Service agreed to regulate vehicles in the preserve in a settlement that irks many longtime off-roaders to this day.

Travel-impact study

Scientific studies to determine the impacts of travel on the preserve and its wildlife are under way, with preserve botanists, hydrologists and other scientists supervising members of the Student Conservation Association.

Pedro Ramos, the preserve's assistant superintendent, has offered no definitive findings so far. However, managers are working with the assumption that extensive rutting alters water flows, damages vegetation and stresses wildlife, including Florida panthers.

"I will tell you very comfortably," Ramos said, "that we know that not having implemented an ORV plan would have continued to allow more damage to the resource."

The Park Service's plan was to begin designating trails in most of the preserve's six management units and to tell off-road vehicles to stay on those trails.

Some of those "trails" -- the service refuses to call them roads -- have been built up with synthetic anti-erosion webbing that forms a base to allow water to flow through and with trucked-in lime rock.

"You have to remember what we're trying to do here is strike a balance between conservation and recreation," Ramos said.

"We do feel the plan represents a good balance."

Proof may be neither environmentalists nor hunters are entirely happy.

"They've decided to put lime rock over 200 miles of trails," Scherf said.

"No one envisioned that. The standard should be if the natural soils can't withstand vehicle traffic, then they shouldn't be allowed."

Stout covers the Outdoors for the News-Press in Fort Myers.

Well we made it. Can't go anywhere though. We have 2+ feet of water in the roads leading in and out of our area. I guess 10 + inches of rain will do that.

A tornado hit some local buildings in our downtown area in Cocoa about 9:30- 9:45 PM tonight. Fortunatly I live NW about 2-3 miles from there. We still had some very intense lightning, wind gusts and rain. I guess it'll be a long night and morning watching for further bands from Wilma as she moves in and across Florida. Good luck to all of you that live to my south.

That's great, I got some of the guys at the fire station with it. They loved it.

Been there, done it. Thanks.

Did anyone hear what came out of this meeting? I checked the SJRWMD website and they don't have any info or minutes from the meeting.

Look into the MuddyWatersATV club. They're a central florida club with some Brevard members in it too. They have a ride scheduled for fathers day at the Canaveral Groves area. Check out their site for some info. www.muddywatersatv.org 

It was The Outdoor Channel, OLN is the other one.

Yes it would be worth your while. Just getting outdoors whether it's atv'n, hunting or whatever is worth it. There are plenty of places in Florida to bow hunt. You could go the private lease or public land route. You can go to    http://myfwc.com/  to get information on public areas to hunt. Hope this is a good start for you.                      

Big Daddy, got the phones today and they're up and running. Thanks for the help and great service.  

FYI, Sunday March 6 is the last day of open riding at Bull Creek. That's when small game season closes. After that riding is limited to named or numered roads only, until next small game season in Jan.

Good Luck. [smiley=ThumbsUp.gif]

Good ole Clear Channel. They just did the same thing with an Orlando station, 100.3 FM. One minute it was playing the oldies and at the strike of noon, it was a latin music station. No notice.