E-Scouting - ATV Trails in the Marsh

[nsmith253]

Have been doing some plotting and planning for winter and spring scouting. I'm looking at some large 10k+ acre typical upper-Midwest public cattail marsh areas with hardwood edges, points, and islands. Looking at the Google Earth imagery and going back to historical photos for some of the larger islands I thought were remote and I'm seeing what appears to be 4 wheeler trails coming from the main land out past some of the islands. I haven't hunted marshes of this size before so this is new to me, do people really drive their wheelers through the marsh? There's still plenty of visible trails coming off the islands in the normal spots. Wondering if I should write these spots off or just wondering how to interpret.

Here's an example:

[MNarrow]

I've been noticing this too when e-scouting and was puzzled if people can/do ride ATVs through a cattail marsh??

[MNarrow]

And I just now realized that we were looking at the same island lol..................

[MNarrow]

It almost looks like it was just a one time ride.......the tracks are so clean that it doesn't look like an often used trail......should be way more beat up than that if used often.

[nsmith253]

And I just now realized that we were looking at the same island lol..................

Could be! Meet me there February 19th at high noon to find out!

Yeah I agree it doesn't look too well used, just curious what others with more experience than me have to say. At a minimum it would seem certain times of year it's quite a bit drier than I thought.

[MNarrow]

And I just now realized that we were looking at the same island lol..................

Could be! Meet me there February 19th at high noon to find out!

Yeah I agree it doesn't look too well used, just curious what others with more experience than me have to say. At a minimum it would seem certain times of year it's quite a bit drier than I thought.

Haha, yep it's the same one.........big wet hole to the southeast of that island.

If I remember correctly when looking at the desktop Google Earth Pro there definitely used to be some kind of ATV trails on this piece years/decades ago.

[nsmith253]

Haha, yep it's the same one

You wanna drop the name of the property and turn-by-turn directions for everyone to be safe? Jeez, help a guy out here! Kidding. If it is the same spot it's about a 3/10 and just being used to illustrate the question.

[MNarrow]

Haha, yep it's the same one

You wanna drop the name of the property and turn-by-turn directions for everyone to be safe? Jeez, help a guy out here! Kidding. If it is the same spot it's about a 3/10 and just being used to illustrate the question.

I'm new to this but curious why you say 3/10?

[nsmith253]

I'll PM ya, want to keep this thread specific to the original question

[Dewey]

I have seen that locally. In the winter atv/utv are used on the ice when doing prescribed burns in certain areas. This packs the cattails or marsh grass down and it shows up on aerials for a long time after. Also airboats leave some really weird trails in remote areas. Easy enough to see because they come off of large pools in the marsh where they access from. No idea about that marsh just telling you what I see here.

[MNarrow]

So I've come across more of these tracks on a newer county aerial map and it got me wondering if it's some type of Argo 6 wheeler type all terrain vehicle? I just can't see an ATV or SXS going through there and creating that dramatic of a track viewed from an aerial.

[American_Regular]

So I've come across more of these tracks on a newer county aerial map and it got me wondering if it's some type of Argo 6 wheeler type all terrain vehicle? I just can't see an ATV or SXS going through there and creating that dramatic of a track viewed from an aerial.

These suckers will seemingly go through anything. They eat cattail marshes and swamps for breakfast.
https://sherpglobal.com/sherp-n-1200-2/

[MartyMoose]

If it's Northern area it also might be snowmobile trails. We have quite a few of them in Wisconsin that will go through marsh

[headgear]

I see these pretty steady in all kinds of places, for sure some hunters but I would guess mostly gun season travelers. Some of it could be winter travel or maybe some official reason to visit some of these areas. It really doesn't take much to make these tracks, just a handful of trips can leave tire marks that show on a map for a long time. If they are used on a regular basis even just a handful of times a year they can stick.

[headgear]

Kind of thought I was going crazy at first because some of these bogs get pretty wet but most of the time they are atv tracks.