Friday afternoon, the Lincoln County Forestry, Land and Parks Department announced all county Summer ATV trails will open as of 8 AM Friday, May 18.
According to Forestry, Land and Parks Director Kevin Kleinschmidt, the trails are opening a few weeks late this year, due to the late departure of winter weather.
“Normally we try to get the trails open by May 1 but due to the heavy snowfall in April, we still had quite a bit of snow cover on the trails at the beginning of the month. Then once the snow had melted, we had to wait for the ground to thaw and then dry out so we could get our equipment in to start preparing the trails. Every year we go through and assure any severe washouts are addressed along with clearing brush and so on. Normally we are able to get underway by early to Mid-April, but mother nature set us back a bit this year. Even as of this past week, frost is still coming up out of the ground and things are a bit soft yet, but everything should be good and dried out by Friday.”
Due to the early season conditions of trails, riders are asked to use caution when enjoying the trails this opening weekend.