New Jersey off-road riders are with three options: private land, pay as you go or break the law. Watch video
WINSLOW TWP. -- In some ways, the two boys struck by a pick-up truck while riding an ATV earlier this month are lucky -- they suffered broken bones where others have died.
In other ways, New Jersey's off-road enthusiasts say such a tragic accident epitomizes the risks of life, limb and law they face whenever they throw a leg over their machines.
"I've already had criminal trespassing charges pressed against me," said 23-year-old Dylan Frey, fresh off a track in Millville that's filled a void in South Jersey for legal riding. "I'd rather not say where I go to ride for fun. If I say it, I might get in trouble with the law and I don't wanna do that."
Having been squeezed out, shooed away or slapped with fines, riders are left asking themselves, "Where else are we supposed to go?"
'A sad situation'
A relative of the two boys injured in last weekend's accident in Winslow said they were riding along a sidewalk before attempting to cross a roadway and were struck.
It's not the first time an accident involving an ATV has occurred there, police said, with one in 2008 claiming the life of 14-year-old girl and another the year prior leaving a 13-year-old girl dead after the ATV she was riding on was struck by an NJ Transit train.
"You legally can't ride them anywhere," Winslow police Lt. Chris Dubler said of quads and dirt bikes that lack headlights and turn signals. "It's a sad situation, however I don't know what the answer is."
His department has been in talks with railroad company CSX to report illegal riding near train tracks and is working on securing grants to help pay for an ATV to use when checking out hot spots. Plans were also in place to soon deploy plain-clothes officers to areas were people often ride where they shouldn't.
"We're 58 square miles. There's plenty of trails from one end of the town to the other and even towns beyond," he said.
Sand trap
Backlash over efforts last summer to curtail illegal off-road riding in Wharton State Forest -- long the place to go for miles upon miles of unfettered riding -- "came from all quarters," state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) spokesman Larry Hajna said.
The Motorized Access Plan presented at community meetings last year has since been "walked back," Open Trails NJ member John Druding said. His group, which advocates for fair use of Wharton, has teamed up with the DEP to restrict access to threatened Pine Barrens sites like Jemima Mount.
Off-road riding in this instance means leaving the sand roads that cut through the forest and "barreling through wetlands and vegetation" instead. That, Hajna said, is illegal.
The DEP has since "bolstered enforcement" within the state forest, issued "hundreds of summonses" and installed signs to deter off-road riding that deviates from the main routes through the 125,000-acre site, Hajna said, adding that fines start at $250.
"I think the word has gotten out in the motorized community," he said.
Fields of pipe dreams
New Jersey's plans to build three ATV parks across New Jersey date back to 2010. The only one to ever open, located in Woodbine, got off the ground "for a short time," but Hajna said the fact that it "simply wasn't being used very much" eventually prompted its closure.
The lease at the popular facility in Chatsworth expired in 2008 and with it went a viable option for weekend warriors. The possibility of an ATV course at the former Jungle Habitat in West Milford was studied, but never realized. Months of meetings to address Jersey Shore Motocross' plans in Tinton Falls died before the local zoning board.
Riders say that essentially leaves four options: Raceway Park in Oldbridge Township, Field of Dreams in Millville, privately-owned land where it's perfectly legal to ride or taking your chances out in the woods and quarries.
"We do try to cater to that family demographic," said Kyle Dodge, marketing manager for the Field of Dreams. "We're big on the youth."
Mark Hufnagle, Field of Dreams' manager, said the place provides a "safe place to ride ... Here's where I work and ride. Because there's nowhere else to ride."
Eric O'Neal, who traveled two hours from Kitnersville, Pennsylvania to go riding with his 9-year-old son Caleb, was stocking up on supplies at a Wawa in Millville before hitting the Field of Dreams.
He said track and terrain variety is what brings them all the way down to Cumberland County.
"Of course you worry about him," O'Neal said when asked about turning his son loose on the track or in the woods. "But I've spent the time with him. I know his abilities."
'Private, pay or run the risk'
Reflecting on the popularity of New Jersey's few legal off-road courses like the one in Millville, Hajna said riding there -- and only there -- is what the future of the sport was starting to look like to him.
That's hardly what riders want to hear, but the not-in-my-backyard mentality has left them with hardly an option beyond their backyards.
Private: Ty Plummer, of Vineland, brought his 9-year-old son Tyler out to the Millville track last week for a hot and dusty afternoon of dirt bike racing. Plummer said the family belongs to a riding group that gives them access to about 100 acres of private property in the Port Elizabeth section of Cumberland County.
Pay: "Really, that's the way it's shaping up," Hajna said of riding opportunities at places like Millville and Oldbridge.
Run the risk: Bob Wallace, who owns Central Jersey Cycle in Monmouth County, is 60 but said the same rules have applied since he was 15. Sprawling development -- not to mention "tree-huggers," he said -- have eventually led to places were police turned a blind eye to illegal riding being forever off-limits.
"It's private, pay or run the risk," he said.
Greg Adomaitis may be reached at gadomaitis@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregAdomaitis. Find NJ.com on Facebook.