Led by Scott Benolken, pictured above, a new group “Tread Lightly Off-Roaders” has been formed in Cook County to be trail ambassadors for the Border-to-Border Touring Route. The club is also planning to do community cleanups as well as provide rides for underprivileged children who couldn’t otherwise experience the wilderness. Photo courtesy of Scott Benolken
Local Jeep and off-road touring enthusiasts have formed a new club in the area to organize local riders, provide service to the community, and acknowledge the growing trend in off-road touring.
Grand Marais resident Scott Benolken is driving the energy behind “Tread Lightly Off-Roaders,” a club he says is one of many new family and service-oriented Jeep, land-rover and 4×4 touring clubs being formed around the state.
Benolken said touring groups are forming partly as a result of the state goal to get more diverse and under-served users into the outdoors, partly as a result of riding groups recognizing they can serve a greater purpose by doing good things in the community, and partly to push back against the negative stereotypes propagated by a small but vocal nativist mentality in the community – “who mis-represent who we are and how we recreate.”
He admitted local opposition to the exciting new Border-to-Border Touring Route generated a lot of backlash from “regular people like you and me,” to “fencing-off Cook County to outsiders,” and is driving membership in the club.
He said “Tread Lightly Off-Roaders,” captures perfectly the small-footprint philosophy they ride under, and that the club is already developing plans to do clean-ups in the community, provide trail rides to handicapped and underprivileged children who couldn’t otherwise experience the wilderness, has reached-out to the Silver Bay Veterans Home, and will partner with a great new group called “Hometown Heroes,” a national group that helps everyday people make a difference in their local communities.
Benolken, who is a lieutenant with Cook County Search and Rescue, said the club is looking forward with pride to being trail ambassadors for the Border-to-Border Touring Route, which begins in Cook County, and is generating a lot of positive interest as the first cross-state touring route being proposed in the nation.
The proposed B2B route modeled itself after the Minnesota Scenic Byway System and the Wisconsin Rustic Road touring system. It is designed on existing roads for highway-licensed vehicles.
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