Local ‘mudders’ should find another place to drive wild

Well, it is a road.

So, it certainly is legal to drive down it.

But it’s also a road designed for minimum maintenance.

Not a lot of care. Not a lot of gravel, if any. Not much attention paid.

In a rainy week, it’s a recipe for getting stuck.

There are 77 such miles of road in Franklin County. Each, mostly, is intended to provide access to farm ground for farm equipment and trucks.

But the roads also are targets for people who don’t mind — even enjoy — getting stuck.

It’s the sport of mudding — taking out four-wheel-drive vehicles and daring to go where no passenger car can go.

It’s not difficult to see the fun in the sport. Challenging your skills and the capabilities of your vehicle is a time-honored rural pastime. It stretches from running moonshine, through NASCAR and Monster Trucks to mudding. It probably started with horse racing.

At the same time, an episode of massive mudding this weekend — an event that involved as many as 40 people, mostly spectators — ended up making a road impassable and causing additional damage to an adjacent farm.

Fun, yes.

But the landowner got it right: “The problem is landowners and taxpayers are paying for what they’re destroying.”

We all know it’s wrong to destroy or damage private property.

It also is wrong to destroy or damage public property. That includes county roads, even minimum maintenance ones.

Local mudders really need to find a new place — or way — to have fun. Many groups and festivals in the area organize “mud runs” so people can enjoy the sport without damaging public or private property.

How about sticking to organized mudding events?