Beware of bottlenecks when trying to get an off-road vehicle permit for Mark Twain trails

If you're a local ATV, UTV or off-road motorcycle rider who enjoys buzzing along the Mark Twain National Forest trail systems, getting a permit may not be quite as easy this year.

Forest Service permits sales for the popular Chadwick Motorcycle and ATV Use Area — an area that includes 80 miles of multi-use trails — are bottlenecked due to closures or technical difficulties involving outside vendors.

Permits are typically purchased through the Forest Service office (in person or by phone after faxing an OHV registration form) and four outside vendors. Currently, the only active outside vendors are Beaver Creek Campground west of Ava, and Casey's General Store west of Sparta.

The Beaver Creek and Casey's locations only have limited numbers of passes, according to the Forest Service, and can't guarantee availability.

Kay’s Country Store in Chadwick, where many of the permits are often purchased, is trying to resolve its technical issue.

Nearly 7,000 passes are sold for the Chadwick Motorcycle and ATV Use Area each year, so keeping up with the demand with fewer outside vendors has been difficult for the Forest Service, which said it's working on new ways to get permits out faster.

Forest Service customer service employees have recently been inundated with calls about the issue.

"The Forest is pursuing other options to make obtaining passes easier in the future with online and digital pass sale options being pursued," the Forest Service said in a news release. "These include the ability to sell passes through Recreation.gov and the installation of a kiosk machine, that will take electronic payments, to allow walk-up sales in a convenient location."

Riders using outside vendors are being encouraged to call ahead in advance to ensure permits are available.

The majority of Forest Service passes sold are one-day passes.

"It's crunch time and everyone is excited to hit the trails," said Cody Norris, a spokesman for the Forest Service. "We appreciate everyone wanting to do it the right way and get permits."

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Technical difficulties create obstacle for ATV permits in Mark Twain