Minnesota ATV enthusiast readies for deer opener

Contributed / Dean Schliek By Andrew Weeks Today at 9:00 AM Listen Comments Share Share this article News Reporting News Reporting Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. The Trust Project What is this? About three years ago, northern Minnesota resident Dean Schliek and his family of five, who live in Breezy Point, decided to travel to the Canada border. They approached their trip not by traveling in a passenger car or SUV, but instead the family loaded their tents and sleeping bags on an all-terrain vehicle and hit the trails. It was a fun, three-day adventure traversing 245 miles of backcountry they had never experienced previously. Instead of getting a hotel room, their lodgings were the forests. During one stretch of their journey, they encountered a trail flooded by the spring melt. ADVERTISEMENT “Most of the terrain was pretty smooth sailing, probably 90% to 95% were ATV trails. All of them were fairly maintained and it went pretty smoothly until we got way into northern Minnesota,” he said. “A vast majority of northern Minnesota is pretty much all swamp. Once we got north of Big Falls, we had about 40 miles of wet, about 6 to 8 inches of water.” Contributed / Dean Schliek In the pictures he took at the time, “all you can see is a trail of water and pine trees off to the edges,” Schliek said. “It was like driving across the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah [because it looked so shiny and flat] except there were trees.” The family wouldn’t have been able to cross the watery terrain if they were in a regular vehicle, but because they were riding an all-terrain machine, they met the challenge without any reservation and plowed through the flood, all 40 miles of it. The challenge was met as if it were a ride in the proverbial park, and the experience created a fond memory the family shares of riding the scenic trails. Contributed / Dean Schliek The Schliek family has built many memories over the years while using their off-road vehicles. They use them for varied purposes throughout the year, in every season, but it is when autumn rolls around that Schliek and his three boys perhaps rely on their ATVs the most. “We use them for deer hunting,” he said. “They really help a lot.” Great for grunt work The Schlieks are not the only ones who share sentiments about ATVs. More than 400,000 Minnesota hunters are expected to participate in the 2026 firearms deer season that opens Saturday, Nov. 7, according to information from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Many of them will be using their ATVs. ADVERTISEMENT According to a report sponsored by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, about 25% of hunters use ATVs on their hunts. Schliek and his family are among them. They own 253 acres, most of it heavily wooded. Scattered throughout the property are several deer tree stands, each facing a different direction in the forest. Every autumn, about a week before deer season, Schliek hops aboard his ATV and heads into the woods on his property to set up the tree stands. He and his three sons build the stands at their home and use a side-by-side, or their ATV with an enclosed cab, to haul them to the desired location. Once the opener arrives, he and his sons are on their ATVs again, heading to the stands to wait for deer to come into their gun sights. Sometimes they don’t have to wait long. Contributed / Dean Schliek With a half-dozen deer stands on the property, the ATVs come in handy for accessing them. Schliek and his boys check the weather and wind direction, then decide which stand they’ll use during any given day. “We’re always trying to hunt against the wind; that way we can keep our scent covered,” he said. “We’ll decide which stand to use and the boys will load up and take their four-wheelers out to the stand.” When they harvest a deer, they use the ATV to haul the carcass out of the woods. The same is true for other big game, and in Minnesota Amber Jensen, regional training officer with the DNR enforcement group, said a lot of bear hunters also use ATVs. She cautions hunters to not overload their machines, as that can be unsafe. Schliek said he bought his first full-sized four-wheeler in 2003 and has been using ATVs on the hunt ever since. ADVERTISEMENT “I keep telling my boys that they are pretty spoiled, because when I was a kid, 12 and 13 years old, my dad and I would have to drag everything out to the truck,” he said. “It’s a whole different animal when you shoot a deer at 3:30 or 4 o’clock in the afternoon; you gut it and then have to drag it all the way back to the truck. The boys are spoiled. They shoot a deer, gut it, throw it up on the front rack and take it out.” Contributed / Dean Schliek Schliek said he knows other hunters who use ATVs on the hunt, because they’ve found how practical it can be in the field or in the woods, and he often sees off-road vehicles at deer camps. “If I see a pickup truck during the hunt, I can almost guarantee there’s a trailer behind with a four-wheeler on it,” he said. Ready for the hunt The day before Halloween, Schliek and his sons already had their ATVs loaded on a trailer, ready to spend the Saturday in the woods near Cross Lake, preparing to take tree stands there, about 13 miles from their own deer-hunting property in Crow Wing County. It’s something they do every fall, and the experience helps bind their father-son ties even tighter. The family has a collection of ATVS, six in all, ranging from the traditional ATV to side-by-side machines with four seats. “I have five kids, so everybody has to have one,” he said. Schliek is hard-pressed to say which is his favorite. He enjoys all of the ATVs, each for different reasons, but he tends to his Polaris RZR model for family rides. It’s the multi-seat vehicle he used when the family traveled to the Canada border three years ago and met the trail deep in water. ADVERTISEMENT “We spend time in the side-by-side on family outings, but when it’s just me and the boys we take out the four-wheelers,” he said. READ MORE HUNTING COVERAGE: Safety tips to remember when taking ATVs on a hunt 5h ago Deer season opens in Minnesota, North Dakota 5h ago Deer opener brings different rules on both sides of the Red River 1d ago Video: Deer hunting enforcement in North Dakota 2d ago Besides hunting, the family also use their machines to check trail cameras and maintain the trails on their property. “It makes the work so much easier,” he said. “We have 253 acres, so it’s a little way from one end of the property to the other. It’s all heavily wooded, not open farm fields.” Schliek said he and his boys also use their ATVs when ice fishing at Crow Lake, noting they have garnered many memorable experiences fishing while their machines sat close by as if waiting for the anglers to catch their limits. Sometimes with no purpose in mind except spending time together in the outdoors, whether on their property or elsewhere, the family hits the trails, each on his or her own ATV or a few in the utility vehicle. Lynn Kramer of Akeley, Minnesota, can understand that. ATVs have been a part of her life for more than 20 years. She doesn’t always go far when she rides her four-wheeler, but for her that’s not the point. It’s about getting outside, spending time with family or friends, and enjoying her machine and the natural surroundings. Like Schiek — and perhaps like most ATV buffs — Kramer has more than one machine, including a side-by-side or one with an enclosed cab. She likes it because she can invite someone to ride with her in the vehicle. “I grew up on the four-wheeler, something I’ll always have and go back to,” she said of the traditional ATV. “But the side-by-side is different. You’re not alone in the machine most of the time.” ADVERTISEMENT That’s what ATVs do for the Schlieks, just as the hunt does: it brings them together. A w