I do think that a lot of people want to keep their backroads to themselves.
Pretty much the entire UP Michigan has great ATV riding. In Wisconsin, the trail system has improved vastly in the last decade, but there are some recent ticky tack rules to ATV riding (have to register ATV, have to display registration "plate").
My husband's family has a home in the Chequamegon NF (Wi), we ride the Dead Horse Run when we can, it connects at the southern end to the Tuscobia trail. There are parts of this trail that are pretty challenging and make me wish that I had power steering. There is a small campground, not heavily used, Stockfarm Bridge (46.0375, -90.7153) which has trail access. Lots of wolves in this area now. One thing I can say is that in the decade that we have ridden this trail sporadically (one to four times a year), I can count on both my hands the number of other riders that we have encountered on the trail. We ride the north half mostly, I think that there might be more riders closer to the Tuscobia.
We used to have an old '73 Jeep Wagoneer that we would take back in the forest near the cabin, onto old logging trails, to try to get it stuck. That thing never did get bogged down as hard as we tried, and we had it in some pretty deep mud holes. Loved that thing, miss it still.
We have found that up to date gazetteers are better than GPS on those forest roads, and take them with us when we trail ride as well.
