SANDOWN -- Two Seabrook men were arrested Wednesday after they led police on a two-hour dirt bike chase on the Rockingham Recreation Trail after one of the men allegedly punched a resident.

Police Chief Scott Currier commandeered a four-wheeler from a passerby to aid in the chase.

According to Police Officer Jason Morrow, police were called to Sandown Materials on Odell Road at 11:47 a.m., for a fight among three people. When Morrow arrived, Al Hoyt, who owns the business and lives on the property, had wounds to his head and neck area and was bleeding from the area around his left ear, Morrow said.

He said the altercation arose after two dirt bikes, driven by brothers Scott Jones, 41, and Steven Jones, 40, rode off the Rockingham Recreation Trail and onto Hoyt's land. The Rockingham Recreation Trail runs adjacent to the Hoyt property.

The brothers claim they wandered onto the property because they were lost, and that Hoyt cornered them and held them "hostage" in the incident. State law prohibits off-road vehicles from riding on private property without written permission from the land owner.

Reached by telephone this morning, Hoyt, 70, declined to tell his side of the story, saying that he's "going to keep quiet" until court. He did, however, repeatedly say that the two men were "trespassing."

"They ran from me and the police; they were wrong," Hoyt said. "They were trespassing ... why didn't they stay until the police came?"

Morrow said that Hoyt and a female friend -- whom Hoyt declined to name -- noticed the two men on his property, approached them and asked them to leave. One thing led to another and Scott Jones allegedly punched Hoyt, Morrow said.

"It was something minor that turned into something more serious," Morrow said.

When Morrow arrived on the scene, he said, he noticed Hoyt's injuries and called the paramedics. Morrow then chased the men, spotting them at the trail intersection at North Danville Road.

"It took us two and a half hours to get them out of the woods," Morrow said. He said after a lengthy chase, the men ditched their dirt bikes and ran into the woods.

Police Chief Scott Currier "commandeered a four-wheeler from a passerby" and chased the men down the state recreation trail, Morrow said. "He booted someone off their own four-wheeler and took it," Morrow said. Police also shut down a mile and a half stretch of the state recreation trail from South Road to Route 107A in Fremont in an attempt to corner the suspects.

Also assisting in the chase and search were the Danville Police Department, Fremont police, state police K-9 units and five Rockingham County deputy sheriffs. Morrow said he was able to talk Steven Jones out of the woods using his public announcement unit in the police cruiser.

Scott Jones is charged with resisting arrest, criminal trespassing and assault. Steven Jones is charged with resisting arrest and criminal trespassing. The brothers will be arraigned Oct. 7 in Derry District Court. The Joneses, who own Tattoo America in Seabrook, claim they were trying to leave the Hoyt property when Hoyt cornered them.

"All we wanted to do is go for a bike ride. We never take a day off and we did," said Scott Jones, adding that his brother could not work yesterday because he was injured when Hoyt's friend allegedly bumped him with the four-wheeler. "My brother and I were riding along the trail and we got lost. The minute we realized we were on private property we turned around to leave and there was a guy on a tractor holding the gate shut and he wouldn't let us out.

"We told him that we were sorry and that we're adults and not punks and that all we did was go down the wrong road," Jones continued. "He was holding us hostage."

Jones said he and his brother spent 10 minutes trying to calm Hoyt down so he'd let them off his property. He said at that time, Hoyt approached him and "took a couple punches," hitting his helmet. Jones admits to hitting him back, but said the punch was "self-defense."

"I hit blindly in self-defense and he went down," Jones said. While all that was happening, Hoyt's friend "gunned" the four-wheeler and hit Steven Jones from behind, pushing him through the fence, he said. Scott Jones said his brother has bruises from the assault.

"These people are crazy," Scott Jones said. "We meant him no harm. All we did was get lost. We were just on the dirt road and not on the grass. We didn't burn out or anything. ... We didn't want no trouble. We wanted a good ride."

He added that he and his brother shouldn't have run from police, but that they wanted to get away from the situation before it got worse. Morrow said the Sandown police are often called by residents who complain about off-highway vehicles riding on their property. He said because the state trail runs through town, it's the "hub" for those who ride in Southern New Hampshire.

"It wasn't just your regular OHRV complaint where you call the police and say someone's on your property," Morrow said. "This escalated to something that never should have happened. ... People's tempers escalate over such little things."

He said the Joneses seem like "nice guys" who told him that this entire incident didn't need to happen. Morrow also said that he's still investigating the incident because of the pair's claim that Hoyt actually pushed Scott Jones and that his female friend "bumped" Steven Jones with the four-wheeler she was riding.