Six of us are heading down to Hatfield McCoy trails for the first time and don't know what to expect. We are all good, aggressive riders and looking to be challenged. We are going to be riding for 2 1/2 day on the Buffalo mtn. and Rockhouse trails. Does the riding compare to Paragon park in Pa? Is there a lot of mud, hills and rock? Will we need to carry gas on the trail with us? Will there be a lot of people on the trails this time of year? The bikes are being well prepped for the trip and we're taking every part and tools we have. Anyone have advice for the H-Mc rookies?

 

You will love them. much better than ANY PA riding. The trails are unbelievable. I have a few pics in my gallery. 3 levels of trails. Green, Blue and Black. Some of the blacks get VERY hairy so watch out. we stayed on blue and green for our first time. I posted some infor earlier about the trails. I do have some suggestions. Let me see if I can find them and paste them in hear. Here they are:

Just wanted to pass the word to anyone who may be going or planning on going to the hatfield McCoy Trail system in the future. We stayed at Livingood Lodging located in Gilbert West Virginia (They are next to the rockhouse trail). The owners, Randy and Vivian Livingood, are probably two of the nicest people I have ever met. They have two cabins and an rv hoohup. Cabins are spotless and their hospitality is second to none. They pamper you with home cooking and everything. They also love to ride and know all the great trails and even a few "Secret ones". You owe it to yourself to look these two up if you are planning a trip there. Also be sure to check out "www.quadcrew.com" and look under the hatfield McCoy folder for Daily trail updates and ride descriptions. He just put a nice post on there of our visit entitled "Great ride to man and back to gilbert. Randy's screen name in that forum is "Polarislover" A Must site to visit for stories and trail updates when going to the hatfield system. I posted a few picks from our visit on my page and you can see many other ones at "www.livingoodlodging.com" Enjoy! Call the livingoods, you won't regret it. There is also a good post on quad crew of a group that lost two quads while riding the blacks, the first was the guys own ride and the second was the rentle he got to get his ride back. talk about bad luck! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

Do a search for 2TV as the author. He is a friend of mine and writes reports and takes video of all of their H/M trips, and they go a lot. He's got direct reports and video links from any of his posts. He'll probably chime in pretty soon too when he sees the thread topic. Heh, I might even be in some of the videos. "Hey Dan, remember the mud hole at Bear Wallow, where the girl on the Kodiac almost got swallowed"? BTW, my avator is from that mudhole.

The two trails you planned on riding are great, and can be VERY challenging on certain parts, although the trails do change from time to time. You all can ride into the towns and get gas and food, so you should be okay for gas. I had plenty left on my Sportsman 600, and I rode hard and played in a lot of mud!

Just be careful and have fun. You'll want to return home in one piece, you and your quad.

 

There is about 115 miles of trails at rockhouse. Nice thing about Gilbert is that you can ride your quads on all the roads right in town. And the breakfasts at the small restaurant in town are awesome. HUGE pancakes! Make sure you hit trail # 31 and keep the speed up a little. It is a great section that just keeps going up and up! Can't wait to get back down there!

 

Hey sp600towtruck, That mud hole is still there. we hit it two weeks ago! It was deep and long! Nothing like trying to get through a huge mud hole with a 400 foot drop to the left and straight up to the right. It was awesome!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Very true. And if he and his buddies feel daring enough, they can try the table top hill on the Gilbert end (southside) of Rockhouse. There is a pretty large swamp/mudhole at that spot too.

 

Yeah, I can't wait to get back over there. We just moved to Beckley last month, so I'm now only about an hour to Pinnacle Creek, and about 1.5 hours to Rockhouse. I need a free weekend though. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-disgusted.gif[/img]

 

If you plan your rides carefully and don’t get lost you shouldn’t need gas. The trails are well marked and the maps are easy to follow so you shouldn’t get lost, however first timers might feel more comfortable if at least one member of your group carries some extra fuel.

The Browning Fork system (Rockhouse trailhead) has a town at opposite ends (Man and Gilbert) that you can ride your ATVs into for food and gas.

The Buffalo Mountain system doesn’t have food / fuel near the Rev. Compton trailhead but you can drop down into the town of Williamson and Matewan at the other end of the system for food and fuel.

The Dingess Rum system (Bear Wallow trailhead) has a little gas station / convenience store near the trailhead that you can ride to so you have to plan your loop through the system so you can return to the trailhead before you run out of fuel.

Same goes for the Little Coal River (Water Ways trailhead) system, the only food / fuel that I know of is what you bring with you at the trailhead, so you need to plan your ride loop accordingly.

This also applies to the Pinnacle Creek system (Castle Rock trailhead), you can ride between Pineville and the trailhead but you must plan your loops accordingly, so you can come back to the trailhead before you run out of fuel since there isn’t anyplace you can officially go to off of the system anywhere but at the trailhead.

For Dingess Rum, Little Coal River and Pinnacle Creek, we generally arrive at the trailhead with our tanks and gas cans full, then come back to the trailhead to top off our tanks with our gas cans later in the day before venturing out again. Be sure that someone in your group has an air compressor and a tire plug kit. It’s also good to have layers of clothing you can add or subtract as needed, and an adequate supply of drink and snacks to hold you over while you are out riding. Being well prepared is always good for trips that can have you many miles away from your starting point. Also remember all of the trails handle 2 way traffic so you have to expect at all times that you could meet someone coming around the corner in the opposite direction, and there a lot of places where you hope that doesn’t happen (given the condition / width of the trail)!…

 

I've ridden a couple of trail heads on severl occasions and I'd reccomend that at least one rider has some extra gas. There can be long stretches between fueling opportunities when you get to playing around, your group gets split up, or you get lost. It's happend to us on one occasion, and we were wishing for a little peace of mind that a full gas can can offer [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

We went last May, and we are going this spring in June. I can't wait to go back! We had a blast. We did not bring any gas cans, on the trails with us. We never had a problem, but you may want to bring some jets we was running rich while we was there. While you are there you need to check out Rolling Thunder Race Park, they have hill climbs, and they have a Drag strip also. We did some Drad Racing while we was there. We stayed right my the Drag strip, I think the cost was $32.00 a person for the weekend, 5 of us went. When we go back in June they will be 12-15 of us going. We are going with a few guys off of here, I have talked to troyer23J on the phone and on here, but we will meet down there. Have fun and be safe, and if you want the challange the black trails are for you!