I hadn't had the chance to try riding at Chadwick even though it is only 40 miles from the house. So last Friday, a friend and I decided to give our ACs a tryout. He has an '05 TBX, and I have an '04 650. Weather was in the low 40s (we should have gone Thursday when it was in the 60's). Trails were muddy with water standing in the low spots. His experience has been mostly muddy fields riding to and from duck hunting areas. Mine has included the Piaute Trail, Moab, and riding in the fields at the family farm. So Chadwick was different for both of us.

First thing we noticed was that Chadwick is better suited to smaller ATVs than ours. We got through fine but there are some tight spots that would be easier with a little narrower and shorter ATV.

We didn't hit all the trails due to time but of the ones we did ride, we didn't find many that allowed for kicking the speed up much. Lots of rocks and tree roots on the trails kept the speeds way down.

We did hit one section of the trail that had the stairstop limestone in the trail. Of course it was staggered in such a way that you couldn't hit it straight on to climb it. So hitting it at an angle with all the slimey mud and wet rock just caused us to slide towards the downhill side of the trail and the trees. We ended up having to winch both ATVs while applying a bit of throttle and the other guy pushing from the downhill side to prevent smacking the trees. Had the trail not been so wet and muddy, I don't think there would have been near the problem. I actually think we could have just rode up over them.

Later we hit another similar situation but were able to horse them over without the winches. We didn't feel so bad since a lot of other riders there on dirt bikes were having fits on the slimey rocks too.

Overall it was fun, especially for the problem solving experiences, and we will probably hit it again sometime although we will wait for drier trails.

 

I really like Chadwick. I know the rocks you are talking about. I've been up them on my Prairie. I can see if they were wet they would be almost impossible. I plan to go there sometime in the next month or so.

 

I've got to go there to. I plan to hit chadwick and St. joe ST. Park this spring. Just today I bought a Honda 250ex for the kid and I'll stick to riding my kodiak. Kids think Utilitys arent COOL and thats the way I like it.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

We went to Chadwick and some of us loved it and some of us didn't. I do believe that section is where my old Grizzly was flipped by my brother. ARGH! Tyler and his old Honda 350 did fine...now he has his 700 Polaris and is wondering...LOL!

Anyways, I liked Chadwick for the camping. We will be going back this year also.

Dawn and the Rebel Outlaws

 

I could see where it would be easy to flip an ATV at some of the places in the trail we hit. Just be at the wrong angle, lean wrong, etc. and over you go. I had the front of my AC650 try to go airborne a couple of times when I gave it just a bit too much throttle. Not much in the way of soft landing spots at Chadwick either , from what I could see.

I will probably go back sometime when things dry out a bit. It is good practice for different techniques other than just cruising.

I did notice that the slow crawling was easier on my friends TBX than my 650 due to the less touchy throttle. My 650 has a much quicker throttle response than the 500 Suzuki powertrain in his TBX. This leads to a little more jerky crawling with mine if the terrain is quite rough. Maybe I need to do this stuff in High instead of Low range.

Craig

 

When we went this past June, we rode with about 20 people and it was a pain. We went so slooooow. I think we rode for nearly 3 hours and I didn't see much of anything. I know I didn't see all that Chadwick has to offer. I'm ready to check it out this year again.

Dawn

 

when does the weather start to get nice in missouri, the wife and i would like to take a trip there this spring.

 

hey i am racechick's other half when we went to chadwick me and her bro in law set out on our ownand explored the complete southern side of the park we rode all day and never even made it to the northern side of the park

now on details there are some trails on the southern end that you can really open up your quads we rode pretty fast through those areas they were a blast now if go to the very southern part watch were you go cause it will dump you out on a creekbed that is not very well marked at least not last summer unless some one took them down something you have to watch out for is the dirt bikes we almost got hit once because they do not watch that well when the crossed the trails and if your bike is very wide you will have a little trouble on the bridges cause they are about 60 inches wide we had a guy that had a 450 foreman with itp 589 and he was almost to wide to fit something to keep in mind

i had a 350 es rancher and i had a blast climbing there was nowhere i couldn't go i had a set of maxxis big horns and they were awesome

the weather will be perfect about march anyone up for a good group ride ?

 

It's 60 here today. Does that qualify? Still pretty wet and muddy though. Temps are still bouncing some yet, and there is to be some temps back in the 30-40 range next week. March is usually good temperature wise but still wet and sloppy. But sloppy can be fun too.

700 Polaris-
I know the bridges of which you speak. I fit my fat AC650 across with a few inches on each side to spare. I can see some big mudders on offset wheels may have a problem. My tires are stock MTRs.
Group ride sounds like fun.

 

60 sure sounds nice, by april is it getting dryer usually? temps 65-70 ??? sounds like there is a lot of places to ride in southern missouri and northern arkansas. racechick and 700 polaris checked out your website, looks like you guys have alot of fun, camping and 4 wheelin, me and the wife like that too, we'd like to move to that area, maybe we'll run into ya guys sometime.