My review of Michaux State Forest ATV trails:


Michaux State Forest is nestled in the Bendersville/Pine Grove area of Adams County in the mountains. Anyone 10 years of age and older can rider there, with the exception being between 10 years of age and 15 years of age you must have a valid safety certificate. Which also is no problem. If you call the DCNR's Bureau of Forestry at (717) 783-7941 and ask them for the contact number for Nicole Yeingst, you can call and set up an appointment for your child to take the safety course on-site. It will cost you 50 dollars and you have to supply the ATV.

Michaux is made up of 36 miles of Easy, Moderate, and Hard Trails, 42 in the winter when they open a winter use only trail. All of the trails have rocky terrain, but your child should be fine on all of the Easy Trails. However, the difference between the Easy and Moderate trails are night and day. You will be doing a lot of bouncing on the Moderate trails, as these are made up almost completely of rocks. An experienced youth on a decent sport quad can make it, but a utility is recommended. My opinion is that the Hard trails should only be attempted by and adult, and I recommend you have a 4x4. Although, there are only two short Hard trails and they are only accessible by Moderate trails. The Winter Trail is actually a dirt road that is used by vehicles in the summertime, and ATV's/snowmobiles in the wintertime. All of the trails are also shared with sleds in the wintertime, provided of course that there is snow. Also sharing the trails will be mountain bikers, horseback riders, and walkers. But there are usually not a lot of bikers, horses, and walkers in the area.

Another thing you will most likely see is a Department of Convservation and Natural Resources officer at least once during the day. Most times you will see them in either of the two parking areas. They may come up to you and ask to see your registration(s) and insurance card(s), and if you are young, your safety certificate(s). But they are there to keep people from being ignorant as well. This helps keep it open for all of us.

Sorry for the long reveiw, but there is a lot to say of Michaux.

Here is the link for trail information for Michaux and other state forests:
http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/atv/atvindex.aspx

 

Excellent Review,,,couldn't have said it any better myself. Michaux is pretty much my primary riding spot and I have yet to do alot of the Moderate Trails but I'm working my way through them all. Question,,,,how often you get up that way...?

 

I try to get up there almost every weekend. But since I can't take my 5 year old and his quad, sometimes I just go to the in-laws. More often than not, I am up there on a Saturday. How often do you go up there?

 

I'm a little confused as I look at my Michaux trail map. Exactly how long is the easiest (red) trail? My brother and I traveled approx. 6 miles in on it from the Big Flat parking area and liked it. Not too long after starting, we started up a small hill and were able to accelerate quite nicely. Is this trail pretty much the same around its entire circuit? We didn't mind the more difficult trails either although they were pretty rocky.

 

The map I use (here) doesn't have a red trail, but the "easy" route from the Big Flat parking lot to the other end (Piney Mountain parking lot) consists of the Big Flat trail (crosses Rt 233 near the end of it), Huckleberry Trail and the Log Sled trail. These are primarily dirt roads which range from what appears to be reminents of pavement (one small section), dirt, dirt with rock, and graveled. There are anti-erosion humps or ditches carved into sections of the trail where it's not level (which is a good part of it). Those are fun at speed! It is rather rocky near the Big Flat parking area and in the middle of the system, but nothing like the rocks you find on the "blue" and "black" trails. Now on the map I use there is an orange trail, this is the Piney Mountain Ridge trail that is open to snowmobiles and ATVs during the Michaux winter season only. This is a smooth dirt road.

The last time I was there (a couple weekends ago) I saw a banshee on one of the blue trails! That just goes to show that the sport quads can do those rocky blues but I can't believe it's much fun because I'm sure they were bouncing off of their skid plates alot and you have to go pretty slow though the rougher sections. Some blue trails are rockier than others (some are pretty much all rock with no dirt). IMO an IRS utility quad would be the "ride of choice" for trails like that. So far I've only ridden my Brute Force and my Grizzlies there. However the Raptor would be fun on the green trails (but I don't have a tag for it yet)...

 

What is the name of the trail you are talking about. If you are talking about the Winter trail, it is about 7 or 8 miles long and takes you to the Piney Mountain parking lot. If you are talking about the easy trail that leads right from the Big Flat parking lot (Big Flat Trail), it leads to the Huckleberry trail, and then either to the Winter trail or the Log Sled trail, whichever one you want to take. Even though it is an easy trail, once you get on the log sled trail, you will run into rocky areas that might seem more like they belong on a moderate trail, but I see Raptors, TRX450s and other sport quads that rip through it pretty well.

 

2TV,

Have you ever been on any of the hard trails at Michaux?

 

'Love2Ride, I've been on all of the trails there. Even part of the Grave Ridge trail which is by far the hardest trail there. A friend and I had started that trail from intersection 19 (the map does NOT have trail numbers, it has intersection numbers). However it was late in the day and starting to get dark. I'd say we were about half way through it and we got to this section where we were looking at an uphill run between two large flat boulders, and I thought it best if we just turn around here and wait until we had some more people to use as spotters, or at least had a winch to get us to the top of that should we have a problem.

The other black rated trail is called Rocky Pass and it is no more difficult than some of the blue trails there. A word of warning, the blue trail between intersections 20 and 21 is pretty washed out, it has a pretty deep ravine in the middle of the trail. I haven't been on that one since just before the "summer" season closed and there were points where you barely had enough room on the side to get through with a full sized ute.

Here are some photos one of the guys took on our last trip out there...

 

I have not been on the hard trails as of yet. I'm not sure if I should attempt with my Ozark or not, but my son rides a sport quad and I know he ain't going on it, so I will have to wait until I go with another adult to try them out.

 

I'd say you could probably do most of them with your Ozark, but you might not be having fun on some of them. I wouldn't recommending messing with Grave Ridge on a 4x2 though. Also it would be easier on the machine probably if some of the rockier trails were done in 4WD (that way your machine is being pulled and pushed over the rocks, instead of just pushed 2WD style). If you want to tag along with some other ute riders sometime to try a blue or two we go quite often and are currently planning on being there this coming Saturday. I start from the Big Flat parking lot and normally work my way towards the other end via mostly blue trails. We will often take an easier route on the way back...