You'er so lucky to be that close to our northern trails. I'm sure I would be tempted to go more often, if I lived closer! I guess the good thing about being so far away, is the thrill we get once there, not being able to go that often. We've had many different quads with the kids growing up and could hardly wait, for nearly every weekend during the summer months, to head up there, and we would be so excited, there was no way we could just go right to sleep once there, even though after working that Friday, then driving up going to Glens grocery store, putting camp together and by then it would be way after midnight, we all would jump on the wheelers, doing a hard ride before finally turning in, then up before daybreak getting ready to head out until late again that night, and always doing a night ride (best part of the trip!) getting in every second, day and night, until heading back home, sometimes waiting it out until real early Monday morning, just in time to go to work, exhausted, but would be already making plans for the next trip! lol Don't do that anymore, but the thrill still exists and with all the great memories we had! Its really killing me with all this time just thinking of getting there and this rain wont turn off and now we just canceled the Bundy trip for this weekend with 80% chance of rain, plus I just got these new paddles on, without having a chance to tear the ground up!! lol Next weekend, again their forecasting beautiful weather up there, but this has happened for a month now, canceling trips each time, where always towards the end of the week, rain again shows up, up there!
Well if I cant go to natures retreat I'll bring it to me, since I now have more time on my hands to do so. I'm building a Gazebo for our aquatic turtles and a quiet place for us to sit out under, watching the waterfall flowing down into the pond. We've had one there for years, but its time to rebuild because of the age, and while I'm at it might as well make it bigger where my 4' iguana can climb up into and join us lol I'll post some pictures once its all done.

I used to ride by myself a lot but quit doing that. Now I normally go to my friend's place Memorial Day weekend, a couple of weeks for the 4th of July, Labor Day weekend, and a couple of other weekends. I can't go this Memorial Day weekend. I need to do more physical therapy for my shoulder before I can pitch my tent and ride my quad. Plus my brothers are both going to their cabin in the U.P. and someone has to be home to give my mom her pills on the weekend so I'm doing it. She has dementia so we all take care of her. I just have to give her a 7-day pill box Saturday and change her hearing aid batteries, plus the regular things like taking her to the store.

Knowing my friend, he'll have Friday and Tuesday off if at all possible. When he gets out of work Thursday night he'll head up north. If they have to haul a lot of stuff his wife and the dogs will be up there before him. Wednesday they'll leave and he'll drive 135+ miles home, drop her off, then drive another 15 miles across town to work, or they drive separately and cut 20 minutes off his drive.

My favorite places to ride since 86 spending years discovering, exploring and mapping these areas for future use.
Good place to start out is at St Helen Mi. campground with modern restroom facilities and hot showers or Trails inn motel, both on the trail head across the street from one another, with all the amenities needed in town there too, right on the corner less than 1/4 mi. away, like an atv parts dealership, gas. restaurants, liquor store, drug store, hardware and so much more, all within a blocks distance away from one another. From here you can head E. towards Houghton lake Mi. trail system or S. W. to West branch or N. through Clear lake, then onto city of Mio trail system. So many great places to check out along the way! My favorite trip from St Helen is to head north to Clear Lake, with their great rustic Bar and grill (with great food and cold beer), corner store (with restaurant in the rear of the store, where we stop in normally for a quick breakfast), also gas next to the store, lodging, Ambrose lk. atv campground near by, and with so many surrounding trails there too, with hill climbs! You could spend weeks just right here and never see everything! Then after leaving Clear lakes area head up to wagon Wheel N. of Rose city rd. with dozens of trails scattering the hill side there called the Rose city oil fields. Then on up N. to the gravel pit for a little play time, before crossing M33 at the Pink store for gas and snacks. Leaving there to head up to Mio's Bull gap, either on the west side (shortest rout) or you can do the half Bull Gap trip through Mac lk. Campground heading N. to Bull Gap or the long way around from the Pink store traveling on the 50 mile loop that passes Bull gap on its way back to the Pink store where there's a atv parking lot near bye. Make sure you take along the printable Mi. DNR atv trail maps with you, to help guide the way, along with the maps of the other areas I mentioned.

If your looking for a friend to ride with, and show the way, over 50 nearer my age and interests, Email me for more info. I'll be more than happy to do a trip with you!
steve.grinke@gmail.com
Thanks Steve

I live Near Grand Rapids and really wish I had more tails around here. Sounds like you and Jumbo are hitting it off:lmao:.

Quick question, how well does your Trx 450 go in trails and snow. I currently have a 2007 Trx 400ex but I'm interested in the 450.

Thanks

I just bought the Honda 450 in February and was lucky to find Bundy Hill open, but just that one weekend, since their closed much of the winter and it had just snowed with a nice amount of fresh fallen snow, along with a decent amount that had fallen during that week! It was just the right blend of sand, mud, pond water, and tons of fine pea gravel to test it out in. I have owned 2 Quadzilla 500's, 3 TRX250r's all 3 years and my son has ridden all of them and then with him buying the 660 raptor to compare the 450 to and we both agree the trx450r is lighter than the 500 and 660 which really felt good plus in our minds the power was very good as well. No regrets so far, and hopefully after next weekend I'll be able to report even more positive things, like going a longer distance, with it being 4 stroke vs 2 stroke, plus my son and I bought the same model within 2 weeks of ea other, same year 04, color, Price and from close to the same area near Adradin Mi. Whats the odds? lol I've never ridden the 400 but from what I've read their close in so many ways, but for the little difference in price, i'm glad I went with the extra horses, being closer to the power were used to.

When me and my friends rode from Mio to Ambrose Lake Campground last summer there was big sign at the entrance saying you couldn't ride ATVs past that point. If we could ride in we would have camped there instead of finding such a great place to camp out in the woods. I'm glad we didn't camp there. No ATV riding in the campground also means you can't take them off your trailer and start riding the trails from there too. I just looked at a bunch of websites that say you can, but the sign there said otherwise. Most of those websites said the same thing word for word like they were all copied from one place.

AFAIK all forest roads in the Lower Peninsula were closed to ATVs unless marked otherwise, until January 1st this year. It sounds like most of the riding you've done has been illegal, unless you've been riding the shoulder of regular roads in counties that allowed it. And the only decent hill I know of that you can legally climb is Bull Gap. If there are other legal hills I'd appreciate links to those trail maps because I love a good hill climb. The one little hill I know of at St. Helen is fun for 15-20 minutes in the winter, but no challenge at all the rest of the year, unless you go up backward, which I've done.

Cool, thanks for replying. Would you consider them very hight maintenance? And what is your favorite trail systems within 2 hours of Grand Rapids for ATV's?

Yeah, I'm right here working in and out the house, building a pond hut and checking my pc for materials, and good thing, I found your mail. Being semi retired, self employed gives me the freedom to do just about anything I please, as long as i don't get too lazy, with so much time on my hands. That happens quite a bit, especially in the winter months lol
The only maintenance, Is like on most atv's, watching the fluid levels, air filter cleaning, chain tightening but I found out, one of the most important thing on all atv's are the lug nuts loosening without much warning! I've been lucky a couple of times, after a very long and dangerous ride through hilly, rocky terrain, when returning to camp and having my buddy noticing my front tire leaning, and while getting closer, saw the lugs were almost off with one missing, and never noticed it at all during the ride. That could have been disastrous, to say the least! I've got to say that the lugs and a loose chain are the most important things I can think of, plus keeping the chain taught will save the life of your sprockets for years to come plus your case possibly getting cracked if you only have the plastic chain guard instead of a metal case saver! These things can creep up on you real easily, when your all geeked to get out there and ride, not taking the time to thoroughly check things out. My grandmother always said a stitch in time saves nine lol So true!

Lol. And I wish I had that much time on my hands. I'm a high school student, get around 3 hours of homework per night, and raise pigs at our house, pretty busy.

I know all that of checking fluids regularly, and always check the chain but I've never heard of Lug nuts falling off! That could have been bad. I heard the Trx 450 needs an oil change very regularly (around every 12 hours) and the main thing I wasn't sure about was the valve adjustment. I know a fair amount about ATV's but I would have known idea how to go into the Engine and adjust valves inside. I heard this needs to be done every 15 hours. Is this true?

One time I took my ATV to the dealer for an oil change and told them to check everything. After they replaced the front brake pads they didn't tighten the lug nuts all the way. I started hearing a clunk when going around curves. Left, right, clunk, clunk. I stopped and looked and found out all 4 lug nuts on my left front wheel had backed off, and some of the threads on all 4 lugs were gone. What I heard was my wheel flopping around. I tightened the nuts but they were in bad shape, so I took the nuts off one at a time and replaced them with one nut off each of the other 3 wheels, until all 4 wheels had 3 good nuts holding them on. After I got home I had to buy 4 new studs for that wheel. Instead of buying new lug nuts from the dealer, which were just flange nuts, I bought 4 whiz nuts from the hardware store. The only difference is that the OEM lug nuts had a smooth face and whiz nuts are serrated. I put one of them on each wheel, and I put blue Loctite on all 16 studs before putting the nuts back on. Losing a front wheel during a ride would have really sucked.