Thanks for the feedback. I'm really looking forward too it!

 

Hi Em
Glad you didnt get hurt. Just got back for Rockhouse trails. Yes there is a few places won trail 12 where you can lose you quad of the mountain. I am thankful knowing happen to me or my wife quad . In Nj there is no insurance company that will write full coverage for ATV .This just happen this year .Last year happen insurnce for #250.00 now they want $800 per quad .I dont pay that much for my truck. NJ S(*&K
Cant wait to go back . There was one spot that was hard to get up with 2 wheel drive heading to Man from Gilbert to H/M with my wifes new 700 V force .I also have 650 prairie.My wife did have honda Recon and did have hard times on some of the hill at # 12

 

There seems to be a little something for everyone man. I think you'll find plenty you'll like to ride no matter what quad or dirtbike you're riding.

 

I had a few days down there... when planninng the trip, I was so worried whether my quad was going to survive, I never gave a thought about whether my Chevy Lumina would hold out. Let's see. 6 cylindars with 180k miles on them, doing 75mph with the AC on. It was 90+ degrees out while I was pulling my trailer and quad up over the Cumberland Pass. Let's just say the trip back was alot slower than the trip out. On the way back I could only maintain 40mph on the up hills... I damaged my engine but it wasn't too serious. I had already saved up the down payment for my next car and was waiting for something to push it over the edge so to speak. For your information, I-68 thru western Maryland has some steep hills on it. I don't know if I had gone another way, I might still be driving the Lumina.

As to the trails, I would say I had a great time but I want to share a word of caution. Its like they say on the website, you can use their color codes for only a ROUGH IDEA of the difficulty level of each trail. The rangers admitted to me that they are often wrong. You must use your own judgement and not decide that since this trail is blue, then I should be able to make it. The first place I rode was the location closest to Charleston, and in my opinion the easiest by far. Except for one sopt. I was riding green and blue trails all day and considered the blue trails to be reasonably easy. In fact, I rode almost all the blue trails until the end of the day when I tried to climb to the top of trail 43. The top 20 yards or so are steep, very steep in my opinion and the rock sticking up about a foot in the middle of the trail made it a wipe out for me. The quad started to roll back on top of me so I let myself fall off to the right. It rolled end over end twice, and over my leg. Luckily because of the way it rolled I didn't feel much of anythbing. After the tumbles it began rolling frontways down the hill and only stopped because a tree decided heroically to save the quad for me! It did leave a mark... on both the tree and the quad!

Next came the best part. The tree that stopped the quad was on a shelf paralell to the trail but about 6-8 feet above it. The end of the shelf met the trail at the curve in a switchback but a couple of boulders blocked me from re-entering the trail there. The other end of the shelf was blocked by trees. All I could do was try to go down a 6-8 foot drop to a 4 foot wide trail followed by a slope that goes down as far as the eye can see. If I failed to turn the bike in time, I'd be over the edge...

For about 40 minutes I stood there looking at the situation trying to figure some way to get down to the trail safely. I slowly remembered those words "Its better to spend $500 on a winch than $5000 on a new quad..." So that's what he meant...

I finally decided it was way too risky to ride it off and I would push it off the ledge whlie standing next to it and try to keep it from rolling too far out of control. I was just about to push it over when I remembered my tow strap. Its a very heavy guage strap. I tied it to the tree that saved the quad once already, and tied it to the frame of the quad and pushed it over the edge. It bounced but appeared undamaged. I got the strap untied and rode it back to my car via a diffferent trail.

That was my first day on the Hatfield McCoy trail system. I got to ride at the two locations near Logan on the following days. At both of these, it seemes clear that the blue trails were generally too difficult for me so I stayed on the green almost exclusively.

Just thought I would sharer that. Remember to continue to use your judgement. Don't asssume that since a trail is a certain color, that it will be 100% consistant in its difficulty level.

 

Cowsaki - I am glad you're ok. It sounds like you had one heck of a ride. You ALWYS have to be cautious while riding down there. One day of rain and things can (an DO) change dramatically. I know some people get aggravated because I always tell people to ride only green trails unitl they get a feel for the place. It is really sound advice. I rolled the Rally on a GREEN trail there (my first time riding there) We hired a trail guide for the next trip, and Todd & Jeff were worth their weight in gold. They know how to get around things that were too difficult for me, or they "talked" me through stuff with the communicators they used (we now own a set of them - Collett's). It made a WORLD of difference for me. Hubby didn't need them, he is an excellent rider, but me, I was relatively new, and it made that trip down MUCH more enoyable for me. Now I am able to ride with a lot more confidence on most trails. (still won't even LOOK at the black ones [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]). I owe a lot of that to the patience and help from my Hubby and those great trail guides. It is still our favorite place to ride. BTW - what kind of vehicle are you getting to replace the lumina?? For towing our stuff we bought a '77 Chevy truck with a 454 - it hauls ANYTHING!! (Mrs. Q)

 

Oh I really got lucky there... I tried to get a SUV before but was turned down for bad credit. Since then, my rating has improved. I just got a '99 Dodge Durango and I love it. 8 cylindars and 4 wheel drive! Now I just need a used Geo Metro to commmute to work in...

I realize I was lucky on the roll over. It didnt hurt at all! I try to keep in mind that because of my weight and the relatively light wiight of my quad, my center of grav is a good deal higher that most.

After riding Little Coal River, I was very suprised at what passed for "Blue" at the other places I visited. Except for the one spot, the blues were very easy at Little Coal River. But at the places near Man and Logan, just looking at a blue trail sent shivers down my frame...

I am really suprised at how much better my riding is now on my usual NJ trails, after spending just 3 days in west Viginia.

I was also very happy with the performance I got from the new tires I just had put on befor going down there. I just got 4 new deep nobbie tires and I was supprised how much breaking traction I got going downhill on wet clay. The trail looked very difficult in places but those tires really made is painless.