Hatfield-McCoy -Damn Yankee Ride Report

[Treejumper]

Well here is a ride report for my first trip to the Hatfield-McCoy Trail System.

Started off leaving Pennsylvania around 11am thursday and arriving to the Twin Hollow Campground around 5:30pm. It was mostly uneventful for me which was good. I did get held up awhile for construction and a bad accident (not mine). It pretty much rained the last hour and a half of the trip but the temps were near 70. Upon arriving i'm told i'm the first of the group to arrive. So to my suprise when i round the corner of the office i find Nathan standing next to his cabin with his friend Matt. He tries telling the owner to not allow me to stay and that he has nothing to do with me. Upon better judgement she allows me to stay. :nener: The rain stops as soon as i showed up at camp so I start setting up and get settled in when Walt and Eric show up. From there everyone slowly starts arriving. Jason first, then Gary and Conner and finally Keith, Dave and Rob. They all picked on me for bringing everything but the kitchen sink. Hey, i like my microwave and toaster oven.

That evening was spent sitting around the campfire BSing and having a good ol time. The view from the campground is just beautiful but can be dangerous as Conner found out the next day. I'll let Gary tell that story. After breakfast at Walt's we head out for a morning ride since it wasnt raining. The trails were slick for the most part. We stick to the easy trails that morning to just try and get an idea of the area and what type of terrain we are going to encounter. It basically was greasy mud, regular mud, loose rocks, solid sheets of rock and lots of steep hills. The main thing i couldnt get over was that almost every turn ended with a 100'+ dropoff if you didnt make the turn. :yikes: The views were great but the dropoff can get to someone who doesnt like heights. The easy trails were between 6 and 16 feet wide, intermediate were just wide enough for a quad to ride, and single track was large enough for a bike. With the slick mud you really didnt want to get up too much speed cause you never knew if you could slow down in time for the turn or if another rider was coming the other way. I have to say that is the only thing i didnt like about the place. Every trail was 2 way traffic, even the ones that were only wide enough for one bike or ATV. So if some one came the opposite direction you had to hug the wall or backup to a wider spot. I do have to give thanks to all the ATV riders we encounter on the trails, they adjusted so we didnt have to try and backup. My suggestion is to make the tight trails one way. I cant imagine 2 ATV's trying to pass on them. We lost Dave on the first ride as he deceided to keep going back to camp as he was low on gas. Problem was he didnt tell us so we thought we lost him. While back tracking and waiting we got hit hard by a extreme thunder shower complete with cool streaks of lighting. 20 mins of riding in pouring down rain is not fun, plus its cold. Eric (Walts boy) did excellent on the ride. He hung right up front with actually had to wait with us for the slower group to catch up. We wont name names here. :p

We eat lunch, repair tents, etc and hangout for a bit. A group of us ride into town just CAUSE WE CAN!!!! That was really cool and well worth doing. Its funny riding down the road and not having to worry about the Police fining you $68.50. Not like i would know. ;) The trail to and from town was slick but everyone made it just fine. We finally see the Lousiana group and make plans to ride at 10am the next day. PK's group heads out for a quick ride before sunset and then the normal night time shanagins start. Everyone can share their thoughts and comments on what happened then. There was a great one liner from JasonJ about PK but i wont repeat it incase it wasnt as funny to him. Nothing like sitting around the fire telling stories over marshmallows, mountian pies and microwaved popcorn. Off to bed we go only to be hit by another round of tornado type winds and rain. Gear, chairs and pretty much anything not attached to the ground went flying! The wind and rain was so hard that it actually was blowing it through the closed zippers on my tent! My pillow and bottom half of my blankets were soaked. Luckily for me my electric blanket was dry so i was able to keep warm. The first half of that night was spent wondering if my canopy and tent were still going to be around in the morning. Next time will be cabins for everyone!

Saturday starts out pretty good. The skys are not clear but its not raining, yet. Gary packs up camp as Conner comes down with strep throat and really not feeling good. (Hope your doing better buddy!) The group goes to Nathan's and Matt's cabin for breakfast and alittle video of Dirtweek past while eating. Thanks for cooking guys! Walt and Eric pack it in too and head out. We hang around for awhile waiting on the Louisana DRNer's but no show. We head down trail 10 (the way they would be coming) and wait at a "off limits" play area for awhile. Still no show so we head off on the trails. Today we wanted to try some intermediate trails and found out that Nathan and Matt didnt really like the idea of playing billygoat. They head back down the mountian side and continue to ride the trails they enjoy better. We (PK, JasonJ, Rob, Dave and myself) continue onward without a map. The trails were really fun even with all the mud and as the day went on they got alittle better. Encountered some nice size water holes that would even get Trigger excited. Some how we ended up going the wrong way on trail 10 while trying to get back to camp for lunch and gas so we end up in the town of Man. We meet a nice guy who use to hangout on DRN (KTMLou) who gives us some tips and tells us how the famous ledge on trail 199 came about. Seems some people just took a shovel and made a path on the mountian side. He gives us directions to a gas station in town and we head in to refuel. The trip back kinda sucked cause our hands were wet and the temps dropped to 41 degrees. This made our fingers freeze and hard to hold onto the handlebars. Rob had a nice wipeout which i got to witness. Wish i could of found the helmet camera as it was "one for film". It starts raining again on the trip back. Finally we make it back and everyone eats and gets warm. No one else was going back out that evening so i make the desision to pack it up and head home that evening. Since my stuff got wet and they were calling for 1 to 3 inches of snow in the morning i couldnt see spending another night in it. Nathan offers a spot in his cabin but i decline as this way i have all day sunday to clean gear. Pk and clan do the same and i assume headed out later in the evening. That left JasonJ, Nathan and Matt staying til Sunday.

Overall i love the trails there and its not too bad of a drive for me. My drive home sucked big time. It rained the first 2.5 hours and snowed the last 4 hours making the drive pretty bad. I had 2 close calls from people who cant see to drive in the snow. Arrrg! I recommend the Hatfield McCoy trails to anyone but do have to say this. If rain is in the forecast like what we had, skip it and plan for another day. That was the only downer of the trip but like a typical DRN get together, the rest of the stuff makes up for it. I really enjoyed seeing part of the Damn Yankee group and few new people. It has been almost a year since i got to ride and hang out with them so even though it rained and spoiled some of the riding it was still very much worth it. Thanks guy! See some of you at Paragon.

 

[Treejumper]

Some pictures. Sorry i couldnt find the helmet camera (still cant) and that my battery was crap so i only have campsite pics.

Click here

 

[Dapper]

Nice report Chuck. :cool:

 

[CaptainObvious]

Opps, I put my ride report in the wrong place. Click Me for the full report.

 

[RM_guy]

You guys write to much. I printed them out and will read them later. In any case, sounds like a fun time!

 

[RM_guy]

I guess I should have read passed the first line.:ohmy: When I said it sounded fun I realy meant fun in the respect that you got to get together and ride, kinda.

Ya know the saying, a crapy day riding is better than...just about anything!!!! :)

I hope Conner is doing better. Strep is nothing to mess around with.

 

[Treejumper]

You guys write to much. I printed them out and will read them later. In any case, sounds like a fun time!

Just for you, the short version.

Loaded truck, drove, unloaded, got wet, rode bike, got wet, got blown away, rode bike, ate afew times, got wet, rode bike, got wet, got snowed on, loaded truck, drove, unloaded truck, got wet, got snowed on, typed this. ;)

 

[JasonJ]

Short version to go with Nancy’s short skirt:

Pictures Here: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/jasnker/hatmcoy.htm

Memorable quotes:
CA to PK “You CANT fix that!” PK “Get the Duct tape!”
“What IS Mann?”
NRB to JasonJ “Hey buddy, we have to talk,,, remember when I said you could put your stuff in our freezer????”
Matt “There are no go go bars in Gilbert….”
Dave to other riders “lets go”
Dave to other riders “this one is easy”
Dave to other riders “lets go”
Conversation with JasonJ in McDonalds parking lot:
Wait a minute, your bike has a Pa plate.
(Jason) Yes
So riding into town is no big deal for you.
(Jason) Yes it is, why do you think I got the plate?

Matt “Hey Princess, want a hamburger?”
Jason to Treejumper on the trail “I have a second set of gloves in my pack that are dry, you want them?
(TJ) No I’ll be ok.
(Jason) You sure because I’m fine?
(TJ) No I’ll be ok.
(Jason) Fine Ill put them on then
(TJ) Ver ver ver ver ver vvvvvvvvvv ver. I can’t pull my Ca ca ca clu cl utch. :ahhh:

PK at the gas station in Mann. “Did you see that car come through the intersection and almost hit me?”
(Jason) Welcome to street riding.


Memorable Moments:
Matt falls over backwards in his chair down the hill
TJ’s paint suite
PK’s garbage bag raincoat
Jason ACCIDENTALY does not close the door on Nate’s cabin correctly before Hurricane McCoy opens it for some spring-cleaning.
Conner wonders out of the bathhouse through our campsite after the storm with no pants looking like a dazed refugee.
JasonJ molesting his bike to try and get it down from the hill he did not quite make….
Dave scrambling to start his bike in the mud hole so Jason could not get photographic proof.

Long Version:

I hit the road 9:15 AM and again at 9:30 (what, you never forgot anything?) The trip was mostly smooth. The Rotten Bapba (my van) was a real trooper. My Muffler fell down somewhere in Virginia and I had to stop and tear it off the rest of the way with a pry bar. But other than that all was well. I get in to the camp around 6:15. The guy asks whom I’m with. DRN I said, I’m Jason. What name is the reservation under,,, Uhhhhhh Ummmm, Captain Obvious? No no, Uh, I’m sharing a site with Treejumper, no no, Chuck? No, no Chuck. So I call TJs cell and he picks it up and I try to ask him who’s name the reservation is under but the phone connection is junk and I get nothing before it goes click. Man, I must be the first one here and I’m screwed! TJ walks in the door with his phone and all is good. I get checked in and see TJ has hooked us up with a sweet canopy and a load of DRY firewood under plastic! This turns out to be very good, LOL. I unload the bike and set up the air mattress in the van, puncture it with and screw, fix it with duct tape, and we get the fire lit and get some dogs on the grill. Everyone starts to roll in and settle in and makes their way over to the campfire for a great night of campfire fun. Our campsite rocks, its right next to the bathrooms but down a steep hill. Nate’s friend Matt sits his chair with his back to the hill and I watch him rock back in the chair a few times before rear feet sink in to the soft ground and finally he just goes over backwards. I can’t believe he did not just tumble all the way into the muck at the bottom of the hill. The nice guy I am I grabbed the chair and he held on to it, LOL. Slowly we all make our way to bed. We get up Friday AM to the rally call of Pancakes from Walt. Yes I will thank you very much. PK and crew roll in after I woke up, man they looked beat. Dave is ready to ride but PK and Rob decide to snack some pancakes and have a nap. We rolled around 10 AM and had an awesome day in the warm sun. Some mud and puddles from the rain the day before, but the warm sun makes it an excellent day to be on a dirt bike! The views, the trails, the mountains, man I was grooving it up :aj: . It was my first ride of the year and I struggled to keep up with Dave and TJ. Man Dave can groove those turns like an F-18. As the day goes on I get warmed up and more comfortable with the pace. Plenty of 3rd and 4th gear straights with 90 degree or more turns. I would hammer out of a turn and make up ground in 4th gear and I had to work the brakes hard for the turns, by the time I exit the turn I here the ding ding of Eric’s YZ 80 on my wheel, man that kid can fly! I studied Dave’s turning technique and by the end of the day I was cornering much faster, sitting down, on the tank, foot out and leaning the bike hard riding the berms on the outside of the turns. Like TJ said, the only thing is if you slide out of the turn, the result would be a short trip off a long drop! We start heading back in and I’m in the 2 spot just trying to keep Dave in my sights in the lead. I stop at a trail intersect to make contact with the riders behind me and then take off. I’m riding for a while and TJ comes up to signal me to stop. He felt Dave had made a wrong turn off the front since it was not like him not to wait for such a long section. Any way we loose about 15 minutes waiting just as we start to roll we run head on into a Thunderstorm that is packing 60 Mph winds, hail, Lightning and plenty of flat out down pouring sideways rain. I am a bit scared since the lightning is all around us and we just hammer down for about 20 minutes to get back in to find the campground ravaged by the storm. I mean tents blown over, ripped, canopies shredded, pants gone, everything wet. I secure some of our gear and unplug all of our soaked electric stuff and dive into the van. We are on the top of a mountain and lightning is all around us! I take off my helmet and see what I think is PK and Garry standing outside his truck bed tent leaning on the truck. Man, what are they doing! These guys are NUTS! Turns out his tent had ripped and PK the very cool guy he is, stood out there and held the tent down to keep the water out while Garry tried to mend the rip with tape. If you ask me, PK was holding the truck down too!
Rain stops, sun comes out, and we try to start sifting through the wreckage. TJ’s canopy, the largest I saw that weekend, was the only one to stay intact thanks to what I thought was over kill on the anchoring to the ground! Everything is wet so we string up cloths lines and start drying. All of a sudden I see Conner come up the hill from the bathhouse. He wonders through our campsite looking dazed and confused wearing a MX shirt and no pants. You ok I asked? Huh? Oh yeah. Here he was in the tent when the storm came down and ran to the bathhouse! Smart!
The Louisiana guys show up and we enjoy meeting them and talk a bit and agree to hook up in the AM. They have a helmet camera! I hope we can see some of that action! We revive the fire with the dry wood, and start some food. Matt’s burgers appear white in color and are of questionable origins. They throw one to the camp dog Princess and she hesitates to eat it, they then put one on a bun and give it to me. I eat it, its ok, not great but I ate it. Princess sees me eat it and has hers then too, LOL.
I slept in my van, and I its quite comfortable in there, but that wind was so fierce that night, the van was rocking back and forth from the blast. YES, it was the wind! I can only imagine what a rough night it was in a tent, much less if it had gotten wet! No surprise Conner was not felling well and certainly not a happy camper in the AM and Captain made the right call to pack up and head for home. Taking with him our plans to put the 92 bike in compromising poses and take pictures to goat its former owner. Breakfast in the cabin was awesome and Nate even let me in from the cold despite my nautical negligents…. 10 AM came and went and the rain did not look like it was going to give us a break. Walt headed out and we geared up to slug it out on the trail. We all put on our “rain gear”. TJ with the white paint suite, Oh man you gotta be kidding me, only to be out done by PK with a trash bag vest. We rolled about 10:30. Mud, puddles, wet rocks, rocks with puddles IN them, no kidding, but the rain could not dampen our sprits, I was having a great time. We hit the harder trail and were greeted with the greasiest nastiest Ved out clay rutted decent following a wet practically vertical drop and 90 degree slide on the side of the hill. By the time you saw it you were committed. I hit my back break and slid the bike down the hill, sideways into the berm and eyed the clay crevasse. No time to think, riders were already sliding down behind me and would have knocked me right off the mountain, I let the WR slide into the rut, put my feet up and let out the clutch, there was no breaking here, point, shoot, and pray. Wish I could have gotten a picture of that, but there was nowhere to stop to get a shot! By the end of that Nate was shaking and the next section up hill was enough for him and Matt who decided to hit some of the other trails. I was having a real hard time with my front end so I made some adjustments to stiffen up the rear and soften the front to balance the bike a bit better from Paragon Rock mode the McCoy mud mode. Big improvement, I now had the confidence in the front to ride the rest of the day in the mud without white knuckles and granny cornering. That trail was a technical trial with some steep rock up hills and the rain made for more of a challenge, but I think it was trail 34, was my favorite trail of the ride. I want to go back and check more of the blue and single-track trails. TJ pretty much described the rest, wrong way on 10 took us to the Mann trial head where after some debate we went to town, gassed up, and headed back. Between the time we spent stopped, the 40 MPH ride down the road in the rain and the dropping temps, hands were indeed cold. We spent a few minutes at the Mann trailhead warming our hands on our bikes before hitting it. TJ was really having a hard time with the cold hands and needed to stop to try to warm them a bit. Why, Ill never know but he declined my second set of dry gloves in my pack, so I put them on and was fine the rest of the ride.
Most of the crew packed and left, so Nate and Matt offered a bunk in the cabin even after I had flooded it out on them! I accepted and we had a fun night of cards, good food, BS, stories, all that great stuff you do trips like this for. We woke to snow on the ground and trucks, cleaned up and rolled out. I had a long trip home. I followed Matt and Nate to Pa where they took the Turnpike. I being the cheapass I am headed up to 78 only to run into a 4-mile backup before the split. I herd the problems on the CB and was able to get off of 81 and follow trucker’s directions to Rt 22. I got back on 78 for a few miles only to run into an 8-mile backup. I was able to exit that after about 15 minutes and follow truckers instructions to Rt 100 witch I took home but it was 45 Mph going. Took almost 10 hours to get home! But I was glad to be home and see my girl that night.
I had a great time! Like TJ said, only thing was the weather. We made the most of it like hard core DRN riders do, but I know we would have ridden more trails if it were dryer. I was ready to stay the day Sunday and ride and head out Sunday night or Monday AM if it was better sport. But like TJ said, the riding is only half the fun on a DRN ride, and the other half was just as good sport and normal.
The trail system is well groomed and marked. The quad riders were among the most courteous I have ever had the pleasure of sharing trials with. Of corse with the weather we had, everyone on the trail was a hardcore rider just to be out there so maybe the sour weather kept the squids at home. The Twin Hollow camp ground rules, it’s right on the trail and the owners are awesome and friendly. The dogs (Princess and Buddy) are a welcome campfire comfort. The pictures and any description of the view from the camp is all but useless, you must see it for yourself. The towns of Gilbert and Mann are accommodating to the riders, there is even a big sign at the edge of town that says Gilbert Welcomes ATVs! I should have a picture of that! Where else that you know of right? I’m glad everyone is safe and home. Except for an egg on Rob’s arm I think and the gift my back wheel gave PK I think there were no other injuries. Dam Yankees DRN rides RULE!

 

[mafols]

Hey Guys,
Sorry it took so long to reply(had to wait til' I returned to work).And sorry we didn't get to the camp in the morning.Because of rain related problems,we weren't able to head out early enough to make it there for 10. Trying to dry out boots and riding cloths,working on bikes in the rain,and drying out the lense on the camera and radios all added up to a late start for us on Saturday morning.We figured on getting together for an afternoon ride but discovered some of your group had already packed up and left.Can't say that I blame you....we saw Gary's ez-up frame wadded up on the ground...it was pretty self explanatory. The rest must have been out riding.
Anyway...we were able to get some riding in,although not as much as we would have liked.We made two on Friday, one for a few hours on Sat. and a couple hours in the snow on Sunday. We covered most of the trails including the trek from Twin Hollow down to Gilbert( great down hill run). We made an attempt at 148(orange single track) but the mud made it more trouble than it was worth. There was a steep vertical at the end of the brick paved part that was tough to climb in the mud without a running start. We decided that there were far too many good trails that could be ridden to waste time pushing our bikes up a goat trail in the mud.The snow on Sunday was pretty fun....since we don't see much of the white stuff in LA.,but it got cold quick(we didn't bring much cold weather/freezing rain type riding gear).
All in all it was a good trip for us too, the riding area was a great place.We are planning to attend Dirt Week this year(our 1st)....hopefully we'll get to see you guys again and actually ride there. :cool:

 

[JasonJ]

You guys are hard core, I need to put my blue bike in with your red ones and get some miles in :aj: . Hey hook us up with some of the video you shot and any other pictures! I hope you guys can make it up North some time and ride with us. If your ever up North and want to ride let us know, you can stay at the DRN network Hotel's and ride up here. Some day when I have the time and bucks Ill put my bike on a boat and sail South, Dock, and ride with yall!!
JasonJ

 

[Treejumper]

Thanks for the pictures Jason. That suit of mine looks sweet!!! :)

We are planning to attend Dirt Week this year(our 1st)....hopefully we'll get to see you guys again and actually ride there.

I should see you at Dirtweek this year.

 

[Papakeith]

Your suit looks sweet, but my rain gear is tops!! Nice reports everyone.

 

[junkjeeps]

We passed thru the campground about 2pm and looked for ya'll, but all we found was a wad of what used to be an EZ-up. We ended up heading back to where we were staying and getting out of the rain for the rest of the day watching DVD's. We hoped to try ya'll again later Saturday afternoon, but the rain never let up. I will say the snow on Sunday morning was really cool. We rarely(I'm 33 and have only seen snow at home 2 times that I can remember) get snow and if we do, it surely doesn't stick for long. I did alright with the colder temperatures, but my hands couldn't take it. Heading up some of the mountain tops, I couldn't feel my fingers at all. Had to keep warming them on the exhaust of the ol' XR. Sorry we missed you guys, maybe next time. I'll post some of my pics as soon as I get them developed.

Mark :cool:

 

[dklink2000]

Hey all, I'm heading there in September for my annual get together with all of my old friends who are now scattered across the east. Anyway...did you guys have any issues with jetting? Right now my wr is jetted for sea level. I think the rockhouse trail head is somewhere around 3000'.

 

[Treejumper]

Nope, my YZ450f ran great.

 

[junkjeeps]

I was worried about that on my XR400, but it ran flawlessly. It really liked the clean, crisp, very cold air.

Mark

 

[mafols]

Hey Jason,

We didn't get much helmet cam footage because of the rain(the lens kept fogging up).We are going to post some of it on our website as well as some photos, as soon as our webmaster( my son) gets it taken care of. :nod: I'll get in touch when it's done.

 

[WaltCMoto]

Great reports and pictures.
We had a good time even taking into account the weather. Camping and hangin with all the DRN gang is the best part of it all. We wimped out of the Saturday ride and headed home early. Those southern guys sure are hard core, hope to see everyone in Oklahoma this fall.
Walt & Eric

 

[JasonJ]

Ok guys, Don't forget to send me those pictures and links!!! [email protected] . I am jetted for about 1500ft with the WR. I was told the campground was about 1600 ft. I had some bog issues down low in the RPM and had to adjust the idel on the bike all day, but when you consider the range of elevations and the crazy weather all the way from Cold and clear to hot and raining, to cold and raining I was ok. Also, the gas station in Mann had no high test so we were running 89 Octane in the cold rain through more water than not, the bike did well. I found myself wanting more low end to loft the front wheel through the puddles and thats where I was getting the bog at. I think If I had better fuel, the bike was warmer, there was less humidity, and or I change to YZ timing I would be better off, but I did not want to mess with the bike before a long trip and have to be screwing with it all weekend. I also did not want to haul my own fule in a can since I was in a van and sleeping in it. Taking a long trip with gas vented in a can tends to stink up the van someting ferice,,, that and beers and Broughtwurst.... :yikes:

 

[mafols]

Got a few pics posted in the gallery

 

[wildbill2]

Great write up. There are a bunch of us planning a 2 or 3 day ride there the first weekend in August. (5-6-7). I have never been there but the trails sound some what like where I ride. Hopefully I will make it there in August. Thanks

 

[junkjeeps]

I just posted some of my pics from Hatfield McCoy. I have one more camera to develop. I'll post them when I get it back.

http://www.dirtrider.net/gallery/browseimages.php?c=3&userid=26555

 

[Treejumper]

Nice pictures! Until you hit the last ones with the snow it almost looks like it was perfect weather. Where's all the ones of the rain? :)

 

[junkjeeps]

I don't think I took many in the rain. I still have one more camera I just dropped off. They were disposable cams so I didn't pull it out much in the rain. Check out the gallery at www.rebeloffroadriders.com ; they may have some there.

Mark

 

[junkjeeps]

I've added the 2nd camera. You can see a little more slop in those.

Mark