xsnrg
Member
- Jul 20, 2004
- 728
- 0
Three of us are just back last night from 3 days riding at TrailsHeaven (official website). This ride report won't be too long due to a sore, purple finger I earned on the trip (no, it was not under enemy fire).
Our first trip up to the Hatfield McCoy trail system in WV was excellent. It reminded me of the riding I did growing up in the networks of gaslines, logging roads, and coal mines of the mountains of NWestern PA. The primary exceptions being the height and steepness of the hills and that I was not on an XR100. The scenery was great and the trail system is expansive (5 areas ~ 100 miles each). We took along a couple of KDXs ('91-250cc, '00-220cc) and the third was on a YZ250. I rode the 250 KDX most of the trip and switched with the 220 rider for half of the 3rd day.
We stayed in the ATV friendly town of Man, WV. They allow ATVs to ride on the streets in town, but not bikes unless they are street-legal and licensed. No big deal for us, because we wanted to lock the bikes in the trailer each night anyway so trailering a couple miles to the trailheads was no big deal. We stayed at the RockhouseLodge , which was great and we'll stay there again most likely when we go back. Day 1 and 3 we rode in a trail system called Rockhouse which has its head just outside the town of Man.
Day1- Rockhouse - we covered about 53 miles on mostly Green and Blue trails. The blue trails had some very challenging hills for dirtbikes. The first major hill we encountered was on blue trail 23 or 28 and 2/3 of us made it and ended up coming back down b/c we didn't wan't our 3rd rider to wear himself out on a 3rd attempt of his own. Making our way to the town of Gilbert, I was leading on trail 34 and there were alot of waterholes that were only about 4-8" deep. I was trying to stay somewhat dry, so was looking for the dryest lines through or around the puddles. I came up to one and actually stopped before it and when I started across it, I was surprised by my front wheel sliding right a couple feet and down into about 18 inches of water. As the bike was going down, I put my left hand out to brace myself and jammed my little finger on the rocky bottom. It turned purple from tip to base in less than an hour. After some of the hills and terrain we conquered, I couldn't believe I hurt myself at 1 MPH in a puddle! That injury impacted the rest of my trip as it made me ride much more conservatively since I could only grip with half of my left hand. I also earned the nickname Shamu from my riding partners who thought the whole scene was hilarious.
We continued down green #10 into Gilbert, which is ATV and dirtbike friendly. It was a foreign thing for me to be riding on public streets without looking over my shoulder to see if the police were giving chasing. We found a small restaurant and ate lunch, filled up at the Speedway station, and headed back. This time we went blue trail 35 and encountered what is known as monster hill. I agree with most that this should be a black rated trail unless it has just been groomed. It took us a while, but we managed to get the three bikes up the hill through the loose rock. Luckily there was a clan of ATVers on the hill to help us get up over. I lost momentum on the hill in the loose rock and eventually laid the bike down. A couple of guys picked the bike up and handed it to me, but with my purple finger screaming, I couldn't keep it up and dropped it twice in the same spot. Third time was a charm and I made it up the rest of the way and went back to help the other two.
We were almost back to the truck and I suggested that we "try out" a single track called 188. I think you could hold a penny in your buttcheeks the entire length of this trail. The hill on one side was so close you could touch it standing up. On the other side there was nothing but air down to the next switchback of the trail, or in some places, hundreds of feet down to the bottom. One of the rangers told us they had seen bikes land in the parking lot at the bottom of the mountain from this trail. There was one hill early on that was steeper than 28 or the monster on 35 and it was only 15 inches wide and strewn with grapefruit size rocks. Very high pucker factor. We decided there was no going back after that hill. The switchbacks were so tight you had to do 3 or 4 or 5 point turns on the corner to get your bike around (an zero tolerance for error). There was one off-camber uphill which I had trouble on but the other two made on the first attempt. This was definitely not the trail to be taking at the end of the day when you are exhausted. It took us an hour to go about a mile.
Day 2- We trailered the bikes to the Bear Wallow trailhead in Logan about 12 miles away. Part of the system was closed due to coal mine operations, but there was enough open for a half day of riding which was all we wanted. We rode trail 10 and 16 mostly around the system counter clockwise. These were green cruisers with banked corners and several creek and road crossings. Occasionally we hit small blue side-trails such as 49 (it had a challenging hill that 2/3 of us made on first attempt), then blue 32, and also 36. 36 was one of my favorite trails. It was alot of uphill switch backs but not too steep, so you could wind up the mountain pretty fast and actually bank the switchback turn. It also had an old mine entrance for a good photo-opp. Continuing on 16 off of 36, we hit 41 which was another moderate blue with short steep sections. We finished in about 4 hours and decided to call it a day while we still felt good so that day 3 would be enjoyable.
Day 3- We rode Rockhouse again. This time for only a half day again since we had a 6 - 7 hr ride home. A local expert told us about a communication tower on top of one of the highest peaks in the mtn range. We rode green 10 to green 12 to blue 31...another of my favorites with short steeps and banked turns. 31 runs into a black expert trail 93 and just after turning onto 93, you can see the tower up on the right. You have to take a non-system trail up to the base of the tower and there are some good views (and excellent cellphone service up there). When we left the tower we decided to go "down" trail 93 since we were at the top of the mountain, we were told it was mostly downhill. We found a few short uphills that were steep and stepped. Also, this trail was ATV wide with brush on both sides... about half the width the other hills we had been on (with excpeption to the single track). For a long time, this trail runs the ridge line and a gasline runs along one side looking like a guardrail. On both sides of the trail, if you leaped out about 5 feet, you would fall for about a hundred, bounce and fall... There was also some cool rock formations along this ridge. The trickiest part was the combination of how steep the big downhill was and the quantity of loose rocks. I got down most of it in neutral with the engine off and using the breaks and my feet. I think going up it would be nearly impossible on a bike. If you do it, I'd like your autograph (same as going up single track 188). After 93, we cruised back to the truck, my left hand glad the trip was over, and the rest of me wanting to stay another week.
The trail systems at HF-MC offer enough variation for you to tailor your trip from beginner to expert with the occasional surprise. I reccomend anyone within an 8 hr drive of southern WV to make the trip. TrailsHeaven lives up to its name. We're going back in Sept or Oct.
PS. at least once you need to go to a place called Tops in Logan. It is a true dive by every sense of the word, but the extra thick Ribeye was great.
Our first trip up to the Hatfield McCoy trail system in WV was excellent. It reminded me of the riding I did growing up in the networks of gaslines, logging roads, and coal mines of the mountains of NWestern PA. The primary exceptions being the height and steepness of the hills and that I was not on an XR100. The scenery was great and the trail system is expansive (5 areas ~ 100 miles each). We took along a couple of KDXs ('91-250cc, '00-220cc) and the third was on a YZ250. I rode the 250 KDX most of the trip and switched with the 220 rider for half of the 3rd day.
We stayed in the ATV friendly town of Man, WV. They allow ATVs to ride on the streets in town, but not bikes unless they are street-legal and licensed. No big deal for us, because we wanted to lock the bikes in the trailer each night anyway so trailering a couple miles to the trailheads was no big deal. We stayed at the RockhouseLodge , which was great and we'll stay there again most likely when we go back. Day 1 and 3 we rode in a trail system called Rockhouse which has its head just outside the town of Man.
Day1- Rockhouse - we covered about 53 miles on mostly Green and Blue trails. The blue trails had some very challenging hills for dirtbikes. The first major hill we encountered was on blue trail 23 or 28 and 2/3 of us made it and ended up coming back down b/c we didn't wan't our 3rd rider to wear himself out on a 3rd attempt of his own. Making our way to the town of Gilbert, I was leading on trail 34 and there were alot of waterholes that were only about 4-8" deep. I was trying to stay somewhat dry, so was looking for the dryest lines through or around the puddles. I came up to one and actually stopped before it and when I started across it, I was surprised by my front wheel sliding right a couple feet and down into about 18 inches of water. As the bike was going down, I put my left hand out to brace myself and jammed my little finger on the rocky bottom. It turned purple from tip to base in less than an hour. After some of the hills and terrain we conquered, I couldn't believe I hurt myself at 1 MPH in a puddle! That injury impacted the rest of my trip as it made me ride much more conservatively since I could only grip with half of my left hand. I also earned the nickname Shamu from my riding partners who thought the whole scene was hilarious.
We continued down green #10 into Gilbert, which is ATV and dirtbike friendly. It was a foreign thing for me to be riding on public streets without looking over my shoulder to see if the police were giving chasing. We found a small restaurant and ate lunch, filled up at the Speedway station, and headed back. This time we went blue trail 35 and encountered what is known as monster hill. I agree with most that this should be a black rated trail unless it has just been groomed. It took us a while, but we managed to get the three bikes up the hill through the loose rock. Luckily there was a clan of ATVers on the hill to help us get up over. I lost momentum on the hill in the loose rock and eventually laid the bike down. A couple of guys picked the bike up and handed it to me, but with my purple finger screaming, I couldn't keep it up and dropped it twice in the same spot. Third time was a charm and I made it up the rest of the way and went back to help the other two.
We were almost back to the truck and I suggested that we "try out" a single track called 188. I think you could hold a penny in your buttcheeks the entire length of this trail. The hill on one side was so close you could touch it standing up. On the other side there was nothing but air down to the next switchback of the trail, or in some places, hundreds of feet down to the bottom. One of the rangers told us they had seen bikes land in the parking lot at the bottom of the mountain from this trail. There was one hill early on that was steeper than 28 or the monster on 35 and it was only 15 inches wide and strewn with grapefruit size rocks. Very high pucker factor. We decided there was no going back after that hill. The switchbacks were so tight you had to do 3 or 4 or 5 point turns on the corner to get your bike around (an zero tolerance for error). There was one off-camber uphill which I had trouble on but the other two made on the first attempt. This was definitely not the trail to be taking at the end of the day when you are exhausted. It took us an hour to go about a mile.
Day 2- We trailered the bikes to the Bear Wallow trailhead in Logan about 12 miles away. Part of the system was closed due to coal mine operations, but there was enough open for a half day of riding which was all we wanted. We rode trail 10 and 16 mostly around the system counter clockwise. These were green cruisers with banked corners and several creek and road crossings. Occasionally we hit small blue side-trails such as 49 (it had a challenging hill that 2/3 of us made on first attempt), then blue 32, and also 36. 36 was one of my favorite trails. It was alot of uphill switch backs but not too steep, so you could wind up the mountain pretty fast and actually bank the switchback turn. It also had an old mine entrance for a good photo-opp. Continuing on 16 off of 36, we hit 41 which was another moderate blue with short steep sections. We finished in about 4 hours and decided to call it a day while we still felt good so that day 3 would be enjoyable.
Day 3- We rode Rockhouse again. This time for only a half day again since we had a 6 - 7 hr ride home. A local expert told us about a communication tower on top of one of the highest peaks in the mtn range. We rode green 10 to green 12 to blue 31...another of my favorites with short steeps and banked turns. 31 runs into a black expert trail 93 and just after turning onto 93, you can see the tower up on the right. You have to take a non-system trail up to the base of the tower and there are some good views (and excellent cellphone service up there). When we left the tower we decided to go "down" trail 93 since we were at the top of the mountain, we were told it was mostly downhill. We found a few short uphills that were steep and stepped. Also, this trail was ATV wide with brush on both sides... about half the width the other hills we had been on (with excpeption to the single track). For a long time, this trail runs the ridge line and a gasline runs along one side looking like a guardrail. On both sides of the trail, if you leaped out about 5 feet, you would fall for about a hundred, bounce and fall... There was also some cool rock formations along this ridge. The trickiest part was the combination of how steep the big downhill was and the quantity of loose rocks. I got down most of it in neutral with the engine off and using the breaks and my feet. I think going up it would be nearly impossible on a bike. If you do it, I'd like your autograph (same as going up single track 188). After 93, we cruised back to the truck, my left hand glad the trip was over, and the rest of me wanting to stay another week.
The trail systems at HF-MC offer enough variation for you to tailor your trip from beginner to expert with the occasional surprise. I reccomend anyone within an 8 hr drive of southern WV to make the trip. TrailsHeaven lives up to its name. We're going back in Sept or Oct.
PS. at least once you need to go to a place called Tops in Logan. It is a true dive by every sense of the word, but the extra thick Ribeye was great.
Last edited:
