Places to Ride?

[arbinks2]

I grew up in Michigan and when I got old enough moved out west. Now I'm back again with my family (around Grand Haven) because Michigan is a good place to grow up and my wife and I missed it. When I was a kid, you could ride everywhere. I rode lots of gravel pits and such. Nothing much more fun than that. Out west there are a lot of, what I guess you would call, wide open riding opportunities. I'm getting better at riding the tight narrow DNR trails, but I really need to rethink my bikes and my son's bike to make the most of that. At this point the DNR trails are pretty scary to my 12 year old. My questions are:
1. Are there any gravel pits left where you can ride?
2. What is the best of the DNR scramble areas? Is it hard not to get run over at these?
3. What are the best laid back non-extreme practice tracks?
Thanks alot for any help you can give me.

 

[ellandoh]

http://www.ogemawtrails.com/
http://www.valdulakes.com/dunes
http://www.michigan.gov/dnr
http://www.mototracks.com/search.asp


my favorites
:cool: :cool: :cool:

 

[YZMAN400]

I grew up in Michigan and when I got old enough moved out west. Now I'm back again with my family (around Grand Haven) because Michigan is a good place to grow up and my wife and I missed it. When I was a kid, you could ride everywhere. I rode lots of gravel pits and such. Nothing much more fun than that. Out west there are a lot of, what I guess you would call, wide open riding opportunities. I'm getting better at riding the tight narrow DNR trails, but I really need to rethink my bikes and my son's bike to make the most of that. At this point the DNR trails are pretty scary to my 12 year old. My questions are:

Hi chief. I live right above you in Muskegon.

1. Are there any gravel pits left where you can ride?

No. Not without a platted bike. And even then its sketchy. Most "gravel pits" are private owned and they dont like ya out there.

2. What is the best of the DNR scramble areas? Is it hard not to get run over at these?

There really is only 2 scramble areas that I am aware of. One is Silver Lake Sand dunes north of us near Mears Michigan. The other is the Mounds over by Detroit somewere. If you catch them on an off weekend they probably arn't all that bad out there.

3. What are the best laid back non-extreme practice tracks?

Big Air Motocross is probably the easiest one in our area. They have a peewee track for the kids. www.bigairmotocross.com

Powers Motor Sports in Freemont also has a practice track. Although its not as kid friendly as Big Air is. www.powersmotorsports.net

Thunderbird Raceway, morth of Muskegon has a practice track now also. www.thunderbirdracepark.com

You will probably find that most people around here are either into MX or single track riding.

 

[ellandoh]

dont bother even considering the mounds its been mostly turned into a mud bog area for monster trucks

 

[arbinks2]

Thanks for you help!