Hatfield McCoy

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MX Quad Dad · #1 Post by **MX Quad Dad** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 4:28 am

My sisters and their families are thinking about doing some trail riding there. I told them there are a few people on this site that ride there.
They are running utility quads and one Rhino. So they are looking for some good trails (I would say nothing real difucult) and lodging so that they wouldn't have to trailer to the trails.

Any recommendations?

jesshamner · #2 Post by **jesshamner** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 4:33 am

Rockhouse is a great trail for the riding type you are describing. It is mostly fire roads with a few trails that are tight. I haven't been to those trails in a few years but the black trails were pretty rough. They can stay in Mann, WV or Gilbert, WV. Those towns are on each end of the trail. We stayed in Gilbert at a dealership that had apartments for rent.

Bear Wallow is another good one with about 60 mile of trails. We had a RZR with us that went everywhere we did and he did it with the pedal to the floor. The trails there are tighter than Rockhouse. There is a campground near the trailhead but its not great. Chief Logan is a great place to camp but you have to trailer a couple miles.

gml1998 · #3 Post by **gml1998** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 12:49 pm

We stayed in Gilbert ,West Virginia.Look up Livingoodlodging.com for a place to stay . In Gilbert (and several other towns around the trail system) lets you ride your quads in town.Once we unloaded we did not get back in our vehicles for 4 days.You can go get gas,eat ,to the movie etc on your quad.And you have direct acces to trail system.One day we rode to the neighboring town of Man on the trail,fueled up had lunch then rode back to Gilbert via a different route. Must have been a 60 mile loop,good times.

jesshamner · #4 Post by **jesshamner** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 2:20 pm

QUOTE (gml1998 @ Jan 18 2011, 07:49 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

We stayed in Gilbert ,West Virginia.Look up Livingoodlodging.com for a place to stay . In Gilbert (and several other towns around the trail system) lets you ride your quads in town.Once we unloaded we did not get back in our vehicles for 4 days.You can go get gas,eat ,to the movie etc on your quad.And you have direct acces to trail system.One day we rode to the neighboring town of Man on the trail,fueled up had lunch then rode back to Gilbert via a different route. Must have been a 60 mile loop,good times.

That is exactly what we did on my first trip. It's weird to drive your quad through the drive thru window at McDonald's. I think the Roadhouse trail is exactly what your family is looking for.

NRath · #5 Post by **NRath** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 5:42 pm

I'm not going to make this any easier!

I've got to throw in a big thumbs up for the Buffalo Mountain trails. A major perk to these, if you're looking for lodging, is staying at the Matewan House in Matewan. These people include a huge breakfast and even wash your dirty riding clothes! Drop off your dirties and they'll be clean and folded by morning! They've got like 4 smaller apartments and one large room upstairs that'll fit 7 or 8. They've got locked fence around the machine's and a washdown area. There's a trailhead in town that takes you right up the trails. Take the day to get to Williamson, drive in town to get lunch, turn around and head back. Makes for an awesome day! I can't say enough about how great these people are and how fun the trip is. The place I'm talking about staying is historicmatewanhouse.com.

I think you'll find there are UTV friendly trails at most of the systems. Check out the trailmaps at trailsheaven.com, they're all marked.

And quite the coincidence here... I've just been thinking of spring riding!

gml1998 · #6 Post by **gml1998** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 10:20 pm

Most of the towns around the H-M trail system are very ATV friendly .The trails are a great source of revenue for those small towns.

MX Quad Dad · #7 Post by **MX Quad Dad** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 3:49 am

Thanks guys, I'll forward this info to them

jesshamner · #8 Post by **jesshamner** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 3:54 am

QUOTE (NRath @ Jan 18 2011, 12:42 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

And quite the coincidence here... I've just been thinking of spring riding!

Say the word and lets throw down.

pcleiter · #9 Post by **pcleiter** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 6:20 pm

We did our first ride there this past fall, the week before their annual trails fest weekend. Other than a run in with the local law enforcement (in Gilbert) in which I was accused of a crime I did not commit, it was fantastic. My recollection is that all of the the trails between Gilbert and Mann were passable by side-by-side machines, except for one very narrow, rocky, steep route. (Not a show-stopper - it was one of the ancillary loops, not the main connector between the towns.)

We stayed at Hawks River Front Cabins, which are about 3 miles outside of Gilbert. I think that we had 10 people in our group, and we were all able to fit into one cabin easily. You can ride everywhere that you need to get to, and there are plenty of places to fuel up, eat, etc. And all very reasonably priced, too.

Personally, I'd be pretty leery about taking my son (9 years old) there for a few more years. While the trails are well groomed and I'm sure that he'd be able to handle them, when you do end up riding on roads you are with semi-trucks, triple axle dumps, and other very intimidating vehicles. And many of the trails are precariously close to the edge of cliffs. Literal cliffs. If the rider gets distracted for too long, or looses control, going off the edge would be big trouble. The last night of our visit, a guy in another group ended up off the trail and had to be air lifted out where he landed. The rescue helicopter needed 500 ft of rope to get him, and he had multiple compound fractures.

FWIW, we are planning a trip there as well this spring. As soon as we have a date nailed down, I'll post it up on the board and maybe others can put their dates up too so that if we end up there at the same time we can meet up somewhere.

UpsMan · #10 Post by **UpsMan** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 8:54 pm

QUOTE (pcleiter @ Jan 19 2011, 12:20 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Other than a run in with the local law enforcement (in Gilbert) in which I was accused of a crime I did not commit, it was fantastic.

Come on man, you can't drop that in here without telling us about it!!!