trip planning!
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    CND 450x rider
    Posts: 102
    Joined: Thu Aug 28, 2008 9:46 am

    trip planning!

    by CND 450x rider » Sun Apr 24, 2011 12:35 pm

    Hi everyone. Me and a fiew friends are planning a trip to go ride in the upper peninsula or down to West Virginia but are unshure of where to go. Would like to have a hotel/motel and some local things to do while not riding at night and such and food/gas as well, so basically not out in the middle of nowhere kinda thing, what do you guys think?
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    MattBennett23
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    Joined: Tue Sep 28, 2010 1:05 pm

    by MattBennett23 » Mon Apr 25, 2011 12:18 am

    Howdy!

    Michigan rider here. In the upper peninsula, everything is in the middle of nowhere!! Thats why its so great! Michigans UP has some awesome trail but it is usually in the middle of nowhere. The closer you get to civilization the worse the trails tend to get. If you dont mind camping there are some great trails off of campgrounds! There are golf courses, fishing lakes, casinos etc all round Michigan when you arent riding.

    One thing we do a lot in Michigan is look for inexpensive cabins that can be rented near trail systems. There are some really cool spots that nobody knows about sometimes that are very nice.

    In the UP, check out Kinross, Sandtown, Moss Lake, Bass Lake, Porterfield Lake. Lots of awesome trail. If you are gonna go trolling under the bridge, check out the Tomahawk Trails, Evart, Frederic, North End of Leota in the lower peninsula.

    If you want the best trails in Michigan, go to Drummond Island. There are awesome vacation homes on the island you can rent if you want. We did that for a week and it was great! Had awesome trails to ride and a hot tub to get rid of the soreness at night.

    Definately check out this website for GPS Maps of the trails and trail descriptions with pics and videos if you are going to ride in Michigan. If you have a garmin gps I highly recommend their ORV maps to load up. They also have maps for WV.

    http://www.vvmapping.com/

    Here are a couple of sites to check out that we have used:

    http://www.kinross.net/rv_parks.htm
    http://www.northernproperties.com/
    http://www.northernproperties.com/cabin.php?id=44
    http://www.malonescabins.com/
    http://www.leotalodge.com/default.htm

    Have fun, Michigan is a blast with great trails especially in the UP!

    Any questions, feel free to shoot!
    Matt
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    CND 450x rider
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    by CND 450x rider » Mon Apr 25, 2011 6:07 am

    Hey thanks for all that info. Yeah me and a couple of buddies just want to ride some kick rear trails and have some good R&R when the day is over, have you ever gone down to West Virginia to ride?
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    MattBennett23
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    Joined: Tue Sep 28, 2010 1:05 pm

    by MattBennett23 » Mon Apr 25, 2011 3:40 pm

    We've talked about it but never made the trip... Too much good trail here in Michigan for now, lol!
  • dsrpilot
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    by dsrpilot » Tue Apr 26, 2011 1:40 pm

    Hatfield McCoy Trails in West Virginia are awesome.

    Lots of trails, and things to do. You can ride your bike on the streets to access gas/hotel/trails/food.

    www.trailsheaven.com

    I have been there several times and can help you get started if you are interested...
    '12 CRF450X - son
    '09 CRF250X and 2010 F800GS lowered - Wife
    '12 CRF250X and 2012 F800GS - me
  • dsrpilot
    Posts: 251
    Joined: Wed Sep 30, 2009 10:12 am

    by dsrpilot » Thu Apr 28, 2011 11:07 am

    I hope you don't mind me making you PM public.
    I'd rather type this info into a forum in case anyone else can make use of the information.

    PM:
    Hi there. Me and a freind are planning to make a trip to the dirtbike trails in west virginia for about 4 or five days. We are from london ontario canada and would be renting a box van to load our bikes and gear so they will be secure when we are not riding. I talked to one of the trail workers over the phone down there and he said based on what we were looking for as far as trails and things to do when not riding we should look into the Williamson county area? We just want a loop style trial that is long and it loops back to our lodge/motel/campground what ever it might be, also we are wanting some night life after riding and the guy I talked to on the phone said that there was a bar geared towards your types (18 to 25) years of age in the Willaimson area, ever heard of such a place in your adventures? Any info about the trails and where to stay would be great. Thanks

    I would agree that Williamson is a nice place and does have a few bars for nightlife. This is on the buffalo mountain trails system which I consider to be a little more difficult than the others. All the trails are marked as green, blue or black, it's just that the greens are harder at buffalo than the other systems and the blues and blacks are based from the greens. A ride from Williamson to Matewan at a leisurely pace will take you about 3.5 hours. You can ride into town, and have lunch, fill up your bikes, and ride back in the afternoon. I haven't yet made it to Delbarton on that same system so can't tell you much about that. Matewan is pretty small, and there's not a lot of night life there. I have stayed at the sycamore inn, and although it looks better on the web page than in person, it was reasonable.

    After a day or two at buffalo mountain you might want to consider moving to Rockhouse in Man, WV which is the shortest drive. Man probably has a little nightlife, although I don't really look for that myself. Man, WV is small, but Rockhouse is a nice trail system.

    If you move up to Bearwallow and stay in Logan, WV that will be the largest city you'll encounter as far as the community connectors go on the trail system.

    Should you choose to go south, you can stay at Pineville (which doesn't seem to have much nightlife), but there is a connector between the Pinnacle Creek and Indian Ridge systems so you can get the most riding mileage in by riding them both from the same spot. I haven't been there since they finished the connector to try it out. These 2 systems are generally considered to be the easiest of all the trail systems.

    There is nothing around the Little Coal River trail system unless you want to drive back into Charleston (the state capital) which is 30 minutes or so north.

    My wife and I spent a week there last year, and we made reservations for the first 2 nights, and then played the rest of the week by ear. During the week you'll likely find lots of available lodging with no reservation needed.

    On www.trailsheaven.com there is a riders community forum and you can ask others for their opinions, and also communicate with lodging operators directly.

    People are very friendly down there, and your equipment should be relatively safe although it only takes one bad apple to spoil your week.

    Good luck, and spend some time on www.trailsheaven.com. There are a lot of people that live there that can help you plan your week.

    Be safe!
    '12 CRF450X - son
    '09 CRF250X and 2010 F800GS lowered - Wife
    '12 CRF250X and 2012 F800GS - me

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