This was our first time at Ashland. LOTS of people here! The deluxe cabin is pretty small for 5 guys. Luckily we were only inside to sleep. It has a range, microwave, and medium sized fridge. The bathroom was decent sized with a good shower. The place was well kept inside. Very clean. Couldn’t ask for much more.
As usual, we were loaded to the gills. I drove down our duramax 3500 stake body. Its a crew cab with 10-6" stake body. We loaded up a RMZ450 and CR500 in the back, along with all our camping gear, drinks, food, and enough wood to have a GOOD fire every night.
On the 18′ trailer we had (2) 2015 Sportsman 570’s, (1) 2013 Sportsman 400, and a 2001 Suzuki LTF250. The Suzuki was back-up in case anyone breaks down. My Grizzly is having some issues so it didn’t make the trip. The CR5 used to be mine but I recently sold it to one of my riding buddies so I still get to see it a few times each year. I do miss it!
Day 1:
We unpacked quickly, geared up and hit the trails. I was excited to see how my new Ogio Honcho bag worked out. Love it so far! It was late in the day so we decided to stick local and ride Indian Ridge only. I have never seen so much dust! It was brutal. The RMZ is brand new, just a few hrs of riding on it. The guy riding it was still getting used to it. We took it easy on green and blue trails mostly. I ventured up trail 83, which is a very short, black trail. I waited up at the top and Mr. RMZ did a gentle layover which resulted in a snapped clutch lever. It was still useable though.
We turned around to head back in the direction we came from. Just after that, he fell over on a switchback and busted his brake lever. Still useable but now he only has 2 tiny nubs on both sides. I will give him credit because he rode it out all weekend like that!
Day 2: We ventured out to the other side of Indian Ridge. We did every trail south of CTY HWY 17 except for the black and red ones. No issues on black 80 and 81 this day. Again, it was as dusty as could be!
Day 3: It rained all night and we knew it was going to rain during the day. We packed heavy on beverages and food and headed out for Pinnacle Creek. On the connector, one in our group got a flat on the front tire. He smacked a rock pretty good. Nice dent in the rim and pinky finger sized hole in the sidewall. We jammed 8 plugs in the sidewall and hit the road. Shortly after, the same guy had a rear flat. That was a 1 plug fix. Off we go again. Weather was decent and I was surprised at how nice the connector trail was. I was expecting a fire road but, it was actually fun. Rain hit us just as we entered Pinnacle trail head.
We rode around Pinnacle for a bit. Mr. RMZ ran out fuel. We dropped his bike in a small swale on the side of the trail and siphoned gas from one of the quads into his tank. At this point we decided we better get fuel and head back. We rode into Pineville and it started raining again. By the time we got fuel and were ready to head back it was 6PM. We didn’t waste any time heading back. We were moving pretty quick. By the time we made it back to indian ridge it was just starting to get dark. The guys on the bikes had to be lead out of the trail by the quad headlights. We got back to camp just a bit after 9PM and logged 106 miles for the day. We were all damp, tired, and ready to warm up next to the fire.
Day 4:
We rode down to Pocahontas this day. Connector trail was pretty boring here except for mechanical issues with the Sportsman 400. I could hear the engine cutting out while riding behind him. We stopped and investigated and found that he had a TON of water in his airbox. Not sure how that happened other than maybe the lid was not on tight.
We unbolted the airbox and flipped it over to drain it out. We cleaned out the drain lines. Then we took the sopping wet filter and let the exhaust pipe from one of the 570’s blow down into the filter to dry it out. Put it all back together and it was great for the rest of the trip.
We did a good bit of riding over here. One of the bikes had some issues coming up trail 82. It is a short black trail with a lot of rock and a nice ledge in the middle. It took some help from 2 others to get him up there. We also ran into some issues with getting the bikes up trail 86 which is another black trail. Mr. RMZ was taking a beating so I gave him a break and got it up the last half of the hill for him.
Shortly after that, the guy with 8 plugs in his front tire noticed it was getting a bit low. We managed to squeeze a 9th plug in there and it was good the rest of the day. We did a bit more riding over that way and headed back to the cabin.
It was a great trip! Over 250 miles and nearly as many cans of beer, LOL. Nothing ever goes smooth and I think overcoming challenges out on the trail is part of what makes a trip memorable. Lots of great riding down there. All the systems had nice trails. The dust was brutal the first 1.5 days but once it rained, we couldn’t have asked for anything better. After doing Ivy Branch, Little Coal, Pocahontas, Pinnacle, and Rock House, I would rank Rock House as my favorite trail system.
