Hat-Field-McCoy Trip to Man, Wv.

Rockhouse Lodge Wed. May 28th until Sunday June 1st 3.5 days of riding


The people in Tom’s truck met at my house at 5AM. Pat my buddy from near Mercer, Pa. stayed at my house overnight. We had everything loaded on Tues, only had a few coolers to load. On the road quickly in Tom’s Ford 1 ton diesel, dually, Mega Cab with cap, pulling a new 20 Ft. Car Hauler with 4 machines.
On I-70 Tom driving was falling asleep, so Jack took over driving. I was ask to drive, but it is one of the few times I didn’t have my truck, so I really enjoyed riding in the rear seat & relaxing.

Rain until we got to I 77 S Marietta crossing the Ohio River into Wv. Then the Sun came out strong “good sign” Sun the rest of the way. At Logan we still have that short narrow stretch of Rt#10, between a rock face & a drop off to R&R Tracks, before coming to the new 4 lane part of Rt#10 into Man.
Arrived about 11:30 at Rockhouse Lodge, Terry & Christina were just finishing cleaning. We hurried to unload & get to Wendy’s for lunch & hit the Rockhouse Trail. This trail is really rough in places, worst than before. We rode until about 4 Pm, then after leaving the Trailhead we seen the other 8 of our group, they didn’t leave Home “Beaver County” until sometime after 8 AM. They were looking for food. I didn’t know the other 8 guys before; some were friends of Tom’s. The trip started out with just our 4 guys, but turned out better with 8 more, all great people. After dinner we sat around the deck getting acquainted, these guys had it all in the alcohol dept. Beer, Old Jack No.5 & other Jack’s only made once a year, homemade wine & other bottles ??? also. Everyone had a good time. I’m a tea toter any more so I didn’t partake.

In the morning everyone up early, the other 8 had never been to Hatfield, so we got them to the trailhead & explained how to use the map, they rode with us for a short time, then the younger guys took off for some blacks, not for us old guys. We rode the rest of the day, meeting up with the younger guys who were really enjoying the trails. Back at the lodge later the guys enjoyed the evening with beverages. I was in bed & asleep early, the trails wear my body down quick.
Friday morning most of the other group decided to try Bearwallow, our guys didn’t want to load up so we rode Rockhouse. Later in the afternoon Jack was riding lead going down this steep trail, as we approached a leveling off area Jack’s right front tire hit a rock throwing him into the hillside on his left, the front tire climbed a rock on the upper side tipping him to the right, like in slow motion, I thought he would recover, but he dump off on the right side, dislodging from the machine which came down on all 4 wheels & started heading over the hillside, it was going very slow & I yelled for Jack to grap the machine which he did while laying on his right side & got it stopped just as it was starting over the very steep hillside. I was still on the steep part trying to set my brakes so I didn’t run over him & knock his machine over the hillside. A couple of the younger guys ran up and got the machine rolled back & brakes set. We were near Gilbert, so we rode to McDonalds & iced down a huge lump on the outside of Jack’s elbow. Tom & Jack decided to ride the highway to Man while I took our small group back by the trails. Jack went to the clinic in Man, then to Logan for X-Rays & a muscle relaxer shot in the butt, nothing broke, just bruised bad, next day he had a huge black & blue mark on his right hip.
Some of the other guys decided to travel to Ivy Branch on Saturday, they said they enjoyed it.
Friday night we decided to load up for Bearwallow. We got an early start, got unloaded & at the top of the first trail #14, I think, 2 Rangers were stopping everyone, looking at helmets for Trail Passes ( very good) Our first day at Rockhouse a Ranger in a UTV (without a helmet on) coming down pulled over on a bend to watch our helmet trail stickers as we went by.

Really enjoyed the Bearwallow trails, seen a bear, turkey, & deer. Trail 28?? was a real mud hole, lots of deep ruts, deep water & very muddy. A few times I didn’t think we would make it. Jack was feeling better & having a good time until he got sideways in some deep ruts, after a little back & forth he was moving again. Buddy Pat didn’t have to much trouble with his little all time 4x4 2002 Honda Ranger, orginal stock tires. That little machine goes anywhere. About 5 PM we loaded up for the last time & headed back to Man for our last night. Had dinner & I hit the sack early, about 1 o’clock I woke up to noise, it turned out to be some the other guys who had visited the local watering hole. I waited till things quieted down, used the restroom then sat on the deck & drank a bottle of water; it was a very peaceful time. Sunday morning the guys said they had a great time & all the locals were very friendly. We had breakfast & clean up our room, loaded up for home.
The weather was great, a little warm in the afternoon, but cool in the shade of the trails, with very little dust, we had a light rain one night.

On the way home we stopped for a late lunch & diesel fuel $ 4.29 in St. Clairsville, Oh.
Got home about 4:30 unloaded & relaxed.

Ps. One of the guys Matt had a new RZR S 900, said he had $19000 in it, WOW

Also met up with 3 guys on the trail, one who was riding an ACE, he let me sit in it, I was surprised how much leg room it had, He said next year they may have a bigger engine. I kinda think I want an ACE, but I don’t like being strapped in. I keep thinking about going over a hill

A GOOD TIME WAS HAD BY ALL

Thanks for sharing.
This makes me want to load up and go down for some R&R.  
Seems like you can ALWAYS  have a good time at HMT.

Great report Grizz. Good to hear from you. Glad you guys had a good time.

Yampol
 

HEY!! Somebody is riding. Awesome!!

Great report Grizz. Glad to hear that you got to enjoy H&M again. Hope to ride a couple days in the near future.

Enjoyed the report Grizz, glad everyone had a good time

Great Write-Up Grizz   

Glad you had a good time

Thanks for sharing   

Enjoyed reading your very nice trail report, Grizz. Sounds like you guys had a good/mostly safe trip. Taking newbies to HM is always fun. Glad to know you are still out there rippin and tearin.   Thanks for sharing your ride with us.