Coming down to Ashland w/ MI club

April 7-10, 2011 approximately 25 Michiganders...and 1 Ohioan, will be at Ashland Resort. Camping & Lodging. Rmilli & his GF, PITA, will be there as well.

I guess it'll be a good time to check out the new GPS maps from BobT!!!

Anyone else???

Tumbleweed, have you guys ever been to Ashland Resort and rode the Outlaw Trails? If you are interested I am sure several members of my club will be riding that weekend. We have trailers at Hilltop Escape which is about 25 minutes by trail from Ashland Resort. If you have never been here before will be glad to show you around or give you some tips on day rides.

Bob

I've ridden HM before, just not from Ashland. I don't know about the "showing around" since I'm not putting this ride on. Tips would certainly be appreciated.

BTW, Thanks for the maps. They look good on the GPSr.

Tumbleweed, I made a quick and dirty one day ride from Ashland to Sterling Drive Inn in Welch. This is a nice one day ride that we take a lot of people on. You start out at AshRst and go up to the Outlaw Trails to the stairsteps, from their you have a couple of options to the Wagon Wheel depending upon experience. You then go to the Drive Inn which has great food and a private room that will seat at least 30, gas us just down the road. The only pavement you ride is the last 1/2 mile to Sterling. On the way you can detour to the View, take the far right trail up, inexperienced riders can stay at the bottom. Between the Wagon Wheel and Tiny's you will cross a LOT of water and mud, this is what we bought them for.

On the way back you have to backtrack a little until you get to the HMIR-HMPC connector and take it back to the IR trail system to Ashland Resort.

This is about 3.5 hours riding each way, longer depending how much time you spend at the view and playing in the mud and water. This is just a suggestion but lets you see the Outlaw Trails along with the HM. Have fun!!!

I don't think you can add attachments to this site so I placed this route/tracks on the following site, it is called "Ashland Resort to Sterling Drive Inn".

ATV Tracks

If you want to make your own Transparent map you can go to the following site and download the program "GPX2IMG". It allows you to make your own maps and load them into Mapsource with one click of the mouse. It is not as flexible as the way I do it but for things like this it is great. Just remember when you install maps onto your GPSr you have to install them all at the same time since it overwrites the existing user maps.

GPX2IMG

Thanks Bob.

I think you might have met someone I ride with. Jeff S. Tall man about 6' 4", Brown hair, from Illinois (near St. Louis). Rides a 2010 Black and Yellow CanAM 2-up. Probably met him in Colorado in August/Sept. last year.

Anyway, I will pass the tips along to the powers that be. I might try those trails myself some day.

Yes, I did meet some guys from your area while there. The site www.atvquadsquad.com is the big site for riding Colorado. Just curious where Eastpointe is. I lived in Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti for eight years before moving down here.

Detroit's East side, I 94 and 8 mile road, roughly.

You guy's will have a blast... IR connected to PC and everything in between.

Sterling Drive-In... I sure could go for a Peanut Butter Milkshake now.

Looks like it's going to be a busy weekend! We have 3 cabins booked at Mountain Top (not a club but a group ). I'll arrive April 7 - AM with the other riders coming in later in the day and also on Friday. Maybe we'll see ya!

Ride safe,

Lee

Dare I say, "Get a RedNeck Burger at HillTop"

That peanut butter milkshake sounds good, but I'd have to take a nap on the way back...

Well we made it. It was a Great Trip. Apparently Porkchop was there at the same time, but we missed each other. Maybe next time.

Will post some pics in the next few days.

We'll be back in October with the www.ATVWild.com gang.

First trip with the "new" 1987 camper.

Heading South...

Rmilli, PITA and the Monkey

Sometimes ya just gotta go!


Full set of pics & videos here:
https://s44.photobucket.com/albums/f29/Jaxom44/HM%204-6-11/

Nice camper and quad set-up you have there for sure.



Trails looked in good shape, not much dust yet either.

Looks like you all had a good trip

Is the gap behind the camper so you have a place to store stuff??? Never seen one set back like that before so I'm just curious

G Bob wrote:

Is the gap behind the camper so you have a place to store stuff??? Never seen one set back like that before so I'm just curious

No, I have a 53 gallon auxiliary fuel tank there. Just haven't made up my mind whether to take it out or not. I REALLY like have the extra fuel and range.

Hello to Bob T. It was nice meeting you!

Glad you guys had fun. We did too!!!

As usual, never enough time to ride. We got in around 10:30 Thursday morning. The 2 guys that rode down w/ Coral & I went for a quick ride. Coral stayed behind.
Hit some, few, Outlaw trails along w/ the HM trails. Total miles that day around 45 or so I think. The black trails were really barely blue.

Friday, 7 of us guys rode 104 GPS miles, 110 on the odometer. From Ashland to I.R. trails to the connector as quickly as we could. Played a bit on the Double Black trail, 24? It was black, but it used to have a big boulder in the center that you had to navigate around, made it tougher. Continue on to Pinnacle Creek. I had to show the flatlanders how to play in the creek! That was funny. The trail leader pulled up to ATV tracks going down to the water, pointed at them and said "There you go, Jerry". I jumped right in. Didn't realize that 4 others followed me in! I went about 100 yards or so...slowly, leaning side-to-side. Nearly sitting on the left floorboard one time. By the time I crawled out, all 4 of the others had backed out of the creek! I just love playing in the water like that. Not fast paced like some like it...but it's not always about the miles. Anyways, we got up to Mullens, fueled up the bikes and stopped for Pizza.

Day 3, Coral was determined to ride. She didn't know for how long or how far. Rmilli & PITA joined us for a 30 mile ride. Mostly green and blue. We did one black, 94? It wasn't bad at all. Just a couple bumpy, muddy spots. Coral was fading and getting GRUMPY. (Sorry Sherry) 4 minutes away from the camper and she wanted to stop for a break. In the pouring rain. I told her we were only 4 minutes out. She got furious w/ me and took off. Later she cooled down and apologized. Women...nothing like a little estrogen imbalance to add a little excitement to the day!

When we got back that afternoon, I started loading up the trailer. We were leaving around 06:00 the next morning. That's when the skies opened up and I got soaked, even w/ my rain coat on. Turns out the rain coat is a little less than water proof. Got 'er loaded anyway. Dried myself off, took a shower and called it a night.

Left the next morning, stopped at Jac & Do's in Findley, OH for Pizza. I've converted a couple more people to the gastronomical delights of Jac & Do's. Rmilli, if you come up I-75 - exit 159, you need to try their pizza. I've been going there since 1978!!!

Got home around 17:30 after fueling up locally. round trip was 1133 miles, $500 in fuel. 8.7 mpg. I really need to make some emissions crap fall off!

Scaled the rig on the way down.
Steer axle: 4920
Drive axle: 8200
Trailer axles: 5780
Gross weight: 18,900

Tumbleweed, nice ride report, and yes Jac and Do's is great!

Nice report... and right on ~ never enough time for riding.

Sounds like a great trip....thanks for the report.....come on Sunday! Can't wait to arrive at Ashland for a week of riding.