Rumble On The Ridge ride report

[OhioTed]

I had mentioned in an earlier post about this local event, which took place last Saturday.  It's a non-competition, organized trail ride, and has reached amazing proportions.  Unofficial estimates of the number of riders participating ranged from 2,000 to 2,500.  I can believe it.  A huge number of people were on hand, a fact not overlooked by the manufacturers, several of which had giant displays in the vendor areas.  I even took advantage of a free demo ride on Bombardier's latest "Can-Am" ATV's.  

After waiting more than an hour beyond when the trail opened at 10 am, in hopes that things would have thinned out a bit, we went for it.  However, not 200 yards past the trail head, there was a huge bottleneck.  ATV's, two-wide, blocked the trail as far ahead as I could see.  However, with care, and in consideration of my fellow riders, I putt-putted past them on my little 2-stroke.  For all their off-road capabilities, ATV's simply take up a lot more room than a motorcycle, and I was able to slip by dozens and dozens of the 4-wheelers, all of whom could do nothing but sit and wait for the trail to clear.  

The "obstacles" which were holding everyone up were simply slickery uphills, which I found no problem in clearing.  This scenerio repeated itself throughout the day, with open sections of trail intermixed with challenging woods sections, every one of which was clogged with ATV's.  

Mud was definitely the theme of the event.  Hard-packed, but extremely slick and sticky - mud.  The only way to get anywhere at all was to hit it hard.  Some decent speed - keeping the back end driving and the tires cleaned out, allowed me to motivate quite well.

I made one, 27+ mile loop, and wanted to do more, but was hesitant to go back out because of all the congestion on the trails.  I've seen other events of this type expand into running over the course of more than one weekend, even offering quad-only and bike-only days.    As it was, there were about 50 bikes that I saw total at the RotR, among all those quads.  

A very nice event, and quite well run.  They do three a year - this one in April, one in June, and one in September.  If you've got patience and are prepared for some give and take with a LOT of other riders, come out and give it a try.  It has definitely become quite the spectacle.  I got the impression that a lot of people don't even ride the trail.  They just come out and putt around the parking areas, cruise some of the access roads, and enjoy riding around, legally, in a (reasonably) controlled, off-road environment.

                                             Ted G.

[OUCWBOY]

The ATV's are what killed most of the off road area's in CA years ago. Too many and they tear up everything.

Donny Smith
Paragould, AR

[wfopete]

quote:Originally posted by OUCWBOY

The ATV's are what killed most of the off road area's in CA years ago. Too many and they tear up everything.

Ditto

Pete Petrick
175 Jackpiner
Slow but Good