Black Mountain Offroad Adventure Park

[powerbomb400]

I ride my 400 there quite a bit. If you love riding in the mountains you will love Black Mountain. Also if you go to the North Campground look up one of the Harlan County Ridge Runners. If you do then if you ask they could take you on a off park ride. There is alot of land to be ridden there. Bell County is next to Harlan County and they have a park to ride and its free. Wilderness Trails Offroad Park. Its on Highway 119 going between Middlesboro and Harlan.

[Thumpin440ex]

Hmm why not just hit up Hatfield McCoy trails. Isn't but a few mins further, unless you have already been there.

[Stickman400]

I haven't been to Hatfield, but they have a couple times. And my 400 is ready to go, just don't have any tires bigger than a 20 in the rear and 21s in the front. But I know how to ride the rocky rutted trails. Straddling the low spots and riding on top of the rocks in a rock garden. Just hate if it rains and everything is slick, then you have to push yourself just to make it up the moderate stuff. That's when stuff starts breaking, when you're trying to keep your speed up just to make the easy stuff.

[zyoung04]

I haven't been to Hatfield, but they have a couple times. And my 400 is ready to go, just don't have any tires bigger than a 20 in the rear and 21s in the front. But I know how to ride the rocky rutted trails. Straddling the low spots and riding on top of the rocks in a rock garden. Just hate if it rains and everything is slick, then you have to push yourself just to make it up the moderate stuff. That's when stuff starts breaking, when you're trying to keep your speed up just to make the easy stuff.

I run 20s on both ends of mine and have never had a problem at Rockhouse. As long as u pay attention at what's around ull be fine.

[quad2xtreme]

Black Mountain is Hatfield on steroids. There are trails at Black Mountain you won't make on a quad period. There are some that are nothing but boulders on boulders the whole way. If you pick your line carefully and have 22" rears and even 23" fronts, it is extremely helpful. It is really hard on the bearings.

[quad2xtreme]

I haven't been to Hatfield, but they have a couple times. And my 400 is ready to go, just don't have any tires bigger than a 20 in the rear and 21s in the front. But I know how to ride the rocky rutted trails. Straddling the low spots and riding on top of the rocks in a rock garden. Just hate if it rains and everything is slick, then you have to push yourself just to make it up the moderate stuff. That's when stuff starts breaking, when you're trying to keep your speed up just to make the easy stuff.

You are dead on in your reasoning. I got us stuck once between two mountain climbs after it started raining. It was 40 degrees out and 45 minutes from being fully dark outside. Once climb was off camber clay soil with a huge rut most of the way and the other was boulders.

[Stickman400]

Well, trip went pretty well I guess. Had a trailer tire throw the tread off about 4 hours out so we wasted about 2 hours trying to get that fixed. Got down there around 10:30 Friday night. Unloaded everything, threw a couple back while watching a movie in our cabin and hit the sack. Got up and at it around 10 the next morning after we got everything started and paid for the cabins and got our gear out and on. Then we found out we were on the wrong side of the mountain and wasted about 3 hours getting 2 of our guys dirt bikes up to the top were everything was thawed out. That was a giant pain but it was pretty good riding after that, pretty muddy but it was about perfect weather other than that. Hit up about 25% of the trails or so. Had a couple hang ups when my buddies Razr ripped the skid plate off and another had a exhaust nut fall off his bike. Went into the local town to the only place the served beer and BS'd awhile and headed back to the cabin for the night. Sunday we got up and at it about 9 and it was a perfect day. Nobody else on the trails and perfect weather. We just took off down one of the trails we didn't hit the day before and went hammer down the rest of the day. Hit u about 60%-70% of the trails and got in some nice pics and views. It was the coolest thing I have ever seen the views up on top of some of the mountains. You could see for miles in every direction, just huge peaked mountains and valleys. Trails were challenging but would have been fun if it wasn't for the snow and ice. I did end up riding the Rancher the entire time since you HAD to have 4x4 to get around everywhere. One of our bike riders stayed at the cabin and another rode shotgun in the Razr Sunday. I can't wait to go back when it's warm and dry if we can. Absolutely amazing place. I do know what you mean by trails that were impassable by quads. There was a TON of jeep trails that were just giant boulders the whole way up, I don't even see how some of them were even physically possible, they were so steep and just giant straight up boulders the entire way up almost.

Then Sunday night after we got everything loaded up washed up and headed out back home we didn't even get 20 minutes from the cabin and get rear ended after we had to slam on the brakes for some *** that decided to hit the brakes and turn his signal on 50 foot before the turn when we're going 55mph. We were following out buddies in another truck and we both got stopped and then after the other guy turned off we started rolling again and then got slammed. Totaled out my dads car trailer, my buddies Razr got a bent frame, 800 Renegade got his plastic ****ed up, bent his foot peg and blew 2 of his tires off the bead. Think it way have bent is trailing arms too. One bike bent the bars, brake lever and possibly the forks. Broke a center cap off my Rancher. My brand new Power Wagon now has a ruined bumper, receiver hitch got bent completely under the back of the truck and into the spare tire which got shoved into heat shield and exhaust and scratched my tail gate pretty good. Still drivable though. So after we had a wrecker come get the trailer and tow it back to their yard we drove 3 hours back to our buddies to sleep for the night. Next morning we found a 26' U Haul and headed back 3 hours to the wrecker place to get everything loaded up, then back another 2 hours to another place to stay and then about 10 hours back home on Tuesday. Nobody got hurt except for the driver of the car that got a broken sternum. Somehow his cell phone ended up on top of his dash up by the window.... Had to use 2 call ins at work which didn't get excused for some BS reason. Only good thing is the guy that hit us had insurance so everyone should come out ahead once everything is settled. Anyway here is some pics of the ride and the of the wreck. Even after all that nightmare I'd still love to go back.

Ride











Wreck

[CJM]

How freaking fast was that guy going, jeez!

Also, look at your hitch, if its just a cheapy one that doesnt bolt into the entire frame Id dump it. Mine bolts to the entire frame using big 3/4" or so bolts.

[Stickman400]

Speed limit was 55, but you could go 60 or so if you wanted to. I wasn't going over 55 with that trailers on 2 lane roads I didn't know. And it was the factory receiver/tow package, it's a big 3" tube that goes through both frame rails and has the receiver welded to it. I'll get a pic of the under side sometime.

[blacknblue#2]

Obviously the crash ruined the trip. But other than that it sounds like the trip wasnt bad, U all got the ride both days and come home unhurt so it could have been a lot worse. As far as being on the wrong side of the mountain the first day. Thats all stuff that you will learn after a couple trips, youll learn where to go and what to avoid certain times of the year. My first trip to hatfield i HATED. It was 2002, I was 15 years old. I went with a bunch of older guys i always rode with. We stayed in a ****hole hotel In williamson. They all hit the bars at night, I had to set in the hotel and watch tv. We were all on 400EX's. I was a broke school kid on stock rubbers, A lot of the guys bought new quads for that trip (moving up from mojave's and 300EX's) they also were on stock tires. We done more tire plugging than riding. Ate at the wrong Cafe and had nothing but leaves to wipe with up in the woods. Its never been that bad since, but I had to go to find out what i needed to address. In fact 2014 Will be my 12th consecutive year going strong....Glad to see the bad luck didnt scare ya away from what could be a fun annual trip.