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AOAA for a couple of days

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Twist
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AOAA for a couple of days

Post by Twist »

A friend is headed up to AOAA tomorrow with his 10 year old for a couple of days of riding there. I'm going up to meet up with them and having never been there, I'm wondering what the DAMN collective has to say about the place? Tips on where to ride, where to avoid? We'll figure it out when we get there but thought maybe if I post up here I'd get a few tips about the place.

My daughter is away at camp for a couple of weeks but after some riding around here at home, I think she's ready to hit some light/easy trails on her TT-R110 and I'm hoping this place is nice enough to bring her back later in the summer.

If you've been there, any favorite places to eat or stay in the area?

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Bike loaded and ready to roll and.... God Bless America! Hope everyone had a nice and relaxing 4th.

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Re: AOAA for a couple of days

Post by Laoch »

Bruce
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Re: AOAA for a couple of days

Post by Bucho »

I have never personally been there.

However, I did watch a youtube video of a dad and his two kids there riding. The smaller kid was on a CRF70. I think they might have been on an easier loop trail. But there are definitely easy trail/dirt road stuff there that would be good for beginners/kids.
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Re: AOAA for a couple of days

Post by Twist »

Thanks Bruce for that link. Though it was a few years ago, it gives me some idea of what to expect. I'm hoping that being there on a Tuesday/Wednesday after a holiday weekend will lessen that chance that it'll be overrun with quads and such and that there won't be much of a crowd. I'll be happy to post up my impressions, photos, and maybe some video when I get back home later this week.

The main thing we're looking for is a relatively easy place to ride with the kids. This place is 3+ hours from home so we've made it a two day trip and we'll see if it's worth the drive up here.

Bucho I'll go looking for some YouTubes.

Thanks again guys.
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Re: AOAA for a couple of days

Post by Bucho »

Twist wrote: Tue Jul 09, 2019 12:02 am

Bucho I'll go looking for some YouTubes.

Thanks again guys.
Sorry having trouble posting a link. But on youtube search “zach and carter adventures”, what the dad calls their youtube channel.
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Re: AOAA for a couple of days

Post by Twist »

Bucho wrote: Tue Jul 09, 2019 12:14 am
Twist wrote: Tue Jul 09, 2019 12:02 am

Bucho I'll go looking for some YouTubes.

Thanks again guys.
Sorry having trouble posting a link. But on youtube search “zach and carter adventures”, what the dad calls their youtube channel.
I found that last night and went looking for some of those places today. Found a couple. Thanks for the reference.

Rocks. Just what you'd expect from a place that caters to the ATV/quad/jeep crowd. But even so, we found most of the trails we rode where fun without being an ass-busting session, mainly because we avoided the rock crawl areas. Even so, a lot of the trails were rock gardens with a lot of large loose stone. I spent about 45 minutes on each of the East and West sides of the place before my friend and his 10 year old arrived. We spent the next 3+ hours exploring the West side of the 6,500 acres they have here. We rode pretty deep into the trails and felt like we'd only just scratched the surface of this place.

When I arrived at about 10a, I was the first person there to unload and when we stopped for a water break around 2:30p there was maybe a half-dozen trucks/trailers in the parking lot and we didn't see but a couple of quads all day.

It had poured on this place for the two days prior and the puddles were huge and, according to the nice lady at the office, deep enough to swallow a quad. But they all had reasonable ways around them and actually, a few of those were some of the more technical riding we did all day with lots of roots and ruts and big steep steps. But even though the place had been hit with a lot of rain, the trails were all fine and dry because...did I mention there were a lot of rocks? And I guess it all drains into those muddy abysses.

I'll try to post up more photos when I return later this week - this one of my buddy and his son at a vista:
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You can also load up their entire trail maps in a GPS app called Maprika. At any point in the ride in this vast trail system, we could open the app and see exactly where we were on the trails and plot a strategy to get where we wanted to go next. Load the app on your phone and then you can select nearby maps or by name. Worked like a champ.
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Re: AOAA for a couple of days

Post by Bucho »

Thanks for the report Twist.

Did you find any signs or anything for single track or "dirtbike only" trails?

I'd go to check it out. Its always fun to go someplace new.
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Re: AOAA for a couple of days

Post by Boom Boom »

Love the picture.....we need much more of this and far less time being glued to a phone.
One of the modern trials clubs has talked about moving their event to AOAA so I assume they must have some good rock gardens.
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Re: AOAA for a couple of days

Post by Skinny-J »

Bucho wrote: Tue Jul 09, 2019 8:44 pm Thanks for the report Twist.

Did you find any signs or anything for single track or "dirtbike only" trails?

I'd go to check it out. Its always fun to go someplace new.
I rode there a couple years ago and we could not find any single track. Hopefully that has changed and the report comes back positive.
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Re: AOAA for a couple of days

Post by Bucho »

Skinny-J wrote: Wed Jul 10, 2019 12:15 pm
I rode there a couple years ago and we could not find any single track. Hopefully that has changed and the report comes back positive.
Yeah, I remember your ride report. I remember being disappointed at the time.
Its been a few years. I'd go just to check it out. Maybe its like Mt Ridge. I don't know how many times I went there before I realized they actually had single track.
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