Maryland Trailriders?

[SpottedMarley]

Hi

Anybody live in or around central Maryland who wants to trail ride or knows some good places to go?

Just moved here and don't know all the local spots yet.

thanks

jay

[MoonBeamer]

Where in Maryland are you??? What do you ride and what type of riding do you like???

There are a few public forest trail systems out in western maryland and one just east of cumberland. Other than that not mutch to ride on in Maryland. Your best bet is PA and WV, VA.

[SpottedMarley]

Hey P,

I'm in Parkville, which is N of Baltimore (near towson). I ride a klx300r. I've visited the Maryland State Parks web site and read about a few places out in western MD and up NW near Cumberland. I don't mind driving but I was really hoping for somethign closer. I guess this state really sucks for this sport.

I'm going to try ridng up in Allegheny Nat. Forest once it reopens after memorial day this year.

Do you live in MD? If so, where and what kind of riding do you do? I need some friends to ride with too!

Thanks for your help,

Jay

[MoonBeamer]

I have been to Allegheny and its pretty nice. A long road trip though. Check out this web site:

http://www.enduro.4t.com/riding.htm

It has a list of area riding locations.

http://www.towercitytrailriders.org/

The above link is where I do alot of my normal riding. I do trips down to Hatfield McCoy trail system about twice a year. That is almost 400 miles away though.

Oh I live near Frederick, MD and ride a suzuki DRZ400. I don't get alot of weekends off due to working shift work so I have to make the most of them when they come. Look into joining one of the local riding clubs. But beware that most have waiting lists, but the good thing is this time of year is when they normaly open up the membership for people on the waiting list.

What is your riding ability? Did you just start? or have you been riding for awhile and such, What type of riding do you like? I can give you a rundown of most of the normal legal riding areas around the area (thats about a 300 mile radious) But check out that first link for a good run down of ride spots.

[Darryl721]

I'm in Howard County. There is nothing legal in central MD. There are a couple of good places in MD (Landings and the ATV park). Beyond that, you'll be going out of state to ride.

My riding buddies and I do both motocross tracks and trails. None of us race, we ride for fun.

Let me know if you want to hook up some time to go riding - we'll be going before soon.

Darryl

[obnoxiousEd]

I pm'd you, welcome to the area. ?

[SpottedMarley]

P, thanks for the links,

I'll be riding a 1999 KLX300r after it arrives on Friday. I grew up trail riding but haven't ridden offroad since I was about 18, I'm 27 now. Needless to say, I'm half anxious and excited and half scared sh**less! hehe. I'm pretty sure my confidence will return quickly though.

Fredrick is probably a pretty good place to be. Me and my girlfriend occasionally care for horses up there right at the foothills in north frederick. If you take the main road (Rosemont?) all the way up it will take you into the mountains and eventually will become what I would estimate to be about 10-15miles worth of dirt roads. This is one of the first relatively close areas I've been contemplating heading toward if nothin else pans out.

I would be interested in riding with you sometime if you are ever looking for some company and don't mind a slow 300r tagging behind you ?

Anytime is good for me!

thanks,

jay

ps. as far as riding style. anything goes. i can roll on a relaxing cruise (more probable at first) and i can tare the trails up too. im not picky

[MoonBeamer]

Hey SpottedMarley, I am going up into PA at Tower City to ride this weekend. If you want you can come along. Its $30 I think for visitors to ride. THere are many miles of trails to ride on. I am gona head up either Friday afternoon or early saturday. (depending on how I feel and the weather and such) I am going to stay until Sunday afternoon.

If you want you can come along ride for a day or stay the night. It will be me on my DRZ and my girlfriends Boy riding his TTR-125. I also may bring my 400ex quad.

[av]

Hey Pat,

How was your ride this past weekend?

We're from Bethesda Md., Towercity looks like a neat place for trail riding - some questions for you:

1) How large is that place acreage wise & how long/many trails are there?

2) How long is the hike from Frederick for you to get there?

3) Are there any lodges near there that we can rent or only camping (we don't have camping equipment)?

4) Do we need a member in order to ride for $30/day? If we do need a member to ride there, can we hang with you one of these weekends? :D

I ride a WR250F and me lady rides a TTR-125L. I'm a pretty decent rider and she's a newbie. We've been looking for some place with lots of trails that wouldn't be too hard for newbies, let us know what you think - will a newbie do OK at Towercity? I see that your girlfriend rides an ATV and her boy rides a TTR-125, that's pretty cool we don't know of any lady riders around here... ?

Thanks.

[MoonBeamer]

The ride this weekend was great. We were kind bummed at first cuz the weatherman said rain all day saturday. But it only did a few drops and nothing els the whole time.

We rode 60 miles worth of trails on Saturday and 35 Miles on Sunday. Lots of single track.

To answer your questions:..

1. As far as size goes. Its hard to estimate.. I know that the club got 5000 acers of there land taken away last year and they still have atleast that mutch if not twice as mutch. Its hard to give a milage on the total trails cuz the are not all marked. Lets just say you can ride all day long and really not ride on the same trail twice. THe second day you will probably ride on some though.

2. For me it takes about 1 1/2 hours to as mutch as 2 1/2 hours. This depends on traffice around Harrisburg. If you leave on a friday afternoon durring the summer you will hit alot of weekend traffic. But if you go on an off day or at the right time it will not be bad.

3. There are some places to stay such as motels off of I-81. You would have to do some type of search for them I guess. I havent heard of anyone with any type of Lodge or B&B that is close by. If you stay at a hotel on I-81 someplace then it will be about a 5 to as mutch as 20 mile trip to the trail head (this depends on where you get a room). And I woldn't expect many hotels to be booked.

4. I do beleive that they require a member to be present with you when you ride now. They have had to many incedents with visitors breaking the rules (riding on the road, doing burn outs or doughnuts on the roads, and general houlanizim). This gives the club a bad name with the locals and such so they want a member to be with them and take responsibility for there guests.

I don't mind the company but I have a limited number of weekends off so I don't go up all the time. If you go to there web site and post a message on there message board there is usualy someone who will show you around. But the next time I go up I will let everone know and give them the invite. I have an RV and spare camping equipment so that you could stay at my camping spot and such. Nothing like bench racing around the camp fire after a long day riding.

?

[av]

Pat,

Thanks for all of the info and the invite. Next time you head up there, please keep me in mind - I would love to ride Pa! ?

Thanks again - Alan

[SpottedMarley]

Hell yeah, don't forget me either!

Hey, Pat, I was actually thinking I might try riding up in the mountains in Frederick this weekend. I know of some dirt roads up near the big reservoire in the mountains because me and my girlfriend used to take care of some horses up there. I think the exit is Rosemont and you follow that all the way up into the mountains. Do you know this place? I'm tryin to remember, but it seemed like an okay place to pull off and unload my bike to scoot around up in the mountains for half a day.

I'm down for whenever you want to introduce me to the Tower City.. and camping is another thing i truly dig. ?

jFUNK

[MoonBeamer]

Well you are talking about the Frederick City Watershed. There are quite a bit of dirt roads up there. And a few trails that I found. But I wouldn't want to try riding there without a plated bike. There is a ranger station up there (although the dirt roads are not in their area). But there are some houses around and I see people parked up there alot (off hiking hunting or fishing) Anyway, I am working this weekend so I won't be able to ride. And I go on vacation in Mid May. So I won't be around for awhile.

[Johnnycoop]

Hi

I live in the Fallston/Kingsville area which isn't far from Parkville. If you ever need anyone to ride with I would be willing. Most of my friends don't ride so I could use some people to go with . If your interesed contact me.

Thanks

John

[OldDualSporter]

Hi guys,

Decided to jump in after lurking long enough.

Another central MD dual-sporter, continually looking for that little dirt trail that nobody notices, and going in to see where it goes. Not many in this area, though.

I think I'm going to have to buy a trailer and go to these places you guys have mentioned, like Green Ridge, or Tower City, or north of Fredreick maybe. I need a dirt "fix" every so often. Like someone mentioned here already, playing around on MX tracks (NOT racing anymore) is almost as much fun as trail-riding. Bet it's less muddy, too!

When I have my trailer and ready to explore some of these places, I'll post here to see if anybody would put up with a "tag-a-long" to see these various riding spots.

Art

[SpottedMarley]

a bunch of us will be going up to a new park called Blue Diamond in New Castle, Delaware (less than an hour drive from parkville) on Friday and then on Saturday either going back again or going to another place in Easton, MD called The Landing MX, and then I'm gonna try and race at Happy Ramblers on Sunday. Blue Diamond has an MX track AND 30+ acres of free trail riding area. I have a ton of great trails right here by my work in Cockeysville too so if you ever want to check 'em out, let me know.

[OldDualSporter]

SpottedMarley,

see your PM.

Art

[erik]

Wow its good to see some riders in MD. I live in san diego and ride every thing from open desert to mountians to sand dunes. It looks like there will be a move in my future to baltimore. Im really scared that it will put an end to my love affair with dirt bikes. Coming from the epicenter of off road I know it will be a tough move. However I look foward to meeting some new riding buddies and know some TTrs would show me around. Thanks erik

[Darryl721]

SpottedMarley and I ride together a lot. We know a number of places within 2 hours of Baltimore. The biggest issue is there are next to no legit places to ride in Maryland. But, we get by, and we do have some nice tracks around here.

Anyway, let us know when you head east, we'll hook up and take you to some of the better places.

BTW, one of the guys we ride with is originally from Cali, and actual enjoys the riding around here.

Darryl

[OldDualSporter]

SpottedMarley and I ride together a lot. We know a number of places within 2 hours of Baltimore. The biggest issue is there are next to no legit places to ride in Maryland. But, we get by, and we do have some nice tracks around here.

Anyway, let us know when you head east, we'll hook up and take you to some of the better places.

BTW, one of the guys we ride with is originally from Cali, and actual enjoys the riding around here.

Darryl

Hey Darryl, did it take the CA guy very long to get used to the local MUD? They got sand -- we got mud.