Iron Range OHV Park

Hello Everyone

I live down in the cities but lived in Duluth for 10 years.

We are planning a trip up to the Iron Range OHV Recreation Area

Any reviews, tips or advice is much appreciated.

I haven't been there in a few years but I can add my 2 cents anyways.

What are you riding, ATV's, Bikes, or 4WD (truck/jeep type thing)?

We were able to cover the entire park in about a half a days riding on our ATV's. I just found it to be too small (keep in mind things may have changed since I was there). There were some impressive things. There are some very scary single tracks up some incredibly steep climbs. There is a very challenging 4-wheeler hill climb area, it was even pretty damn scary on my ATV and I could have bailed if need be.
There is a rock crawler area for trucks, and an easy class mx style practice course (great for kids or beginners). There are some nice views and some fun hills to climb. On the down side is the red dirt, it will leach it's way out of your machine everytime it gets wet in the future, and your clothing will never be the same.

Have fun, update us on your thoughts after you give it a try.

Sh*t I just wrote a book and lost it all

We had a blast in fact we are heading back up the first weekend of October. I ride a YZ 125 and he rides a Honda CR250. We got there late on Friday because we stopped in Duluth to see some friends. Anyone notice the black MNSBR stickered trailer in town? That was us. When we got there we checked in to see what to expect and get our sound check. We unloaded the bikes and the attendant held the dB reader 20 inches off to the side of the pipe and revved the bike a little and put stickers on the bikes. I saw the meter about the 90 dB so I am not sure what is within range when he is revving it. But we passed.

We headed to the Sherwood forest Campground to get set up before dark. We unpacked and unloaded then took a test ride over to the park entrance. The campground has direct access to the OHV park which is extremely nice. I think the sign said it was 1.4 miles. It didnt seem very far.

Saturday morning we had no clue where we were going so we putted around a little stopping to look at the big signs and our map that we printed out and laminated. We were over by the 4x4 area and took some serious uphills and down. It was really fun. Then we got to a straight away and opened it up a little well I took a bad hop and lost it went sliding with the bike on me. I hit pretty hard and when I could get up my forearm was bleeding and my throttle tube was cracked, grip chewed up and bars folded down. We carry a fanny pack of tools so we did our best and limped them out and back. When we rode in we saw an ambulance parked in an open area. I thought they were on stand by so I had them look at me the started to clean it up and gave us some saline and a bandage. They were there for an ATV rider that flipped over on the rider. When we got back to camp he realized how deep the gash was and all the rocks and dirt that I collected. So we went to Virginia ER. Luckily I knew where it was from working in Virginia for a year. They scrubbed me up and back to camp we went.

We had dinner and started packing and I was feeling better so we decided to camp the night I see how I felt in the morning. The next morning We took a trip to the park and played it easy sticking the the relatively wide flat core trails and then we hit the MX track. The "sand" was fine iron powder. It had some surprises in it some serious hills and sharp turns. That wasnt my thing.

I ended up fouling a plug because well I really didnt want to fall again.
So we limped it back and it was nearing check out at the campground so we loaded up and trailed to bikes to the park changed the plug, gave another rider we met in the parking lot that we knew from the cities and he took on us some pretty wicked single track stuff.

Then I was exhausted. A guy from his group had submerged his bike in a "Puddle" that was almost up to his exhausted and just buried it in the muck at the bottom. So I went back they went to help his get the bike unstuck, dried out and restarted with some tools.

i relaxed in the parking lot. There was a bike wash, however there was not much water pressure, so we ended up taking home red bikes. I mean there was red every where. Someone told us to spray everything down with WD 40 which I think really helped out when we got home and had real pressure but they needed to be scrubbed. The YZ is blue again!

Lessons learned dont take anything that you care what it looks likes or the color it will end up. It is all Iron Range Orange. Even back at camp touching anything transfers it. Be liberal with the WD-40. Drink lots it was hot when we went, We will see the temp in Oct. We really enjoyed ourselves even though we ended up needing a little medical assistance. I cant believe that people go out there with absolutely no gear... eye protection is not sunglasses- we saw shirtless ATVers in open shoes, with Sunglasses They were a really weird color when they got back. There are a lot of OHM trails we didnt even find half of them. I think we were on some 4x4 trails by accident.

later
Ecogirl