Question about Hattfield & McCoys. I've never been there.

I've read about all the stuff they make you wear when riding a 4 wheeler. Long Pants, Boots, Gloves, Eye Protection, Brain Bucket etc. Does all that apply when riding in a side by side? In the summer time (hot weather) I'm pretty much a shorts and sandals and tee shirt bum.

Woodtick wrote:

I've read about all the stuff they make you wear when riding a 4 wheeler. Long Pants, Boots, Gloves, Eye Protection, Brain Bucket etc. Does all that apply when riding in a side by side? In the summer time (hot weather) I'm pretty much a shorts and sandals and tee shirt bum.

As long as you have on a helmet you will be fine.

make sure you have goggles too, because if you dont have them on it is a $100 dollar fine. take it from someone that found out the hardway.

dixiecop28 wrote:

make sure you have goggles too, because if you dont have them on it is a $100 dollar fine. take it from someone that found out the hardway.

The more I hear about the H/M trails the less I want to ride them.

dixiecop28 wrote:

make sure you have goggles too, because if you dont have them on it is a $100 dollar fine. take it from someone that found out the hardway.

Dang that Sux....

if you want to hear a good story about the rangers at hatfield let me know and i will PM ya the story. or if a mod says its ok to post here i will but my story had been pulled off another site that i posted it because of people at the hatfield trails pressuring them to pull it down. just dont want to get anyone on the site in trouble.

dixiecop28 wrote:

if you want to hear a good story about the rangers at hatfield let me know and i will PM ya the story. or if a mod says its ok to post here i will but my story had been pulled off another site that i posted it because of people at the hatfield trails pressuring them to pull it down. just dont want to get anyone on the site in trouble.

PM me the story. I will look it over. I like for our members to know the truth about anything and everything.

sounds good i will. its a long story so it will take me some time to type lol.

dixiecop28 wrote:

sounds good i will. its a long story so it will take me some time to type lol.

OK

It really boils down to lawsuits. Hard to avoid getting sued if you don't enforce good habits on the trails. I personally would have an issue going anywhere I could not have a couple of beers, but I guess some folks have no control and alcohol can lead to lots of issues. I would say H/M would not be high on my list of places to go, although I do think it brings in a lot of revenue to an impoverished part of the state. I have ridden in Lincoln and Logan Counties........awesome riding for sure. There are so many areas to ride for free in WV, I would most likely exhaust those resources before I go down there and pay to ride and worry about getting a fine for having a cold one. Most of the folks I talk to on other forums are starting to divert to Wagon Wheel and Evarts because they say the regs at H/M are just ridiculous. I guess it is all in what you want to get out of the experience. When I come to WV in April for leave, I will most likely ride Wagon Wheel again.

I read sxs's are only allowed on the main roads, is that true?

GunRunner wrote:

I read sxs's are only allowed on the main roads, is that true?

Not true they do have some trails marked no UTVS.I rode my full size Ranger all over the Indian Ridge trails before they became H/M trails. Some of the trails they have marked on the Ashland & Pineville system that are marked no UTVS should not be marked that way IMO because they are not difficult.

More trails are now open to SxS than originally. I like riding there, but it is getting pricy.

I just thought that since they were in the same gen area that "Wagon Wheel" and H&M were one and the same. H&M has a lot of different names for different areas. I thought that Wagon Wheel was one of those areas. Do you guys think they'd give a guy a fine for not wearing goggles if he had a windshield on his buggy? Or wearing shorts in the summer time inside a Rhino with full floor boards and doors? I'm beginning to think like many of you guys that this might be a good place for me to stay away from? I too understand that they have to have Rules but there needs to be some common sense injected into things also! Thoughts?

The Wagon Wheel area is not part of the H/M trails and there are no rules or fees to ride but the trails are not marked or mapped and you can ride 24/7.

Id say if its being policed by rangers its part of the state owned and operated land. Ga will do the same thing, they just dont have as many rules.

Only the H/M trails are being policed by Rangers but I have never ran up one.

Last Chance Rhino wrote:

More trails are now open to SxS than originally. I like riding there, but it is getting pricy.

Yes, they are opening up most of the Blue trails now for UTV's.

I wear shorts in the summer but I always wear a helmet and eye protection no matter where I ride so its never been an issue for me. I ride the HM trails as well as the outlaw trails

The HM trails in lower WV (Indian Ridge, Pinnacle Creek) are very liberal on enforcement. I've only seen a Ranger once and he was very nice. It's a good trail system...

I was with Roamerr when I saw the one and only Ranger I have ever seen. It was on the P-Creek system and he was shutting down a connector trail. He didn't check anyone for anything and told us when we come back to just go under the barricade he was putting up.

Sounds like a reasonable man.

Okay I am going to post the story from dixiecop28.

Now there are bad apples in every bunch. I am sure we can hear good stories about the rangers there also. Please feel free to post those up also.

The Story:

dont know if you have been to hatfield before but there is a big play area on the way to the gilbert trail head on the Rockhouse trails. they made the play area illegal to go to because people had been hurt on the hill climb and there was a big mud puddle area there as well too. if you are on the trail heading to gilbert the play area would be on your left. well on the right there was a little over look down a side trail about 40 yards. there were a couple do not enter signs back further but the trail we went down did not have a sign. well 3 of us went down the trail while one guy stayed up top. there was a ranger sitting on top of the hill climb that saw us go down there. while he was taking a trail to get down to where we were three more guys show up and then take off towards gilbert. when there ranger gets there he asks where did them three guys go. my buddy thoght he was talking about the guys that just took off towards gilbert and he told him they headed towards gilbert. the ranger said and i quote " your a (edit [f-bomb-ing] edit) lier, i saw them go down that trail" talking about the one we went down. by that time we were coming back up the trail to where our buddy was. the ranger came over and took the keys out of all of our fourwheelers. he said that was a illeagl trail we went down. I said where we went down it was not marked so we thought it was ok. and he told us "you knew it was illeagal dont give me that crap". he then proceded to give the three of us that went down the trail $100 fines each. but since our one buddy did not go down the trail he was ok and did not get a ticket. the ticket they gave us had to be paid within 5 days. well we were on our 1st day there so we would not of had time to go home and mail the ticket in so he followed us to the atm machine in town and we paid the fine. on the way back to the cabin we saw he had stopped another guy on the trails for riding without goggles on. he had a helmet but no goggles. that guy got a $100 fine. We are not a group that rides off trail but we really did not think we did anything wrong and we applogized if we did. but the way we were treated by that ranger left a real bad taste in our mouth and it will be a long time before we head there again. I know it is a long story and probablly a little hard to follow. but if you have any other questions let me know. Oh and the reason the Hatfield people pressured the other site was because of what the ranger said to us. At first they took that section out of my story which made the story not sound right. I then just deleted it and told the people nevermind. I did not want to start anything but just thought other people should be aware of how some one of the rangers was. I am a cop and i have bad days, but i dont treat people like that when they treat me with respect.

I'm not going to make comment in this subject other than to say that he wouldn't have gotten my key!

I have a friend that retired from the West Virginia DNR law enforcement div. I spent a lot of time in his patrol car while he was a game warden and saw him hand out more than a few tickets. He never acted like that with anyone I ever saw. You can enforce the law to the letter of the law without being a pri*k about it. The only guy I ever saw him really give a hard time was an off duty deputy from Kanawha County that had come up to hunt with family in the Wood / Ritchie County area. They were stoped at a road check in the public hunting area and the deputy's rifle had a loaded magazine in it with a round in the chamber also. He told the guy that as a fellow L E O he KNEW he was doing wrong and more than KNEW what the law was and his badge didn't give him the right to road hunt with a loaded rifle. He KNEW the law and CHOSE to break it anyway. He burned him with everything he could find wrong. Some guys get a little juice and it goes to their heads and they think they have the right to push folks around like the guy at H / M did. That just isn't right. Sad but true.