xxxtreme22r

Been over a year and no talk on wheelin in pa.

cheap4r

Its tough. PA is a pain to wheel in because of private land. and the public land is either controlled (pay 100 bucks per year to ride on 50 acres), restricted ATV/Dirtbike or Snowmobile (all year long) BUT... there are some places i have seen/wheeled.

SE PA...

its not not PA but it is a HECK of alot closer then any other legal wheeling spots.... the spot is called the NJ PINE BARRONS! Reasons? No 1. Its legal! No. 2. Its Close! No. 3. Its FREE!!! This is an exerpt from the website www.pineypower.com

"This vast region is 45 percent, or about 493,000 acres, publicly owned. There are numerous State parks and forests here, including Brendan T. Byrne, (formerly Lebanon), Wharton, Bass River, Belleplain, Island Beach and Colliers Mills. There are also many county and municipal parks throughout the area."

There is spots no more then 45 min drive over the bridges from Philly in Winslow, Atco or the trails out of Batsto NJ... mostly flat land, fire trails, sugar sand, Huge puddles (2+ ft deep lakes really) and bottomless mud . either way it could be a really cool weekend campout in state land either way.

N central PA.

I was on an extended weekend/tour of PA route 6 and came across a really sweet road called Rt 44 this ran for about 50 miles south. all along this road was open trails that were marked... No ATV, No Dirtbike, No Snowmobile and the speed limit was 25 mph. Im not sure if it has to be hunting season to go on this land but it did look like a sweet trail ride for us deprived PA/NJ yoters, oh... and the alt. was 3000 ft and the vallys are 200 ft above sea level, so the trails are most likely very rural to say the least.

HazMat

Not sure how i missed this post a month ago. Yeah PA pretty much stinks for wheeling. Ive made a few trips up to Rausch Creek Offroad Park and met up with some fellow yotatechers. We had a great time. I recently heard about the pine barrons in NJ. I think a Springtime camping weekend would be sweet. Maybe we can get that set up in the near future. I've also made the trip down to the Greenridge State Forest in central Maryland. All in all a nice place to camp with a 9 mile (i think?) loop that is open to trucks. Another place is the Bald Eagle state forest in Central PA. I've been camping there and taken a few trails as well. All of these places are nice to visit but if you really want to go for some extreme offroading...Rausch Creek is by far the best place to go wheeling. Tho others are more mild trails with camping amenities close by.

xxxtreme22r

Rausch Creek is where I was originally going when I blew my motor up a while back. Still looking forward to going out there. We used to have a popular park in Hazleton, but the government treated them like Indians and threw them off their land for a cargo plane airport. I believe they have since moved to Virginia. The place was called Paragon Park.

MaK92-4RnR

I was gonna say, just go to rausches creek. I've only been to PA a few times so my knowledge is limited. I only know about rausches... heh

HazMat

Yeah I never had the pleasure of making it to paragon before it was closed. Too bad.

4banginRunner

Pa wheeler here

cheap4r

I toatly spaced about ROUCH... mehh sorry!

as for the Pines I typically take day trips from 6am and ride until dusk. some of the trail systems you could ride for 10 hours (still on legal state land) and never even touch pavement and only see a handful of fellow 4Xr's. it is quite rural back there... camping is cheap to... state camping areas you can camp for as little as $2 per person per night (2 night min.)

both myself and my Co-pilot (actually a licensed commercial pilot- ha! go figure) will just print out 50 pages of Google Earth Sat maps, bring food and water for 2 days, compass, CB, cell phone, fluids, and tools. We then point the truck down a trail we have never seen and see where it takes us navigating via Sat maps. On a couple rides we have come out within 2 miles of where we started and on others... well... we have driven from the outskirts of Jackson/Lakehurst NJ (south of the base) to Tuckerton NJ. That is a 40+mile trail

The other cool part is 95% of what you will come across in the pines can be driven with a stock truck with upgraded A/T or M/T tires, 4% of the hard stuff have "drive-arounds" and 1% you need to turn back... I have had the current truck, a stock 99 4runner, 2 stock xj's, and a quite tall 78 K5 blazer in there... and the stock xj's and 4runners worked best. Does this mean you cant get into trouble HELL NO!. If you are a wacko and swan dive your truck into an unknown puddle or mud hole chances are it is not coming out under its own power because the waterline will be near your seat headrests, but if you tread lightly it can be an enjoyable rural tour of the vast pines with some offroading mixed in.

I'm down for any GTG down there. If you are interested in some more info of the area also check out Jersey Devil 4x4 http://www.the-jersey-devil.com They are a jeep community but i have checked out their site a couple times for trail reports and they are very active down in the pines. (keep an open mind about the carnage in the photo area.... they are actively looking for the 5% of the trails that are hard ;P )

92 TOY

OK, I'll check in.

No real "wheelin'" in years. Around here, land is all private, even though I live out in the boonies, nothing really good here.

Lots of years ago did some heavy-duty 4-wheeling to do a recovery when I was with EMS / Rescue......5 unfortunate souls perished when they drove across a partially frozen pond and drowned. That was the hardest I ever beat my truck......we started off with several trucks and 1 by 1 they had to bow-out,.....but mine made it all the way.

probably miles and miles of trails around where I used to live on abandoned mine property. But of course, these are all NO TRESPASSING areas and by the way that's where the tragedy happened.

Anyway, Rausch Crek sounds cool to me someday if I ever get my truck running again, but honestly I would be interested in the bunny-slope kind of trails. Not interested in killing my truck.....don't have the extra $$$$ to be fixing it after breaking stuff goofing off.

xxxtreme22r

Was wondering when you were gonna chime in here hehe.

Remember I went on a wheeling trip and only made it about half way there on the highway before I broke. Woulda made it further but damn PA road construction on 81 slowed me down. lol

92 TOY

LUMPY is out around Pitsburgh...I know he said he has relatives in Central Pa.....that would be cool if a bunch of us could get together in the summer sometime.

I'd like to here more about the Route 6 tour. I know a few years ago the Governor was promoting it as well.

HazMat

very interested in a pine barrons run after it warms up a bit. Thanks for the info cheap4r

cheap4r

One of the best tours i have done! I did hear of it a couple years ago from the Gov. but never had the chance until last year it was a 5 day 1200 mile stroll in the back country of C PA during the Fall leaf color change. PA Route 6 runs from the Del. Water Gap to erie PA (actually it is the oldest cross country Route... runs from NJ to CA if you drive it all the way across) Unfortunatlly the 4Runner's trans went out and i took my VW Passat so no cool truck picks... hehe... just a peaceful, beautiful camp/drive.

cheap4r

Hey no prob HazMat. I grew up in the Central NJ area as a kid and learned to offroad on those trails! haha

92 TOY

bump(y) for LUMPY

Lumpy

Hey there guys!!! Thanks to 92's help I found this thread...

I have some fam in Lewisburg, heading there this weekend actually, me gram isn't doin so well. I don't think it's going to be a fun trip. I think my aunt used to live around Mechanicsburg years back.

After I get the 4Runner going again I think we'd be up for a road trip out that way. Not sure where Rouch is but I know where Bald Eagle is. When I was little my grandfather and I would take the mountain roads in the winter till you couldn't go any further and then go a bit more. Get stuck, dig out, go a different way.

Out here we have a few parks...Beaverun is a blast but you gotta $$$ I think it's like $50. for a truck and 2 folks for all day...They have weekend runs and the rates are different. Bunch of pictures here http://www.beaverun.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=11
Nice thing about this place is that its guided and you have spotters 3 trail levels.

Another place I was at was Hillsville that was a blast for a while till I found a puddle...

I think we do need to get a PA run together though.

.

92 TOY

Checked the prices at Rausch Creek....HOLY COW! But as per the post from LUMPY looks to be about the going rate.

Lumpy

I think if you do the weekend and camp at BeaveRun it'll run 2 people about 80 or so. I have not done the 2 day events, too much going on and I don't have a need to camp. They're about 8 miles from me.

Lumpy

Wilkes-Barre Isn't that where they brew Lions Head???

xxxtreme22r

Yuppers right down the road from me pretty much hehe. I'l bring some if we ever get a meet going.