Riding UTVs at Brimstone Recreation and Windrock Park
By Michelle Hill,
Rally on the Rocks
Huntsville, Tennessee is a small town with a population of a little
over 1000 people. Now, in a town with such a small population, some
people might wonder why anyone would want to visit without having family
there. I wondered the same thing when two years ago, Bill “Porkchop”
Chapple from J-Strong Industries invited Kyle and I to come over and
ride. It took that long for us to finally make it out there. In that
tiny town, there lies a little piece of paradise called Brimstone
Recreation. This area is 20,000± acres with over 70 trails covering over
300 miles. And they continue to build more trails every year.
When I think of Tennessee and riding back east in general, I think of
mud and lots of it. Now I know it’s not all like that but stereotypes
are hard to get away from. So, imagine my surprise when we get there and
see beautiful rolling hills, trees and lots of rock, which, of course,
is my personal favorite.
We scheduled our trip to coincide with Big Mike and Flash Gordon’s
Tour for a Cure to benefit Cody Johnson’s Race to Cure Blindness
fundraiser. They are visiting a few different states and meeting up
with forum members who can pledge money to the cause. Check them out on
RZRforums.net, you can keep up with their progress.
We flew in a day too late to ride Brimstone with Big Mike and Flash
Gordon and since we didn’t want to miss out on Brimstone we rode one day
there and were going to meet at Windrock on Sunday to ride with them.
While at Brimstone we joined five other vehicles and were shown some
great trails by some locals and the owner himself, Mark Love. We were
treated to mud, narrow trails, hills, numerous water crossings and of
course, good ol’ southern hospitality. We traveled on trails 1, 103,
104, 105, 3, 86, 87, 95, and 89; By mid afternoon, as soon as we got to
the good rock stuff (89), we broke an axle on Porkchop’s Rhino. We were
able to limp it back to the Brimstone office remove some of the mud and
change the axle, but by the time it was fixed we were starving and
decided to call it a day. Now, when I say mud I don’t mean just a little
caked on to the bottom of your vehicle, I’m talking major mud, caked on
the floor boards, the hood, the a-arm guards, in the bed, under the
seats and basically everywhere. In order to remove this caked on muck,
your best bet is to find the nearest pressure washer. The next day we
drove down to Windrock (about an hour away) in pouring down rain. We
came prepared for rain and figured we were going to get wet at some
point during this trip but as we drove through rain so heavy it looked
like buckets were being poured out onto the windshield we talked
ourselves out of it. Instead we met up with Big Mike and Flash Gordon
and enjoyed the scenery while staying dry.
The two riding areas we visited in Tennessee are definitely worth
visiting again. Check out
Brimstone Recreation and
Windrock Park online where you can find the specifics on both parks.
While I love Moab and the rocks, I am certainly open to new
experiences and Tennessee didn’t disappoint. The area is beautiful and
there is plenty of riding that can suit any type of rider. Next time, we
plan to make it back to the area sometime in the fall in order to see
the trees at their best.
You can join Kyle and Michelle Hill for the Rally on the Rocks,
May 12-15th, 2010 in Moab, UT at the Old Spanish Trail Arena.
For more information go to
www.rallyontherocks.com |
