Hi Keystone crew - I'm visiting the area from NC in early May. Can any of you locals recommend a place I can wheel with my rig? I'm not towing it so it needs to be somewhat tame.... thx!
Where to wheel near West Chester, PA?
- Thread starter kiichiro
- Start date
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Two main possibilities: Rausch Creek Offroad Park and Anthracite Offroad Adventure Area. You'll need someone to go with. Both have trails ranging from green to red in difficulty. Each one is visited a half dozen times a year by the club.
Do you have sliders? They can be useful.
Tell us more about your rig and your experience.
Do you have sliders? They can be useful.
Tell us more about your rig and your experience.
- Thread starter
- #3
Thanks! On the "lower experience" side of the spectrum - not a seasoned vet but learning. Have been on half a dozen trips and took a 2 day training course with Overland Experts (but I'm finding there is no substitute for "on the job training"). Only one wheeling trip has involved significant scraping. Have '97 LX450 with Delta Vehicle Systems front bumper and Comeup winch. Have good recovery equipment but novice user. No armor underneath but have white knuckle sliders. Stock rear bumper. 2-3" OME lift, 33" KO2s. Would like to avoid meaningful risk of body damage.
- Thread starter
- #5
Got it - thx!
Sliders, a lift, and 33's... you can do a lot with this truck.
Maybe we need to do another green trails club run in May... Whatta ya say @jamarquardt22, @shmukster, @Pacer ?
I thought this too but I'm still mid build and not yet vaccinated so not attending.
I'd be up for it. Am vaccinated.
May 8 sounds great to me.
There's tons of trails at Famous Reading but it's not a park like RC and AOAA as you buy a yearly pass and there's numerous plots of land. You can go out by yourself(I don't advise it) and explore with nothing more than a map of the area and a GPS or app on your phone. There's also a few groups of Toyota guys that are mildly built overland type rigs that go there. It's about the same distance as the others from West chester and parts touch both RC and AOAA. I spend most of my time there now instead of the other parks.
I think @shmukster has a pass. How do the trails compare?
Maps are meh, enough to get around but a learning curve. I use a app on my phone along with a printed map to get where I want to go. Overall trail ratings are a bit different. Green is the same up to easy blue trails elsewhere, blue trail there is a easy black else, a black trail is a red anywhere else and a red is near impossible(seriously). Toss in I can drive faster in the open areas and there's a giant natural rock crawling course and we love it. It is a mixed park though with all kinds of ORV's there but there's some 4wd only and some single track only trails. There's a ton of green trails all over the areas we've been which is mostly Darkwater and St. Kierens. We're still exploring and I've had a pass for a few months.
I actually let me pass expire. I used it twice, went there alone and soon was frustrated. I don't care for TAV's and side by sides on the trail and there are tons of them at these facilities. I didn't get a good lay of the land and in all fairness I should really go back there with someone who knows their way around to give it fair chance. Two areas are only ten miles from my house, and when I come home from AAOA through Shamokin I pass several more access pints for their property. I'd love to hook up some weekend and see what it's like with someone who knows and likes the place.
I hate the guys going donuts and such in the parking area but they have been cracking down on that and have people there to check passes as well now. We don't really run into them once we are on the trails much, just hear them in the distance mostly.
How about letting me know when you're going again I'd like to tag along and learn a bit about the place.
Maprika does have a lot of maps for 4x4 trails:
The Yankee Toys Fall Gathering runs a lot of class VI roads in NH. Maprika let me "make my own map". I was to be a leader on day 2 and while I did have paper maps, having the maprika map on my phone made it easier than having to stop and look at paper maps.
AOAA, Rausch and Famous Reading all have maps for Maprica.
Makes exploring a little easier and saving a run for future use. Your "tracks" can be exported and shared.
Of course the old non techie types will not like it
The Yankee Toys Fall Gathering runs a lot of class VI roads in NH. Maprika let me "make my own map". I was to be a leader on day 2 and while I did have paper maps, having the maprika map on my phone made it easier than having to stop and look at paper maps.
AOAA, Rausch and Famous Reading all have maps for Maprica.
Makes exploring a little easier and saving a run for future use. Your "tracks" can be exported and shared.
Of course the old non techie types will not like it
