ATV Florida Forum

looking for info on cool spots to check out in the forrest. swimming holes and cool things to see that are easy to get to by bikes. any cool points of interest, mud pits, hills, sand pits, any thing other than the whoops and flat trails?????please contact with any info or gps coordinate.

I was out at Big Scrub last week and the popular sand pit/sink hole a few miles down on the right off the powerlines had a sign "no motor vehicles".

i was out at big scrub all weekend and i saw the pit that was closed.also alot of trails had been closed recently. i

I had the oppurtunity to take a little cruise in my truck through ONF today on the way home from Gainesville. Mostly rode area from Big Scrub campground to the west. I know I'll get slammed for saying this but here goes. It's no wonder they are trying to shut down areas from atv traffic, I don't have enough fingers to count the places i saw that were clearly marked "NO ATV's" and fresh tire tracks going right around them. Also saw a number of "wetland" areas with fresh tracks. Now I too love to play in the mud but what we all gotta realize is that ONF is a "National Forest" not our private mudhole in our own backyards. Also saw numerous water bottles and other trash strewn around different areas. No we're not all guilty of this stuff but like the old saying goes, "Afew bad apples.....so on and so on. Also saw alot of numbered roads with tracks on them (I know it's hard sometimes to know if your even on a numbered road, depending on where you access it from). Try not to litter, try to stay on the right trails and raise he)) with anyone disregarding the rules and we may have a chance of keeping a great place to ride a little longer

Unfortunatly Duroc you are right. Everyone has a part on this and the way things are going in this country today and  especially in florida, we could loose that right to ride. Look at all the places you use to be able to drive your boat to on some rivers and springs and now you can't take motorized vessels and you can't even swim around these areas. So everything you said is the truth and people need to to respect that. If everyone that rode an atv that went to there favorite place to ride (and there are alot of you) just picked up 1 piece of trash it would look just that much better. And for all those tracks in the no riding areas, people need to respect the law cause you will suffer the consequence for these actions along with everyone else , and I personally would not like to either sell my bike or have to go out of state to ride when we have engough land here to ride on.
 
 

They have started the marked trail system in a great majority of the forest.  Up at Delancy, the system is almost complete, but honestly, quads and bikes are the least affected (at least in that area).  The trails are either going to be A) closed (very few actually were), B) Dirt bike only, C) ATV and Dirt bike, D) Multi-purpose, meaning hunters in trucks, us on ATVs and dirt bikes.  However, I did learn that if a trail wasn't marked, it's to be assumed as "closed", which is BS.  If they want to close a trail, it needs to be marked.  I'm going to be furious if I get ticketed for going down an obvious TRAIL that was unmarked.  I cannot see how they can mark EVERY trail in the forest.....there has to be a few thousand miles worth of trails out there!  The volunteer that I spoke with said that if this new trail system (alternative D by the way) does not work, then the forest will most likely be CLOSED for OHV use!!!  With all the morons out the on quads, we'll probably be very close to facing this.  The govt isn't going to hire new staff just to keep remarking trails and handing out tickets, so it'll end up falling apart in my opinion.  I can see the punk kid now plowing down the little plastic signs or pulling them out of the ground and tossing them. 

The environmentalist freaks have already won by restricting us to set of designated trails, but they'll ultimately win when this new plan fails to work and OHV use is ended in the forest.

Sorry for the rant....just bitter already about the closures.  The d**n environmentalists need to focus on stopping clear cutting....a 6 ft wide trail has virtually no impact compared to 50 acres of clear cutting.

The only way we are going to ever be truly happy and have the terrain we want to ride on is if someone opens an atv park like Durhamtown here in FL. All the sink holes, mud pits, and such arent what the forestry service desires us to ride in and I doubt their designated trails will lead us to much of that. I am grateful for the trails they will set aside for us but I am not sure how well these will satisfy the hardcore riders in search of a challenge? I just hope I am wrong.