Ocala's not on my list no more..

[Numkut]

I don't understand.. I used to ride out there and loved it, rode all the pits and went to Blue Sink to cool down. They take all of the fun pits and stuff that a certain group of riders love (ie not trail riders) and expect us to pay. I don't understand, Croom and my spot that is ganna be gone soon anyways is where you can find me. Last I heard anyways the new trails weren't even fun.

It seems like they just love to hand out tickets. I came in for the first time in a long time and decided to park across from where the blue sink road is and were unloading and this jerk ranger shows up and gives us two 100 dallor tickets for parking in the wrong spot.. I told him I didn't know there were parking rules now and wed be happy to move but he insisted on sticking us with $200 worth of tickets. They don't want us there.

[novadave]

I feel your pain. No one should go out there without knowing all the new rule changes, because all they want to do is write tickets.

[cinnister]

We were just there yesterday, rode for 4-5 hours and didn't get stopped once.  I read up on here about the new rules first and we had a great time.  Met some really cool people.  Do you happen to have the GPS coordinates for Blue Sink?  We found a lake in the middle of no where but we aren't sure if it was Blue Sink or not.

Last weekend we did get stopped by a ranger because we had two kids under 16 with us and they didn't have helmets on.  He just told us the rules and said if he writes us a ticket for that it's considered child endangerment and the Dept. of Families would get involved.  We quickly rode back to the truck and put helmets on them.  We just figured that we weren't going to be going fast so we didn't need them.  Lesson learned and thanks to the Ranger for not giving us a ticket.

[hondarider21]

no i will never go out there again. i just went camping out there a few months ago without bikes, and im glad i didnt bring them i would have been kicked out in no time flat. the ranger were harassing everybody.

[novadave]

Well i ordered a new exhaust today so i hope it makes the powers that be happy. I just want to ride and have a good time without any trouble.

[1Scorpion]

I've been away for a year and WOW!!! things sure have changed. All I hear about are tickets for everything. Maybe someone could tell me if it's true they will fine you for having a tire tread depth of 3/4 of an inch or more ? I have some time off next week and thought about going riding but I don't need any tickets.

[Capt. Bob]

I am new to this forum but I have been lurking for awhile. I had to post a little something on this thread though. I was at the Delancy parking area on Wednesday and while I was there I saw. Two bikes come up with no green stickers on them and the guys said they did not know anything about the $10 fee for riding. They were staying in the campground and had been for a couple of days. No ranger had said a word about it. While we were talking two laddies came riding up a Suzuki 250 riding double and the ranger told them it was okay that the law did not go into effect till July on that. Also There was a mother and her young son there riding two up on a small china made quad and the kid did not have a helmet on. They heard us talking about the green stickers and they said they did not know about them. They were also told by a ranger that the laws did not take effect till July. So I would say they are not very strict in Ocala or very consistant either.

[duroc825]

no i will never go out there again. i just went camping out there a few months ago without bikes, and im glad i didnt bring them i would have been kicked out in no time flat. the ranger were harassing everybody.

This is exactly the thing that they (environ"mental"ists) want to hear. Sounds like to me that they're plan is working. Make it so miserably impossible to enjoy yourself that you don't want to ride there anymore. I guess we all know how skateboarders and surfers feel now don't we? RIDE THE MOTOPLEX! and support someone that actually has a genuine interest in ATV'ing  other than money  and hidden agendas like some that say they support us.

[rancher1]

I agree 100 percent they could care less about our safety or our pleasure its all about the money if we owned the timber company or some kind of big money buisness we could ride naked and on a atv with no muffler with vampires tires and drink beer and do what we wanted to do but since we don't have that luxury we get screwed yet again. 

[cheapthrills]

I was wondering if big scrub was even still open. It's not talked about at all on the ONF website. I heard Ocala was fun, went to the website and ended up at the Delancy area. The trails are fun but that's not what I had in mind.

So is Big scrub still open and somewhat enjoyable without being harrassed? Thinking about going up this weekend.

[jayman]

Yes bigscrub is open.  We were there last weekend and not one ranger in site.  Not even a camp host was out there 

[runfox]

Ocala was good for us!!!!

MY first time riding in Ocala this past May 3,4 weekend. I have read all the negative blah, blah about how bad it is in Ocala, I'm guessing that is  the Big Scrub, over crowded experience. We rode the northern trails from Lake Delancy west camp ground.We didn't see hardly a soul all weekend until late sat morning  around noon when we left.

 We would have kept on riding except one quad wouldn't start,we were getting tired of sucking dust and being hot and dirty, and with all the people riding the trails I was afraid of hitting some one head on on a trail, since the purple trails are so narrow and they are supposed to be two way travel.
We We got into camp Friday night about 7:30 pm, quickly unloaded and hit the trails,rode until late like 11:00pm, we missed a turn on the yellow trails to come back to camp so it took a little longer coming back.We rode again sat morning and found the purple trails which were lots of fun, but very narrow, brush in your face and all, and I was amazed that the trails were not one way travel. One of us stopped at an intersection to wait for the other and, just then someone else came from the direction he was about to go. Had he not stopped, he would have definitely crashed into the oncoming quad. 

Bottom line is, I haven't rode Big Scrub yet, so I cant comment on the problems everyone complains about there, but if your looking for miles of open trails, I don't know why more people dont ride the northern trails. I don't think you would hardly ever see a ranger or anyone else up there.We rode for a long time, at least 8 hours all weekend and we hardly even began to explore all the trails up north

I have read all information I could before we went, called the Rangers office and talked to people , asked questions, we had all our requirements, copy of title, etc. we were expecting the rangers to come check us out but it never happened. I'm in no place to judge, but from all I have read it appears to me the biggest problem people are having in Ocala is they show up expect to do whatever they used to do, don't get all their requirements together and then complain that the Rangers are hassling them, when all they had to do is read and come prepared to follow the rules.

[novadave]

I've never had a problem with the rangers at delancey either.

[palatkat]

runfox.....not to rain on your parade but next time you go to Ocala I wouldn't ride from 7:30 PM to 11:00 PM....night riding isn't allowed...that's one of those rules you need to read and come prepared to follow...but I'm sure the rangers will understand if you get caught riding at night.....

[runfox]

palatkat, I agree, I did not plan on riding late, we missed a turn coming back and got lost for a little while. I read the rules about not riding at dark or on roads. and tried to follow them as best I could, and trying to get my son and his friend to follow.