Went to Spider lake yesterday riding. Foot Hills State Forest Minnesota. Definitely more finite than I thought it would be. Overall I had a lot of fun! There are barebones camping sites that are first come first serve. This time of year normally trails are torn and ripped up but these weren't that bad actually. I liked the scenery, I liked the ambiance, I liked it wasn't just flat terrain, I liked that I didn't HAVE TO go through mud pits to make it past certain trails, I like that at some intersections there were signs marking where you were on contrast to overall map.
What I didn't really like, was it was very very dusty, it was extremely rocky, and the trails aren't very wide so when you would meet people (which was constant) someone had to move aside which was at times hard because of either trees or steep embankments. Couldn't barely ever really get moving and look around because there was constant groups flying up in front of you or behind you (multi directional trails) so that kind of sucked and I ended up just leaving.
When I say rocky I mean anywhere from pebbles to pumpkin size rocks all over you can't avoid which makes for not the smoothest riding. There wasn't much mud, a lot of sand.
I even lowered the tire pressure of my tires and changed my suspension settings since I bring my whole garage when I go (floor jack, tools, most stuff you can think of, etc.)
Overall I would go back if I could do camping but I would go earlier in the season, when things are more wet, and also during the week so less people. I had never been there so now I know what to expect. I put on some where between 30 and 40 miles total, (I didn't check at the very end to know exactly). I didn't have any mechanical issues, but the Mule isn't really made for trails like this I guess because it seems like the front end wanted to pogo stick certain bumps instead of soaking them up nicely. I left my house 5am and got there about 8am.
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Loaded up and ready to go (night before). I have all my other crap I mentioned earlier up in front.
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What I didn't really like, was it was very very dusty, it was extremely rocky, and the trails aren't very wide so when you would meet people (which was constant) someone had to move aside which was at times hard because of either trees or steep embankments. Couldn't barely ever really get moving and look around because there was constant groups flying up in front of you or behind you (multi directional trails) so that kind of sucked and I ended up just leaving.
When I say rocky I mean anywhere from pebbles to pumpkin size rocks all over you can't avoid which makes for not the smoothest riding. There wasn't much mud, a lot of sand.
I even lowered the tire pressure of my tires and changed my suspension settings since I bring my whole garage when I go (floor jack, tools, most stuff you can think of, etc.)
Overall I would go back if I could do camping but I would go earlier in the season, when things are more wet, and also during the week so less people. I had never been there so now I know what to expect. I put on some where between 30 and 40 miles total, (I didn't check at the very end to know exactly). I didn't have any mechanical issues, but the Mule isn't really made for trails like this I guess because it seems like the front end wanted to pogo stick certain bumps instead of soaking them up nicely. I left my house 5am and got there about 8am.
Loaded up and ready to go (night before). I have all my other crap I mentioned earlier up in front.
