When it comes to mud riding, it seems there are two separate camps: either you love it or hate it. There doesn’t seem to be many folks who are in the middle on this one. Oh, there might be a handful of riders/drivers who tolerate it but for the most part, my experience is that you fall into one group or the other.
I’m one of those riders/drivers who loves to hit a good mud hole. I also love to cross a stream or shallow river, which, to me, is almost as much fun as hitting a mud hole, especially when the water crossing is a bit tricky and takes a little more skill than just splashing through.
Stream/river crossings are more prevalent in the West whereas mud holes and mud riding is more a Midwest/Eastern thing because those areas get more moisture than the West does. I’m fortunate enough to get to ride all across the United States and get to experience just about every kind of riding there is.
One mud-riding experience I remember most vividly came during a Kawasaki media intro at the Anthracite Outdoor Adventure Area (AOAA – www.anthraciteadventure.com) near Shamokin, PA. It’s a relatively new riding area where the trails criss-cross land reclaimed from a former coal mine. There is plenty of water (ponds and small streams) and lots of mud holes. There were a couple of mud holes we spent a lot of time playing in.
Needless to say, by the time we got back to the trailhead, we were covered in mud (and lots of dust) and the vehicles caked with mud. One of the locals who went riding with us that day, told me that there are times after he rides AOAA that he simply throws some of his riding gear away because he can’t get the mud completely out of his gear. I didn’t have to throw any of my riding gear away after that ride, but there were a few mud stains that never quite came out of my pants and jersey.
All in a day’s work for me.
Last year in Texas, while riding the new Massimo side-by-sides, we found a particularly fun mud hole that we hit several times. I really can’t explain why it’s so much fun to ride the mud or cross creeks and rivers, but it is.
Probably most of the fun is the challenge of seeing if the vehicle can actually traverse the mud hole and how deep I can go (sink?) before the vehicle bogs down and I need help getting out (been there, done that, both as a driver and a rescuer). Granted, I have never really done the whole snorkel-equipped vehicle thing, but maybe someday.
But I have been in water and mud that went higher than the floorboards on both ATVs and side-by-sides. Hey, there’s a reason the manufacturers put holes in the floorboards.
Water drains out fairly quickly but mud, not so much.
I think part of the fun is also because it’s amazing to me that the vehicles—both ATVs and side-by-sides can actually go through mud and water that is fairly deep. Most of my mud/water riding is fairly tame compared to what you see at the High Lifter Mud Nationals but isn’t truly incredible to see that mud holes those vehicles hit and slosh through?
So count me in the camp that loves mud and water crossings.
