Back to the old stomping grounds

July 1, 2009 by Jon Rhodig

As this holiday weekend approaches a lot of us will be celebrating our freedom to vacation when and where we choose by traveling to that hallowed riding spot that we have some eternal connection with. For many the reason may be because it is with in a 5 minute drive from the house, a scenic place with good camping or in my case its the place where I grew up riding that WAS less than a 5 minute drive from my house, now that has stretched out to a 6 hour drive.

Back in the 80's this place held an annual harescramble

The place I am talking about is in Harlan County Nebraska at a little place developed by the US Army Corp. of Engineers in the early 80’s. My memories of this place start back when my dad raced a few hare scrambles put on by a local racer that organizes motocross races in the same area. The place had nearly perfect terrain for a hare scramble. The terrain had hills, trees, and mud. The hare scrambles were always fun to watch, and maybe that was mostly because my dad was in it. As a matter of fact my dad was always racing on the oldest bike there a 1974 Yamaha SC500. Remember this was in the 80’s! After a few years of hare scrambles the place would be nearly defunct as in it would be only ridden by locals such as us. Even big holiday weekends would turn out less than 10 or so riders for the entire weekend. The trail was never maintained at all during the entire time period that we rode it.

There was only one main trail that circled the perimeter of the 150 or so acre place. The single trail was terribly washed out, rutted, nearly impassable by modern “wide” 4 wheelers in several places which is why I don’t think many people other than a few locals ever rode it. Me and my friends rode that place a lot during the week as well as weekends. We cut most of the auxiliary trails in the area as “free riding” was not discouraged at that time. I have fond memories of broken bikes, running out of gas, crashing into my friend who stopped at the bottom of a hill he could not go up, and building jumps up the side of the cuts in the ground. It would be safe to say I have lots of good memories of that place. Of every place I have ridden in my life I will always consider this “the best” even though its not the toughest or the largest place, it has always felt like “our place”.

My dad after the 2 hour race on a almost antique 1974 Yamaha SC500

Fast forward to the present. About 3 years ago the Harlan County board of tourism realized that there was a need for improvement as the popularity of ATVs has skyrocketed and being in a drought that had drained the nearby lake, they saw an opportunity to expand the existing area to help bring people into the area even after the lake would return to normal levels. The tourism board in cooperation with the US Army Corp of Engineers have now expanded the 150 acre area to nearly 500 acres. I took a preliminary ride over the Memorial Day weekend and I liked what I saw. I have to admit my emotions were torn as they tore up the original trails we cut, but built 3 times more trails in their place. It feels like an end of an era and the beginning of a new. It will definitely bring more people into the area which has it’s downsides, but it is not like this place was a secret before. So I welcome the changes and the periodic trail maintenance. Check back soon as I plan on posting a full report with video in the near future.