Trip/Trail Report: Mohican Wilderness DH

This is the first post in a series of trail reports that I was inspired to start writing while out with a broken hand. I plan to continue writing similar posts for each new trail I ride and trip I take in an attempt to document the different riding spots that are out there that might not get much publicity in the main-stream. I will attempt to review and compare trails to one another to provide some context that generally isn't available when searching out new places to go ride. Hopefully, I will inspire fellow riders to go check out new trails and trail systems that they've never ridden before, as I know that these experiences have made me a better, more versatile rider.


The Trip
Early this year (2013), I started planning for the first downhill race of the season, which is traditionally the Massanutten Yee-Ha race that takes place at the end of April. My friend and riding buddy Chad, his fiancé Jess, and I were planning to load up Chad's truck and make the drive to Virginia for the race. Unfortunately, we found out about two weeks beforehand that the race was canceled due to heavy late-season snow at the resort. Great for skiing, bad for mountain biking.

Since we wouldn't be able to race at Massanutten, we decided instead to go check out the Mohican Wilderness DH trails just outside of Loudenville, OH. Being from southeastern Michigan, Mohican is one of those places that we had heard about often, but hadn't ridden before due to it being about the same distance from home as the lift-served riding at Boyne Highlands. I guess in our minds, chair lift > shuttle. However, Boyne doesn't open until Memorial Day weekend, and we weren't willing to wait that long.

We were joined on the 4 hour drive by our friend Tyler, who came over from Grand Rapids to ride down with us. We left on a Friday after work and camped out at the Mohican Adventures campground, which turned out to be very scenic with lots of secluded camp sites, small cabins for rent, fishing ponds, and a stream running through it. Being so early in the season, the temps were a little chilly for tent camping (~35F at night), but we made it through.


We awoke on Saturday morning to the sun beaming through the last bits of fog in the valley. We had arrived in the dark, so I took a walk to explore and check out the campground. Tyler had disappeared sometime in the very early morning, and we later discovered that he had walked some 2 or 3 miles to the local McDonald's to get some coffee. He then hitch-hiked back to the campground just in time for breakfast.


After some delicious sweet potato stir-fry for breakfast, we broke down camp and set off for the trails. None of us had been there before, so we were working off an address and GPS directions. Luckily, we didn't have any issues finding the place, and we were soon gearing up in the field at the top of the DH trails. Shortly after we arrived, a couple of other vehicles pulled in loaded with bikes, and it was clear that we would be sharing the trails for the day. No problem there as we could tell they were all friendly guys (and one gal) from some quick introductions. We took one quick run while they geared up, with Jess volunteering to drive the truck for the first lap. I could tell right away that it was gonna be a fun day of riding. We couldn't believe that these trails were in the middle of Ohio!

One of the other guys that had showed up was driving a Ford F-450 flatbed work truck with a tailgate pad and offered to share shuttle duties (I think his name was Harrison... sorry if I got it wrong!). With eight riders able to fit into one truck, nobody minded taking a break to drive the shuttle every 8th run. Thanks again for sharing your shuttle machine, dude!



The Trails
As I hinted at before, we were all pretty blown away by the quality of the trails at Mohican. When we were there, three of the trails were up and running, though not every feature was in prime condition. As with so many riding spots, these trails depend on the volunteer hours of the locals. Overall though, the trails were in good condition and were running well.

The main downhill trail starts out right underneath the powerline - it's sometimes referred to as the "powerline" trail - and it is the signature trail at Mohican. It runs like you would expect a DH race course to run and has plenty of jumps, corners, chutes and compressions with a fair number of rocks and roots to keep you honest. It also has a few northshore style stunts scattered throughout, but all of them have ride-arounds and none of them are too scary to begin with. There are only a couple of low-speed technical spots on this trail that force you to work on your balance.



The run to rider's left of the powerline trail is appropriately known as the "rock" trail. The upper half of this trail is steep and gnarly, with a couple of chutes and rock drops that force you to just point it and hang on. After that, the trail devolves into a true east-coast style rock garden for a little while then finishes up with a high-speed wide open section punctuated by a couple of decent sized gap jumps (with ride-arounds, of course). The rock gardens were rough enough to be fun, but not so gnarly as to stop you dead in your tracks - that's not to say that I didn't I didn't have to dab a few times.

I never got a chance to ride the third trail while I was there. The rest of the group rode it when it was my turn to shuttle, and since the consensus was that it was not nearly as fun as the other two, we didn't head back for the rest of the day. My riding buddies also mentioned that this trail had not received the same level of early season maintenance, and so it was not running quite as smoothly. The start point is a ways off to rider's right of the powerline trail, in case you're planning a trip and want to give it a shot.

Altogether, the two trails I rode make for a really fun day of riding, and I definitely expect to be headed back there sometime in the near future. However, given that it is a shuttle spot with only three trail options, I don't think I would stretch my trip much beyond one full day of riding. If you're looking for a reason to spend a full weekend in the area, it might be fun to hit up the trails one day, then do a canoe/kayak trip down the nearby Mohican river the next. It seems like all of the local campgrounds (there are many) are geared up for canoe/kayak/tube rentals, so it wouldn't be a stretch to say that river trips are the area's main attraction.

It should be mentioned that this area is also the site of the Mohican 100 endurance race, so there are several XC trails running around through the surrounding woods, but they didn't seem to be very well marked except for some leftover race-tape. Also, the land that the trails are on is managed by a zip-line company called "Tree Frog Canopy Tours," and it is only thanks to their generosity that the Mohican trails are available for us to ride. So if you make the trip to ride Mohican, make sure to be respectful and clean up after yourself. And unless you're hanging out with the locals who maintain the trails, it's safe to say that you shouldn't be making any significant changes to the trails themselves, though a little help with routine maintenance is always appreciated.