That sounds great. I haven't been by there yet. I'm not familiar with the area either but I'll let you know if I come up with anything. Bald Eagle SF is supposed to be nice, but might be a bit out of the way...

Wow, sounds like we may have a few from Pgh interested, that's awesome! It would be great to meet some locals.

Regarding the AOAA plan, unfortunately i don't know too much about the surrounding area however State College/Bald Eagle seem to have some good stuff, and i have been exploring there since our trip there back in the spring 2018 trip.

On the plus side, most of the trail gates should be open due to hunting seasons in PA which makes a good bit more of the area accessible, but the downside is as you mentioned the requirements for permits, alcohol (might be OK in state forests, not state parks), and camping restrictions.

My dealings have been with the Rothrock State Forest office and not Bald Eagle, but they have always been great and super accommodating for campsite permits. They are also free within the state forests which is nice. Bald Eagle seems to have an abundance of sites to stay at which may give us some options.

Another thought which i have been trying to do but haven't yet is the Allegheny National Forest which is about 1.5-2 hr north of Pittsburgh. I know that might be a haul from DC metro, but it's national forest land and there different rules & many areas to stay that don't require permits at all. I have started mapping things out up there but i don't have a ton of things planned out unfortunately. I've also heard mixed reviews of the area. Maybe some of the other more local people can offer some info.

At any rate, I'm going to be wherever you guys decide, it's been way too long since i got out for some off-roading.

While there is a ton of stuff to do/see up in ANF, for off-roading and overland-style stuff, its kinda 'meh' imho. Its like they had a goal up there to make every road a dead end, there's just not a lot of contiguous stuff up there so everything ends up being out n back, lots of back tracking, etc. Now, if you're plan is to park somewhere, unload an ATV, and/or get some serious hiking in or to seek out streams for native trout, then you're in the right place.

That's one of the reasons I think we mainly find ourselves spending time down in WV and the MNF/GWNF areas. Taller mountains, better views, and less light pollution (Spruce Knob has darker skies than Cherry Springs) .

Just to throw this out there, here's a longer route I've been working on this year for next fall:

wv in progress - A bike ride in Fayette County, PA

On the WV side of things, there are quite a few dispersed camping areas that could be options and have a few other routes worked up between Morgantown area and Spruce Knob.


Now, back to PA, aside from Anthracite, there's also Rausch Creek offroad park, Rock Run Recreation area, and Scrubgrass OHV park, and a new place, The Lannding, that just opened up this year outside of Indiana. Not sure if Rock Run is open during the winter, Scrubgrass does certain weekends here and there (otherwise private, think their monthly event is December 15, so probably rules that out) and The Lannding is normally open on weekends, but pretty sure you can go there anytime if you reach out to make arrangements first. Not a ton of trails out there yet, but they're growing. Pretty sure most of these places (not sure about Scrubgrass tho) do have camping, too.

Yeah, my luck in PA has been pretty limited...

Besides having to reserve and stay at the park sites, last spring trip up there I remember getting pulled over by park police or whoever resides over it and getting an earful cause we didn't have some special use permit or something. They don't make it super clear on the websites that a group larger than like 3 trucks (don't remember the exact number) had to have said permit. Kinda soured me on exploring PA any further, which is a shame, cause it's beautiful up there.

@jcaino Your route looks interesting, I've run a bunch of the stuff around Harrisonburg, I could point you to some more roads through there if you want to get off pavement more, feel free to PM me.
(the Brandywine general store does have gas)

... Here's to the "Wild and Wonderful" state ;-)

@jcaino . Thanks for the info about ANF, that's kind of what I've been seeing while trying to route plan.
I like the idea of heading into WV or VA for the trip. The offroad parks are definitely fun but i tend to enjoy less organized areas personally. And I wonder if the places that will be open during that time will be busier due to vacations.

@gfxcruncher . I had left at that point, but I did hear you guys got yelled at for driving in a convoy, that's just dumb. I have never seen that rule anywhere in all the PA websites I've visited. Sorry your experience in PA was that disappointing, this is a great state, unfortunately we deal with stuff like that a lot it seems though.

@redshift83 yeah, it was a bummer, wound up heading back to camp and cutting the day short. Oh well, you win and you lose.... I grew up on the other end of the state, so I'm familiar with how it works up there.

Sup guys. Im def interested in this trip. Hoping the date selected fit my schedule.

Yeah, unfortunately the permit thing (and implied assumption of responsibility for the entire group of campers) is a bridge too far for me.

I appreciate the info on Bald Eagle. Part of the team was up there for our Spring trip (last year I think). They got hassled just for driving a convoy of vehicles through the state forest without a permit. I just don’t get it...

I’ve been wanting to get up to ANF for a while, just to see what’s up there, but another 1.5-2hr farther from home is going to be a deal breaker for a lot of folks if we’re going just to camp. Thanks for throwing out the option regardless :thumbsup:

Ok awesome. Now that we’re in December it’s finally starting to feel more real. Looking forward to it!

Good data here, thanks!

100% - Monogahela and George Washington are great (given where we are in the country) and don’t require a bunch of permits, waivers, blood oaths, etc. to take advantage of them. My only gripe, in general, is all of the seasonally closed gates.

Thanks for sharing this. Looks like a good loop.

Discussing with the team over the last few days, we’re going to pivot away from AOAA. The camping situation was going to be prohibitive for most team members. Adding a new post in a minute with an update on the plan, etc.

Great to hear from you and hope you had a good Thanksgiving. I'll move you onto the "tentative" list.

Posting an update with dates and the general plan in a minute.

Heads-up for folks following this thread:

Trip dates and general itinerary is posted in the OP (and quoted below).

If you're marked as "Tentative," please take a look at the dates and post up here as soon as you can confirm so we know how many people we have.

Tentative people as of now are listed below. Looking forward to it!
@Cymon
@techno
@jcaino
@Runn4est
@01100101
@232vzlano
@Scott@Hightech

The warden is letting me out for this, so I'm in. Looking forward to catching up with you guys and meeting new acquaintances.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

You can count me in.

Please count me in!

I made it last year and had such a great time. I have the white ‘17 OR with mild suspension upgrade, skids and sliders. Added portable air to my kit.

@carlos.elmotor

Not sure how, but I managed to log into an old account earlier to reply. I'm in.

@313n703 a.k.a. @01100101 .