Hodges Village Dam

[TwelveGaugeSage]

I tried searching a bit on this, but apparently suck at this search engine. What's the deal with this place? Is it ride in and play at leisure or is there an entry fee? Would my stock WR250R be okay in there? It's only about 45 minutes away, so it sounds like a good ride to spot for me to play around in. Is it all legal? Anything else I should know about it?

[bryco13]

Need an off road reg. Having gone the same route as you before, you can go putt around for the day, but knobbier tires and lower pressures will turn it from a bit of a struggle to much more enjoyable.

[xxaarraa]

It's open year round. The place is pretty big i.e., tons of trails of different ability. Take your time to explore and look everywhere the first day.

[number9]

Most of us here refer to it as HVD, so try searching for that. I will let Clinton (typeone) chime in here as he is our resident HVD expert, but as others have said, you need an off-road registration in order to run there. It will require you paying sales tax on the purchase price of your WR250, as well as a small fee for the registration itself. If your WR250 is already registered for the road, you can get a waiver for the sales tax portion.

Generally speaking, the "lower" half is easier terrain than the "upper" half. HVD administered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, their Facebook page is pretty useful for talking about openings/closings/events etc.

[typeone]

these guys covered it but yeah, check it out, fun spot with a nice range of terrain. we do a ~17mi loop that covers all the good stuff but you can slice 'n dice the place howerver you want, which makes it fun for any skill level. it's pretty small overall but you can make a handful of loops and run them back to back to stretch your day. just go out and explore, you'll dig it.

biggest thing to keep in mind other than having a legal bike ... it's NOT directional. be careful on blind corners. i've had two head-on's this season. no bueno.

there was some talk of hitting HVD this Sunday.

[aldend123]

Most of us here refer to it as HVD, so try searching for that.

I've also seen just 'Hodges' in case he's searching for it by full name.

[nick5446]

these guys covered it but yeah, check it out, fun spot with a nice range of terrain. we do a ~17mi loop that covers all the good stuff but you can slice 'n dice the place howerver you want, which makes it fun for any skill level. it's pretty small overall but you can make a handful of loops and run them back to back to stretch your day. just go out and explore, you'll dig it.

biggest thing to keep in mind other than having a legal bike ... it's NOT directional. be careful on blind corners. i've had two head-on's this season. no bueno.

there was some talk of hitting HVD this Sunday.

Can you send me that 17 mile loop you run? Ideally just traced on a map or some sort of description. I have a copy of the map, but no GPS.

[typeone]

Can you send me that 17 mile loop you run? Ideally just traced on a map or some sort of description. I have a copy of the map, but no GPS.

yup, i might have it overlayed on a basic map, i'll look tonight for you. i believe we learned this loop from a combo of an older NETRA Jack Frost run + enduro extensions. ties all the choice trail together with plenty of more gnarly stuff to add in if desired.

def takes time to piece that place together with good flow, lots of intersections that can be confusing at first. think we do the loop in 45min - 1.5hr depending on rocky hill extensions (and shit shows)

[nick5446]

yup, i might have it overlayed on a basic map, i'll look tonight for you. i believe we learned this loop from a combo of an older NETRA Jack Frost run + enduro extensions. ties all the choice trail together with plenty of more gnarly stuff to add in if desired.

def takes time to piece that place together with good flow, lots of intersections that can be confusing at first. think we do the loop in 45min - 1.5hr depending on rocky hill extensions (and shit shows)

That's awesome, thanks. I don't get out there very often, and it seems like whenever I do I just end up riding in circles, annoyed (I also have a terrible sense of direction). I was going to try to get out in the next few weeks.

[typeone]

That's awesome, thanks. I don't get out there very often, and it seems like whenever I do I just end up riding in circles, annoyed (I also have a terrible sense of direction). I was going to try to get out in the next few weeks.

no sweat. yeah, you really need to get the entire place in your mind from a birds eye view first, it's easy to miss a trail here or there tooling along but if you -generally- know where you are, it starts to come together. it's fairly contained.

the best thing you can do is hook up with a local that rides the whole place. a lot of people just stay down low on the sections closest to the river and along the railroad bed. way, WAY more than that to explore.

do you remember what trails you usually ride? might help me direct you to other sections to check out. also, how technical do you want to get? we do a 50/50 split which makes it a blast.

[Petorius]

Also interested in the file, although I will hopefully make it out there with you guys this year. The KDX is back together and running as of last weekend, now I just need to get it plated again and MA sticker.

[nick5446]

no sweat. yeah, you really need to get the entire place in your mind from a birds eye view first, it's easy to miss a trail here or there tooling along but if you -generally- know where you are, it starts to come together. it's fairly contained.

the best thing you can do is hook up with a local that rides the whole place. a lot of people just stay down low on the sections closest to the river and along the railroad bed. way, WAY more than that to explore.

do you remember what trails you usually ride? might help me direct you to other sections to check out. also, how technical do you want to get? we do a 50/50 split which makes it a blast.

I have always parked in the area where there are a steady flow of trucks going in and out (I believe that's the upper part). I generally stay in that area.

I can probably handle the most technical stuff that's there. Happy to do it all though. Tentatively thinking about going out on October 7th, but that'll be a bit of a bike shakedown, so might not be a great time to explore.

[typeone]

i forgot to look for the maps ... underwater with work ... but i will.

[typeone]

still had this up on the FTP, this is the loop we do. showing you how to thread it together is another story but it flows very well.

[number9]

still had this up on the FTP, this is the loop we do. showing you how to thread it together is another story but it flows very well.

Stupid question, but what do you navigate this with -- your iPhone?

[typeone]

Stupid question, but what do you navigate this with -- your iPhone?

i just know it from exploring all these years + NETRA events + memory ... but that map was captured with MotionX GPS. i track almost every ride. if you've ever heard the chick talking out of my pack, that's MotionX.

guess i could provide the .GPX file? it would be a bitch to follow as a route though. i think it's easier to use a static map, study it, then go explore each area.