You have a lot of ATV choices in this area; avoid working with this business…read more
You start the day an hour ahead of your scheduled time for what was pitched as a safety talk and tutorial. I've ridden ATVs for over 20 years in the US and in other countries; this is the first time I had such a long talk scheduled.
The talk was the owner telling her life story, how she came to America from a war-torn central American country on an education visa, married an American, and now believes "I can't be racist" as she spouts racist things. She is the definition of an immigrant who wants to close the door to others like her.
The funny thing is, I don't give a sh-- about a person's politics. I'm there to have fun! To ride an ATV in the wild! But she forced us to listen to this stuff while we politely had to sit there and smile. "I'm not a racist, but I think they're using that housing behind the Walmart to house illegals." What does that have to do with riding an ATV?
She spent more than 5 minutes talking about all the damage fees we'd be responsible for if the ATV got damaged. Okay, we get it -- don't damage your property. She spent another 5 minutes talking about her other outdoor businesses.
Finally, 40 minutes later, she's wrapping things up. She's done talking about how they're eating the cats and dogs in Ohio (I'm not kidding and she was dead serious about believing that fable), and we drive 10 minutes to the actual ATV starting area.
For an ATV company, they do not provide bathrooms. Anywhere. So even if you just drove an hour to get to this place, there is no place to relieve yourself. I've never been to an ATV place that didn't have a bathroom. Very weird (and cheap).
Our guides were nice and more professional than the owner. They showed us how to safely operate the ATVs and warned us against the usual behaviors they want to see and don't want to see. Some of the ATVs had tires that were nearly bald. I guess all the fees aren't going into ATV maintenance?
Our group started off into the forest. So many of the first trails seemed to be newer and still had saplings and other underbrush we were riding through. The trails themselves seemed... unfinished? Anyways, it was slow going through this part, 5-10 mph. You ride in a train formation, with one of the guides up front leading the way and another at the back. You go where they go, at the speed they go.
We break out of the forest area and go up and down some hills and some small fields. A lot of the trails are dead-ends and there's a fair amount of going back and forth over the same trail (sometimes going in the opposite direction). You're kind of on the side of a mountain, but it's mostly forested and not much to see (trees!). I guess that was fine, but like I said, you're going pretty slow so there's just a lot of forest to view.
At some point, you get to trails that are much better maintained. As long as it's not a hill trail that's partially washed out, some of these trails are very nice and you're finally able to get some speed and enjoyment out of the ATV. 10-20 mph here.
At roughly the half-way point of our 2 hour tour, you reach an abandoned house. Our guides needed to check out a trail's condition to see if we could go on it, and left us alone here for about 10 minutes. We took some photos of the really great view while swatting away hundreds of no seeums. They took our group photo when they returned, we mounted our ATVs and we were off again.
One of the trails had a downed tree across it. We moved it for the guides. Later on while riding another trail, I noticed that rather than cut up a tree that was blocking it, they had just created another trail around the tree (it was not large and a chainsaw and 15 minutes is all it would've taken to remove the fallen tree). Some really good, wide trails here, and one or two opportunities to enjoy some speed on the ATV.
A good ATV ride is always a mix of trails and speed, and it takes some careful thought to make for a real good experience. I'd say on the trail riding alone, this ATV experience is like 2.5 or 3 stars. I've had much better experiences.
The icing on the cake was the end. We left our guides a healthy tip and one of the guides (the owner's daughter) was talking to the owner. She asked to speak to one of us on the phone. The guy closest to the phone took it and sat there listening while he was berated by the owner for leaving too little of a tip. Imagine the weird sense of entitlement it takes to demand a certain level of tipping -- and how little she must be paying her own guides! While "tipping is expected," what is never expected is you specifying the percentage of a tip. Someone who does that clearly doesn't understand how to run a business in the USA.
That left us with a bad taste in our mouths, as none of us ever had an owner demand a bigger tip for a service they provided. And trust me when I say this place isn't cheap and the owner drives a Range Rover. Disappointing.
