This is the Place
to Rumble!

Rumble on the Ridge Ride Report
By Ramjet - April 09, 2002
Adeana, Ohio

I'll tell you right now, I really didn't know what in the world to expect from this place called "Rumble on the Ridge" and I fell into it by a single post someone placed on the Odyssey newsgroup. All I knew is that it was located near the eastern side of Ohio in the middle of nowhere. I also heard that it was a very popular place to ride. Well, it was right on both accounts. Rumble on the Ridge is in the middle of nowhere and it's a very popular place!

The plan for all that were interested in going to the "Rumble", was to meet at the McDonald's in the town of Cadiz. It's the only McDonald's in Cadiz, Ohio. It's right off the intersection of RT.22 and RT. 250 so how could we get lost? You'll also have to remember that many of us have never met so we don't have a clue what each other looks like. The key was if you saw a guy with an Odyssey, he had to be one of us. The city of Cadiz's big claim to fame is coal and that Clark Gable was born there. Like most Ohio towns that based there economy on coal, the town of Cadiz is hurting but retains a quaint and quite dignity that gives it some charm.

Part one of the plan goes off without a hitch. Odyknuck, Nobull, Ramjet , FL-400Nut, Trailshark, friends and family meet at the Cadiz McDonald's. They only flaw in the plan is the McDonald's is micro in size and there's no parking; plus there are a billion other ATV guys there. This is a hint of things to come. Many ATV's of all shapes and sizes are heading to the east. Next time, we plan to meet at the Wendy's across the street. They have a bigger parking lot.

At 11:00 am, each of us hops in his truck and form a caravan to travel together to the "Rumble on the Ridge" event. We travel about two to three miles when we start to hit more and more truck and  ATV trailer traffic coming in from different directions. What is pleasant is that everyone cooperates at the four way stops and lets each other travel to the event. What's not good for us is that we are starting to get separated by other trucks and trailers hauling ATV's. So we're not a cohesive group anymore and we are strung out over a mile. It's not bad and we proceed out of the town of Cadiz to the town of Adeana.

Now Adeana must have based it's entire economy on king coal because there isn't much of a town so to speak. It's depressing. Many boarded up buildings and a simple two lane highway that runs through the center of it. Every boarded up building had a sign on it that said "Private Property, No Trespassing". Heck, based on the condition of the buildings, I wouldn't go near them in fear of dropping through the floor into the basement. I felt sorry for the people who live there. It must have been something in its day.

At this time, the entire Odyssey caravan, spread out over a half mile, rolls to a halt and for the next hour, we crawl to the front gate of the "Rumble on the Ridge". For as far as I could see in front and in back of me are a line of trucks with ATV's either on trailers or in the back of the pick ups. Fortunately, I can make out some of my fellow Odyssey drivers since the Odyssey roll cage stuck up among the long line of vehicles.

The Front Gate

It's almost noon when we arrive at the front gate and I've eaten half the M&M's I've brought with me out of boredom. The main entrance to the Rumble is paved and the road splits in two. There is a chain link fence and two large gates. I see Trailshark with his FL350 peel off to my left and take the left road; I take the right road. It doesn't make any difference since the road comes back together right after you pass the main gates. As I pass the gates the wooded areas to my right and left open to a vista of open fields and tree lines as far as the eye can see. Parked along the many roads that finger there way around these hills are more then a thousand trucks, trailers and campers. Buzzing around like angry hornets on the ridge lines and open fields are thousands of ATV's. I have just enter the parking lot. Behind those hills and trees is the real "Rumble on the Ridge" event. I'm anxious to get going but there are maybe 100 trucks and trailers in front of me and we've formed two columns on this single wide road that was design for big coal mining trucks. It appears that Rumble on the Ridge sits on a an old reclaimed strip mine. I lose Trailshark and his truck, next to me on my left is NoBull. I roll down my window an shout "Where do we go?". NoBull shouts back, laughing "I don't know, this place is huge!".

After signing my right to sue away on a clip board handed to me by a real friendly gate worker, Trailsharks truck appears in front of me and I lose NoBull. He was behind me a moment ago but he's been replaced by a truck with six ATV's on a long flat trailer. There are ATV's buzzing in and out between the trucks as we approach the main pavilion where another friendly guy wants fifteen bucks. I pay him and he asks what the Odyssey on my trailer is. I tell him it's an FL-350 Odyssey and he looks at it again and says "Cool ride".

Trailshark told me the guy who took his money gave him a hard time saying his machine was a dune buggy and he wasn't allowed in. I don't recall what Trailshark said but it was something like "It's and Odyssey" and took off. If there were any protests, I was prepared with a copy of a email from their event directors that said we were welcome to the Rumble.

Now We Get Lost
...and that's just in the Parking Lot!

The white gravel roads past the pavilion fork out into several directions and are well maintained. Each field is packed full with trucks and trailers. I see a lot of riders to the right and left of me, going very fast without helmets, which I take a dim view on. Trailshark in his red Ford reappears in front of me again. NoBull has disappeared and I don't have a clue where FL400Nut, Odyknuck and the rest of the gang have gone. Since Trailshark is in front, he gets to lead and he takes the far left road that climbs a gentle hill packed full of vehicles. The rest of the gang is directed  to the right and we are now separated by about a mile of trucks and ATV's. This won't be the first time we lose each other.

Let's Go Riding

Trailshark and I unload and decide to try to find the rest of the gang. We comb the lines of trucks and trailers looking. We sit pretty low to the ground which makes the task even more difficult. As I crest a hill, a truck is coming up a path with a 350 in tow. I stop him, pop out and ask if he is part of the Pilot-Odyssey group.

Nope. He didn't even know we had a group. Throughout  the day I ran into five or six other 250's and 350's that were not part of our group. I regret not having something to hand them to build the Pilot-Odyssey membership.

At last we find the rest of the gang unloading there machines on a far hill. Just about the farthest point you could get from where Trailshark and I had parked. No matter, we're all together and it's time to go blaze some trails.

The Trails

We're not even sure where to start and spend a little time cruising up and down the parking areas to get a lay of the land. I see a large white banner that says "Start Here" and a fluorescent red arrow pointing to a trail that passes a small pond. All of us head in a line for that trail along with a host of other ATV's of every flavor.

Well this isn't much fun. We're jammed up on the first trail with hundreds of other ATV's and moving about as fast as we were when we were in our trucks going through the town of Adeana. We continue to crawl along and it's a good thing it's cold outside or most of the 350's are going to overheat. But just as it looks like this is going to be a bogus trip, the crowd starts to thin out and we can now show the world what and Odyssey is all about. We can now do what our machines were design to do; go fast.