Finger Lakes riding area...words of wisdom?

[Foster]

So, my parents are headed north and we are all going out to Finger Lakes ORV park near Columbia MO. I have not been there before but it looks like a ton of fun. I already did a +2 rear sprocket change! I am very excited. My parents are bringing their razor and my brother will have his KLR. Hopefully I get some good photos and gps trails logged so I post a decent ride report upon my return. I will post whatever I get under the "where to ride" section on rideforum.net. Any words of wisdom anyone has regarding this particular riding area would be much appreciated!

[ajayhawkfan]

If Finger Lakes is like Deepwater stay out of any mud holes. They tend to be full of hidden objects such as rocks, logs, cinder-blocks, etc, used to get traction or a base for a jack when vehicles get stuck.

[Foster]

Thanks Eddie! I will keep that in mind.

[allkidd]

Fingers is slightly better than deepwater but it is basically all dirt so if it rains be careful. They have a nice motocross track and even if you don't care to ride the track it is entertaining to watch amateurs try to act like travis pastrana.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCYSZtV6ZvI

[Foster]

I will have to go check that out!

[stimmer6253472]

I haven't rode there in years but I remember a lot of blind curves. So be careful. Also a friend of my cousin was riding there alone several years ago and slid his bike down an embankment into the water. He walked back to try and get a ranger to help him retrieve his bike since it was totally submerged. They did not help him, they just gave him a grapeling hook to try and pull it out. Somehow he drowned and was found later that day. My cousin had to get some scuba gear to recover his bike. I guess it was a pretty emotional time when he had to return his bike to his parents.

[moriver]

Used to spend a bunch of time here. Two thoughts would be dont go flying around blind. I can think of a couple of spots that had big drops you did not want to take on accident. Second if you play in the water watch others first and stay on that line. The old strip pits have some major drop offs. On a 4 wheeler it was no problem if you rode off an edge into 40 feet of water. The bike floated and you pulled it over to land went through the dry out thing, changed the fluids and went back to ride. On a bike, not so much.

[Foster]

We stayed out of the water. Saw a guy with a buried atv suffering from a bad case of stupid. Other than that it was a good ride. Dusty, a bit rutted out, and a ton of fun. After this weekend I think my bad wants a breathing mask though
It was an interesting riding area. Different from what I expected but a good time!

Thanks for the pointers!