We decided to take a trip up to Shamokin, PA to hit AOAA. This is one of our normal spots and has plenty of space for a day trip. You can’t hit all the trails in one day, especially this time of year.
We headed up early since they close at 4 PM, but hit some unexpected weather. It was snowing like crazy. From the time we turned off of 901 to the time we got to the stop sign where you turn to go up the mountain to AOAA, it had already dumped 2 inches. We pulled off the road into a large turn-around/parking lot since I knew we wouldn’t make it up the steep hill that leads up to the trails. It’s good that we did; there were trucks and trailers either stuck or backing down the hill.
After some time watching folks struggle with their trucks, we unloaded the machines and rode them up to the trailhead. Once there, we were greeted by AOAA staff. They have a strict policy about riding the roads, so they wouldn’t let us ride, even though the roads weren’t passable by normal vehicles. They were friendly about it, and we BSed with the manager for a bit.
We headed back down the mountain, loaded the machines back up and waited for the roads to clear a bit. Eventually, around noon, we were able to get the trucks and toys up to AOAA. It was worth the wait. We had a great time in the fresh snow and there were only about another six trucks in the parking lot. Check out our video below; there were some pretty cool shots of the trails with snow laden trees creating a tunnel effect.