Richloam WMA

My dual sport days are several years stale, so I'm in the process of getting re-acclimated with many of the areas dual sport venues. Probably one of the largest and most popular areas is the Richloam Wildlife Management Area (WMA) located east of Brooksville, Florida. This was center stage of the Devil's Creek Dual Sport Rally last month in which I road my KLR650. On Sunday, my son (on the KLR650) and I (on the DR650) headed into the WMA with an eye toward scouting the north-west corner of the east side (east of SR471).

Riding Florida Forest Roads is sort of a hit-or-miss venture. Sometimes the roads are swamped under deep muddy water crossings. Sometimes they're fairly well dried out. It's all a big swamp after all. The sport is to navigate through and around all the obstacles, mostly made of mud and water and sand.

BTW...all of these tracks you see in these photos are forest roads, obviously unimproved, but they're all legal roads. No OHVs allowed out here.

Lots and lots of water! You can't just barrel through. You need to find the right line assuming there is one. If not, you either find a way around or turn around.

The sidelines are often a good bet.

Better carry a map. It's easy to get lost in the forest.

Here I am losing my line in the sand and getting sent into the forest. Riding in sand takes a lot of patience. If you get push too hard you'll lose the rear or the front will wash.

Here I am emerging.

And then there's the mud. The rule is that momentum is your friend. The other rule is don't do terrain like this unless you've got some help to get out.

We've got a lot more of Richloam to explore and some other WMAs. Then I'll be heading up to Ocala National Forest to see if I can still find my way around there.