Just Moved To Washington

PNW riding must be like a dream 

Not so much 

It’s definitely great for riding off road. 

MX racing may be a little bit different, but even if you have to cross the state it’s not like driving from one side of Texas to the other!

😎
 

South of seattle you will want to check out Moto Pacific,Toutle Motorsports Park, Burnt Ridge MX, and in the winter Woodland MX. There's also a healthy amount of private tracks you will encounter as you meet more and more people. Up north there's Whidbey Island MX, Hannegan Speedway thursday night MX. Probably 1 or 2 that I'm forgetting but those are the main ones on the west side. None of these tracks listed do bike rentals.

PNW motocross used to be great.  Then the original track owners all passed away and the younger generation took over.   Now it is very hit or miss.  It is sad because it did really used to be an amazing area and the tracks were run very well.   Norcal and Socal tracks are reliable.  

One little cloud comes in now days and they cancel practice days and race days for rain

My favorite growing up there was woodland. But that’s back when it had trees and ran rain or shine

I love it there. Lance Smail runs (maybe ran) pacific raceways and I always had fun there. I lived a mile from motowest so that was always a fav of mine due to the proximity. The track in Port Angeles “OPMC” is great in my opinion. Riverdale in Toutle is almost always open. Numerous private tracks if you make friends at the races.  Washougal is a dream track. PIR in Portland for Thursday night motocross is really fun. I lived close to Tahuya forest too and there are some offroad gem trails there. 

70% of the dirtbike crowd in Washington are off road guys. There’s some good tracks and a few great ones. Luckily you’re not on the east side of the mountains where we only have 3 options spread way out from each other 

Is Ward Creek still open, that was a fun track.

Jolly Rogers! 

Port Angeles (opmc) has one of the best tracks. Pacific Raceways is closest to your area in auburn. Burtridge is fun if you like clay/topsoil tracks. 

Ward creek still open first practice next Sunday there's opmc community mx riverdale is now called toutle raceway park. Oh course washougal eastern wa richland and way east spokane airway heights. I also hit Mt view mx in oregon it's about same distance as washougal. Fun track. 

It’s not. I just moved up to washougal from Lake Elsinore. Honestly kind of sucks for moto. Nothing like California where tracks are open every weekend and prepped. Rode the first washougal open practice and they split the practices up. That kind of sucked. Only good motos so far were in the dead of winter at the washougal grass track. The trail riding and mountain biking is bitchin though

It is. Contemplating going back finally , haven’t been since 2002, when I landed on the deer…lol

I miss that place.

If the weather is nice, it’s amazing. Unfortunately, 8-9 months out of the year it rains, and the mud is extra tacky.

Second this. Ward Creek is a hidden gem of a track. A bit like a mini Washougal with great hills.

You mean Jolly ROCK?

Christ the roost going out of that river bottom

You're probably too young to remember when we could ride Horn Rapids for $2...then it was FREE!!! for a number of years.

Somebody got killed and the city freaked out because of liability concerns and our PUBLICLY owned track got rented out. Whats it cost now to ride at Horn Rapids? $40 plus $10 per person to watch. 

Depending on where you live exactly… Toutle is your best bet to ride a track, it’s about an hour south of Olympia and they are open almost every day except Christmas.

If you’re looking for off-road single track stuff, Capital Forest is outside of Olympia is open May 1st to Oct 31st  and Tahuya is over by Bremerton, I think it’s open all year. 
 

it kinda just depends on what you’re into.  

It is a dream, unless you want to hit the woods.

Unfortunately not, I’ve been riding horn rapids since 1998. Ray does a good job but I still miss getting off school early every Wednesday and heading out to ride until dark. My stepmom at the time was the lap checker for the squisher races and that’s how I eventually got started racing in 2002 (RIP Pat)

heading out there tomorrow morning actually, yeah it sucks we have to pay to play now but it’s essentially the only hobby I’ve had that I actually stuck with and I’m not going to let money ruin it for me like many other locals did.

the old I90 now “dirtbike nation” in Quincy is worth checking out too

miss you guys over at pulp fantasy by the way

-Spudnut 

Here's an incomplete list of some great spots to visit in Western Washington with a video of each track.

Ward Creek practice day    Sunday, June 9th.
Orange/brown clay.  As said above, a hidden gem of Washington.
https://wardcreekmx.com/schedule/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmjnWjzJV8I

MotoWest in Bremerton (PacWest racing next weekend)
Gray sand and clay mix with more than enough rocks.  This is the local gravel pit, but it's fun.
https://pacwestmx.com/event/pac-west-motocross-series-round-9-woodland-…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyWyvsN_fP4

Washougal (NORCS - off-road race this weekend)   Check out the Classic 7 series mx races.
https://washougalmxpk.com/event-schedule/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbJ3gsnpQj8

Burnt Ridge MX
Another super fun orange/brown clay track.  Watch out for slick sections when it's damp!
https://www.burntridgemx.com/practice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkuOEwvj8ws

OPMC (Port Angeles, WA)  nothing on the schedule this weekend.   Buy a membership & get a key to ride any time.
This track doesn't look like much, but it races really well and the rain-shadow effect is real.
https://opmcmx.org/
https://www.facebook.com/opmcmx/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ADO5sY_gt4

Whidbey Island MX
It is a track in a former gravel pit...  Sand with far less clay content, so the rocks aren't a problem.
https://www.facebook.com/WhidbeyIslandMXLLC/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3PHHZMxOTY

Here are a few others that I haven't ridden in a few years:
Toutle MX (formerly Riverdale MX)  -  Up there with woodland during the rainy season and great for a family day.
Moto Pacific
Woodland - awesome winter track built on sand and Mt. St Helens ash.
Horn Rapids (HRMC) - Worth the drive for the opening round of P.R.O. series and in the winter.
Hannegan - For me, it's not worth the drive to Bellingham.
Airway Heights - I've never raced this one.

Community MX (CMX) is new.  A few friends are hoping it doesn't rain and going Sunday 6/2...   
It's on a small property owned by the Raines family, so limited space and you have to reserve a spot.

I'm sure I've left a few things off this list...   Plenty of variety around here, but as others have said we're in an era where several factors have created inconsistent tracks and a few have come and gone.   Burnt Ridge re-opening a year ago really made me smile.

Rocks and all, I loved that place, even though I got hit in the goggles so hard by one that I forgot where I was and had to pull off.

I never got a start worse than 3rd there after I discovered the gap in the concrete where they added several gates…it was like ECU start mode, but for 90s 2-strokes, lol…

I also remember them only grooming it about twice a year other than races and on one occasion, driving 4 hours to ride there, only to have to track someone from the city down to open it because no one bothered that day. 
 

Sucks to have to pay, but I’ll take the improvements and regular maintenance. 
 

The bummer for us now is they’re running the 7-10am practices, then again at night, which doesn’t work for us at all (we normally day-trip it, riding from opening until about 2pm). I get why they do it (very few riders during the day when it’s hot), but it still sucks.

The upside is burnt ridge reopening. I think we’re headed there next weekend if the weather pans out. Haven’t been since 2011ish.

I’m only a bit over an hour from Hannegan, and it’s not even worth it for me. 
 

It’s a shell of what it was back when Wayne was in charge of the dozer work. Sad tale of a club that could’ve had one of, if not the, premier facility in the NW, and pissed it away with skewed priorities and what seemed like a disdain for motocross. I was a club member in the late 90s/early 2000s, and watching them bitch about 1500 in diesel/CAT rental for a moto event that netted 15K, then celebrating a flattrack event that lost 25, made my head hurt.

At least I got to enjoy it back then. Had my first race there, got to be friends with many of the local faithful, got to experience Wayne’s tracks at his place (IYKYK), and got to experience their great schedule with Thursday night mx, hare scrambles on the opposite weeks (45 minutes of basically moto, that left the track in various places and used their woods), and big race weekends. Great memories.

Any SMC members here? Is that club still alive? I know they finally got a new track 15ish years ago…

7-10 is only on Fridays that they have a scheduled night practice Saturday and Sunday is regular schedule just a fyi