Watch SXSBlog Get Bested at Hatfield-McCoy

A rec-ute shootout in the woods results in a nasty wreck.

A snaking trail in the Bear Wallow trail system, part of the Hatfield-McCoy network, meant some scary angles for the SXSBlog crew.SXSBlog

SXSBlog wandered dangerously close to our stomping grounds recently, pitting a trio of newly acquired rec-ute machines against the snarled network that makes up the Hatfield-McCoy Trails. The trek was a big departure from their usual antics, which involve as much wide open space as they can find, as much horsepower as mods will allow, and as much throttle as they can stand.

Some bad advice for a novice rock crawler had predictable results.SXSBlog

But in the deep woods of West Virginia, horsepower is rendered useless—even dangerous. The trails are narrow and twisting, the paths strewn with boulders, roots, downed trees, and water crossings. The steep hollows that make up the ridges of the Appalachians mean steep drops and bad approach angles. And sometimes they force you to do things you don’t want to do.

Even after the rollover, getting down this nasty rock step meant the scary moments were far from finished.SXSBlog

A sharp left-hand corner with a single nasty line that features a four-foot drop puts the SXSBlog crew in such a predicament in this clip. Since they had brought along a driver with almost no rock-crawling experience, maneuvering past the obstacle ended about as you would expect: with a rig on its side.

Still, it’s impressive what their stock 2023 Polaris General XP4 1000, 2023 Can-Am Commander MAX, and 2023 Yamaha RMAX4 1000 are capable of.

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