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| Trail riding in the Great Smokey Mountains, photo courtesy of Jamie M. |
Slipping into Tennessee from Chatsworth, GA, on US 441, was a wonderful drive. Georgia was surprisingly beautiful as we overlanded into Tennessee, which has its own brand of beauty as well. Traveling on winding, hilly country roads there was plenty to look at on both sides. We had a 4.5 hr drive from Fort Mountain, GA, to Oliver Springs, TN. Located at the foothills of the Great Smokey Mountains the town was named after its postmaster in 1826. Later in 1888 the railroad brought thousands of folks to frolic in the springs. In 2018 it brought about 200 Toyota Land Cruiser enthusiasts, Southeastern Toyota Land Cruiser Association, STLCA, from all over the souheast (we will get into that later) for the 27th annual Great Smokey Mountain Trail Ride #GSMTR2018 which we or I was very excited to attend.
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| Base Camp Windrock Park |
We camped for 6 nights at Base camp, Windrock Park, a 4WD park with over 314 miles of trails. We dry camped among some new found friends; there was some serious wheelers trailering their rigs by 5th wheel or by semi truck. It was obvious to most that we were novice to the wheeling circuit (no sliders, no lift) but that did not stop the WeOverlander team from getting dirty or from other wheelers welcoming us overlanders to their sport. The weather was wet on more than a couple of occasions which made it all the more gritty.
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| 3 different RTT 3 different Toyota's, comfort station |
Arriving on Monday we made camp and pulled out all the stops, ground tent, solar panels, canopy and private comfort station (wee wee room) porta-potties were a slippery walk down the embankment. In addition, the real comfort station and showers were a hilly, bike ride away. Lightning our load we practically emptied the rig, except for recovery gear and lunch fixins for our trail excursions.
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| Trail ride line-up |
Our first trail ride was Wednesday called the excursion ride 6-8hr guided trail ride on some of Windrock Park's "G" marked trails (Gravel road). We were a group of 6 Toyotas and one Jeep. Who else would bring a Jeep to a Toyota event but Jaime's Dad, Mr. Jimmy even when he has a Taco in his driveway. Someone said "no worries Jimmy will always be close to a TLC to tow him back!" Trail leader Andy in a blue F-40, and bringing up the rear Jamie M. in a 4Runner with land use permits in hand we took to the trails. As we started to climb it seemed pretty tame. By the way, the
excursion ride was designed for stock friendly Land Cruisers which was right up our alley.
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| Pee break |
As I said it looked pretty tame, however, about 30 minutes into the ride, the trail started to get a little more rutted and rocky and muddy and hilly and who knows what else! I was having a blast! Trixie had to admit she was enjoying spotting for ditches, ruts and rocks. We were doing great for a stock cruiser, even a couple of people, Mr Jimmy included said they were surprised that being stock without sliders or lift our rig handled very well. Side note: we were the only stock Cruiser in the group. We kept up with the pack and at times lead others through the well worn washed out trail. After a few hours of rock and hill crunching trail riding we stopped for a pee break and photo opp. Pushing on we crossed a small highway and the trail seemed to go vertical, No Prob! 4wd low, no lockers needed and our rig without as much as a slip climbed and climbed with tire pressure down 20 lbs in front and 23 lbs rear. Those fricken General Grabbers AT2 are amazing over slippery rocks and in the muddy sand we never had a traction problem.
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| Breaking-out to the summit |
We all lunched out of our rigs stopping shy of the summit, more photo ops, pee break and also picked up some left behind trash from some yahoos!! As we reached the summit we all got out and soaked in the view of the small town below, Rocky Top, 3400 ft above sea level. We swapped stories of close encounters of the rock kind, winding turns, ditches and muddy hills. I have to say that it was a good feeling of accomplishment knowing that our rig was capable of getting us to the top. I was much more confident that my Land Cruiser 100 series was everything I knew it to be and more.
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| Summit |
The whole time we both had the thought in front of our minds- "this rig is our home" do not put it in jeopardy, or go beyond reasonable limit. Our rig handled it with purchase!
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| Summit view of Rocky Top |
Coming down from our perch on top of the summit we pulled out as a pack. We were just ahead of the trail tail- wheeler Jamie, before us was a Tacoma driven by Kieth S. our campsite neighbor and in front of us was a 60 series with 30's a lift and a temperamental 327 Chevy engine driven by Tyler.
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| Trixie snacking with who else! Cracker Jack! |
The first descent off the top was deep ruts, rocky and you could not see the turn towards the bottom, as the front runners traverse the descent it was Tyler's turn in front of us. As he approached the rutted trail bouncing down we stayed back until it was clear and then we heard a bang, crunch, slam, not knowing what happened. Apparently Tyler's 60 lost power on the way down at the turn, that means no power brakes or steering. All I thought was Holy Guacamole Batman!! So not wanting to destroy "our home", I did the most sensible thing, I got out and walked the descent. I started trail building and taking note of what line to take. I was a bit worried. Trixie even more so, got out and started walking down the steep descent that was looking every bit challenging and with what we heard from Tyler clanking down the rutted descent I was a bit scared.
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| Looking back at the range we traveled |
While I was on the trail picking a line Jamie parked his lifted 4Runner with sliders and 30's, and offered to spot me down, with his experience I felt a sigh of relief. I told him the line I picked and he agreed with my choice. By this time Trixie was well clear of the rutted descent and as white knuckled as I was clutching the steering wheel driving "our home" safely down with the guidance of a experienced wheeler. 4wd compound low, rear lockers engaged I started my climb down. Focusing on Jamie's guidance our rig performed flawlessly. Tires had real purchase twisting down. It almost felt anticlimactic. With relief and joyous grins from Trixie and myself, we gave a big thanks to Jamie M. that day for giving Team WeOverlander a helping hand, "Thanks Dude!" You were there when it counted!! Our rig gained even further respect to be very capable. The next 3.5hrs were filled with more twisted turns on rocky rutted trails and we loved it.
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| Huge 300 class Wind Mills |
The next day Thursday, we were on our own to explore, so we chose "G-7" the windmill trail , #300 class wind mills to be exact. This was a fairly easy trail well marked and shorter than the previous day. The size of these wind mills is enormous. Once you get close to them you get a real perspective of how really large they are. 16 in all we ventured behind warning signs to get a closer look. They are the size of a 747 with a single wing span length of 300ft-totally impressive. We high tailed out of there as we noticed we were under surveillance. We continued further down the trail back on Windrock property. The trails were great a bit more muddy, some small water crossings, all from the nightly rains dumping on the landscape. Some how don't ask me how, but some how the trail was to end and we would then turn around but that did not happen.
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| Exploring unmarked trail |
We just kept going further. At one point knowing what we just climbed up how can we go back. We were off the map but the trail was still out in front of us, we kept going.
Passing a small cave entrance and cool rock out-crops, while doing some trail building to reach the top of hills, Trixie got her chops wet spotting me on more difficult wash outs as well as directing me under fallen trees, so not to scrape off our RTT.
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| Cave entrance |
That's when we realized that we could not turn around as we would never make it under that tree going the opposite way. Oh well, hoping we past the worst, that's when we came to the wash out, "Well I'll be a monkeys Uncle" really that's not what I said!!! We both got out to survey the situation. Deep wash out with an eroding shoulder, hmmm not good! After a bit of bantering with Trixie, I decided to back up and approach at a angle with Trixie spotting me slow and steady in 4wd low. I approached the washed out trail and immediately it proved to be too deep. We hit the eroded wash out earth. I crunched the bull bar against the front of the rig denting the bottom cross bar on a sharp rock and twisting the brackets to the driver side. I reversed the truck pulling back safely only to reveal the slight but added character of our front bull bar, time for the MaxTrax!...
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| Recovery by MaxTrax |
Which was what I should have used on my first attempt. Bridging the gap the MaxTrax proved their weight in gold, a must have especially if you don't have a winch, which we don't have. After recovery we headed up the trail to view our first trail marker for hours. "How'd the Hell" did we end up on "G-40" who knows, but now we know where we are. Time for lunch. Peanut butter n" pineapple preserves roll-ups, some fruit, water and chips. Winding our way back down, each corner was a new experience as we headed back to camp. It was taco and beer night one of three nightly meals sponsored by the STLC; more rain that night! Last but not least, a good shower and sleep for tomorrows trail ride.
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| Rock out-crop |
Friday started slow and wet 9:30am drivers meeting. 10:00am line up and we head out. Since I was told the crew floated a Keg last night our trail leader was about an 1hr late to the meeting, No worries the rain was still falling and conditions seemed to improve as we waited.
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| Trail Fix |
Again we chose the stock friendly ride. This time we had around 11 wheelers one Jeep, Mr Jimmy and co-pilot Mr Dennis, 3 FJ's a red 40, a 60 series, two 100 series (we were one of them) two 4Runners and a Suzuki. Taking to the trails we snaked our way up and down the hills with more vehicles.The going was a little slow, more stops and one break down.... you guessed it, the Suzuki, tire issues.
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| Wild Flowers |
Although, we pretty much went on some of the same trails as before, they all seemed different, with the amount of rain that fell road conditions changed. Still loads of fun, we made it back up to the top of the summit. We broke for lunch, snapped some pics, picked some wildflowers and had lunch- ham and cheese with hummus. Its all about the roads less traveled.
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| Getting ready to head out! |
The view was stellar as always and the temp was comfortably cool. Instead of taking the axle crunching trail down as on Wednesday we went back the same way we came up. Water crossings were washing out trails and cleaning the thick mud off our fenders. Further down the road we hit asphalt and the skies opened up and dumped rain like crazy. That night was burgers, dogs, chips and beer, new friends and plenty of soggy stories.
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| Road less traveled |
Saturday was wet and we started to break down our camp as we had to vacate by Sunday afternoon. But before that we took a ride around town and visited a Coal Miner's memorial wall.
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| Coffee before we hit the trail |
That night was the big BBQ dinner and raffle (Bow-Shackles not D-rings) also a small award ceremony.
Which I'm proud to say that
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| Highly Coveted GSMTR 2018 Globe Trotter Award! |
Team WeOverlander got the GSMTR 2018 Globe Trotter Award. We were so stoked meeting STLCA club members like Jamie, Jimmy, Dennis, Andy, Kieth, Tyler, Roger and many more names I can't recall. With their welcoming personalities and warm hospitality we quickly became friends and hope our trails will cross again!!
Cheers Y'all!!
Going to Kentucky north to Mammoth Cave National Park
See Y'all on the Road.
🚙......
