Norris Lake, Gatlinburg and KAT, July 2017

JeepN95YJ

Adventurer
Just got back from Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, and Kentucky!

Originally my plan was to spend about 5 days running the KAT (Kentucky Adventure Tour). This was to be a family vacation consisting of 3 days on Norris Lake, a day or two in Gatlinburg, TN, then working our way north east up the KAT beginning in Jellico, TN, and finishing up in Slade, KY.
As they say, plans change. We were having a great time and ended up spending a little more time at the lake, a little more time in Gatlinburg and a little less time on the trail. We ended up doing about 200 miles on the KAT and had a blast.

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Checking out damage from last year’s fire above Gatlinburg.

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This bridge was fun to cross. It is located about 2 miles in to the Porters Creek Trail in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.

I put about 1200 miles, total, on the little Jeep during the week and it performed offroad even better than expected. On road, however, I experienced a few challenges.
Backstory! I bought this jeep last year with 189,000 miles, blown head gaskets, a busted radiator and dropped valve seats. I made the repairs and have since completed numerous aftermarket add-ons and custom changes. Prior to this outing I only had about 500 miles on the Jeep. Build thread here.


I don’t mind a little vehicle drama on a trip. I try to be prepared and roll with it if anything goes wrong. The first racing-heart moment occurred before we even left town. Since Norris Lake is only about 4 hours away we decided to leave later in the afternoon so that my wife could get in a full day of work. Construction traffic made to 5-minute trip out of downtown Cincinnati take over an hour. Sitting patiently, trying not to get ran over by the new Street Car I noticed the temperature gauge was pushing 260 degrees. I spent the entire hour shifting from Drive to Neutral and boosting the RPMs to keep things cool. Once we were on the road temps returned to normal.
It was pushing 11pm when I got off the highway to make my way to the lake. Rain and traffic had kept things interesting. I hadn’t noticed on the interstate but the new headlight housings I had installed were shining brightly into the sky. I couldn’t see anything on the wet, winding roads to the lake…and the overheating problems were coming back.

I suspected the thermal clutch on the mechanical fan. It hadn’t given my any problems in the first 500 miles. Also, I hadn’t yet installed a fan controller on my auxiliary electric fan. I decided the easiest solution to my overheating problem would be to wire up the electric fan, temporarily. I wired it directly to the battery and used a fuse to turn it on and off as needed. This worked perfectly until about the 5th day when I got a Low Coolant indicator on the overhead. I put in about ¾ of a gallon of anti-freeze. Apparently, the high temps on the first day had caused an air bubble in the cooling system. I think the bubble burped on the highway causing the low coolant message. My overheating issues were non-existent afterwards.

We took Highway 25E to 321 to and from Gatlinburg. Hwy 25E intersects the KAT in Middlesboro, KY. This is also where the visitor center is for the Cumberland Gap National Park. We decided to start here rather than in Jellico, TN. We were using the GPS tracks provided by Jeff Stoess.

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JeepN95YJ

Adventurer
We spent the night at the Holiday Inn Express in Middlesboro, and started our adventure the next morning at the Pinnacle Overlook in the Cumberland Gap National Park.

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The first dirt on the KAT traveling east from Middlesboro is the Hensley Settlement track. This was my first time on the KAT but I immediately recognized the name of the track. I couldn't wait to surprise my family with the abandoned buildings. I didn't, however, remember that the marked, purple routes are EXTREME trails! Talk about trial by fire! In addition to this being the first real trail for the Jeep it was also the first trip for my kids. The crunching sounds from tire rub and bouncing around on tough rock ledges nearly ruined the trip for my youngest. Luckily she is resilient and eventually found her courage.

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A thunderstorm began as we started up the trail and contributed to the difficulty. Ultimately the rain forced us to stop short of reaching the settlement. You can see this culvert is about 16' long and more than half has been washed out and hanging over nothing. Making matters worse is the fact the culvert was clogged. I got out to check things over and found the water was not running through, but under. I worried it might wash out completely and leave us stranded on the other side. Common sense and the obligation to comfort my daughter made the decision to turn back an easy one.

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This photo makes it look like the trail is super wide with plenty of room. In reality, it felt very narrow, and is on a steep hill.

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I was able to back down the trail about 200 feet to a spot wide enough to turn around.


I had not expected the Jeep to flex as well as it did.
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The front tires rubbed but didn't cause any damage. I hadn't disconnected the front sway bar and bent the lower mount slightly. This likely wouldn't have happened if I were using an actual JKS disconnect for a WJ. Instead I was using a modified TJ disconnect.

The back tires hit hard though. I cut both rear tires on the outer tread, bent the fender lip slightly, pulled the rear bumper loose on the drivers side and lost the EVAP splash cover.

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(continued)
 

Trailboss

Senior Curmudgeon
Sharing challenging adventures can bring the family closer together. Hopefully, your daughter will want to go on more adventures with you now that she realizes she will survive them.
 

JeepN95YJ

Adventurer
Back on pavement and headed for the next challenge I was feeling a little apprehensive. As stated previously I am an experienced four wheeler but it had been a lot of years since I had driven any difficult trails. Between cutting the treads on my tires and scaring my daughter half to death we made the family decision to drive the remainder of this trip on the standard routing. We would delay the hard and extreme portions of the trail until a second trip later this fall.


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This little road side “general store” reminded me of a place my family used to stop in Eastern Kentucky when I was a kid. I couldn’t resist! They had a small selection of junk food snacks and a little deli counter where they made fresh sandwiches. It didn’t look like much but the traffic in and out during our 10 minute stop was steady.


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The kids loved driving through this “pipe” in the road. They said they thought this was what it felt like to be Super Mario.


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I don’t know how many post offices we passed!! Every time we came around a bend or pulled into a small town we found another little gem. My wife always finds time to pay the bills, even on vacation, and we stopped here to drop a few in the mail.


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This is Little Shepherd Trail. It was a nice single-lane asphalt and gravel track about 30-some miles long. The only traffic we saw was one lone ATV. You can see by the color the asphalt is covered in green moss. I enjoyed this section but it was a 2wd street.


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Also along the Little Shepherd Trail.
 

JeepN95YJ

Adventurer
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A HIDDEN GEM!
The Kingdom Come State Park is just outside Cumberland, KY. Remember this place for a really nice place to camp. There were no signs, anywhere that stated camping was available here but they had about 10 camp pads just passed the main entrance. We were there on a Thursday night and didn’t get there until after 8:30p. The office was closed. I am not sure whether there was a cost for camping here as we were out before 8a and back on the road. Most of the dispersed camping I saw along the trail this day was a mess. Garbage, beer cans, burned tires, graffiti, etc. It is a real shame that people can’t take better care of their own back yards. The State Park by contrast was pristine. It would make a nice place to base camp from. Unfortunately, I forgot to get pics of the actual site as I battled a small rain shower that morning.
The park had decent bathrooms and showers. Signs all over warned to beware of bears.

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No sign of camping…even on the map!

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The view was gorgeous. This was the end of our very first day on the KAT! We were on the road about 10 hours this day and did approximately 90 miles.
 
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JeepN95YJ

Adventurer
Sharing challenging adventures can bring the family closer together. Hopefully, your daughter will want to go on more adventures with you now that she realizes she will survive them.

Thanks for the encouragement! She is really good at trying new things. I think this just took her a little off guard. Last year she went whitewater rafting, zip lining and a high ropes course at Adventures on the Gorge in W.VA.
 

JeepN95YJ

Adventurer
You were all over my neck of the woods. I'm looking forward to your update.

Thanks, Rick. I used to spend nearly every weekend in Jellico, TN in the early 2000s. I was the volunteer coordinator for EROCC rock crawling competitions and we also tried to get a 2nd Jeep Jamboree in the area along with the Williamsburg, KY ride. I love the trails down there.
 

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