Guitarsail1
Adventurer
So after our successful CALO trip in March it was time to do the trip we had been dreaming of all year. The Kentucky Adventure Tour. Big thanks to Jeff the creator of the route. Our trip started with a 9 hour drive up to Tallulah Falls State park in the north east GA mountains. We got in late and left early but it was BEAUTIFUL. We have plans to go back and explore more before or after Expo East in Asheville. The next morning we headed out for Sevierville TN which would be our jump off point. The drive over the mountains was amazing.
We had 2 free nights at a time share and some friends there so we hung out with them and did a day at Dollywood.
Morning of the 19th we set off for Jellico where we'd start our trip going Clockwise. Our good Friends and their brother came in the night before and we were off! Our group was Ben and Caroline in a 3rd Gen 4Runner, Will in a 3rd Gen Taco, and myself and my wife in our 5th Gen 4Runner.
First day out of Jellico started strait onto gravel roads and into the mountains. The trails were great and we had a light mist come and go. We were making great progress through Big South Fork when we ran into a gnarly section of trail. Its near the beaver dam that people talk about somewhere near Brown Point Mnt. There is a pond mid way up the hill that has been dammed up by a beaver the water then flows down the middle of the trail. Well after the heavy rain it was pretty messed up. You have to straddle a 2-3ft deep crevice in the middle of the trail then comes the fun part. More slippery mess scattered with some boulders. As our luck would have it once we finally crested the hill, we found a good sized tree had fallen during the storm. Took us about 3 hours of chopping to chop it out of the trail since someone forgot the chainsaw. At least we had a pair of axes!
This was Followed by some creative winching to get it winched to the side.
Once we finally got the trail clear it was dark and raining pretty good. We made it to our planned camp area around 10pm in the rain and dark. Was a blast doing water crossings in the rain and the dark. Had to do some creek walking to make sure we weren't getting in over our heads. But we made it!
Day two brought more beautiful trails and scenery. About 2 miles from the end of Daniel South the trail and a creek become one. The trail follows the creek for a bit but after the weather the creek was over flowed and had taken out a ton of trees. We found it to be impassible and turned around looking for a way to move on. About midway through Daniel North on day 2 Ben had discovered an annoying brake light coming was actually a leak in the line to his rear breaks. We decided to head for civilization to take a look. We ended up in London KY during dinner time so we made some walking tacos while Ben tackled his leaking brake lines.
We got moving around 630pm and headed for Turkey Foot campground. We skipped some trail that day but oh well, had to do what we had to do. We got into Turkey Foot and had a good evening around the camp fire.
Off we went for Hard 2 coming from the south. The first drop is a Doozy. We walked down it and around the first turn, debated and decided to go for it. After about an hour we all made it down only to discover it became impossible for us. THere is about a 4-5' deep muddy crevice that you have to straddle but before you go up that you have to go through a giant mudhole. We decided there was no line we could take that would safely get us through that. So we turned around. Ouch. Going back up that hill was a bear. There was a moment of prayer with the group because it was looking like we we're going to spend the night at the bottom of the hill on Hard 2. But after some work we all made it safely out of there and carried on. We picked up some hitchhikers on the trails. Two older gents who were hiking from TN-Ohio. We brought them to where they wanted to go got some great pictures and headed on
We made it to the end of Daniel north and cut across to Slade to eat at Miguels. Awesome pizza. Lot of dirty hippies. We spent the night at Red River Campground. Beautiful full moon!
About 15 minutes into our start of day 3 I get the call on the CB from Will that I had a shock loose. We pulled into town and discovered my lower shock mount bolt on my rear shock was completely missing at the shock had popped off the mount. We secured it back on the mount with bailing wire and headed the 20 miles down the road to the local NAPA for a replacement bolt. This was our planned day to book it across North Kentucky to make sure we had time to get the East side of the trail done. Not much to report, we hauled on backroads all the way to Breaks Interstate park where we spent night 3.
We went and checked out the park before we headed south down the east portion of the tour. Wow.
South we went! And wow what a trip this half was.
"Stuck" ..haha
We made it past the radar dome and found a nice place off the trail to camp
Had a little surprise that night when a biker who had been running the trails nearby (we had heard them across the valley earlier in the night) wandered into our camp at 1am. Hollering he had no gun and if anyone was there. I responded (being in the RTT) he came around my truck but I still didn't stick my head out. I could see him in the moonlight but he couldn't see me. By this point 6'5" Ben had gotten out of his tent and surprised him from the other side. All we knew at this point was some guy had wandered into our camp hollering if anyone was there so we were a little leary to say the least. None the less His buddy had wiped out earlier in during daylight hours and they had no lights on the bike to get to town. I tossed him my cheap headlamp for some Karma points and he left our camp. He didn't know there was still a 3rd guy who had remained silent in case something had gone badly. That was exciting but turned out fine.
Morning Day 5 we sent off on a BRUTAL trail. We had camped in the middle of Black Mountain Ridge Rd and from where we had been it wasn't bad, but when we left camp it got tough. Not techincal at all but just filled with Large chunk gravel. We were stuck at 1-2mph for HOURS. It shook our fillings, our joints, our steering joints, and it took forever to get off the trail. By that point we were over it and Ben and Caroline had to head home. We hugged it out and said goodbye after doing Little Shepard Trail. It was raining and they headed off.
My wife and I went on to Chain rock to finish our trip out. The rain cleared out just in time. Amazing views.
It was an amazing 5 days. We didn't do the entire thing as we had to skip some sections but it was amazing. What an adventure. I miss the trails already but back to work and reality. All we could talk about on our 13 hr drive home was our next trip. Expo East! Ultimately we're thinking something on the West Coast on a longer trip and ultimately we'd love to go to Prudhoe Bay Alaska. It was awesome having Ben and Caroline with us and Will too!
We had 2 free nights at a time share and some friends there so we hung out with them and did a day at Dollywood.
Morning of the 19th we set off for Jellico where we'd start our trip going Clockwise. Our good Friends and their brother came in the night before and we were off! Our group was Ben and Caroline in a 3rd Gen 4Runner, Will in a 3rd Gen Taco, and myself and my wife in our 5th Gen 4Runner.
First day out of Jellico started strait onto gravel roads and into the mountains. The trails were great and we had a light mist come and go. We were making great progress through Big South Fork when we ran into a gnarly section of trail. Its near the beaver dam that people talk about somewhere near Brown Point Mnt. There is a pond mid way up the hill that has been dammed up by a beaver the water then flows down the middle of the trail. Well after the heavy rain it was pretty messed up. You have to straddle a 2-3ft deep crevice in the middle of the trail then comes the fun part. More slippery mess scattered with some boulders. As our luck would have it once we finally crested the hill, we found a good sized tree had fallen during the storm. Took us about 3 hours of chopping to chop it out of the trail since someone forgot the chainsaw. At least we had a pair of axes!
This was Followed by some creative winching to get it winched to the side.
Once we finally got the trail clear it was dark and raining pretty good. We made it to our planned camp area around 10pm in the rain and dark. Was a blast doing water crossings in the rain and the dark. Had to do some creek walking to make sure we weren't getting in over our heads. But we made it!
Day two brought more beautiful trails and scenery. About 2 miles from the end of Daniel South the trail and a creek become one. The trail follows the creek for a bit but after the weather the creek was over flowed and had taken out a ton of trees. We found it to be impassible and turned around looking for a way to move on. About midway through Daniel North on day 2 Ben had discovered an annoying brake light coming was actually a leak in the line to his rear breaks. We decided to head for civilization to take a look. We ended up in London KY during dinner time so we made some walking tacos while Ben tackled his leaking brake lines.
We got moving around 630pm and headed for Turkey Foot campground. We skipped some trail that day but oh well, had to do what we had to do. We got into Turkey Foot and had a good evening around the camp fire.
Off we went for Hard 2 coming from the south. The first drop is a Doozy. We walked down it and around the first turn, debated and decided to go for it. After about an hour we all made it down only to discover it became impossible for us. THere is about a 4-5' deep muddy crevice that you have to straddle but before you go up that you have to go through a giant mudhole. We decided there was no line we could take that would safely get us through that. So we turned around. Ouch. Going back up that hill was a bear. There was a moment of prayer with the group because it was looking like we we're going to spend the night at the bottom of the hill on Hard 2. But after some work we all made it safely out of there and carried on. We picked up some hitchhikers on the trails. Two older gents who were hiking from TN-Ohio. We brought them to where they wanted to go got some great pictures and headed on
We made it to the end of Daniel north and cut across to Slade to eat at Miguels. Awesome pizza. Lot of dirty hippies. We spent the night at Red River Campground. Beautiful full moon!
About 15 minutes into our start of day 3 I get the call on the CB from Will that I had a shock loose. We pulled into town and discovered my lower shock mount bolt on my rear shock was completely missing at the shock had popped off the mount. We secured it back on the mount with bailing wire and headed the 20 miles down the road to the local NAPA for a replacement bolt. This was our planned day to book it across North Kentucky to make sure we had time to get the East side of the trail done. Not much to report, we hauled on backroads all the way to Breaks Interstate park where we spent night 3.
We went and checked out the park before we headed south down the east portion of the tour. Wow.
South we went! And wow what a trip this half was.
"Stuck" ..haha
We made it past the radar dome and found a nice place off the trail to camp
Had a little surprise that night when a biker who had been running the trails nearby (we had heard them across the valley earlier in the night) wandered into our camp at 1am. Hollering he had no gun and if anyone was there. I responded (being in the RTT) he came around my truck but I still didn't stick my head out. I could see him in the moonlight but he couldn't see me. By this point 6'5" Ben had gotten out of his tent and surprised him from the other side. All we knew at this point was some guy had wandered into our camp hollering if anyone was there so we were a little leary to say the least. None the less His buddy had wiped out earlier in during daylight hours and they had no lights on the bike to get to town. I tossed him my cheap headlamp for some Karma points and he left our camp. He didn't know there was still a 3rd guy who had remained silent in case something had gone badly. That was exciting but turned out fine.
Morning Day 5 we sent off on a BRUTAL trail. We had camped in the middle of Black Mountain Ridge Rd and from where we had been it wasn't bad, but when we left camp it got tough. Not techincal at all but just filled with Large chunk gravel. We were stuck at 1-2mph for HOURS. It shook our fillings, our joints, our steering joints, and it took forever to get off the trail. By that point we were over it and Ben and Caroline had to head home. We hugged it out and said goodbye after doing Little Shepard Trail. It was raining and they headed off.
My wife and I went on to Chain rock to finish our trip out. The rain cleared out just in time. Amazing views.
It was an amazing 5 days. We didn't do the entire thing as we had to skip some sections but it was amazing. What an adventure. I miss the trails already but back to work and reality. All we could talk about on our 13 hr drive home was our next trip. Expo East! Ultimately we're thinking something on the West Coast on a longer trip and ultimately we'd love to go to Prudhoe Bay Alaska. It was awesome having Ben and Caroline with us and Will too!
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