Tellico Trip Gone Bad

redrooster · #1 (**permalink**) 07-19-2004, 02:38 PM

I've been waiting for years to go to the legendary Tellico Trails of North Carolina. Finally we got a trip going and reserved a cabin for our group. It seems like everything went wrong after that.
First I decide to make sure my trailer was in proper working condition before hitting those treacherous mountain roads with a 4000 lb Jeep riding on it. Four hundred dollars and a lot of cursing later, she had a new set of trailer tires and brakes and was ready to go.
We loaded up and departed on our trip. The route takes us through the lovely but insanely congested traffic of Chattanooga, TN. To make a long story short it took us 7 hours and a ploice roadblock to make a 4 hour trip.
We rolled up at Crawford's Campground at 10:30 that night and were surprised that none of our group were there. No Jeeps, just trailers. I was supposed to be the last one there. Just as I unloaded one of my boys rolled up and told us of the day's events. They had all gotten up there early in the day and run Guard Rail, Helicopter pad and a few other trails. On the way out, the rock buggy that I posted pics of a few months ago lost an ignition coil. They had to tow it out from the farthest point from camp (about 12 miles). We made it to the cabin around midnight.
We got up early the next morning and made our way back to Crawford's to get the Jeeps. After one guy fooling around with his AirShox for an hour and a half and the other gone for a new ignition coil, we finally headed to the trails. It surprised me how much black top and gravel roads we had to run just to get to the trail head. I'm used to dumping the trailer and hitting the trails right there.
We paid our fees and headed to Lower 2 which is one of the hardest trails in the area. Half of us were against the idea of hitting the hardest trail first, because we had never been there before. Turns out our instincts were right. We lost three of the 6 vehicles on the exit of Trail 2 where it turns straight up a Rock wall. The culprits were 2 driveshafts and one Dana 300 that split itself in half. Only two of the trucks made it clean. I made a run at it and then decided to pull cable when I noticed that my Jerry cans were sitting on a rock. In other words, the Jeep was pointed at the sky and the gas can rack was sitting on a rock. The rest of the day was spent hauling busted junk out of the trails. The trip was over for two of the Jeeps.
On the second day of riding for us, we decided to hit Trail 4 which is nicknamed School Bus. We got halfway down the trail and one of our vehicles lost a fuel pump and another was having issues with a transfer case jumping out of gear. At this point we were very discouraged and decide to head back as we were running slim on tow vehicles.
We spent the rest of the afternoon playing on the rock piles at Crawford's and then having a big cookout.
I chalked this one up to learning experience. Next time we go, we will all know what is in store and have a better plan of action. I will also know to save the best for last and not get roped into the hardest obstacles first.
If anyone is interested in planning a trip to Tellico, post up and I will give you the number for Crawford's and the cabin we rented. It is a beautiful area and you do not have to hit the hard stuff if you don't want to.
Anybody else got any Tellico stories?

TwistedCopper · #2 (**permalink**) 07-19-2004, 04:23 PM

Wow what a weekend. Take any pics?

LGR · #3 (**permalink**) 07-19-2004, 04:36 PM

Sounds like it was still fun trip. yeah, i'd love to see some pics.

Tug-n-pull · #4 (**permalink**) 07-19-2004, 09:13 PM

You can pretty much tell how much fun you had by how many parts you break! However that was just to many parts broken for the effort! Live and you learn I guess! tug

redrooster · #5 (**permalink**) 07-20-2004, 11:32 AM

I didn't ake any pics. I shot video on my digital 8mm. I don't know if you can do anything with it in relation to puting it on the computer. I'm not well educated in the Audio Visual to Computer thing. I do have a nice stack of videos from all of our wheeling trips.