Father's Day Ultimate Adventure
- Thread starter Feileod
- Start date
Harlan was a blast, we had a great time. We arrived Friday late afternoon and set up camp. We ran the lower rock garden and then tooled around the park trying to get our bearings. Saturday morning we headed up the mountain on trail 12 and ran through Kill'n Time. We planned a route that took us through the little and big stadiums and then on to Lion's Den. Unfortunately the weather had other plans. It started pouring raining just as we were headed from the big stadium over to Lion's den. We headed down the mountain into Evarts to the Ice cream shack for lunch hopping to waited out the rain. The cell coverage in Evarts is pretty bad so after lunch we ran up to the trail house and checked the weather forecast. The outlook was pretty bleak for the next couple of days so we packed up and headed off to Sparta, TN.
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We stopped on the way to Sparta and cleaned up the muddy and wet camping gear with the intention of camping at Golden mountain. Unfortunately Golden mountain's staff does not man their trail office after hours on the weekend. Their website says they are open Friday at 6am through Sunday 6pm but.... So we got a hotel room in Cookeville and got a much needed shower and good nights sleep. Sunday morning I called the park and made sure they were open and we headed out. We arrived about 10 minutes later with no one to be found. After a couple of calls and a couple of hours they finally showed up. We paid and were on our way. Golden Mountain rates their trails Green, Orange, and Red. Let me tell you what...Green trails required (they were wet) every bit of 35's, Lockers front and rear, and a winch! We attempted two different Orange trails; the first stopped us dead in our tracks and required us to turn around (fun with a four door JK) the second started out fine..fun and challenging. The end of the trail was a whole nother story. The Camel trophy Amazon ain't seen nothing like the steep, off camber, and super slick muddy hill that lay before us. So steep and slick that stopped the JK dead in tracks and tried to throw it off the hill. Sooo steep and slick I had to climb on my hands and knees to get up the trail. Five full winch pulls later, interupted by the cable coming off the drum, The Jk was at the top. I promptly played slip and slide to the bottom and turned the TJ around. We had an absolute blast at Golden mountain. I should note that although the staff was not attentive (they left park after we were on the trail) or prompt, they were very trusting and hospitable. They allowed us to store our camping gear under their large overhang and gave us full run of the park and facilities. The days wheeling was plagued with rain off and on but it only added to the challenge and kept the heat away. Again we packed up at dusk and were on our way to Windrock.
Hard to see but, the jeep is almost sideways and the rear axle is hanging off the side of the hill...Winch time!
Hard to see but, the jeep is almost sideways and the rear axle is hanging off the side of the hill...Winch time!
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A short hour and half later we arrived in Oliver Springs only to be greated by torrential rains and thunderstorms.....So plan B Comfort inn. We arrived at the Snack Shack, got our passes and were on our way up the mountain. We had a short amount of time to wheel and wanted to make the most of it so we started with Trail 15. The trail was wet from the previous nights rains and would prove to be quite a challenge. It took me several attempts to make it up the large shelf mid way up the trail. The base and top of the ledge was soft wet sand and provided little traction making the transition to the top difficult. My new AEV TT finally got its break in....I was concerned about the long JK now. Once over the ledge I staged as an anchor point for the JK in the advent we needed a winch point. Christian gave a couple of attempts and eventually lodge a body mount on the stump that protrudes on the driver's side of the ledge. it took the better part of an hour to dislodge it from the stump with the assistance of a highlift and bow saw. We tried a couple of more attempts but the JK was not going to make it up the ledge. We got the TJ through the rest of the trail and parked it. I spotted Christian through a 100pt turn around and we head back down to the main road to take an alternate route to the TJ's location. This was probably the first day we had some truly warm and sunny weather, the JK extrication had taken its toll on us and we were ready for a break and lunch. Out came the gas grill and thanks to foul camping weather we had plenty of food left. We ate like kings for lunch, steak and potatoes on the trail, and took a well deserved break. By the time cleaned up and packed up it there was just enough time for one short trail ride down mountain and then on the road for home. We stopped in Columbia for our traditional fourwheeler's dinner at the Carolina Ale house and rolled into Sumter just after eleven pm.
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Well we had planned to spend more time at Harlan and an extra day at Golden mountain. Mother nature changed our plans at Harlan and I didn't notice that Golden mountain is only open on weekends. We were eating lunch at Golden mountain and thinking about heading back a day early and came up with the idea of heading over to Windrock. We had to pass it going home anyways so why not? Plus then it made our four day trip off the hook..four days...three parks...you get the idea. We wheeled every green trail at Golden mountain and had it been drier we probably would have tried a couple more orange trails but, our experience with two already said we were asking for trouble. Harlan was the only "disappointment" we had planned another full day of exploring but, once it started raining there it never quit. They had serious storm activity all weekend. We new once we included Windrock in the mix we knew we would only be able to run one or two trails if we wanted to be home before midnight.