Trip to Upper Tellico OHV Area

with

Tim Bramble, Tony Schaber, and the Beihoffs (David, Jan, Jake)

by Sam Houston

Pictures thanks to David and Tim

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On Friday, May first, I met Tony Schaber at Jim's Off Road Center in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. After BSing a while with Greg and Jim at Jim's, we made the short trip to the KOA at Sweetwater, Tennessee where we waited for Tim and the Beihoffs to arrive. After several hours, they showed up ... Tim in his F250 and the Beihoffs in their new 40 foot Class A motorhome pulling their XJ. They were running late due to a minor argument between the motorhome and the XJ in Atlanta. Seems the Cherokee wanted a closer look at the Cummins Diesel in the back of the motorhome and jumped right into the engine compartment.

After a dinner in Sweetwater, Tim, Tony, and I settled into our Kamping Kabin and David, Jan, and Jake settled into their beautiful coach. Saturday morning came early, and we made our way from Sweetwater to Tellico Plains to Upper Tellico OHV area.

Tony and Sam Airing Down at the Green Cove Motel Before Hitting the Trails

After paying our fees for the day, we stated in on trail 6. Our route for the day took us in 6 to 4. We then proceeded up 8 to the upper end of trail 9. We walked down 9 to Hard Rock, arriving just as the first vehicles of the day made it to the rock. After watching a few folks winch up Hard Rock after trying mightily to drive up it, we ate lunch then continued on 8 around the loop through some pretty scenery and some mild 'wheeling. We then crossed Fain Ford on 4, then took 5 out to trail 1. To finish the day, we came out of the area and bypassed lower 2 and started up the upper part of 2. We didn't get all the way through due to mechanical difficulties (Tony blew a front brake line on the steep rutted hill and David temporarily lost 4wd on the same hill). I didn't escape the day unscathed ... Trail TJ now has a nice Six States front driveshaft to replace the one a rock on 5 ate. It just goes to show, even easy places can eat parts if you're having a bad day.

After performing trail repairs to allow us to get Tony's CJ7 to the Green Cove, we returned to the KOA. Tony and I then drove back from Sweetwater to Green Cove in his F250 to tow his Jeep back to the KOA. To make a long story short, Tony and I finally got back to the KOA and in bed about 1:30 AM on Sunday after getting up at 7:00 AM on Saturday ... that's a long, hard day of 'wheeling.

Follow along with us on the ride through the pictures.

The Players and Their Rides

Starting Up Trail 6

Some of these pictures may be from trails 4 and 8, it's hard to tell where they came from.

Sam leading the way up 6

Sam crossing the first rocks on 6

Regrouping somewhere along 6 in the fog

Hard Rock on Trail 9

This shot was taken while we watched a group attending the Smokey Mountain Venture try to get up one of the toughest obstacles at Tellico. Just getting to the Rock is hard and when the Rock is wet, driving up it is damned near impossible. In the short time that we watched this group, we saw two vehicles come close to rolling before taking the cable route up.

Backside of Trail 8

These shots were taken as we worked our way around trail 8 going past the lower end of 9 and trying to get through the crowds to get to Trail 4 at Fain Ford.

Sam, with his smooth riding TJ kept running off from the group. Here, he's flying across a small creek crossing

David tests his articulation while Tony looks at an old piece of equipment at the very back end of the loop of trail 8

Trails 4 and 5

These shots were taken as we worked our way across Fain Ford then down trail 5 to the hard crossing.

Sam approaching the crossing. The approach required dropping off some big rocks

Sam crossing one of the forks of the Tellico River

Somewhere on Trail 5, I (Sam) managed to ding my front driveshaft. I believe it was on an easy pile of rocks at the top.

Trail 2

Here's the hill on the top of two. At this point, David is temporarily loosing 4WD

Tony in the same spot (almost) loosing his front brake line

 This spot is tougher than it looks. Sam got lucky when he came through it since you cannot see over your hood as you crest the first rock and picking the line is blind luck ... ARBs front and rear and a flexy suspension do help though.

For more photos including full sized versions of the ones shown here see Sam's web page at:

http://www.mindspring.com/~shouston/offroad/tellico_05_02_98.html

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