Durhamtown Tellico....

[Ghost]

For some reason I'm thinking it's a WJ.

 

[Ghost]

Ok so Andy had to work today. Mike, Mark, Andy, and a couple his students hit the trails today. I had a blast. I will be back up here......

The Bounty Hill!



I don't see Tim Cameron making that one..... I could be wrong....

Had some breakage!



Saw some Yota's Crawling the Bowl:





Yes he made it!

Mark and I tried these.....



Denied....



There is a beautiful Waterfall up there!



I developed a slight tapping when I drove down the trails after the waterfall hike.....



We actually wheeled pretty late:





All my pictures can be found here!

http://s16.photobucket.com/user/xjghost/library/Durhamtown Tellico?sort=3&page=1

 

[Lowrange2]

Nice! Looks like a lot of fun. Anxious to get up there.

 

[Ghost]

Uploaded a couple video's D shot while I was trying Gun Barrel....

 

[Lowrange2]

How'd you like wheeling and being able to see out the back?

 

[Georgia Mike]

Here are a few pics I took, and in classic fashion...my pics were sparse :dunce:

I missed this old road....


Behold a piece of SE history. This is MarkWNC's XJ. Save for a small bit of body damage it's remained largely unchanged since he first built it. With the exception of the custom exhaust stack, the hatch going away and switching from short arms to long, I really can't recall much changing since the first time we met back in '02. He had a vision, and built it like he wanted. We should call him Ike Turner 'cause he beats this old girl with no remorse!



I never caught up with this guy, but anyone that straps a stuffed chicken on their roof and paints their rig up like a Rocket Pop has gotta be entertaining to watch on the trail!



I'm just going to leave this pic of Mark right here and let him explain.....



Cork "Srcew" & Gun Barrel trails....two were denied here, so I didn't even bother!




$5,000 Bounty Hill. I'm not going to say it's impossible...but I will say improbable.



Mark Mauny rocking his Toyota up the granite slab





I only got two shots of Knuckle Buster (I think that was the name of it). I got fairly frustrated there for a bit!

Here's Glenn helping out us "little guys" by moving a big rock that was in a bad spot and would have been our undoing



This shot was mark after he'd gotten by the second rough section.



Sorry Glenn. I never seem to get many pics of yours in action. I'm always too busy watching to remember :doh: I'll try to get better about that!

 

[Georgia Mike]

Just got these two videos off of Wendy's camera, plus I got more pics off of her phone.

Glenn and Mark on Gun Barrel. This was pretty much the story for around 30 minutes, so I didn't even bother to try!





I'll post more tomorrow. All I can say is that I can't wait to go back when it's not a slick muddy mess. They said there had been several inches of snow on the ground just two weeks before, so that's why the ground was so saturated. I believe it will be totally different when dry.

 

[Ghost]

How'd you like wheeling and being able to see out the back?

Need to address a few things. Made a list on the way home. Wheeling it felt different. Seemed to have more umph..... I don't think I took off that much weight but it definitely was different. Looking forward to URE in April!

 

[01tj]

Have they cut alot of new stuff? I went back Sept. and it seemed like I went up everything there except the bounty hill in 1 day of riding.

 

[Ghost]

Have they cut alot of new stuff? I went back Sept. and it seemed like I went up everything there except the bounty hill in 1 day of riding.

We talked to Chuck the guy that builds the trails up there with the dozer. He said they had snow on the ground 2 weeks ago and the rain the last two days had everything saturated. That being said we tried to run Gun Barrel and could not get past the first ledge. Knuckle buster took us two hours and kept us from doing Rocket launch. I looked at the Bowl area and it looks like a good area with some very nice trails. Chuck also said he just finished up some trails on the Coldspring Gap tract that had a nice rock garden. We could not get our open rigs up to Buzzard's roost trail without helping them it was so slick. I'm going to try and shoot for May to return and camping at Crawford's. I'll make another thread for that ride. If you ran everything in a day you need to go back. I find it really hard to believe you ran all 40 miles of trails including the Tellico road in a day.

 

[01tj]

We talked to Chuck the guy that builds the trails up there with the dozer. He said they had snow on the ground 2 weeks ago and the rain the last two days had everything saturated. That being said we tried to run Gun Barrel and could not get past the first ledge. Knuckle buster took us two hours and kept us from doing Rocket launch. I looked at the Bowl area and it looks like a good area with some very nice trails. Chuck also said he just finished up some trails on the Coldspring Gap tract that had a nice rock garden. We could not get our open rigs up to Buzzard's roost trail without helping them it was so slick. I'm going to try and shoot for May to return and camping at Crawford's. I'll make another thread for that ride. If you ran everything in a day you need to go back. I find it really hard to believe you ran all 40 miles of trails including the Tellico road in a day.

I didnt go out to Tellico road. They said there was nothing to run out there so I didnt care to go see it. We also went to all the sights, waterfalls, plane crash, and the overlook. Normally I wouldnt even take the time to do any of that. Untill I see pictures of new stuff I doubt I'll be back. Its not much farther for me to go to Morris Mountain and its got alot better stuff. Glad yall had fun out there, hopefully it will continue to get better.

 

[Ghost]

I didnt go out to Tellico road. They said there was nothing to run out there so I didnt care to go see it. We also went to all the sights, waterfalls, plane crash, and the overlook. Normally I wouldnt even take the time to do any of that. Untill I see pictures of new stuff I doubt I'll be back. Its not much farther for me to go to Morris Mountain and its got alot better stuff. Glad yall had fun out there, hopefully it will continue to get better.

That's too bad. I saw a ton of stuff that was not on the map. Chuck just finished new stuff out Tellico road. So to answer you question yes there is new trails.

 

[Georgia Mike]

Have they cut alot of new stuff? I went back Sept. and it seemed like I went up everything there except the bounty hill in 1 day of riding.

I'm not saying I think it's impossible to do every trail we saw on Saturday, but I'll throw out an offer.....put your opinion about the place aside for a weekend, even though you've been once, and I'll pay your personal admission price if I see you do all the diamond & double diamond trails in one day. Your trip was 6 months ago, and there has been quite a bit of wet weather since that time. Couple that with lots of trail use and it doesn't take a genius to see the trails are getting worked in.

I'm not trying to start any arguments, all I'm saying is that you owe it to yourself to revisit the place and at the very least get free admission if you can prove me wrong :wave:

 

[01tj]

I'm not saying I think it's impossible to do every trail we saw on Saturday, but I'll throw out an offer.....put your opinion about the place aside for a weekend, even though you've been once, and I'll pay your personal admission price if I see you do all the diamond & double diamond trails in one day. Your trip was 6 months ago, and there has been quite a bit of wet weather since that time. Couple that with lots of trail use and it doesn't take a genius to see the trails are getting worked in.

I'm not trying to start any arguments, all I'm saying is that you owe it to yourself to revisit the place and at the very least get free admission if you can prove me wrong :wave:

I dont even know how to respond to that post with out sounding like a total dick, but do you even know what I wheel? lol

Do yall have an updated map? I'd like to see what is considered a black and double black trail.

 

[Ghost]

I dont even know how to respond to that post with out sounding like a total dick, but do you even know what I wheel? lol

Do yall have an updated map? I'd like to see what is considered a black and double black trail.

Marcus right? Mike he wheels a TJ on krawlers. I'll throw this out there. I've wheeled Morris Mountain and I'll never go back even if I was paid to go.

 

[01tj]

Marcus right? Mike he wheels a TJ on krawlers. I'll throw this out there. I've wheeled Morris Mountain and I'll never go back even if I was paid to go.

Yeah TJ 5.3 tons 39 Red Labels. I wouldnt go back to Durhamtown Tellico with out seeing and hearing better things about it, even if it was to take Mikes money. I was told not to go by some of my friends (guys with rigs built like mine), but I just had to see it for myself. I'm not downing the place, but I just felt like when I left that it wasn't the place for rigs built like mine and the group that I wheel with. I even referred the place to some guys with more mildly built rigs.

 

[Georgia Mike]

I dont even know how to respond to that post with out sounding like a total dick, but do you even know what I wheel? lol

Do yall have an updated map? I'd like to see what is considered a black and double black trail.

And I'm not trying be one, either. I'm just saying that a wheeling spot can change a lot in a few months with wet weather and increased use. What you wheel has absolutely no bearing on my impression of the place. A great wheeler in a pile of crap can out wheel a bad driver in a $100k rock bouncer. I've seen it happen time and time again. That being said, you may be the greatest thing since sliced bread behind the wheel and be a KOH contender. I'll never know since you're apparently totally against going. So you guys go enjoy Morris Mountain; I'm sure it's a great spot. We enjoyed ourselves, so we'll be going back to DT.

:thumbup:

 

[Georgia Mike]

Lol I just went back through this thread and looked at the pics Glenn posted from February. These two pics give a small glimpse of how much it can change, even over the course of one month, so I would imagine the rest of the park is more of the same. I don't know for sure since I never saw before pics of the areas that we saw on Saturday. Now someone with a much better built rig than ours may make it through somewhat easily, but Glenn had a bit of a time in a few spots, but it was very muddy and slick, and this trail wasn't the worst place we saw that day by a long shot.

This is the same trail, same spot:

February


March

 

[01tj]

And I'm not trying be one, either. I'm just saying that a wheeling spot can change a lot in a few months with wet weather and increased use. What you wheel has absolutely no bearing on my impression of the place. A great wheeler in a pile of crap can out wheel a bad driver in a $100k rock bouncer. I've seen it happen time and time again. That being said, you may be the greatest thing since sliced bread behind the wheel and be a KOH contender. I'll never know since you're apparently totally against going. So you guys go enjoy Morris Mountain; I'm sure it's a great spot. We enjoyed ourselves, so we'll be going back to DT.

:thumbup:

I'm sure I'll run into you somewhere else! :cheers:

 

[Georgia Mike]

I'm sure I'll run into you somewhere else! :cheers:

I look forward to it. You can show us peons how it's done!