Me, Lori and Cheyenne. Hitman's TJ can be seen behind our CJ.
This is a short page on my take of the trip to Tellico Off Road Vehicle area in North Carolina, March 16-21, 2001.
As a regular visitor on Jeeps Unlimited (.com) I ran across an "invitation" of sorts for any and all of the Jeepers on the board or who ever wanted to show up, to make a unorganized Jeep Run at Tellico in the Unicoi Mnts from March 16-?,2001. I was really interested. I was then given more fuel by a jeepin' buddy, Chris . By the end of January, I was firmly set on going. At my request (several, actually) my wife and partner in crime accompanied me and one of my dogs.
What ended up as us flat-towing the CJ up there suddenly blossomed into a small convoy. I emailed Michael "JeepFiend420" (miami) and found he was coming right past us, and our neck of the woods was a good half-way stop for him.. Then we got hooked up with Jon"needmorestuff"(albany) who hooked up with us on the interstate. THAT in itself was crazy. We all know things just don't go as planned. I figured, as did Hitman that we would leave and get to the area around 11AM. Well, we were hauling BUTT, and we miss calculated mile markers. We were only about 3 miles off or so. Anyway, we crested the small hill, and there was Jon... at 11AM! MAN, that worked out TOO good!
So, a TJ in lead, a TJ in 2nd, A ZJ pulling a CJ and a YJ bringing up the rear. I'd say we had a Jeep thing going here. We got to Murphy, NC with out much fuss, and only getting split up once negotiating through Atlanta. at Pine Creek Cabins for the stay. Several other jeepers showed up, including "The Brothers EDGE" in a TJ. There were a few others there from Alabama, but I'm not good with names (sorry). The ever-present Darrell was there with Sachem (YJ... from somewhere up north where it's COLLLLD). So, the stage was set.
This is the campsite at the start of Trail 5 just before the creek crossing. This is where we met up at. There were Jeeps everywhere. Now, I can't speak for all, but if you figure there were like 38 orders for shirts and some of the people there didn't oder shirts... that's still a bunch of people to show up on a date and time a LOOOOONG way from home, don'tchathink?
Well, we made the first day with a run of around 13 or so Jeeps. Lori and I were in the only CJ in that crew. We rode up trail 5, then linked 4 over to 6 back down the hill. We made a second day of it, rolling out with Me, Paul, Mike, Randall, and met up with Karl who was down from Ohio (i think) in his CJ7.
So, we went up 6 then down 4. About half way down 4, Mike stopped with a steering problem. Turns out that apparently, the left front H/D shackle bumped a rock and it tore the shackle mount up pretty good. We did a quick trail fix by using Mikes Warn to pull the shackle up to his tow hook in front of the bumper. While crude, it worked and got Mike off of the trail and safely to the cabin. Asside from Pauls clunks and rattles, that was the only damage OUR crew had.
Darrell rolled in WAY after dark with the horror story of the trip. He had parked his YJ (Sachem) in the trail to take pics. Engine running with the P-brake set. The thing let go, sending Sachem on a downhill slalom run of the trail, ending in a head with a big tree. The tree pushed the axle back at the left front wheel using the drive shaft as a Joust. Literally BROKE the t-case. I'd never seen that before!
So, I won't try to cram your comp with high quality pics slowing the load time up. I'm simply goint to list the pics on links below. With my current sources, that's the best compromise. Later, I'll get thumbnails up. But for now, We'll do it this way. ;-)
