TeddyBoy
Knighted by the King of MUD himself
Here is the trail writeup from Over the Mountain. We all had a great time and hope to do it again w more Ga Cruisers next year.
This is post #58 on the UC forum but will save you a little time.
https://forum.ih8mud.com/sc-upstate-cruisers/235269-omt-08-pics-videos-stories-thread.html
Well it is becoming an enjoyable habit (and somewhat anticipated) for me to do a trail writeup for my fellow Ga. Cruiser guys. In honor of the UC crew (of which I am now one) I will post it in the UC OTMT thread and link it from the Ga Cruisers forum, hope you don't mind.
I would like to extend a big "Thanks" all those who organized this great ride. Great Job
PICS HERE
Sorry for its length but just too much fun to leave out anything, hope you enjoy.
For me this trip was a last minute decision as work forced me to stay in ATL again, for those who don't know I have been trying to get to FL to see the
who has been diligently working on our house in preparation of selling it. I wasn't really "amped up" until late Thursday night when Steenh started posting on this thread about leaving right then. Well that was all it took, slept 4 hours Thursday night.
Friday, Sylvain and I hooked up about 2:30 to caravan up to Tellico through Murphy and across Trail 1. Sylvain was pulling the Pimp house and I ran interference. About the time we hit the pay station on Trail 1 Heather was on our tail and anxious to get to camp. After a short greeting with Heather we were off again to McNabb. It took us just under an hour to make the entire Trail 1 trek as the pimp house forced us to take it easy. NGA-FJC (Eric) was kind enough to reserve a spot where we promptly setup camp and got ready for dinner.
By 7 We were well into the camp mood and anxiously awaited Marshall's world famous buffalo wings, soon enough they started coming in batches. Marshall was definitely in the wing cooking groove as roughly 80 lbs. were prepared & consumed which made for some very full campers. Job Well done Marshall and assistants!
After dinner we settled around our various campfires, ours consisted of a small revolving crowd of about 10-12 people throughout the night. For the most part it was myself, Sylvain, Steenh, Smitty, Archie, Kevin, Eric Bartel and his wife Annette. The conversation primarily centered around Archie's trip to Alaska but of course was intermixed the usual campfire bantering and teasing. Everything was running along very smoothly until we picked up a couple other guys who shall remain nameless about midnight. Now these two guys are by no means totally to blame and this is a PG-rated forum but it sparked a series of stories that were not necessarily family oriented, good or bad I haven't laughed that hard in many years. thanks guys and great to see you. By 2:30 AM we were pretty much the last survivors of the entire campground and we went to our beds.
Saturday Most of us were a little slow in getting up but my tent was so close to the road I needed a yield sign for oncoming traffic, I was "awake" early. After 1) a great egg and bacon breakfast prepared the TTT, 2) Heather's bear sighting story, 3) a Tread Lightly course (Thanks Heather) and of course 4) a Trail Meeting we broke off into various groups. The groups consisted of easy, medium and hard core rides. I was given the opportunity to drive the TTT 's Taco along with Conner and the rest of the TTT on the medium ride. We headed out about 11 w/ 8 trucks (Woody, Steenh, Sylvain, Tracey, Smitty, Archie, who am I missing, sorry and myself) in the group but almost immediately lost Archie with starter problems. Archie-- could 400 river crossings in Alaska have anything to do with this???? Anyway off we went up trail 6 with Conner and me in the last truck. It was a pleasure riding with Conner as he has some great stories and represents the TTT very well, thanks Conner. Going up trail 6 is a little more difficult than going down but not too bad. Woody spotted in some of the more interesting spots and we all got through with only a few delays. The first was about 2/3 up when Steenh's hundy overheated--the exact cause is still unknown but a faulty fan clutch or thermostat is suspected. To prevent further overheating, Steenh got to ride around all day w/ his heater on high. The 2nd delay was humorous, over the CB Sylvain calls out "Hey Steenh, I think you may need a new exhaust pi.... oh wait, STOP!!!!" we all clamber to Steenh's truck and notice the tail pipe "out of position." Steenh crawls under his truck from behind and Woody under the passenger side. After a few minutes of wrangling, a few choice words and a truck lift provided by the spectators they were able to remove loose tail pipe and resonator. Afterwords, yellow duct tape (by you know who), paper-clips, bubble gum, and rubber bands were all offered in an effort to repair the carnage. I don't understand why but no offerings were taken. We also suggested a spotter for Steenh the next time he came a cross a tennis ball in his driveway, but again he declined. Not certain he cared for that last one as he just smiled and went back to his truck.
We threw the exhaust pipe in the back of the TTT Tacoma and off we went. fortunately he made it back to camp minus only one tail pipe.
We stopped for lunch around 1PM and then progressed up to the top of Slick Rock and back down w/o further incident, on the trail at least. Along our return trip back to Mcnabb few of us stopped in Green Cove for supplies. Smitty was among those who stopped which resulted in his separation from the group. On his trek back to camp he missed the turn leading to Mcnabb. Upon realizing his error Smitty decides to turn around on N. River Rd. For those that don't know N. River Rd. is smooth, paved, not exactly wide, clear, an easy-to-drive black top that is riddled with little old ladies from Florida. In Smitty's defense he did great all day but apparently black top roads are just too much. Also, we all know mountains are not the biggest thing in the world (relative to some oceans) but for the most part they are hard to miss. While attempting to turn around Smitty (that would be SMITTYCRUSHER aka Scott S. if you feel a need to give him a hard time) somehow managed to back into the mountain putting a fairly good dent in his right rear bumper and nearly getting stuck, pics do no justice. Have I described the road yet? To top it off, he even had a spotter in the car and still managed to hit a mountain. Upon his return he didn't even try to make up a bogus story to try to explain what had happened, mistake!
Once back in McNabb we all gathered around the TTT making burgers and hot dogs, good eating a job well done. With all bellies stuffed again it was time socialize around 1 of the 3 campfires. We watched videos of "old times" and previous adventures. As the night wore on our group opted to try to retain some civility in our campfire conversations which was great. About midnight a polite visit from 2 DNR officers was made warning us of bear activity in the area and to please clean up and put all food and consumables in our cars at night. Soon after their departure we had another bear sighting on the camp fringes, unfortunately I didn't get see our furry visitor. Feeling a little tired and not quite myself I went straight to my tent leaving out a few of my supplies. :whoops:. Fortunately my tread-lightly friend got my back and assisted with my leave behinds. Thanks Eric for looking out for us, I owe you one.
Sunday Sunday morning was a day of tear down and clean up, After a few hours of packing and saying our "See you laters" we departed around noon for a very sleepy and long trip back home. Along the way we stopped at the Fish hatchery and got the dime tour from Rob and also bumped into Roger. Both great guys. We then stopped for BBQ in Blairsville and a quick trip to see the White Bat in Turner's corner. Made it home by 5:30 and was asleep by 8.
Great trip and looking forward to seeing everyone at the Beasley Bash in early September.
This is post #58 on the UC forum but will save you a little time.
https://forum.ih8mud.com/sc-upstate-cruisers/235269-omt-08-pics-videos-stories-thread.html
Well it is becoming an enjoyable habit (and somewhat anticipated) for me to do a trail writeup for my fellow Ga. Cruiser guys. In honor of the UC crew (of which I am now one) I will post it in the UC OTMT thread and link it from the Ga Cruisers forum, hope you don't mind.
I would like to extend a big "Thanks" all those who organized this great ride. Great Job
PICS HERE
Sorry for its length but just too much fun to leave out anything, hope you enjoy.
For me this trip was a last minute decision as work forced me to stay in ATL again, for those who don't know I have been trying to get to FL to see the
who has been diligently working on our house in preparation of selling it. I wasn't really "amped up" until late Thursday night when Steenh started posting on this thread about leaving right then. Well that was all it took, slept 4 hours Thursday night.Friday, Sylvain and I hooked up about 2:30 to caravan up to Tellico through Murphy and across Trail 1. Sylvain was pulling the Pimp house and I ran interference. About the time we hit the pay station on Trail 1 Heather was on our tail and anxious to get to camp. After a short greeting with Heather we were off again to McNabb. It took us just under an hour to make the entire Trail 1 trek as the pimp house forced us to take it easy. NGA-FJC (Eric) was kind enough to reserve a spot where we promptly setup camp and got ready for dinner.
By 7 We were well into the camp mood and anxiously awaited Marshall's world famous buffalo wings, soon enough they started coming in batches. Marshall was definitely in the wing cooking groove as roughly 80 lbs. were prepared & consumed which made for some very full campers. Job Well done Marshall and assistants!
After dinner we settled around our various campfires, ours consisted of a small revolving crowd of about 10-12 people throughout the night. For the most part it was myself, Sylvain, Steenh, Smitty, Archie, Kevin, Eric Bartel and his wife Annette. The conversation primarily centered around Archie's trip to Alaska but of course was intermixed the usual campfire bantering and teasing. Everything was running along very smoothly until we picked up a couple other guys who shall remain nameless about midnight. Now these two guys are by no means totally to blame and this is a PG-rated forum but it sparked a series of stories that were not necessarily family oriented, good or bad I haven't laughed that hard in many years. thanks guys and great to see you. By 2:30 AM we were pretty much the last survivors of the entire campground and we went to our beds.
Saturday Most of us were a little slow in getting up but my tent was so close to the road I needed a yield sign for oncoming traffic, I was "awake" early. After 1) a great egg and bacon breakfast prepared the TTT, 2) Heather's bear sighting story, 3) a Tread Lightly course (Thanks Heather) and of course 4) a Trail Meeting we broke off into various groups. The groups consisted of easy, medium and hard core rides. I was given the opportunity to drive the TTT 's Taco along with Conner and the rest of the TTT on the medium ride. We headed out about 11 w/ 8 trucks (Woody, Steenh, Sylvain, Tracey, Smitty, Archie, who am I missing, sorry and myself) in the group but almost immediately lost Archie with starter problems. Archie-- could 400 river crossings in Alaska have anything to do with this???? Anyway off we went up trail 6 with Conner and me in the last truck. It was a pleasure riding with Conner as he has some great stories and represents the TTT very well, thanks Conner. Going up trail 6 is a little more difficult than going down but not too bad. Woody spotted in some of the more interesting spots and we all got through with only a few delays. The first was about 2/3 up when Steenh's hundy overheated--the exact cause is still unknown but a faulty fan clutch or thermostat is suspected. To prevent further overheating, Steenh got to ride around all day w/ his heater on high. The 2nd delay was humorous, over the CB Sylvain calls out "Hey Steenh, I think you may need a new exhaust pi.... oh wait, STOP!!!!" we all clamber to Steenh's truck and notice the tail pipe "out of position." Steenh crawls under his truck from behind and Woody under the passenger side. After a few minutes of wrangling, a few choice words and a truck lift provided by the spectators they were able to remove loose tail pipe and resonator. Afterwords, yellow duct tape (by you know who), paper-clips, bubble gum, and rubber bands were all offered in an effort to repair the carnage. I don't understand why but no offerings were taken. We also suggested a spotter for Steenh the next time he came a cross a tennis ball in his driveway, but again he declined. Not certain he cared for that last one as he just smiled and went back to his truck.
We threw the exhaust pipe in the back of the TTT Tacoma and off we went. fortunately he made it back to camp minus only one tail pipe. We stopped for lunch around 1PM and then progressed up to the top of Slick Rock and back down w/o further incident, on the trail at least. Along our return trip back to Mcnabb few of us stopped in Green Cove for supplies. Smitty was among those who stopped which resulted in his separation from the group. On his trek back to camp he missed the turn leading to Mcnabb. Upon realizing his error Smitty decides to turn around on N. River Rd. For those that don't know N. River Rd. is smooth, paved, not exactly wide, clear, an easy-to-drive black top that is riddled with little old ladies from Florida. In Smitty's defense he did great all day but apparently black top roads are just too much. Also, we all know mountains are not the biggest thing in the world (relative to some oceans) but for the most part they are hard to miss. While attempting to turn around Smitty (that would be SMITTYCRUSHER aka Scott S. if you feel a need to give him a hard time) somehow managed to back into the mountain putting a fairly good dent in his right rear bumper and nearly getting stuck, pics do no justice. Have I described the road yet? To top it off, he even had a spotter in the car and still managed to hit a mountain. Upon his return he didn't even try to make up a bogus story to try to explain what had happened, mistake!
Once back in McNabb we all gathered around the TTT making burgers and hot dogs, good eating a job well done. With all bellies stuffed again it was time socialize around 1 of the 3 campfires. We watched videos of "old times" and previous adventures. As the night wore on our group opted to try to retain some civility in our campfire conversations which was great. About midnight a polite visit from 2 DNR officers was made warning us of bear activity in the area and to please clean up and put all food and consumables in our cars at night. Soon after their departure we had another bear sighting on the camp fringes, unfortunately I didn't get see our furry visitor. Feeling a little tired and not quite myself I went straight to my tent leaving out a few of my supplies. :whoops:. Fortunately my tread-lightly friend got my back and assisted with my leave behinds. Thanks Eric for looking out for us, I owe you one.
Sunday Sunday morning was a day of tear down and clean up, After a few hours of packing and saying our "See you laters" we departed around noon for a very sleepy and long trip back home. Along the way we stopped at the Fish hatchery and got the dime tour from Rob and also bumped into Roger. Both great guys. We then stopped for BBQ in Blairsville and a quick trip to see the White Bat in Turner's corner. Made it home by 5:30 and was asleep by 8.
Great trip and looking forward to seeing everyone at the Beasley Bash in early September.
Last edited:
's
