Southern Appalachian Trip, dirt and road (1 Viewer)

[izzyandsue]

Friday morning , 8:30, we met at Mast Gen Store in Valle Crucis to start a 3 day adventure ride, maximizing off road driving through NC, TN, and VA. The route is below. We had no idea about where we would camp, no idea is the route would work, but that's part of the "overlanding" fun. We wanted to maximize dirt roads or trails, and find remote and quiet campsites.

We finished today at Hogback Ridge Road in VA. We stayed in awesome places, drove great trails, got stuck and unstocked, and went into unmarked public trails as far as possible.

Some of the roads, Forest roads, had a private road sign on one direction, and welcome to forest xxx on the other, so we figured some owners try to bluff to avoid drivers near their homes. But these are official US Forest Service Roads open to the public

 

[izzyandsue]

I will GLADLY SHARE THE GPX FILE, by the way, go out there and enjoy this route or parts of it.

Cows

Trucks

Awesome farm roads

Great vistas all day Friday

 

[izzyandsue]

Lots of barns like these

 

[izzyandsue]

Drove to some really cool forests, made the top of Whitetop Mountain too

Found my future rig, look at that flex! Crossed the Appalachian Trail bout a dozen times

 

[izzyandsue]

Campsite,2 was on this amazing road, forest road 206 in VA, on ridge and crosses I77 tunnel. Long road, 4000ft up

Lots of very nice rock formations and rocks balancing on each other

 

[izzyandsue]

More rocks, as big as 2 Story houses

Here we picked up Raleigh Grayson Turnpike a big name for a narrow difficult trail, fun as hell.

 

[izzyandsue]

Then onto Hogback Ridge Road, which was awesome! Maps show that it dead ends, but it doesn't! Huge mug bogs and holes.

Carving mud with my sliders, this one was deep but we made it.

This other one stuck! Axles buried. Had to dig out sucking mud, and Jonathan gave my truck a good yank with kinetic strap, more shoveling... some of this road wouldn't be easy if wetter.

We made it down to exit 62 on I-77 then home in 2.5 hours. Jonathan has most of the pics and videos, will post later. Anyone wants the route, email me at izzyandsue@yahoo.com

You need map 786 and 787 from Trails Illustrated, they are essential on this. He Avenza PDF versions of the same is what I used. That way you can also substitute remote camping with national forest campsites with amenities.

 

[izzyandsue]

 

[izzyandsue]

 

[tgadd]

Looks like a nice weekend trip. The pictures of the forests look great.

 

[JohnVee]

What the hell was that thing running in the background of the second to last video? It was covering some serious ground.

 

[izzyandsue]

What the hell was that thing running in the background of the second to last video? It was covering some serious ground.

Batman

Or an Appalachian American in a pickup 'emup truck.

Some of the "holes" in Hogback Ridge had mud and water to my doors, I was very scared and cried a little, pooed and weted myself.
And the skinnier tires worked fantastic...

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Badass!! You can really cover some ground with just two people.

 

[izzyandsue]

Badass!! You can really cover some ground with just two people.

The whole track is over 230 miles. It is easier with 2, as we had no clue where we where going to camp besides "the woods". And some of the campsite will fit 2-3 trucks. But on the track itself, I did mark "big campsite" when it can take 6-7, in my opinion.

 

[izzyandsue]

Top of the mountain, on top of the truck. 5500ft up. Below other photos, including how to get stuck in the high suction mucky mud. A kinetic recovery did the trick. Maxtrax may be on order soon too....

 

[uzj100]

Ithoughtuh8mud! :<)

 

[erymer]

Very cool trip Izzy.

 

[little_joe]

What the hell was that thing running in the background of the second to last video? It was covering some serious ground.

I slowed the video down, viewing it frame by frame that "thing" was a Chupacabra.

Nice pix and vids, but with Chupacabra running wild up there, I'll pass.

 

[slceso]

I slowed the video down, viewing it frame by frame that "thing" was a Chupacabra.

Nice pix and vids, but with Chupacabra running wild up there, I'll pass.

Ay Dios Mio!

 

[Green Hell Mustang]

Izzy, I need to go with at some point for one of this trips. I'll bring my camera and @JohnVee, will bring his finest words, and we'll do a story. Sorry John, I'm drafting you.