...and I mean it too! Marc can drive like there's no tomorrow. Dusty and dry or wet and muddy, that man can handle some offroad obstacles like nobody's business! Makes me jealous, deep down. Honestly though, he has taught me how to navigate the rocks and the creeks and the steep inclines - all three of which freak me out pretty badly. He doesn't even yell that much when I go in 4-weel high instead of his recommended 4-wheel low! Cody has been bugging him to let him [Cody] drive, but I don't see that happening anytime soon with this jeep. Maybe Cody will get his own jeep soon.
One thing can be said for jeepin' though - it's a family affair. There's no quad on the planet that could comfortably seat all four of us as well as a jeep. After we added a few things to it, the ride isn't so bad either!
Below we've posted some links for pics of some of the places we've been. We *really* need to remember to take the camera every time we go out... and maybe a spare battery. There's been a time or two where either the memory card filled up or the battery ran down. Talk about a bummer! Anyhow, we hope you enjoy as much as we did... (chronological order, newest stuff is at the end...)
We haven't hit the hard parts of Tellico yet... we felt a little daunted when a HUGE rock crawler asked if we saw a particular jeep and, when we said no, were notified that they "had one over on it's top". So... maybe soon, but not just yet!
Aetna Mtn is, by far, not for the faint-of-heart. There's more than one hole or incline that can flat out make your tushy want to pucker up and run away! We kept pace with the 'big dogs' though! I must admit however that some of them border the lines of sanity and stupidity... but to each their own!
It was Labor Day and we knew it was starting off well when we passed deer grazing at the WMA entrance. The sky was vivid blue and the temp was cool... there's no better way to go Jeep'in!
Wonderful fall colors and fun, once again at Prentice Cooper, our favorite little 'go to' spot... If you ever get to go, be sure and go down Haney Rd (all the trails are marked). It's 4x4 only, so no 2-wheel drives, ok? It's the only 4x4 only rated road in the park (though Persimmon Rd is kinda hairy in parts too) and they'll fine ya bigtime if they catch you out in a non-4x4. It's got rocks, creeks, steep grades, hairpin curves... everything but mudholes (not really many of those at PCWMA).
This was a "just for the fun of it" trip to help ring in Cody's 13th birthday... it was a blast!
Marc's friend Harper told us to run up to Oliver Springs, TN to check out the Coal Creek/Winrock OHV area, so we did! We only went on about 2% of the trails (the place is huge) and we accidentally took a wrong turn and ended up on one of the harder places. If you happen to go, I don't know how much stock I'd put in their rating system. The things they said were moderate we thought were easy (comparing all to Haley Rd. at Prentice Cooper WMA) and the ones they thought were difficult we thought were moderate. However I think we accidentally fell on one of the 'extreme' rated trails and I'd dare say that it made Marc think twice more than once. I didn't ride in the Jeep during that little foray, I opted to get VERY winded and trudge up the side of a ridge so I could get some decent photos. We ran into some folks in traditional rock climbers and we could go where they went (maybe not as quickly, but we could make it in good style). OH - XM actually comes in almost everywhere... and they had these really cool windmills that I liked as well as a couple of defunct mines. We didn't go IN the mines (they were flooded) but I can't say it didn't cross my mind anyway. The video is kind of large... I've put the compressed on on here but it's still a 13 minute stream so you're looking at 98.5 megs easy... maybe a little more... (aka about a 4 minute download on broadband...)
Saw a great owl, it was a beautiful day, and the man was driving at his best! (click here for a couple killer pics of the INCREDIBLE owl that we saw!)
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