Dave, LOL, I've never seen anyone go up the Peckerwood ledge yet, and that includes a group consisting of
very built J**ps and a fullsize Chevy locked front and rear with 44" tires
- though I may finally get to witness it once Michael and Mudd***** invade from Texas and get here next weekend
Paul tried it in his very capable lifted Explorer Sport that was locked front and rear with 33” MTRs and he also had to take the winch.
Michael/donkey boy, hope to see you there. You are right that being able to back out of a trail in Tellico is not usually possible – bypasses are few and far between. As far as trail difficulty and body damage goes (my opinion; up for debate, and a slight difference of opinion from both the cnc4x4 website notes and the original map ratings). I'll use the Moab scale.
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(Moab trails are rated thusly)
TRAIL RATINGS
1) All weather road; 4WD not needed.
1.5) Graded road; 4WD may be needed in poor weather.
2) Unimproved or rarely graded road. 4WD or extra clearance needed at times, with no special driving skills required.
2.5) Road rarely maintained, 4WD, good clearance, low gears (4LO) often needed, with some extra care and a bit of driving experience useful.
3) Road in difficult terrain, rarely maintained, 4WD, good clearance and low gears essential, with some driving skill and daring required.
3.5) Road in difficult terrain, probably maintained only by occasional users. Excellent stock truck or utility vehicle required, with considerable driving skill and daring needed.
4) Trail either never bladed or badly eroded. Stock vehicles are in jeopardy (read: be prepared to accept body damage). Modifications for improved off-road performance and top driving skills needed.
4+) We can hardly improve on the original description written a few years ago by Jack Bickers: "with driving by World Class Yahoo Jeepers not much concerned with vehicle durability or personal safety." It is common to have as many as 10% of the vehicles experience major mechanical failures (gears, axles, driveshafts) on these trails.
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TELLICO: the trails I've been on so far, in order of difficulty.
*These are
dry ratings! If it's wet, it can make a
huge difference in the difficulty. And once again, these are MY rating opinions based on what I have experienced when I have been there, and I am sure others who have been there will chime in if they disagree
Tellico has a habit of changing greatly - depending on the weather and how many rigs with 44”+ tires just tore through the obstacle you are looking at.
Oh yeah, did I say these are
DRY ratings?
- Trail 1: (Rated 1.5; maybe just a 1) This is just a graded gravel road with lots of washboard ripples to keep your speed down or your teeth fillings will vibrate out. Your mom's station wagon can drive it unless a snowstorm just passed through. No one here considers it a "trail". It's just the north-south quick route to get to the other side of Tellico from where you are if you are in a hurry.
- Trail 3: (2.5 - 3 rating) The easiest trail besides #1. Though I recall several rocks and obstacles and thinking it would be a fun trail for a stocker, I honestly cannot remember any memorable obstacles on it whatsoever. It reminded me sort of like the Alpine Loop in southwestern Colorado near Durango and Ouray: it requires 4wd and is slightly challenging, but with a little careful tire placement any 4wd should have no problem going on it. You have to use Trail 4 to get to 3 though. If you make it to the entrance of Trail 3, you've already proven you can run it just by getting there. I don't think a stocker will have any problem on it at all.
- Trail 4: (3.5) Is the primary north-south route used to get to all other trails at Tellico. Accordingly, almost all vehicles coming to Tellico will be on Trail 4 at one point or another. I say this to make a point. When dry (have I said that before? oh yeah) it is a very fun 3.5 rated trail and a great workout for a barely-modified rig or even a stocker who doesn't mind continual use of his skidplates. But remember that almost all rigs will be using #4 to get to other trails, and 95% of those will have 35"+ tires and 50% will have 40"+ tires. If you show up with 31" or 32" tires after a rainstorm and try to hit Trail 4 after a group of hybrids w/44" tires just tore through, you're probably gonna have an extremely frustrating day wallowing in their ruts and bottoming on all of the boulders with only mud to hold you up. Trail 4 also has Fain's Ford which is a knee-thigh high ledge to climb up on a riverbank (so you get to try with wet tires). Because of that, rockstacking is common there. Stockers will have to do that, but if it's Explorers doing the stacking, please leave the trail like you found it, okay Dead Link Removed
Fain's Ford is what gives it the 3.5 rating; the rest is a solid 3 trail. Fain’s Ford may not exist a year from now – see note on Trail 5 below.
- Trail 5: I don't know. It used to be tough, then had a major river crossing obstacle (ask Bionc Marsh; he got body damage there) removed so that made it easier, and now from what I hear lately, #5 has been graded to allow access for heavy equipment to get to Trail 4 at Fain's Ford to build a bridge over the river where Fain's Ford is currently at. Both Bionc Marsh and I have gotten sheetmetal body damage on #5, but I think it may be a graded road currently. I believe the bridge is supposed to built by sometime next spring and if that is so, then Fain’s Ford will be a memory.
- Trail 8: (3.5) Most of this trail is a long loop with great scenery during the winter when you can see through the dead trees - though after springtime many of the views are blocked by the jungle. I am confused by the cnc4x4 map that shows it as being easier between #4 and #7 than the rest of the loop. As I recall, there were a series of more difficult ledges in that area. Maybe they were right after the intersection with #7, oh well. There are a few sections in the other areas that also earn it a 3.5 rating, though most of the trail is a rather easy 2.5 or so.
- Trail 6: (3.5 going down, 4 going up) A great rockcrawling trail for moderate rigs that aren't BigDawgs. No major "name" type obstacles but consistent and challenging fun. More difficult going up than down; go down to get a feel for it and then go up for a different and more challenging experience. Rock on! #6 is supreme fun without being extreme and is the type of trail that exemplifies the fun of our sport.
NOTE: With reasonable care and dry weather – (did I mention these ratings were based on dry weather? ) – all of the trails listed above can “reasonably” be expected to be completed without body damage with competent drivers and decent spotting when needed. I consider body damage as being visible body damage; in other words, that doesn’t include the bottom that people cannot see. Tellico is no place for those not willing to use their skidplates, and use them hard.
Using the above trails, I will suggest an exciting stocker-lightly modified run schedule at the end of this post for those of you who may be interested to consider trying. If you are in this category do not read the next part of this post and skip to the end, LOL.
OK, I’ll mention the other trails I’ve been on. Expect body damage on any of the following trails. It may well not happen; and with good driving and spotting it probably won’t, but don’t say that you weren’t warned. All of the following trails I would rate as at least a 4.5.
- Trail 12: Schoolbus is an awesome trail and one of those that is famous with a legend and good local story to go with it. Walk up from the intersection to look at Quarterpanel Tree. It only gets more fun after that. We made it through there without busting sheetmetal or window glass. Quarterpanel Tree is named that for a reason but a good spotter will get you through there. In my 4dr Explorer I was sweating bullets (and I had to get past it not once but twice!). In a shorter 2dr Sport it is not so intimidating. A couple of hundred yards after Quarterpanel Tree is the beginning of Schoolbus’s obstacles and what separates the Walkers from the Talkers. You can walk up there before committing to the trail and make your decision. That obstacle is at a typical Schoolbus difficulty level so if you think you can make that obstacle that is above the Quarterpanel Tree then you can get to the top of Schoolbus.
- Trail 7: Heh. Peckerwood. The Ledge. #7 is a piece of cake except for two areas on the north side after a bridge adjacent to the #6 connector. Getting to the Ledge is a rockgarden with huge boulders that as I recall are in the four foot plus category. Once you get through them you get to try the Ledge: an obstacle hard enough on its own but positioned below a tree at top requiring you to take it at an angle (on ground slick with weather) at an angle considered insane even at Moab, with at a slight offcamber slant added in as good measure. The entire area just described is only a short part of the trail that otherwise I would rate as a 2 at most. Bring your camera. Going UP seems to be safer than going DOWN. If you have a winch going up then you can winch up, though it takes multiple winch anchors to make it since the line going up has to change as you progress up. But going down, you are committed and can easily slam into a wall on the way down.
- Trail 9: Slickrock, one of the more famous trails at Tellico. I haven’t done it but plan to do so after full rocksliders are installed and 35”s are on Herc by this November. Honestly, I am more impressed with those making it through the rockgarden just to get there. Huge rocks - maybe not Volkswagon sized but dang near that - with slots between them guaranteed to rip sheetmetal on the vehicles that slip on them. I spent awhile watching a huge group line up to tackle Slickrock and witnessed a very well built Jeep grenade his Dana60 axle on those rocks, then less then ten minutes later grenade his OTHER axle in that garden, and he hadn’t even made it to the Slickrock yet. Bodypanels on various vehicles were losing paint, primer, and original shaping, and hadn’t even gotten to Slickrock to tackle it yet. I believe Rick (Bionc Marsh) has tackled this obstacle; and if so, this entire board owes a loud Bravo to him for showing what our vehicles can do Dead Link Removed
- Trail 11: Is gonna be a hard one to explore with Explorers and one I want to specifically explore this year. At the top of Schoolbus I volunteered to be the guinea pig and dropped down into it from the intersection. There is a very extreme rockwall canyon there. Even shortwheelbases that went through it scraped all bodypanels zigzagging down it to get out. We knew it was probably futile, but we tried anyway, and as expected I got caught and had to be pulled back out by Bionc Marsh’s winch. The rest of #11 is the famous Helicopter Pad and Guardrail. We watched a yahoo in a pretzeled Ramcharger destroy it even moreso while trying to go up Helicopter Pad. We didn’t get down to the Guardrail because it was blocked by breakage and vehicles. I plan to learn about the rest of #11 next weekend. This will not be the time for amateurs
- Trail 2: I haven’t been on it yet, but give us a couple of weeks to see what a bunch of Texans can do on it. I’m bringing my camera
I cannot remember, did I mention that it is a heckuva lot harder when it is not dry?
Okay, never mind……
As far as a stocker group goes, I think the following would be a really fun run: Trail 4 all the way northword all day, turn left on #6 and go downhill, then go back up #6. If time allows then go over to #3. The next day take #4 to #8 and go play there. I don't think anyone at all will complain for a lack of excitement with that agenda. Or combine any of these and pick how you play on those trails. No matter how it works out there's gonna be a lotta fun during the weekend.