wheeling in North Carolina

Moon

Active Member
Location
West Mtn, Utah
JeepTJ38 said:
I just got a job offer from lockheed martin to move to carolina and work on millitary helicopters ! Any one know of any wheeling in the central area. (they call it the heartland).
P.S. the drive there from Draper is 2282 miles !!!
what are you woried about wheeling for I can't even get you to wheel here :rofl:
 

BlackSheep

baaaaaaaaaad to the bone
Supporting Member
Don't do it!!!!!!!! save yourself by NOT moving out that way!!!! I moved from South Carolina to the great state of Utah, and I'm not going back.

seriously though, There are some areas to wheel out there, I didn't buy my jeep until I got to Utah, but Tellico is one of the big areas that is well known.

If you're into other activities though, there are great rivers for kayaking, great mt biking, hiking, etc. Except for paddling, I like the western mountains better for most activities, but the carolinas are great.
 

Nixter

on the road again...
Location
Lake Town
I'd have to agree with BlackSheep. Unless you enjoy; smoking, sweet tea, pulled pork and really really bad accent's (no offense to anyone) then the Carolina's are not the place. I'v never been wheeling (maybe NCZuk can tell ya) though. But I guess if the money is right......


Actually, in all honesty, it really isn't that bad of a place. There are tall trees everywhere and everything is really green. Oh, and you can get great deals on cigars. :D And you better like Nascar..... :p
 
Hey Nixter, up yours. :p :D :D

Tellico is probably the most popular in NC, but its all the way on the NC/TN border, so it's quite a haul from Central NC. Lots of boulders and rocks with nasty gummed up mud in between and lots of stream and creek crossings. I haven't been, but I know its very challenging when its dry; even worse when wet.

Closer to Charlotte is Uwharrie National Forest. Its mostly dirt/ jagged rock combination and gets very nasty when wet. It's a relatively easy trail system though, nothing a slightly modified rig could tackle for the most part. However, there are some rael fun obsticles there.

There's a really good trail near Appalachain State Univ. called Globe. It's supposed to be fairly difficult, however I haven't wheeled there either. :eek:

In Greensborough, there's a trail called 3 Mile Loop that looks like a lot of fun; strewn boulders and some creek crossings, but I don't know exactly where it is.

And God only knows how many powerline trails and fire roads there are in this great state... Mostly mud and dirt trails with a few rocks thrown in. Hill climbs are fairly common as well. There are tons of trails in the mountains that have plenty of rock as well.

Outside NC, there is Paragon in PA., the other half of Tellico in TN., Jellico in TN., Rattle Rock in TN., Montegal in TN., and tons of others I'm leaving out.

There's some good wheelin to be had, but you can't be afraid to get muddy, which is what my problem is - I hate the sh!t, but if you wheel when its dry, its not nearly as bad. Get friendly with the right pedal too.

I live in Wilmington, NC which is coastal NC. I surf more than I wheel cause there aint nothing but sand and swamp mud out here.:rolleyes: I only wheel when I head back to my parent's house and up in the mountains.

HTH man.

Jason.
 

NC Zuk

Bootylicious!!!
Location
Fayetteville, NC
Economos said:
Hey Nixter, up yours. :p :D :D

Closer to Charlotte is Uwharrie National Forest. Its mostly dirt/ jagged rock combination and gets very nasty when wet. It's a relatively easy trail system though, nothing a slightly modified rig could tackle for the most part. However, there are some rael fun obsticles there.

Uwharrie is a fun place to ride. I live 80 miles fron the trailhead. Here is a pic from this weekend
 
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Nixter

on the road again...
Location
Lake Town
Economos said:
Hey Nixter, up yours. :p :D :D

I live in Wilmington, NC which is coastal NC. I surf more than I wheel cause there aint nothing but sand and swamp mud out here.:rolleyes: I only wheel when I head back to my parent's house and up in the mountains.

HTH man.

Jason.



Ya, I probably deserve that. I will say this though, I have never been to the coast out there. Last time I was in town there was a slight Huricane that flooded the Tar River. :eek: :ugh:
 
Nixter said:
Ya, I probably deserve that. I will say this though, I have never been to the coast out there. Last time I was in town there was a slight Huricane that flooded the Tar River. :eek: :ugh:

Yeah, hurricanes are a common sight around here man. I surf quite a bit and the last big significant swell we had came from Isabel - which BTW I broke my 4 month old 6'2 sqash Sharp Eye clean in half. It was solid 8'-10' walls. :cool:

NC Zuk, looks like some fun was had this past weekend. I think me and a small group of XJs are gonna head to Brown Mountain/ Wilson's Creek and wheel that little OHV trail system over Turkey Day. We've been camping up at Wilson's Creek for many years and I've yet to wheel that trail system, so we're gonna give it a shot - should be fun.
 

NC Zuk

Bootylicious!!!
Location
Fayetteville, NC
Economos said:
Yeah, hurricanes are a common sight around here man. I surf quite a bit and the last big significant swell we had came from Isabel - which BTW I broke my 4 month old 6'2 sqash Sharp Eye clean in half. It was solid 8'-10' walls. :cool:

NC Zuk, looks like some fun was had this past weekend. I think me and a small group of XJs are gonna head to Brown Mountain/ Wilson's Creek and wheel that little OHV trail system over Turkey Day. We've been camping up at Wilson's Creek for many years and I've yet to wheel that trail system, so we're gonna give it a shot - should be fun.

Hey, where is that? I am looking for somewhere to go in mid november. Here is another pic that someone just sent me.
 
NC Zuk said:
Hey, where is that? I am looking for somewhere to go in mid november. Here is another pic that someone just sent me.

It's outside of Morganton rougly 30+ mins. There is absolutely NOTHING once you leave Morganton, so we usually fuel up and grab some grubb and take off from there. There's a little run down gas station just south of the trail head called Space Station :D (funky ass name huh?). Once you get to Brown, you drop down into the camping areas through a system of dirt roads. Camp sites are all along the roads, most of which are further down the roads around Upper and Lower Wilson's Creek. There's a rye feild at the summit of Brown that you can practically see every star in the universe as well as some satellites when its clear. The roads are sometimes washed out pretty bad depending on how the season has been - last time I was there, I broke out my 18" Stihl atleast 5 diff. times just to clear the road from the ice storm two months before. So that tells you just how much traffic that place gets - not much at all. Upper Wilson's is really quite and there are some great camp sites there, some of them have tons of boulders and rocks to drive on if nobody is camping there - some have some fun entrances and exits too. Lower Wilson's is where most of the "day trippers" go - there's tons of river access just off the dirt road and its kinda sketchy to leave your rig parked there cause cars come FLYING down that dirt road and there aint much room on the road. The staging area is just past Space on the left roughly 5 - 7 miles or so. It's a pay system, so you drop in $5 and take a ticket or something and then its another 5 miles of dirt road till the trail head. Mostly dirt bikes and 4wheelers back there, but there should be plenty of room for us back there, especially on around Turkey Day - I think most will be hunting.

I haven't been in a while though, so a lot of things may have changed, so I really don't know how everything looks.

If you're down to go, let me know so I can get this thing better organized. As it stands, its just me, and one other XJ, but he says a friend of his is gonna come and I've asked another XJ as well. Like I said, it's nothing real hard core, probably comparable to UNF.

Jason.
 
JeepTJ38 said:
K I dont know the area but if you live on the coast isn't Morganton like on the other end of the state ? I would be interested to go if you dont mind a TJ in your group and I can get out of work.

Yes, Morganton is on the other end of the state. My parents live up at Lake Norman, which is 20 mins outside of Charlotte. I head home on the holidays so I can eat good ol' home cookin' - college life is hard.:D It takes me roughly 3-4 hours to get back home from Wilmington. From the Lake, you take I-77 to Statesville, NC and then jump on I-40 heading West till you get to exit 321 (?) which is the Morganton exit. From Morganton, its another hour or so before you get to Brown/ Wilson's Creek, but its all mountain driving so thats why it takes a little more time.

I talked to a my buddy earlier today - he ran this trail last summer sometime and told me that its a little easier than UNF, however its fairly long. He said that there are plenty of obsticles to get technical on if you want, or you can simply pass by. Most of the trail is up hill, with flat stretches. He said there's only one system that Jeeps are permitted to wheel on. He's run Tellico a few times and UNF more than enough and he assures me that it'll be a really fun ride.

So far, its me in my XJ with stock axles and 33s, a ZJ with 32s, and another XJ with 31s, possibly NC Zuk. JeepTJ38 you're more than welcome to get in on the festivites my man. I think we're gonna camp out on the trail too if the weather permits. I'm heading back into Charlotte the Tuesday before Turkey Day. We're planning to be on the road to Brown by Fri. morning and staying till Sat. afternoon.

I've got a **** load of stuff to get done to my Heep before then. I need to get my timing checked, replace the plugs and wires, make a new crossmember for my trans. and get some new rock rails welded on... plus a few odds and ends.

Let me know guys, it'll be a good time I'm sure.

Jason
 

Snoopy

*Rock*Binder
Location
Colorado Springs
JeepTJ38 said:
I just got a job offer from lockheed martin to move to carolina and work on millitary helicopters ! Any one know of any wheeling in the central area. (they call it the heartland).
P.S. the drive there from Draper is 2282 miles !!!

The question is: $$$ vs. Wheelin'

I'm sure you'll find somewhere to play out there....
 

gcb17

Registered User
Location
Franklin NC
Nixter said:
I'd have to agree with BlackSheep. Unless you enjoy; smoking, sweet tea, pulled pork and really really bad accent's (no offense to anyone) then the Carolina's are not the place.

funny stuff. i'm from ga, love sweet tea, pork bbq kicks ass, and my accent only makes me sound dumb, which i'm hopefully really not. i don't understand the smoking thing.

i don't understand why those are bad things.

oh yeah- the only wheelin that's worthwhile out there is tellico, but that can get old after a while. you only have 12ish trails there versus 50 or 60 in moab. --grant
 
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