Traveling around the country covering four-wheeling events is always quite an adventure. Usually, I find mapquest.com to be a great mapping tool, but in this case, it was wrong. According to the manager of the hotel I was staying at in Murphy, North Carolina, mapquest.com doesn't update as fast as some of the backcountry roads change due to the seasons. Two hours into the middle of nowhere, 11 p.m. in the evening, and driving a crappy rental car got me a bit concerned. I am all for finding a new adventure, but after passing the third country farm and getting some interesting looks from local residents, I turned around and headed back for a main road.
After finally making my way to the correct highway, I found myself passing by the Ocoee River, one of the event locations for the 1996 Olympic Games. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking, and it was easy to see why this destination was chosen to represent white-water rafting at its best. From there, I finally landed in Murphy, a small town just across the border of North Carolina with an old fashioned town square complete with ice cream parlor and barber shop on the corners.
The next morning, I headed north into the Tellico Plains forest area. Roughly 25 minutes north out of Murphy, you come to Crawford's Camp. If you feel like you are getting lost, look for the white Jeep staked to a pole on the side of the road. You couldn't ask for a better arrival landmark for a four-wheel-drive campground, now could you? Crawford's is the home of numerous off-road club runs and gatherings. The grounds feature fully enclosed work bays, air tools, fueling, welding equipment, campsites, utilities, and even a rock garden for those who want to wheel in camp.
The reason I had traveled so far into the woods was to participate in the 3rd Annual Southeast 4Runner Jamboree put on by WabFab Off-road. For the past three years, this event has been growing into a nationally acclaimed four-wheel-drive excursion for many Toyota owners. If you are a Toyota 4Runner, FJ40, FJ80, Land Cruiser, Tacoma, pickup, or FJ Cruiser owner, be sure to check out this event next year.
I quickly introduced myself to Roger Theurer, the vice president of the southeast chapter of the Toyota Land Cruisers Association. He was prepping his '76 Toyota FJ40 to take on the most challenging section of the Upper Tellico OHV trail system, the Slickrock Trail. The Upper Tellico OHV trail system is made up of 41 miles of trails that all touch each other in one place or another. After spending a full 12 hours wheeling there, I can assure anyone reading this that what Tellico considers an easy trail would be rated hard in most places around the country. Roger invited me along with his son and a few others to join them for a day of wheeling. Our group consisted of a '76 FJ40, a '78 FJ40, an '83 FJ60, and an '89 4Runner (but we would pick up a few others along the way). With everyone ready to go, we headed out locked and loaded for adventure.