For the second year in a row, Lee attended the Smoky Mountain Venture off-road event at the Upper Tellico ORV area in the Nantahala National Forest on the Tennessee-North Carolina state line near Murphy, North Carolina. This year Cec was able to attend also.

Last year Lee drove Trails 4 and 6, which are the easiest trails at Tellico, though they are actually moderately difficult. This year Lee, now with a 3" lift and 33" tires, decided to up the ante and selected Trails 2 and 5, which are difficult trails.

Access to all trails is via Trail 1, which is an improved road, and access to Trail 5 requires driving the first portion of Trail 4.

Trail 2 started out as a winding road atop a ridge. There are a few moderately rough spots early on, but the real difficult part is on the down hill portion.

That portion is a mix of rock and dirt, a large part of is below the surrounding grade. It had rained the night before, and the dirt had turned into mud. So there was a lot of slipping and sliding. At one point a rock ledge running at an angle across the trail caused vehicles to slide sideways perilously close to a rock outcropping. Shards of glass on the ground evidenced that some vehicles had smashed against the rock. My TJ missed by a couple of inches.

The rest of the way down Trail 2 was uneventful, and we stopped for lunch at the Rock Garden, which is as special bypass section of the lower portion of Trail 2. Due to the rain the vehicles did not make any headway during the hour or so we were there. Later we learned that the group finally gave up and retreated, arriving back at the headquarters campground at 3 AM the next morning!

We then drove Trail 1 and entered Trail 5. Trail 5 is fairly short, but it has some very interesting obstacles. Shortly after entereing the trail we crossed the Tellico River in water that was about a foot deep.

The exit side had a pretty severe rock field, but everyone made it through just fine.

After waiting for a group coming down 5, we started up a section that featured several severe rock obstacles in what was otherwise a two track road. One obstacle was a set of rocks that measured 23" high. Virtually everyone had to winch over that section, and we did so without incident...

...except that my right original plastic Jeep step gave its life on that rock protecting the TJ body. We returned home via Trails 4 and 1.

On the second day our plan was to drive Trails 5 and 2 in reverse. One the way to Trail 5 via Trail 4, the steering drag link our trail leader's Toyota truck gave way, and we spent over an hour jerry rigging a fix from a receiver hitch and bolt uinsing a portable cutting torch and MacGiver class ingenuity.

By the time we finished Trail 5 the hour was so late and the rain so heavy that we decided to forego Trail 2. We never would have made it up the uphill portion in the rain anyway. So that finished the trail portion of the event. That night we had our wrap up banquet at the old rock gym at the park in Murphy. The banquet featured the usual humorous recognition of the highlights and lowlights of the previous two days.

As one of the other attendees observed at the banquet, the Smoky Mountain Venture is one of off-roading's hidden gems.