Report: Dixie Run at Tellico

by Stefan Roth

The 17th annual Dixie Run has come and gone and the great memories remain. It is our major fund-raising and membership drive event.

Dixie Run was October 3 - 5, 2003 in Upper Tellico OHV Area in the Tusquitee Ranger District of the Nantahala National Forest.. The event was Friday through Sunday, though many people arrived Thursday, Wednesday or even Tuesday.

For lots of reasons I enjoyed the Dixie Run more than usual. As an officer, I spend most of the time “working” at the Dixie Run and we didn’t have any major fires to be put out. What a relief! I didn’t trail ride, but I competed in the Rock Challenge, run by the Extreme Ridge Runners. Plus, I got to talk to lots of good old friends again, which to me is one of the big enjoyments of the Dixie Run.

I didn’t take a lot of notes this year on who won what awards, but I remember a few. Southern Jeeps showed up big time and got the Best Attending award for being very, very loud at the Saturday night festivities. They beat out the combination of the Carolina Trailblazers and Georgia Bounty Runners. GBR put all their voices behind the Carolina Trailblazers in gratitude for the Trailblazer’s extensive help on the GBR charity Jeep rebuild. A class act all of them. Georgia Bounty Runners won Best Dressed. These guys must have a secret t-shirt designer up their sleeve, because they look great every year. Mike Valentine won the Hard Luck award. We couldn’t remember someone ever getting run over by their own Jeep. It must not have been too bad since he was cussing about it afterwards and he wouldn’t show us the tread marks on his chest .

The registration desk was manned by Cumberland Off-Road. It went so smooth, you hardly noticed going through registration. Everything was ready in advance and the tables were prepped for the attendees. Great job! Rock Solid Jeep Club was stationed nearby doing the vehicle inspections and ride assignments and they coordinated well with the registration activities. You could also munch some food off their tables. What more could you want? Georgia Bounty Runners ran the kids games again. The games are a real favorite among the kids (and parents) and it looks like we’ll have some up and coming jeepers out of this crowd.

The 4th Annual Rock Challenge was split into two classes again: 36” tires and smaller; 37” tires and larger. Winner of the small tire class was Todd Burke. Winner of the large tire class was Jeff Rowland. Sorry, I don’t have more details at the time of this writing. This was the second year Extreme Ridge Runners ran the competition in Crawford’s Campground. Steve Crawford caters primarily to the offroad crowd and he built a tough rock crawling course in the middle of camp. The course was definitely a lot rougher than last year. Steve was really proud of it! A pretty large percentage of trucks wound up with minor or major breakage this year: frowning tie rods, grenaded transmissions, blasted hubs, sheared steering bolts, twisted axles, a tip-over, etc. You get the idea.

This year, I insisted to my spotter Sam Houston that the #1 goal was to not break anything. I got close. I only bent my tie rod in four different places, but I was still able to finish and it was good enough for second place in the small tire class. We didn’t have any rain this year, but there were deep holes between the huge rocks on the course and a lot of people had a lot of trouble with them. Well, it is a competition and not a cake walk.

Trail Rides

The Tellico trails are challenging. Because of the inherent difficulty of the trails, we cannot offer "stock" vehicle trail rides (Varmit class) at Tellico. Front and rear tow hooks are a necessity. We recommend 33" mud tires (or larger), a suspension lift, a locker or two, a winch and tow strap for many of the trail rides. These items are required for the harder rides. Spare parts (tires, axles, drive shafts, U-joints, etc.) are recommended for the hardest rides. Click on the "Pictures" menu item on your left to check our pages for several trail stories and pictures of past Dixie Runs.

Pack your lunch for a meal on the trail. Absolutely no alcohol allowed on the trails. Everyone must wear seat belts at all times.

Silent Auction

A new fund raising effort this year is a silent auction -- organized and run by Tellico4x4.com.

Tellico4x4.com volunteered to donate items from their own and their manufacturers' stock to a silent auction to benefit our trail maintenance activities. We thank Tellico4x4.com for their hard work and we thank the bidders!

Vendor Alley

We had a large vendor alley where manufacturers, distributors, and shops will showcase their wares. Buy those hard to find parts! You could examine the latest products or get a sneak-a-peak at future products!

Attending list of vendors:

• Tellico4x4.com
• Down East OffRoad
• Big Daddy Offroad
• Runck Equipment
• OnlyOffroad.com
• Top Dawg Tops
• Metal Fusion
• WindrockOffroad.com
• Myakka Outfitters
• Nancy & Bill Chenet - AMSOIL

Many of our Business Members displayed their products or services. Please support them as they support our hobby.

Dixie Run Sponsors

Without our large group of sponsors, we couldn't put on the Dixie Run. Sponsors give us merchandise for the door prize raffle and silent auction, plus provide us with logistic and operational support (and sometimes emotional support, plus they're just plain nice people).

These are the sponsoring companies at Dixie Run 2003:

Photobooks

A total of 53 photobooks are available! Thank you to everyone who submitted photos. All photobooks are credited. Click on a number below to see that photobook.