Southern Home4th Annual Southern Trailfest

Coal Creek OHV Area at Windrock Mountain
Oak Ridge, Tennessee

The 4th Annual Trailfest was held on May 5 - 7, 2006 at Coal Creek OHV Area (also known as Windrock OHV Area), located a few miles northwest of Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

On Friday, the threatened rain came down with a vengeance. It rained and rained and rained. Just for good luck, it stormed on and on afterwards. Unexpectedly, the strong winds after the rain helped dry out everything - including the soaked trail riders. Even the trails dried rapidly, so that the nearly impassable steep hills became merely difficult.

Saturday morning started out sunny and clear as the vehicles lined up for the trail rides. Luckily it stayed that way all day. With virtually all event attendees on the trails, the warm day made for much more comfortable riding. The trail rides, ably lead by members of Rattle Rock 4WD Club, ventured out in the morning and returned in the evening in time for dinner and the raffle.

Coal Creek OHV Area is nearly 72,000 acres - 10 times the size of Tellico. There are dozens of trails with more being opened every year.

Coal Creek charges a fee of $15 per day per person to ride. An annual pass is also available for $80. To make it possible navigate all the trails, a map is also available. Passes and maps are available at the entrance station on Saturdays and Sunday and also at area businesses.

On Saturday night, we held the raffle. Before that though, we gave out a bunch of awards, all of them meant to be humorous:

Highest Entertainment Value - Jason Diden - For putting on a show at the top of Rattle Rock involving tires 6 feet off the ground and people hanging off his front bumper.

Worst Trail Guide - Mitchell Armes - For leading a trail ride with 25 vehicle and returning to camp with only his tail gunner. Don't worry, the rest of his group made it back fine, they just wanted to wander around for a while.

Worst Passenger Seat Driver - Patrick Callahan - For yelling at his wife, Amy, for ripping the top that was already ripped, even though he was the one that told her to drive on.

Biggest Windshield Crack - Terry Goben - Obviously he had the largest windshield crack. Said he has a new glass at home, but now that he won an award, he will keep the cracked one in.

Best Prepared for a Disaster - Dean Gibson - He is a member of Off-Camber 4WD Club and an Army Ranger with a tour in Iraq. Dean drives a TJ and he pulls a trailer that looks like his TJ.

Hard Luck Award - Bobby Joe Shular - For turning over on the BYPASS around the hard section on Trail 21. Apparently it ripped up his Jeep pretty good.

Sean McLeod gave out the Heavy Foot Award. Can you guess what the award is for? Sean gave it to Larry Franks with Southern Off Road in Pelham, AL. His vehicle is a 2003 TJ Extreme with Rubicon Dana 44 axles and Swampers. Larry made several of us look awfully bad on the first obstacle on Trail 21. Brent, Scott Campbell, Sean, and others winched over the rock. Larry's Jeep fit perfectly on the obstacle. He showed his rig no mercy and the six cylinder engine was screaming. It took him a while to get the tires hot and dig down to some dry dirt. He worked and worked and kept inching closer to cresting the rock each time. Most of us that were standing around and said, "I believe he's going to come up it!" He finally made it up. Larry seriously wound out the motor for 20 to 30 seconds. It seemed to get the tires hotter at each attempt. The poor automatic transmission had to get hot.

(Note: We didn't keep track of all the awards at the time. If we missed one, please let the Webmaster know at . Thanks)

A sad note was that D.A. Young, one of the founders of Southern Four Wheel Drive Association, member of Rattle Rock 4WD Club and a long time volunteer and supporter, was diagnose with an inoperable brain tumor in January. To help with medical expenses, the Rattle Rock 4WD Club started a fund raising drive, culminating in the D.A. Young Appreciation Day Ride on March 25. Donations to the fund from friends, family, club members, and other generous people exceeded $34,000, plus $5,150 matching funds donated by Southern Four Wheel Drive Association.   D.A. passed away in the early morning hours of May 10th. We appreciate your generosity, and your caring hearts during this time, and we know that DA and his family appreciate each and every one of you as well.

There are many workers and volunteers that make the Trailfest not only possible, but make it into a successful and enjoyable event. Event Coordinator Adrienne Hall says, "I could go on and on and on, but these are the main thank-you's:"

We want to give a great BIG THANK YOU to our sponsors for this event. Please support these businesses because they support us and our hobby:

The Southern Trailfest will be back next year in May!

 

  Photobooks:    1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |  6  |  7  |  8 

 

Southern Home