Gladiator Expedition Rigs

[WestwallNF104A]

Made it to the USS Constitution!

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[BSchanze]

It's time for another adventure, and it looks like I'm heading east to the Smokey Mountain 1000.

Let me know where your favorite 4 wheeling roads and camp sites are. I'm looking for National Forest camp sites on top of mountains and next to rivers. Let me know!!



I was just out doing a section of the North Carolina TAT a couple weeks ago. The SM 1000 and TAT cross paths quite a few times. Some really fun trail sections once you get around Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Hopefully you get some cool weather. Enjoy!

Couple of my favorites:
Balsam Mtn Road
Cataloochee "Turnpike"
Buzzard Roost Road
Hurricane Creek

 

[Mules]

Hurricane Creek looks pretty fun!

 

[Mules]

Buzzard Roost looks great also.

 

[BSchanze]

Yep those are them. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your style of wheeling) the forest service recently semi-graded and filled in most of the major ruts. But still fun, lots of small creek crossings and decent rocks to get over. Nothing crazy but Hurricane Creek and Buzzards Roost are probably some of the less groomed roads on the SM1000. Everything else is pretty well maintained as service roads go…

 

[Mules]

Yep those are them. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your style of wheeling) the forest service recently semi-graded and filled in most of the major ruts. But still fun, lots of small creek crossings and decent rocks to get over. Nothing crazy but Hurricane Creek and Buzzards Roost are probably some of the less groomed roads on the SM1000. Everything else is pretty well maintained as service roads go…

Thanks for the photos!! Feel free to post some more.

 

[DanW]

I've done Hurricane Creek Road about 5 times and love it. Make sure you hit Max Patch when you get to the end of it. BEAUTIFUL view of the Appalachians.

They can grade that road all they want, but the ruts come right back. The fun part about that trail is that it has been different with different challenges every time I've done it, which is about every other year.

 

[Mules]

Hmmm…. Maybe I should have made this trail a little wider. Good thing my tires bump off the trees before my truck does.

 

[-miko-]

Buzzard Roost looks great also.

It's fun and worth the effort. Just a heads up that the river levels on the Pigeon River might close some crossings depending how you approach it.

And looks like you'll hit Old NC 105 that runs down the side of Linville Gorge. Lots of camping spots along it that have views down into the Gorge. Midweek should be fairly easy to find good ones. Weekends they're a bit tougher to find.

Just a bit south of there is Curtis Creek Campsite. It's a bit out of the way but set right by the creek. More free camping spots are available up the forest road if you don't want to pay for the site.

And one wildcard for you - if you head just a bit further north on your loop there's Scales on Mt. Rogers. The forest road up to it is fun and the camp site itself is fantastic as it's situated on the shoulder of the mountain. Plus it still has some wild horses/ponies in the area. Only issue is that it gets busy on weekends. And it might add more to your loop than you want.

 

[Mules]

It's fun and worth the effort. Just a heads up that the river levels on the Pigeon River might close some crossings depending how you approach it.

And looks like you'll hit Old NC 105 that runs down the side of Linville Gorge. Lots of camping spots along it that have views down into the Gorge. Midweek should be fairly easy to find good ones. Weekends they're a bit tougher to find.

Just a bit south of there is Curtis Creek Campsite. It's a bit out of the way but set right by the creek. More free camping spots are available up the forest road if you don't want to pay for the site.

And one wildcard for you - if you head just a bit further north on your loop there's Scales on Mt. Rogers. The forest road up to it is fun and the camp site itself is fantastic as it's situated on the shoulder of the mountain. Plus it still has some wild horses/ponies in the area. Only issue is that it gets busy on weekends. And it might add more to your loop than you want.

Thanks for the help, these spots sound great. I'll check them out!

 

[Mules]

Trying out a new camping spot next to the river. Had to widen my atv path to get the Truck down there.

 

[Mules]

My power supply petered out. Good thing I had my backup dash mini to cook breakfast. Plugged it in the truck’s inverter.

It was a bit hot to sleep last night so I ran the truck’s AC for 10 minutes to cool down the camper. Slept like a rock.

 

[antwon412]

Took my overlanding expedition rig up to Lassen National Park for the long weekend. Absolutely perfect weather. Found an amazing dispersed camping spot with no one around and had a really nice weekend with my girlfriend and family.

 

[Mules]

Here Dan details how he built his light weight bed setup.

 

[Mules]

I just saw these. For those camping with OEM car/truck inverters, or small power supplies, Walmart has some low wattage cookware. Most cars and trucks with 120v plugs are limited to 400watts.

It’s nice to cook inside my camper without the fear of a gas burner in tight space. Now I have a small collection of low wattage cookware.

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