Uwharrie National Forest, Central NC

[carljwnc]

I headed out very early Friday morning to meet up with TrailGhost (Jami) and his FJ Cruiser for a 9:30am meet time, 3 1/2 hours away...



We met up at the Eldorado Outpost just before the park entrance, great place to pick up whatever you might need including your $5 trail pass, a map, and helpful advice, we thought we had everything we needed. We were also joined by some folks off of subaruforester.org, one in a Forester, one in a CRV, nice folks, but it didn't last too long for them.

Right at the trail head there was a big mud hole, I do not play in mud holes, but I decided to go through a little corner of it, resulting in the first mishap of the day.



I was just going to run my spare, but oversight on my part, steel spare takes different lug nuts than my alum. rims. Probably would have worked, but I wasn't comfortable with it, Jami and I hop in the FJ and head back to the Outpost for a plug kit. While I was fixin' tires, the Forester and CRV played in the mud, but Jami will have to provide the visuals for that.

Mishap #2, Forester rips off his belly pan just after getting on the trail, yours truly (and my tools) to the rescue.




A small steam crossing and hearing our Forester and CRV friends approach/departure angles being tested told me that things were not long for them.



About 1/4 mi. into Falls Dam trail...



...we sent the non-Yotas packin'



We didn't even do the rocks, we took the bypass, that was enough on its own.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qu2SZ-RIaSw

We thought this was an 'easy' rated trail, says so on the map we got at the Outpost, turns out to be a 'moderate' trail. Lots of rocks waterbars and plenty of deep mud holes, we took the bypasses around most of them.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY0dNeaWyuE

Mishap #3 and thank fully the last on the day, I got a little stuck on this section...



...results.



We only ended up doing this one trail, thinking it was 'easy' we decided to stay off of the 'moderate' trails, but next time we'll hit more and cover more ground. Another pic and videos, and Jami should be following up with more.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnxS4lep-18
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQtW6u4f4_4

[troyboy162]

looks like a fun day out there! unfortunte with the damages but it makes ya feel good to pack tools eh?

[TrailGhost]

Man, dang! Tried posting this once and then for some odd reason I lost it all.
Anyway, I really enjoyed Uwharrie. The trail was a bit more than we expected but I didn't really have any issues other than trying to squeeze the FJ through some tight spaces. I was not to worried about scratching the FJ I just didn't want any dents in it yet. I did come close though. I look forward to our next outing and I am hoping we can hit some of the other trails as well. I think it works out better when you have just a hand full of vehicles especially doing trails like this.
As for pictures and videos, I got a little bit but I wish we would have gotten more, it was great.







Here are some clips.
YouTube - MOV00043
YouTube - MOV00044
YouTube - MOV00046

[Crinale]

im thinkin those rocks you went around must look worse in person... cuz from the pics they look less severe than trails i've done in my old cr-v... then again it was lifted with some Revo A/Ts :-P ... looks like a fun area though, wish i didnt live on the opposite side of the country...

[TrailGhost]

I didn't want to chance the rocks for fear of busting up my rocker panels. I need to get me a set of rock sliders and then I might try it. They were pretty intimidating. The video where Carl and myself come down a short hill is actually the bypass around the rocks. The rocky area was about the same slope except for the rocks jutting upward about 18 or so inches.

[carljwnc]

Man, dang! Tried posting this once and then for some odd reason I lost it all.

I've had this happen here a few times as well, I always copy my post before hitting the 'preview' or 'post' buttons.

Those rocks were pretty hairy, rock sliders, a lift, bigger tires, and a locker, then I might have had a go at them.