With my Jeep loaded up, I set my way south and took part of the South Carolina Adventure Route toward Sumter NF. With a focus on driving and reaching camp, I didn’t take any pictures until I was near camp. This logging effort in Sumter NF provided nice views of the South Carolina landscape.

With plenty of time to spare for the day, I took a drive over to Chester State Park to visit the lake. I could have sat there all day.

With a full tank of fuel, I headed west back toward the forest with the intention of exploring some forest roads. I didn’t have to drive far to find more evidence of the impact Helene had on this area.

This was the first time I’ve had a gravel forest road pass under an interstate highway. It was cool but felt sketchy, almost claustrophobic in the tunnel.

Oddly, after passing under the interstate, the road became partially asphalt for a short stretch.

I continued for maybe 1 mile before reaching an unplanned stopping point. Helene damage totally blocking the route.

With that and the sun getting lower, it was time to make tracks toward the Woods Ferry campground.

It was a nice drive back to camp, but I was relieved to be there to get settled in for the night.

With camp established a fire was lit in short order for a good old fashioned weenie roast. As a self-proclaimed hot dog enthusiast, it’s hard to be a fire roasted frank.

After a much-needed slumber, coffee on the roast with a Carolina sunrise in the background was a welcome treat.

These sammitch toasters are intended to be used in the campfire but they work just fine on a propane stove. I use this method often to save time.

The first stop of the day was the Enoree river, just 1000 yards or so from camp.

The boat ramp and this sign still show signs of Helene’s rath.

After rompin’ around the river for a bit, I set off to explore local forest roads, or at least that was the intent. More Helene damage blocked my way. At least the Autumn foliage was a nice view.

Making tracks back the way I came in.

With the less traveled, more remote forest roads seeming to be a bust, I switched up the plans and paid a visit to the site of the Battle of Musgrove Mill. This is a historic battleground in the American Revolutionary War.

A short hike took me through the battlefield to the Enoree River to the former location of Musgrove’s Ford and Musgrove’s Mill.

These old bridge footers were a surprising find.

I completed the hike around the Musgrove site. I set my navs back toward camp but made time for a short detour on a road less traveled.

It was nice to be back at camp for some relaxation.

It was all fine and dandy until I noticed the wind picking up and ominous clouds becoming visible through the tree line. My smart watch showed no rain on the forecast, so I brushed it off for a few minutes and started splitting firewood to prepare a feed.

With no phone service at camp, I pulled the local weather report on my InReach, I quickly had the impression that my watch’s weather service was wrong again.

Oof-A-Roni

I quickly tossed my firewood, chair, and other random bits into the Jeep as the rain started and jumped in the driver’s seat to wait out the weather.

I couldn’t resist capturing a photo of my watch’s weather report with the rain-soaked windscreen in the background.

As night fell the rain subsided and I was finally able to light the fire. T-bone steak and a baked potato were on the original menu. At this hour, leftover hotdogs will have to suffice.

After a good night’s rest, more coffee while I hung my rain fly to dry.

The dry patch where my tent had been.

After hanging around camp for a few hours drying gear and packing, I set my waypoint north and headed home. This wasn’t the most remote or picturesque trip, but it was nice to get back in the woods to a new destination and in a new rig. Fortunately, Jeep never skipped a beat and performed flawlessly. A good shakedown trip indeed. I’ll keep Sumter in mind for a future trip to revisit those tree blocked roads.

I ended up buying the car pictured below. When I got it, it had stock suspension, steel wheels, and this molded body kit. I didn’t like the kit being molded but it was a solid, mostly stock s13 with 103,000 miles on the clock for less than 2000 bucks. I picked up these beat-up wheels for about 150 bucks and then made a terrible decision, installing no name coilover sleeves and springs on the stock shocks. I ordered the springs on ebay for a 240SX but received 1G DSM springs instead. The springs were shorter than a soda can and the car was extremely low. The shocks would bottom out on the smallest bumps. I thought I was cool as hell though. This was in 2009.

I don’t have any pictures of the car over the next year or so. I knew that if I wanted to start drifting, I needed suspension that halfway worked and that it would be ideal to address the open differential. I bought some used KYB GR2 struts and Megan Racing lowering springs, and paid a friend to weld the diff. I then owned a Bonafide drift car.

Everything was going fine until February 2010 when I rolled the car onto its roof, destroying the body. When the car started to roll, I yelled out “oh shiiiit!”. The car went airborne and landed on its lid. While hanging from the seatbelts I said to Tyler, my passenger, “dude, dude dude, did that just happen?”. Tyler calmly responded, “yeah”. After confirming that Tyler and I were ok, I started trying to figure out how to climb out without breaking my neck. I don’t remember exactly how we climbed out. I only recall standing in the middle of the road when Rob approached me.  The homie Rob was driving in front of me when the crash happened. He saw my headlights turn sideways and disappear in his mirror and stopped on the side of the road. Rob approached me and said “Dude, what just happened?!”, I calmy replied “I flipped my car.”. Rob responded with, “Let me rephrase that, WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED?!’. I gave the same monotoned response. We then realized the engine was still running and one of us went and switched off the ignition. Thankfully no one was hurt, and a few jokes were cracked while waiting on a tow truck.

A few weeks later I sourced a replacement S13 fastback. It ran rough for (unknown to me) reasons, was spray painted blue, and had cracked body filler on the driver’s side quarter panel. I couldn’t find any pictures of the car as it was when I bought it. After getting the new 240 in the shop, we determined that it’s KA24E had a blown head gasket. Instead of trying to repair it, I decided to swap in the single cam from my first 240, the engine that ran upside down for several minutes. After swapping the engine over, we got it to start. It smoked like hell for the first few minutes, burning off all the oil that entered the combustion chambers from sitting upside down.

I wish I had more media from these years and countless drift events and hours of wrenching. At some point I spray painted the car white.

In January of 2012, a local tire shop let us have a sketchy drift session in their parking lot. Before the event, my friend Robbie and I christened the lot with some doughnuts. He was driving a 1^st gen RX7.

Sketchy parking lot skids:

Here’s a video from Piedmont drift in 2012, still rocking the single cam that ran upside down.

I don’t remember exactly when, but one day Rob and I decided to paint my car with real car paint. He had some white school bus paint and some big bass boat style metallic flake sitting around. We shoddily masked the car and Rob painted as much as he could. We only had enough paint for the front bumper, fenders and doors. The pic below shows the clear difference between the new paint and old rattle bomb toward the rear. I still have those Enkei RS-3 3-spoke wheels. Rob and I stripped them down years ago to refinish them and never completed the project. One day we’ll get back on that.

Rob and I painted the hood with chalkboard paint, using a roller. This is the best modification I’ve ever made to a vehicle.

After years of abuse, my old KA24E still ran but was getting tired. It burned nearly as much oil as gasoline and had earned retirement. I rebuilt the blown head gasket bottom end and used the cylinder head from my friend Tuna’s old single cam as Tuna had recently swapped to SR20 power. The engine refresh took several months and included nearly every OEM Nissan part still available.

I rebuilt the steering rack while it was easily accessible. It should come as no surprise that the rack was leaking prior to being rebuilt.

I used this opportunity to clean up and paint the neglected engine bay. Living on a dirt road and having oil leaks produces tons of grime.

During the build process, I refreshed the front suspension arms and replaced the all 4 brake calipers and lines.

Interior shot with gauge cluster LEDs, and a Parts Shop Max digital voltage, coolant temp, and oil pressure meter. This unit only lasted a few months before the screen failed.

With the new engine installed and running well, I eventually grew tired of the half car paint, half spray-painted look. I enlisted my friend Fender to lay down some GM fleet white single stage paint. During the paint and body process, we fitted a non-chalkboard hood and a B-WAVE style Wangan wing (unsure if it’s a replica or real).

It wasn’t anything great but it was undoubtedly the golden era for this car (at least since it was nice, new, and stock).

It wasn’t long after the paint work that I took a job with a 45 minute highway commute and this was my only highway capable car. Racking up that many miles every day took its toll on the car and me. Stiff suspension with rod ends and poly bushings, very stiff motor mounts, and a welded differential caused my enjoyment of the car, and the car itself, to fall apart.

I owned a few other cars and a truck alongside this project, but none were fit for highway driving. Sometime around 2015-2016 I re-ignited my interest in Jeeps, traded my truck and some cash for an XJ, and parked the 240 in the back field and abandoned it.

In December 2024 I decided it’s time to revive this old thing with the goal of driving it on a road trip.

The revival effort will be documented in a video series, here’s episode 1 and 2.

My T-case oil pickup screen full of gunk.

The rollers are completely missing from this bearing cage. During assembly of the case I forgot to install the main snap ring for the low range planetaries. Somehow it lasted for months before total disintegration of this bearing. The rollers jammed in the gears, causing the case to be stuck in 4 low.  

Ryan wasn’t thrilled with the grease inside the Birfield joints of his 80 series.

One of his new wheel bearings was destroyed upon arrival

Cross thread is better than no thread. It’s only the transmission cross member bolt, nothing important.

I stabbed my rearmost main bearing with a screwdriver. Ryan polished it out with a Dremel. The stabbed bearing is still in service years later.

Good old fashioned fast idle brake.

Taking a grinder to a brand new ring gear is normal… right.. guys?

High quality shenanigans while regearing my Jeep from 3.55 to 4.56.

For many years my blue XJ has leaked into the floorboard. I assumed the leak to be around the fresh air intake under the wiper cowl.

While it was snowing outside, Bubs and I can opener’d the cowl to gain access. After cramming in some fuel hose, a tube of seam sealer, and some flex seal for good measure, I can report that.. it still leaks just as bad as ever. I think Bubs got frostbite from the air discharge on the grinder.

King Bubs wearing his crown.

I couldn’t resist buying a flux core welder for 89 dollars.

You don’t need a floor pan in the trunk…

Ryan really inspired me with this well-designed battery hold down. Construction materials include some broken bricks, a stick, and a random bungee cord.

I traded some 240SX mud flaps for this sketchy old bike. I have no idea why.

Remember that 89-dollar flux core hot snot box? It came with the highest quality eye protection. Bubs “welded” his hatch striker on.

Only the finest e brake cable mounts here.

Best quality fender trimming job. Ryan was VERY impressed.

The cutoff wheel was in prime shape for the job.

Cigrit 101

We were spinning some spanners when these random pigs arrived.

This turned out to be a failed TPS. We made it back… eventually.

This diff cover has been spray painted at least 6 times. It’s basically indestructible now.

Home made spring retainer clip. Pretty nice by our standard.

Years later I still haven’t fixed this. I should probably get on that.

We decided Weasel needed a spare rotor more than a spare tire. He didn’t notice until the next day.

My straw hat is just as haggard as everything else around here.

Office chair + hoverboard = optimal transport around the shop..

Squeaking my way up the trail at Brown Mountain. Wooo!

Shortly before a trip to TN, we discovered that Bub’s rear drive shaft u joints were haggard. I’m happy to report that we replaced them with used units from a spare shaft.

Alcohol bottle added for artistic effect. Never drink spirits while you’re on the spanners.

 With reliability in mind, I opted to preemptively replace the fuel pump. The J hooks for the tank straps were rusty and fought the whole way. Both ended up twisted. Luckily the rust was noticed during inspection, and I had new Mopar J bolts on hand. I was unable to obtain a Bosch fuel pump and sending unit, so I decided to replace the pump and reuse the original sending unit. A decision I would later regret.

After installing the new pump in the old sending unit, the fuel gauge started giving random readings sometimes.

In part 1 I mentioned my plan to step down to 31×10.5 tires. I opted to utilize stock XJ steel wheels for the 31s. I already had 4 of them sitting around, I’d just need to source a 5^th. After washing the wheels, I brought them to the shop and prepared them for paint. I like the look of tires sitting in the wheel wells and stock offset wheels improved the scrub radius for nice handling. Stock wheels and 31×10.5s rub the control arms at full lock though.

Some rattle bomb self-etching primer and Krylon Metallic Dark Metal paint would fit the bill.

It was torrential rain the day I prepped the wheels for paint. I made a sick rain suit:

New tires would have to wait until a 5^th wheel was obtained and painted so I focused on another task. When Nick owned the Jeep, we installed a slip yoke eliminator in the NP231 case and coupled it with a double cardan driveshaft from Oliver’s. We got lucky during that initial build with a perfect pinion angle without shimming. My decision to install stock shackles drastically lowered the pinion angle, necessitating shimming.

I installed 8* shims from Iron Rock Offroad to point the pinion back toward the t-case. I need to remeasure, 6* may be more appropriate when the Jeep is loaded.

I goof’d during the axle shim install and pulled the driveshaft apart. Fortunately for me, Oliver’s put indexing arrow stickers on when they built the shaft.

Starting to see light at the end of the tunnel (or so I foolishly thought), I decided to take a break from the spanners and clean up the interior. The inside of this Jeep is pretty nice for its age and mileage. The only incompleteness of the interior was caused by Nick and I. We turned the back seat upright into a storage platform, show below.

It wouldn’t be a crusty old Jeep if you didn’t find a previous owner’s sock under the seats.

The dash cleans up nicely. The radio head unit is ancient and doesn’t support Bluetooth. It will need to be replaced eventually. For now, I’m rocking a Bluetooth to FM transmitter my friend Bubs donated on the Jeep’s first “real” test drive.

Some deep floor mats to keep in the mud:

Living in the southeast, air conditioning is mandatory. The next project was replacing the AC compressor, liquid line/orifice tube, and accumulator.

A new Mopar serpentine belt to finish things off.

After thinking the AC repairs were complete, I went to see my friend Weasel for an alignment and AC system charging.

The alignment went well, and my DIY caster settings were good. Weasel’s expert opinion identified that my AC condenser was clogged.

I couldn’t waste any time feeling down about the AC condenser, there was more work to be done. When Nick bought this Jeep, it had 31” BFG KO tires on stock steelies. He had the steelies behind his shed and allowed me to rummage around and grab one. They were all muddy and 3 of the 4 were home to a colony of ants. I grabbed the mostly ant free unit and tossed it in the Jeep. One of the decaying seat covers was sacrificed to keep mud off the carpet.

He also had an Old Emu steering stabilizer that we never installed as he did not have a clamp to attach it to the CavFab steering setup. It drove good enough without one.

The old 31 beside the 33s.

The 5^th wheel was painted to match my old set.

The new AC condenser arrived and fit nicely. One of the quick disconnect lines was a pain but eventually went on.

Steering now stabilized by Old Man Emu.

My initial inspection found some rust on the front right frame horn. With some help, the front bumper was removed for wire wheel and POR15 action. I’ll replace those sway bar bushings eventually.

The day finally arrived to have 31×10.50r15 BGF KO2s installed. This changed the look of the Jeep that took some getting used to. Now I prefer this look, and the Jeep is a joy to drive. It’s officially a smooooooth runner.

Immediately after having the tires installed, Weasel and I took a trip to Morganton NC so he could buy a 4 Runner.

It only took driving at night once to realize how bad the sealed beam halogen headlights were. The voltage drop from the old wiring and XJ headlight harness design resulted in little light output. I prefer the look of halogen housings on older vehicles, but I decided to update to modern LED projector housings for better visibility. I don’t like driving at night but sometimes it’s unavoidable.  

Since this machine is slated to be my next camping vehicle, I removed the roof rack from the blue jeep and gave it a fresh paint job.

While the roof rack paint dried, the first “real” test drive took place. A friend and I took a day trip ride to hit some forest roads around Linville and Wilsons Creek.

This old mountain store has been there for a long time.

Coming down highway 221 on this trip made it apparent that the rear brakes needed attention. They were refreshed after this trip.

Remember my regret about reusing the fuel pump sending unit and having fuel gauge issues afterwards? I ended up dropping the tank again to replace the whole assembly.

That’s all for now but there is plenty more work to do and plenty of places to go in this old Jeep. Stay tuned!

I couldn’t stay away from XJ Cherokees and bought another that you’ve probably seen here before. I struck a deal with my friend Nick and bought his 1999 XJ. This Jeep was his trail rig and travel vehicle. I knew going in that it had been sitting in his yard neglected for a few years and that it was more of a trail rig than I really wanted. That’s ok though because I was familiar with the Jeep and considered it a good candidate for adventure travel. Nick took the cash I handed him and emptied his piggy bank for a Lexus GX that I’m sure will be featured here eventually.

The new Jeep was truck bedliner black when Nick bought it. We overhauled the suspension and steering during his ownership. Below is a photo I took on the last camp trip these Jeeps would take together.

I had a rough plan before taking ownership, but the first order of business was to remove the “lunar lander” roof rack. We called it that because it sat so high off the roof, you could step off it and land on the moon.

With the lunar lander out of the way, I got the Jeep in the shop to start inspecting it and soon removed the 1 remaining “Ah Real Monsters!” light from the front bumper. After a mechanical inspection and note taking, I rolled it outside and did a lousy job of pressure washing it. I never knew the underside of the hood and firewall were blue until this day. The engine bay had been coated in moon dust for as long as I could remember.

After an engine tune up and oil change, I set out to lower the ride height with the end goal of reducing from 33×10.50 to 31×10.50s tires for better road manners. The jeep was equipped with Rubicon Express 3.5” front coil springs, Old Man Emu CS033RB leaf springs, Rubicon Express shackles, and Old Man Emu shocks. RE springs are known for being taller than advertised and this setup was no exception. I settled on reinstalling the 3” Rough Country coil springs the Jeep had on it when Nick bought it, and installing stock length shackles on the OME leaf springs, resulting in the ride height shown below. I also replaced the tubular heim joint front upper control arms with stock units and adjusted the lower control arms to dial in the caster.

That white grease for polyurethane bushings is miserable stuff to work with.

Initial inspection and test drives confirmed that the motor mounts were in rough shape, especially the drivers side.

Out with the old, in with the new.

As soon as I thought the motor mount swap was going too easy, the captive stud on the passenger’s side mount started free spinning when I was tightening the nut on the new mount. After an hour of struggling and impact wrenching, I opted for the nuclear option. Air hammer chisel tip the nut in half. Fortunately, a local parts house had a mount in stock and this 2^nd new mount went in without issue. The transmission mount was also replaced.

With reduced chances of the engine falling out, the next order of business became replacing the heavy duty heim joint steering, front brakes, and unit bearings. The goal for this build is touring and camping, I prefer tie rod ends over heim joints for this use case. The Cavfab steering kit uses 5/8^th inch hardware at the pitman arm and knuckles, meaning that replacing the steering also meant replacing the pitman and knuckles.

This was a long day of wrenching, but everything went pretty smooth. The only close call was me almost dropping the old solid steel tie rod on my shins. This would have undoubtably turned me into Cotton Hill.  Fortunately, we replaced the ball joints on this Jeep before I bought it, one less thing to do now.

The final results of the front-end transformation:

The bones of my prey:

I was finally able to drive it to town for its first “real” test drive and grab some lunch:

I felt that the successful test drive would be a good stopping point for part 1. Stay tuned for more info on this build and the places I’ll take it!

Late night on the tools getting this ol thing in shape.

Windshield cleaning 101. Them wheels is blingin’.

Fully (over) loaded the night before the trip. My Jeep was carrying two people for this trip and all our gear. Two 40 qt coolers, firewood, and unnecessary fuel cans. I learned during this trip that 40L of extra fuel is simply not needed on trips like this. Generally speaking, fuel stations aren’t that far apart in the southeastern United States.

Our first fuel stop of the trip was an interesting place. The well water was deemed unsafe, the restroom sink faucets were removed. The phrase “not ideal” became a staple of the trip. I edited out the identity of the businesses in the photos. This fuel stop was part of the experience that I feel is worth sharing, not an attempt to bring bad press to the businesses.

At the first fuel stop we realized my Jeep was leaking oil. “Not ideal”.

Over several hours we made our way West. These photos were taken on the Cherohala Skyway. If you want to test the braking system of loaded down Jeeps, this is a fine road for it. Amazing views but hard on brakes.

Finally, we hit the gravel forest roads and started making our way toward camp. We still had a good way to travel.

A stop to enjoy the views. This was the first trip on this black XJ after a suspension overhaul.

This steep mountain climb has a view that I’ll never get tired of. If you’ve seen my other TN articles, you’ll probably recognize this spot.

Looking out the window down the winding mountain road.

After several hours on the road, it was good to be at camp. A light, cold rain came though for a few minutes. It was then that another “not ideal” thing happened. The windows on my Jeep wouldn’t go up. I had to jump on the tools quick to mend it. Luckily it was just a loose electrical connector on the switch.

“I swear the fish was this big”. I have no idea what was happening here or why Bubs was presenting a sack of taters.

It’s a long way down!

Obligatory river photo.

Madlads traversing the Bald River in kayaks.

The views here are magnificent in 360 degrees. I could’ve stayed here all day.

No trip here would be complete without a trip to these structures deep in the forest. This was the first visit for the 3 others on the trip.

I missed it by a mile. This Jeep is getting close to 375k miles now. It has since been retired as my primary travel vehicle but is still in my fleet and is due for some work.

Camp on the 2^nd night near a creek. Severe storms came though that night bringing torrential downpours and lots of nearby lightning strikes. Fortunately, our tents fared well, kept us dry, and no trees fell on us.

 Tent drying 101.

Cookin’ up a morning feed on day 3.

Remember when I said it was cold? Wind gusts blew ice from the trees onto our vehicles as we ventured along this high ridge. Video is age restricted for what could be considered harsh language.

We stopped to take in the scenery and check the maps for a way out of the forest. By this point we were all around ¼ tank of fuel, not including the extra fuel I was carrying. In the 2^nd picture you can see frozen peaks in the distance.

A hilarious moment on that same ridge with a briar patch. Video is age restricted for what could be considered harsh language.

Not ideal! We (slowly) made our way to an auto parts store for a new bolt. With no antiroll bar I could REALLY feel the extra weight in the vehicle. After repairing my sway bar and having a roadside lunch, we headed to Georgia.  

Shenanigans at a Georgia waterfall. Video is age restricted due to tobacco usage.

Georgia is amazing.

Well, that ain’t gonna work. Setting up camp on day 3 in Georgia. It took several hours to find a suitable camp site. We eventually found this spot at a National Forest campground in a valley. It was very windy and cold all night, I think it got down to around 15 degrees. The next morning, Nick fell into a creek.

Heading home on day 4. It’s hard to beat a windshield view like that. Photos never do nature justice.

On the trip home, I had a new issue with my Jeep. On the highway, the engine would randomly cut out for a second like it completely died. We stopped once to investigate but never identified the cause. I never knowingly made any repair to fix it and it’s never happened since. I’m convinced the Jeep was telling me it was tired and needed a rest after 4 days on the road overloaded.

On our 2^nd TN adventure, we had the luxury of having maps of the area. Shortly after reaching the gravel roads, we stopped to assess and plan for the day. There is something cool about paper maps on the hood, the old school way.

We couldn’t visit this part of the world without stopping by this concrete structure deep in the forest.

Near the concrete structure we discovered this closed tunnel entrance and manmade waterfall. We didn’t notice the path leading to this during our first TN trip.

As we progressed deeper into the forest, we pulled off the road for a break from driving. This chimney in the background is the only remnant of what I assume was a house. There was a creek nearby with crystal clear water that I took a drink from.

And then Wes said, “Steven, where the hell are we?”. I didn’t have a clue.

We eventually made our way to a Creekside campsite with fire cooked sausages for dinner.

Cookin’ up a morning feed to start day 2.

The next day we made our way to town for gas. Amazingly, the gas station had 3 bottles of my favorite soda, Jones Orange Cream. All 3 came with me, this was a highlight of the trip for me. That soda is a rare commodity.

Quick photo op as the clouds rolled in.

About those clouds. I didn’t capture the worst of it. During this trip I was carrying my tent, sleeping pad, and sleeping bag in a bag on my roof rack. I learned from this storm that the roof bag is not water proof. I spent the night in a went tent and sleeping bag.

The rain subsided as we neared a mountain top campsite. As is becoming tradition, we stopped at this break in the trees to enjoy the view and snap some photos. The fog over the distant mountains was an incredible sight.

Movin’ on up toward camp.

Camp on night 2 as the sun set.

The next morning, we woke up in the clouds. I snapped this photo shortly after climbing out of my tent.

Breakfast consisted of ARB branded bacon and cheese sandwiches, toasted on coals. Good stuff. That charred can was there when we arrived and left in our trash bag.

A quick photo out the window while leaving camp. From here, we made our way to the highway and headed north toward Watauga Lake. Along the way my transmission puked ATF out of the vent tube and onto the exhaust to create a stressful smoke show. Wes and I thought my Jeep was on fire.

We eventually made it to north Tennessee and began to roam. For some reason, I stood in this creek and took a picture. Later in the day we made it to the lake with the intention of fishing. We spoke with some local fishermen at the spot we planned to fish. We got the impression that they were fishing out of necessity to feed their family, so we turned around and left the fish for them. There were also van lifers nearby blasting pirate metal. A truly bizarre scene overall. As it was getting late in the day, finding camp became priority.

We drove for hours without finding anything suitable. Driving well after dark, we eventually found a spot that neither of us considered ideal. There was enough room for our tents, so it was good enough.

The next morning, we went on to search for an old 4-wheel drive track I’d heard about. We found the entrance in the back of a neighborhood, unfortunately the track had been closed by the forest service and blocked off with large rocks. A resident on the street came out to talk to us and told us about the trail and its eventual demise. Accepting defeat, we set out GPS toward home.

This overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway was our last stop on the route home. Fortunately, we didn’t have to contend much with the rain in the distance.

Navigating the OHV trail system with Kayaks up top.

Paddling up stream with Falls Dam in the distance.

Approaching rocky waters near the spillway.

Making our way ever closer to the dam.

It’s almost unsettling to think about how much water is on the other side of the dam. I never realized the scale of this dam until I got up close. I can’t imagine what the Hoover dam is like.

Big ole’ pipes

On our way back to the ramp, we stopped by this small waterfall. Each of us got stuck in the rocky shallows several times.

Hammock chillin’ after a long day of yakin’.

There is nothing better than a proper camp steak.

On the second day, Nick’s we found that Nick’s alternator had failed at the water’s edge. I ended up towing him back to camp.

I couldn’t pass up one more photo op on the road near our campsite.

Andrew’s green machine, Nick’s old Jeep (that I recently purchased in 2024), and my rig posing on the Falls Dam trail in 2018.  

Andrew’s doggo popping out to say g’day.

I had a late arrival on this solo trip. Setting up my tent with lighting provided by OEM fog lamps.

Sundown at camp.

Winching Nick off the “center line” rock on Rocky Mountain loop. He was high centered on the transmission crossmember. The crossmember took damage but is still in good enough shape.

Sunrise over the Uwharrie mountains.

They call em’ rock sliders for a reason.

Winter camp near Falls Reservoir.

Me navigating some Wolf Den mud, filmed by Anrdew. He also made it through with no issues

Pisgah covered bridge in 2018, originally constructed in 1911.

Out for a rip bud? Bubs getting a nice tire lift on the Daniel trail. After some track building and lots of laughs, he drove this obstacle. Big shoutout to that Dana 35c rear axle that has never broken.

The day we fitted a winch to my Jeep, Bubs decided it was getting used. He dropped into this big, off camber rut to get properly stuck. Surprisingly, the only notable damage was him breaking another taillight. The recovery necessitated strapping my Jeep to Nick’s as an anchor point while winching.

The homie Andrew getting’ it done on the Daniel trail rock slabs.

Me divebombing and barely making it through this gnarly Carolina clay mud hole. I was getting diff’d out on the exit. The ground was hard packed, so my tires weren’t digging any holes. A bit of persistent right boot and some sawing on the steering eventually saw me through.

That’s it for now, check back later for more content from Uwharrie and beyond.