No Way Out? A Four Wheeling Adventure

The predicament in this post my friend from Ohio and I got into on one of his annual visits.

It was Sunday, Drews Creek and Spring Hollows were the destinations. I wanted to go into Spring Hollow to see if there was a way to get over into Hazy which is directly on the other side of the right ridge line as you drive up Drews Creek. Plus we wanted to dig some ramps.

Anyway, that part of the trip went fine except that we couldn’t get over the mountain. So, we left Spring hollow and headed for the main strip roads on Bolt Mountain via Peachtree. We decided to go to a trailer someone pulled into the mountains for hunting. On the way we met a friend coming off the mountain. He said you couldn’t get any further than the trailer on the road we had intended to travel. He was in a truck we were on four wheelers. We decided to see for ourselves since it would shave hours off the ride back home.

Before I go any further, I’ll try to give you a general idea of where we are at this point.

From my house on Bolt Mountain the hollows line up like this, Breckenridge, Cove Creek, Peachtree, Martins Creek, Drews Creek, Spring Hollow and Hazy. Sitting at the trailer we were on the ridge line that separates Drews Creek from Martins Creek. So working backwards through this list, we needed to get to Cove Creek to be assured of unobstructed routes home. Peachtree was the obstacle.

We were at the end of the good road and looking at a pretty rough 4wheeler trail around the head of Martins Creek at about 5pm. I was wondering then if the guy in the truck had been right.

The dilemma, if we are going to get all the way back to Bolt before we run out of gas, back the way we came, then we need to turn around soon which would require a long ride back out of Drews Creek then back up through Peachtree but we could make it. On the other hand, if the 4wheeler trail comes out anywhere in the direction its going, onto a strip road, then we would be miles closer to home because then we would just be going around the head of Peachtree right at the top of the mountain.

This is what I knew, the trail we were contemplating had to come out somewhere in the head of Peachtree. Rte 99 was at the top of the mountain on our right and the road up through Peachtree was somewhere in front of us. If we went forward then we would have to run into one or the other. Also, someone else had traveled the trail recently. And last, I had just over a half tank of gas.

This is what I didn’t know, where the trail ended or if it was even passable?

We decided to investigate the trail a little further. And believe me it was rough but we could navigate it. We were going to either ride till 6 (about a half hour) or till the gas tanks were half full. Either way we could turn around and have a long ride home. (about two hours)

All the way around the trail I was seeing evidence of at least two to three other 4wheelers coming this way. We stopped at six, it was time to make a decision. Turn around or press on? We were both worried about getting a long way around this road and having to turn around mainly because of the gas situation. I was encouraged by previous traffic. That told me the trail was not only passable but also there was a way out.

With that puny little bit of evidence we pressed on. Just making the decision to go forward was all that was needed to make it too late to turn around. For the most part the trail wasn’t bad albeit rarely used. The only thing that really made it rough was all the small downed trees we had to maneuver over or around. That is until we arrived at its end.

I think we were both feeling pretty good. We had come a long way around the top of the mountain and we were real close to Peachtree. Then I topped up over this little knoll and there it was. The road turned and basically went straight down the side of the mountain. The surface was large and small pieces of sandstone with drainage ditches about every twenty feet. On the lower side of each ditch there was a mound of sandstone about three feet tall used to divert the water from rains over the hill.

We sat at the top for a bit in utter disbelief.

A new dilemma, if we go down this hill and still can’t get out onto a strip road then we are in trouble. With the surface of the road being sandstone and the pitch probably around 60 degrees, if we went down we weren’t coming back. There would be no way we could get traction on this surface at that angle. And it was only about a half an hour before dark and we didn’t have the fuel to go back.

Since my 4wheeler was 4wheel drive I decided to go down a little ways just to see if we could get down the road. I went to the first turn and parked the 4wheeler against one of the ditches. I had decided to go on foot to see what we were in for. And what we were in for was one heck of a ride and one way because we definitely weren’t coming back up this hill. When I say straight down remember that its straight down in a hollow so basically its around and down. With the worst part being right at the bottom where it finally leveled out.

After I arrived back where my friend waited, we discussed it but really only had one choice, we had to go down and possibly wreck on the hillside or be trapped at the bottom. We went down the hill very slowly. And believe me, it was a ride then some. It was really hard to go down that steep of an angle without the 4wheeler wanting to slide.

The cool thing is we made it to the bottom without an incident and a half mile from there we found ourselves at the Peach Tree Ridge Mining Company. Five minutes later we were back on roads familiar to us and headed home. Very much relieved.

My only regret is that I didn’t have my camera.

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