- Joined
- Apr 18, 2005
- Location
- Greensboro, NC
I made the August trip to Harlan for the annual CTB trip to one of the southeast’s premier OHV parks! I had not been to Black Mountain OHV Park since April 2009 and boy has it changed!
Most of the tried and true obstacles that have been left alone are now almost impossible to do. The first and last ledge on Lower Damnation has eroded to the point I can’t see anyone making it all the way through without winching! The Lion’s Den exit is getting close to the same, parts of Mason Jar have eroded making winching a probability instead of a possibility, the Big Step on Grace Rocks has been eaten out and is about impossible, the Upper Rock Garden has toughened up and Jager could also be impossible for all but the 44”+ tire crowd!
On the other hand, rocks have been added to the Rail Bed waterfall making it a bit easier, the exit of Lower Damnation onto Trail 12 has been made easy due to a culvert installation, the exit for Your Turn has been closed and a new, graded exit added for both Your Turn and Crawford’s Cry.
There are also several new trails that have recently been opened. Killin Time is a continuation of the Lower Rock Garden that comes out on Trail 12. You can continue on across Trail 12 onto Lower Profanity which is new also. You can now also run from the entrance of Your Turn, through Crawford’s Cry an on to the Middle Fork Playground via a new trail cut between Crawford’s Cry exit and Middle Fork. There is also a new, high challenge rock climb on the right of the main road entrance that goes all the way up to White Tail Camp! Lots of new trails available and more to come from what I hear!
I took my newly acquired ’97 ZJ up for a break in run and it didn’t disappoint me at all! The cush, coil ride, AC on demand, power windows and roomy interior made for a very enjoyable trail experience while the V8 power, automatic transmission and locked front and rear axles enabled me to go about anywhere I wanted to! The 33” AT tread tires need to be traded for a more aggressive, possibly smaller tire and I’ll add some rocker guards but over all I was very pleased with the way it performed!
We had a group of nine rigs which included upnover, 3DCRAWLER, 89wrangler, lockedup5, LARRY SMITH, JC and Nate Design, all from NC4x4. Chip’s new 4 speed Atlas worked great, lockedup5’s new on board welder setup was used several times and 3DCRAWLER’s newly installed suck up winch worked good as well!
We ran most all of the main obstacles and had a great weekend with mostly minor damage. Chip had a front driveshaft and rear pinion nut issue that was taken care of, 89wrangler only suffered a loose u-joint strap on his front driveshaft, I had the rear track bar bracket break (lockedup5 welded it with his new on board set up but after it broke again I ratchet strapped it together and it held back to camp) and Nate Design went through 3 trailer tires which slowed his weekend down quite a bit.
The only major breakage was on Larry Smith’s rig. He sheared all 4 of the upper studs on his passenger side steering arm! Five hours later he drove it out of the trail! We had to take the steering arm off, back to camp to drill and screw extract the studs, by FRANK’s (fourth house on the left after you cross the RR tracks heading to the trailhead, garage has a large FRANK’S sign, if you need anything he probably has it) to pick up some studs and cone washers, back to Lower Damnation to re-install everything only to find out that the bearing retaining pin on the steering arm had broken off too. Chip broke out his Ready Welder and burned the pin back on the arm, Steve,89wrangler, used his humongous file to smooth it all out, Larry installed everything and drove it out! A long but successful and very fortunate repair!
I can’t wait until next time to go back! No telling what will have been added by then but there are lots of good things in store for the park and I think it can only get better as the new Parks & Rec Commission continues to add improvements. If you have never been to Black Mountain OHV Park in Everts, KY, I highly recommend it as a destination for all rigs, from the heavily modified and purpose built buggies to stock 4x4 rigs right off the showroom floor there is something for everyone!
I will try to get my pics up tomorrow evening. A littel more carnage was Chip's trailer tire that shreaded on the way home. But 20 minutes later, back on the road, He and Leslie looked like a nascar pitcrew! Great meeting all the new folks! 
