Difficulty of Daniel

What do you think of the difficulty level of Daniel?

  • Isn't difficult enough.

    Votes: 129 50.0%

  • Just fine the way it is.

    Votes: 126 48.8%

  • Is too difficult.

    Votes: 3 1.2%
  • Total voters
    258
I don't know if they actually did the full maintenance they usually do on Daniel with the FS Dozer, Full maintenance includes filling in the v-notch (before the 1st ledge), which hasn't been done in a couple years. We will see in April.
 
DRaider90 said:
I don't know if they actually did the full maintenance they usually do on Daniel with the FS Dozer, Full maintenance includes filling in the v-notch (before the 1st ledge), which hasn't been done in a couple years. We will see in April.
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The FS dozer doesnt do the trail maintenance anymore, it's all done by contractors. Pete isnt even willing to take his dozer on Daniel.
 
Difficulty of Daniel.

My girlfriend and i hiked up from cottonplace bout a month ago. The second plumith is going to be a doosey! It doesnt appear to be any maintaince on the trail, but thats fine at least the climb can stand up to its level now.
 
Nissan11 said:
The FS dozer doesnt do the trail maintenance anymore, it's all done by contractors. Pete isnt even willing to take his dozer on Daniel.
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The FS Dozer is still there to do trail maintenance, its something Deborah is looking at us using in the Heavy Work weekend. The fact is yes Pete has no plans on taking the Dozer on Daniel any time soon. Actually if you ask him about it, you will get an ear full probably. The last time the Dozer was taken down Daniel was the year they back filled the 2nd ledge, which was 2 years ago I think. The contractors still do the large chunk of the trail maintenance, but the Forest Service can still be involved in it with the Dozer and other resources.
 
poll...
 
everytime somebodey does the poll,it updates the thread as fresh so then I come here and then waste a minute of my ever shortening life figuring out that somebody did the poll but didn't post.Ohoh ,just lost 2 minutes this time.
 
Since we are talking about the poll in specific lets talk about the poll results. I am actually quite surprised its just about 50/50 on the Just Fine the way it is/Not Hard enough answers.

I didn't vote to keep my opinion out of it to see what others had to think. But now that is pretty much done I will share my .02 briefly. I am happy the way Daniel is as far as difficulty goes, but I also see where a couple more obstacles would help it live up to its "Black Diamond - Most Difficult" rating.

The one issue I do have with Daniel is safety. There are a couple spots on Daniel that aren't fun/challenging, they are just dangerous and usually end up with some nasty body damage if you end up on the wrong line. The only other big issue on Daniel is the ATVs making illegal bypasses because they don't want to go down/up certain areas like the ledges. But thats more of from a land use issue.

From what I have heard from the Forest Service they are looking to add bypasses to Daniel sometime in the future to allow for better ATV/Dirtbike flow, and stock vehicles to be able to traverse it. But that is years and years away, by that time who knows what Daniel will look like.
 
I just hope it gets harder!!!
 
As of yesterday, a stock 2011 JK Rubicon made it up with no problems, except skid plate dragging slightly on 2nd ledge. 1st ledge is washed out pretty good, but I think it's a good challenge for idiots and stockers. If you're built much, it's child's play and can get boring. But there's usually some idiots around that are good for a chuckle as they take idiotic lines and get a wheel 5 feet off the ground and go into panic mode. Then you have the people with pink stickers that say they'll cry if they scratch their JK with chrome trim that should be in walmart parking lot.


It doesn't have to be Daniel, but I do wish there was something a little harder at URE. Maybe more of a continuous challenge rather than just 2 ledges and dirt road.
 
rant on:
I have a buddy that does Daniel in a Cherokee on 32" tires and a 2" budget boost without scrubbing a tire on a regular basis. I don't see what the big deal is. I also feel that the ATVs are causing most of the damage and erosion to the forest due to bad driving and lack of concern for the trails. I also feel that we as a society that we should remove all of the warning labels from all of the products that have them now. I still don't understand why you would want to destroy an obstacle out there. There are too few of them there now. I have seen a bunch of people hit trees out there. does that mean that they are going to cut down all of the trees out there? It seems to me that the forest service wants to make the whole trail system one big dirt road... maybe because they are too uncomfortable traversing & enforcing the trails.
:rant off
 
here is my take on the whole thing.Daniel is just fine for me.Then again I can take it or leave it.The type of wheeling I do is more for the ride aspect and not just trying to climb a rock or see how hard I can beat on something.I can come from both ends and wind up in the same spot.You know how I roll and what I roll Eli.Now ask me what I think about crozet,gulches,flats,farm,etc and I can't give you an opinion.Places like that aren't my kind of wheeling and I stay away from there.I don't get on here and bitch that their trails are too hard and need to be soften up.They are there for a certain type of wheeler and rig.The UNF trail systen is good for the average wheeler to get out,get some practice,and figure out if they like their equipment is how they want it.You don't like UNF,go to Gulches.Just how I see it.
 
ord.sgt.26NC said:
here is my take on the whole thing.Daniel is just fine for me.Then again I can take it or leave it.The type of wheeling I do is more for the ride aspect and not just trying to climb a rock or see how hard I can beat on something.I can come from both ends and wind up in the same spot.You know how I roll and what I roll Eli.Now ask me what I think about crozet,gulches,flats,farm,etc and I can't give you an opinion.Places like that aren't my kind of wheeling and I stay away from there.I don't get on here and bitch that their trails are too hard and need to be soften up.They are there for a certain type of wheeler and rig.The UNF trail systen is good for the average wheeler to get out,get some practice,and figure out if they like their equipment is how they want it.You don't like UNF,go to Gulches.Just how I see it.
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Exactly what he said, I built my buggy for the hardest trails therefore I don't go to uwharrie for hardcore obstacles, and then complain about the trails. Just don't go if it don't suit you. When I had a stocker on 32's it was a blast to ride uwharrie.

Sent from my PB99400 using Tapatalk
 
I've gotten bored with Uwharrie in my Samurai so last weekend I took my new rig, an open-open XJ on 31s. I didn't take the hardest lines but went up and down Daniel with no issues, but had more fun than I've had in a long time out there. Definitely not too hard, but way to easy for locked rigs on 35+...
 
I have been riding Uwharrie for about 25 years. I like the bypasses around the tough parts because it eases congestion and helps keep things flowing. I have been taking a dirt bike to Uwharrie due to a lack of challenge for my jeep. I think Daniel should remain tough but it needs a bypass or to become a one way trail on weekends.
 
Don Layton said:
I have been riding Uwharrie for about 25 years. I like the bypasses around the tough parts because it eases congestion and helps keep things flowing. I have been taking a dirt bike to Uwharrie due to a lack of challenge for my jeep. I think Daniel should remain tough but it needs a bypass or to become a one way trail on weekends.
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The problem with making it one way is for unlicensed rigs you have to run the trail backwards to get back to your trailer. We had one trailered rig with us last time we ran Daniel the right way, ran everything else, and then back on Daniel. Daniel the wrong way was actually more challenging.
 
Could they look into opening the pirate trail on the back side of Daniel to keep things flowing or make Daniel a loop. The bypass on Rocky Mt loop really helped. Daniel is the best trail they have and I would hate to see them doze the best parts.
 
Don Layton said:
or to become a one way trail on weekends.
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That won't work for ATV's or unlicensed rigs.

What the forest needs is another trail from the bottom of Daniel over to Dickey Bell so Daniel isn't a dead end trail.
 
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