- Joined
- Apr 18, 2005
- Location
- Greensboro, NC
Dixie Run 2009
The 23rd Annual Dixie Run turned out to be a blast as well as a record setting event.
This was the first time Dixie Run was not held at the Upper Tellico OHV area after a 22 year run. It was also the first time that they had run out of raffle tickets; every raffle ticket they had was sold! Thanks to everyone who attended and/or bought tickets to help SFWDA continue its mission of conservation, education and recreation!
With a paid registration total of 217, the turnout was a bit smaller than usual but the event was still a smashing success! Even with the economic problems being faced by the country and with the event being held in a non familiar location, I stopped counting at 300 just before the raffle Saturday night and that didn’t include many of the folks that were still on trails, had already left or were still checking out the vendor stalls and trailers.
Once again the main vendors, BF Goodrich, Rancho and Warn came through big time. Also making a showing were Clemson 4WD, James Duff, Power & Play, TrailWorx and MudPro among others. The swag included a set of four coil over shocks, two sets of tires and 3 winches as well as lots of smaller but useful items such as t-shirts, tow straps, gift certificates and caps.
The venue for the 2009 edition of Dixie Run was Golden Mountain OHV park just outside of Cookeville, TN. This is a relatively new park being a little over a year old, but the facilities are very good and the trails are excellent! There are pavilions large enough for meetings/raffles with lights and electricity, nice camping areas, bathrooms and showers, lakes for fishing and some of the finest trails I have seen. The trails are mostly suited for well built rigs with 35”+ tires and dual lockers but there are trails suitable for stock rigs also.
Rain on Thursday and Friday morning made the Tennessee clay really slick for those that showed up early for the Rock Crawl competition Friday afternoon or decided to test out the trails. The trails are well marked and it’s hard to get lost even without a map. As the park is quite new there aren’t a lot of known, named , trails, but Bounty Hill, Staircase and Flat Rock will soon be known as some of the finest obstacles in the southeast.
I saw several of the NC4x4 crowd in attendance and there was good representation from CTB and BDB at the event also.
If you ever get a chance, be sure to check out Golden Mountain OHV park, you’ll be glad you did!
