SFWDA Trailfest 2010

[J.C.]

SFWDA Trailfest 2010
Coal Creek OHV
Oliver Springs, TN

After two weeks of riding the red rock of Moab, UT and sightseeing with my son, I stopped in at Coal Creek OHV on my way home to attend SFWDA’s spring fundraiser, Trailfest. This was the 7th annual event, sort of a smaller, springtime Dixie Run. The event started out right here at Coal Creek OHV back in 2004, has moved to various venues during the last few years and was back at the birthplace of Trailfest for 2010.

I came in Friday night, running ahead of a massive storm front, the winds of which provided some of the best fuel mileage of my trip! I rolled into the event site after dark and with no natural light due to the cloud cover, I scrambled to find a place to park and sleep in my truck camper shell. I was woken up a small time later by revving engines and whooping and hollering. I had parked right next to the site of the mud bog competition! Luckily for me there were only a few competitors and things calmed down fairly quickly as the campground settled in for the night.



Saturday dawned partly cloudy, and as attendees began to roll in, find campsites, complete registration and sign up for trail rides, news of the impending storm began to circulate. I was tired of trail riding and the highway after two weeks and gladly accepted SFWDA Webmaster Doc Elliott’s trade offer to man the registration table while he went on one of the trail rides.



I spent the day behind the registration table conversing with fellow volunteer Chris Stewart of Rocket City Rock Crawlers and with SFWDA store managers Joyce and Wayne Kickles, registering guests as they arrived, selling raffle tickets and napping. I did manage to take some time to walk around, check out the Coal Creek facilities and visit the vendors who had display tents set up.



Vendors included WARN, BF Goodrich, Power and Play, James Duff, Doug’s Off Road and Top Gunz Customs. One of the coolest sights was watching Albert Haynesworth, former Tennessee and current Washington Redskins player, test out his newly rebuilt FJ on Rockwells. This guy and his rig were HUGE!

About 2 pm the storms started to roll in from out west. I heard reports of flooding in Jackson, TN, west of Nashville and those with phone connections were warning the bad stuff was on the way. The afternoon continued with occasional showers as we waited for the trail riders to return. Most of them started showing up around 4 pm, as did the caterer, Moe’s Southwest Grill. As the riders cleaned up, the Moe’s crew set up the evening’s burrito feast and about 6 pm we started in on the feast.

Shortly before the meal was to end and the raffle was to begin, the expected storm hit in earnest. I have been in some bad spots over the years but to be honest I was a little bit scared of this one. We were basically on top of Windrock Mountain, out in the open under a large pavilion. As the storm came up over the ridge we could see a black band that came right down the side of the pavilion. You literally could not see anything on the other side of it! It was raining so hard and lightning so bad that we were all huddled in the middle of the pavilion trying to avoid the blowing rain and get some comfort for our fears. The scariest part was as this part of the storm passed the wind began to shift, actually turning into a circle and many of us feared we were going to see a tornado form. After an extremely scary 15 minutes or so this part of the storm passed on and we got back to just the pouring rain as the Moe’s crew tried to get their stuff loaded and out of the way and we finally were able to start the raffle.



The raffle was pretty well stocked with swag despite the poor economy, featuring a WARN winch as well as all of the usual WARN and BFG donations and including some custom creations from James Duff, Doug’s Off Road and Top Gunz. Despite holding quite a few raffle tickets I managed to uphold my tradition of terrible raffle luck winning only one prize. However, that prize was a free nights stay at the Comfort Inn in nearby Oak Ridge, TN and as soon as things were over with the event I hopped in the truck and made my way there to enjoy a shower and a good, DRY nights sleep before heading back home to Greensboro, NC after almost three weeks of travel.

Trailfest 2010 event organizer Chad Christman of Scenic City 4WD Club did a great job in this his first year on the job! Despite the weather things went smoothly, the raffle was well stocked, the food was good and the facilities excellent! Thanks, Chad, for a GREAT Trailfest 2010!



SFWDA President Roger Theurer announced that Trailfest 2011 will be back at Coal Creek OHV next year, the first weekend in May, and if you have not been to Coal Creek OHV before, this would be a great opportunity to check out the park. Park Manager and Coal Creek Forrester Brent Galloway, a former SFWDA President, has done a nice job with the facilities. The new campground features large RV sites with power to run the largest RVs, camp sites with water and electric, small cabins with two bunk beds, nice large bath houses with combination locks on the doors to keep out non-registered users, a nice office, a power washer site for those who want to do some pre cleaning on their rig and of course the great trails of Coal Creek OHV which feature everything from miles and miles of easy trail riding to some of the hardest obstacles east of the Mississippi!

Trailfest 2010 took us by storm and we hope to see you there next year for SF