Of Rocks and Roads

[Suck Creek Mountain]

Today, we took the new TrailBlazer out for a little four-wheeling atop the mountain at Prentice Cooper State Park. I decided I couldn’t stand it, and had to get it dirty. 🙂

Kevio went with us, just in case we needed spotting, and boy did we!

Our first stop was a rock formation called the Indian Rock House. Legend has it that Indians used rock formation as a natural shelter. It’s still used now by Cumberland Trail hikers, and there were small remnants of those campers left behind. It’s a beautiful formation, and worth the hike.

We decided we wanted to go to Lusk Point, and were fairly sure that the rough road we were on would take us there. We crawled the truck over some of the rocks and got to a small clearing that overlooked the Tennessee River. This was a wonderful view of the Tennessee River valley, sometimes called the Tennessee Grand Canyon. The clearing was there, and extended all the way down the mountain, because of a gas pipeline that runs through there. That was our gain, though, as we had a clear view all the way down the mountain to the river.

We pulled out and continued our trek to Lusk Point…. continued for about six feet, that is, until we saw the stairstep rocks that were next on the road. My poor little TrailBlazer didn’t have nearly the clearance necessary to pull that off, so we went back the way we came. I figured that since we came that way, it’d be easy to go back that way…. right?

Well, we got to the tough part of the road again, and had a horrible time getting through the rocks. Kevio finally convinced me to nudge it way over to the edge of the trail, and try it that way. He waved at me to stop, and I realized that only two wheels were touching the ground (left front and right rear). Poised in the air for a minute, the balance shifted enough that the other front wheel came down. Sio squealed, and Kevio asked if I had wheels in the air, and I told him “Yes!” I backed it up, leaned a little less toward the edge of the trail, and we scraped it right through.

It was thrilling to have the truck in that kind of position. The only downside was that we didn’t take any pictures of the thing being up on two wheels. A great, missed opportunity!