Potts Mountain Jeep Trail April 27th, 2019

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#1

Originally published at: https://bgorc.com/potts-mountain-jeep-trail-april-27th-2019/

Potts Mountain Jeep trail in Craig County, Virginia is a 7 mile public OHV trail. Reportedly the toughest public trail in Virginia.

The down-side of picking this date was that it fell on the same weekend as Wheeling for Hope at Oakridge meaning that we would lose a few members who had already signed up for that event. Sadly Bunzy and Julio would miss this years Potts trip but there could be another one before the year is out.

We ended up having a decent turnout of 13 rigs with most of them being Potts Mountain virgins.

All set up at camp

High winds Friday evening made setting up tents challenging but everyone pitched in to help get them staked down.

Despite being tied to a picnic table and weighted down with rocks, Turkeyman’s tent was blown into his fire pit. He was able to patch it with a trash bag to keep the rain out for the night.

Everyone got fires going at their camp sites and made their dinners before gathering around Turkeyman’s campfire to drink and catch up with each other while we waited on a few stragglers to show up.

We had the drivers meeting around 9-ish Saturday morning. We decided to split up into two groups (even though we knew we would all end up together at the burnt bridge section). Alec headed out with the first group of 8 Jeeps while the rest of us waited around for Turkeyman’s old wheeling buddy “Skippy” to show up.

After about 20 minutes I decided I was going to head to the trail with Billy following behind. We passed Skippy along the way so I decided to just head start up the trail since the rest of the crew would be along shortly.

Sure enough we met up with the first group at the burnt bridge. Everyone made it through without much issue except for TJ who had to be strapped. There is some debate if this was from bad spotting or because TJ should have gotten a 3.5″ lift instead of the 2.5″.

TJ getting strapped

Everyone else not getting strapped

Next stop was the meadow for lunch.


I walked along the trail with the dogs while Kate drove the Jeep.
Group shot at the meadow

After the meadow things are pretty easy going. There is one optional obstacle before getting to the “Stacks” (or “Waterfall” as some of our group calls it). Everyone made it through without issue.

Next up is the “Stacks” This can be pretty tough but I’ve only ever witnessed two people have to winch here. Even though there looks to be a bypass before the obstacle, there is not, DO NOT go off trail here or anywhere on this trail.

View from the overlook

After this obstacle the main trail is pretty easy. There are several side obstacles to play on.

After this area there is maybe 2 miles of easy trail before getting back out to the Forest Service road.

Once back at camp it was time for dinner, drinking, and shit talking. There was some dog on dog sexual harassment and a closed can of beer thrown into the fire to finish off the night. All around great trip to Potts mountain!

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#2

Not sure if this was done on purpose but in the blog format, only some of the pictures allow for popup on my mobile platform

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#3

There is different behavior on the blog side vs the forum side. Trying to figure it out.

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#4

The pics and format look great on the new site. Excellent write up John.

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#5

Burnzy! Glad you figured out how to use the new forum.

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#6

Very well done here, John. This is how all of the reports should be. This format is much better than it was on the old. Looking forward to getting this up and running for everyone.

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#7

Thanks Bill.

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#8

Late trail damage find. I Have had a rattle in the rear of the Jeep since Potts. Found the source today - looks like I broke the ear off of the upper shock mount bar pin.

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#9

that sucks Dan, is the pin replaceable or you need to replace the whole shock?

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#10

Not a big deal really. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen an old bar pin laying around on my garage somewhere but I’m probably just going to take the opportunity to change to a bar pin eliminator kit.

I’m just happy that I’m using the Jeep enough to break stuff but haven’t had to shell out much $ yet to fix what I’ve broken :slight_smile:

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#11

Looks like a great time!

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#12

Glad you are wheeling it too. Stuff breaks from time to time, but the fun is worth tge trade off for sure.

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