North Carolina is known for its fantastic 4-wheeling, with its 44” swallowing mud holes in the Eastern part of the state to its rock crawling heavens in the West. But as I’m heading towards the city through civilization. I think to my self:
What can be worth driving through Greensboro and Winston Salem traffic to go 4-wheeling? How do you pronounce Uwharrie? What is a Fun Caravan? Can you four wheel in a mini van?

It was surprisingly dry at Uwharrie National Park, located near Troy, NC. Dust seemed to be stacked on the leaves, and everything has a grey tint as you head down the forestry service roads. Little did I know, just an hour outside of Greensboro is a little off-road paradise. This playground is not tailored for the hard core rock crawler or mud bogger but for the family, a great place to bring little Johnny on his first off-road adventure or to break in the family easily in to the off-road community.

Ben Covington, event coordinator for the day, prepares the competitors for their day.

Uwharrie National Park is host to 16 miles of “off-highway” trails and offers a variety of terrains for the moderate level four-wheeler. The trails are supported by well maintained service roads and offer exceptional facilities for camping, even bathrooms and showers!

Each year the Carolina Trailblazers host their “Fun Caravan” here at Uwharrie. It consists of a day of family fun and events that test not only your driving skills but also your technical skills here at the Uwharrie National Forest. Competitors are grouped in to teams of two to compete in such events as the Tire Change, Spark Plug Swap, Balance Beams, and Roll Through the Line. The kids are included too as they get to use miniature rock crawlers to compete on a scale modeled off road course. The day is ended with a four hour poker run where competitors hustle through the trails of Uwharrie and then followed by a much needed dinner.

Budget rock crawling

The Trailblazers use this event each year to remind its members about its family oriented goals and to welcome potential new members. Most teams in the Fun Caravan events are made up of husbands and wives, best friends, and family members. It’s a great time for all as you watch what you would think is an unlikely mechanic, a school teacher with her children in the cheering sections; wrestle a 35” mud terrain off of its hub and around a bronco. In events like these it is not the size tire, the spline count, nor the crawl ratio that makes you the winner in these events but the amount of practice and a bit of luck that makes you a champion.

Yes darling, I did have Swampers put on our new H3.

I have never seen a 50 year old man so excited to pull four spark plugs out of a head only to have his teammate run beside him and thread the plugs rite back in. Next was the balancing beam, a competition of patience and a strong reminder of how great fuel injection truly is. This was followed up by Roll through the line, a game I had never heard of nor seen before. The goal was to get a running start in your vehicle and then to coast as close to the finish line as possible without crossing it or stepping on the brakes. This is the only event throughout the day that oversized tires and lockers might have an advantage, but not as you might think, the secret is to stuff those 37” Boggers into your leaf springs and bind up your Detroit’s as much as possible in order to slow your vehicle down at the precise point.

Measuring for the roll through competition.

These games don’t prove who the best four-wheelers are, and in the end the only people that won were the families and friends who competed and watched. The games showed the true reason why we build the monstrously ugly vehicles and squander our children’s college funds all to have fun and make friends.

Now enough of that pansy stuff and on to the real fun!

Mathew Eisenhower, a club member from Wilmington, NC, decided that his wife’s jeep would be perfect to compete in, especially since she is out of town for the weekend.

All of the family fun and excitement left little room in the day for four-wheeling and rock bashing, but a good poker run is just what you need to give you an excuse to take your vehicle barreling down bumpy trails and to bash it up obstacles you would never usually think you could make with those little 31’s.

The group was split in to 4 teams of vehicles, sent out to all corners of the park and given a four hour time limit to cross nearly every trail in the park in only four hours. Sure it sounds easy, but have you ever tried to take a group of seven vehicles across the nastiest trails on one of the most dry and dusty days in North Carolina? The short time limit, blinding dust clouds, and chances to redeem extra poker cards took its toll on some of the rigs as distributor problems, carburetor issues, and broken suspension links plagued the competitors. The truncated time limit also caused drivers to take unexpected routes and put their vehicles in precarious positions as everyone dashed to complete the run on time. While in a hurry I was throne from my seat and into a sharp edge of the roof line in a Bronco leaving me with a bloodied forehead.

Due to a broken heim joint and a larger group then most, the competitors I tagged along with did not finish the poker run on time. I expected to see some disappointed faces as we rolled back into camp, but it was just the opposite. Welcoming us back to camp were all the families, friends, judges, and other competitors with a big plate of southeastern style barbeque and a big glass of sweet tea to quench our thirst.
As I stuffed my face with food and talked shop with members of the trailblazers, I was reminded by a 4 year-old girl named Hanna. Hanna rode shotgun in the Bronco I shot pictures from. She told if I had worn my seat belt I probably wouldn’t have gotten this big gash on my forehead. Reminding me once again hew much of a family event four-wheeling truly is.

Club Vice Commander Kenneth Stevens shows how to take an obstacle with ease.

The Carolina Trailblazers Four Wheel Drive Club is a Family oriented club formed in 1971 and incorporated in 1973. They ride trails of all different levels and its members have vehicles to suit all types of terrain. There is some true talent and backyard ingenuity in this group of energetic trail riders. Of course they emphasize on the “Tread Lightly" idea in order to minimize the ecological impact of our hobby and also work to keep the trails as clean as possible. Many of the club members live near Hickory, NC but some live as far away as Eastern NC, SC and TN.

For more information visit:

http://www.carolina-trailblazers.com
ttp://www.cs.unca.edu/nfsnc/recreation/uwharrie/