Callalantee Campground & Crackers Neck Pay station

Callalantee and Cracker's Neck may be one of Tennessee?s best kept secrets for ATV & Four wheeling destinations! www.highcountryatv.com is the website. They are tucked away in Mountain City, TN, which is about 20 miles outside of Boone, NC and near several snow skiing mountains as well. There are lots of ?mom & pop? places to eat and I can fully recommend Main St. Caf? for some great food after a hard day on the trails!

Callalantee is the name of the off-roading area located on Furnace Creek near the campground area. There is a second set of trails called Cracker?s Neck about 15 minutes away. You will need to check in and register at Callalantee regardless of which area you are headed for. They will give you directions to Crackers Neck there.

Lots to do in the Campground area, mud bog, small motocross area

The Carolina Trailblazers hosted the 2004 Southern Four Wheel Drive Summer conference at Callalantee/Cracker?s Neck and rode both trail systems.

The Callalantee area is currently being cut for timber. The cutting appears selective instead of taking town whole sections, and this logging has created miles and MILES of trails! ATVs literally have 130 miles of trail to choose from, some of which are too narrow for the ?Jeep? gang. Many are not clearly marked on the map. We managed to squeeze through in our Jeep but a full size rig would have had a difficult time. Make sure to bring a trash bag or two with you, it was a real shame to see the amount of garbage and beer cans that had been left on the property. Would you want those on YOUR private land?

Callalantee Campground

Callalantee Campgrounds has sites for RVs, and tents, and a few small cabins and campers for rent as well. I have stayed at the campground once and the facilities are ?ok?, but this is not a campground for the faint hearted. The shower house is a cinder block building with about 4 or 5 showers on the guys side, nothing fancy, just a good place to get all of the mud off! There is another campground in Mountain City at the welcome center, I have not stayed there but it looks nice from the road and might be a better choice for the 40? motorcoach crowd?

Even the little guys can catch some air!

Callalantee used to be setup primarily for horseback riding and you will see the stables are still there and the rodeo area has now been converted into a mini-motocross track with a few nice jumps! There is also a large mud pit area for the 4x4 guys to show off their bogging skills and the campground will award free camping & wheeling to any ?Jeep? that can cross the mud bog AND climb the hill at the end onto the road!!! One of our guys tried it with his YJ and had no difficulty in the mud bog itself (Swamper SXs), but the hillclimb at the end proved to be too steep/loose to climb. Rumor has it several THOUSANDS of dollars of parts have been broken trying this, remember free camping and riding is only worth about $22 a day. Don?t risk too many parts!

The main trail from the campground area is GREEN, this winds along the bottom of the valley, passing the various active sawmills and crossing the creeks repeatedly. The main concern on this trail is ATVs traveling at a high rate of speed around a corner where a logging truck could be waiting and blocking the road!!! Most of the trails are marked in various colors and the map shows steep hill climbs and decents with use of small triangles.

My favorite two trails at Callalantee are Welder and Little Tellico. Both of these would be fairly difficult in a 2wd ATV or a Jeep without lockers.

Welder

Kevin showing us the CORRECT way up and over the waterfall!

The main obstacle on Welder is ?The Waterfall?, which actually has a nice bypass for those who wish to observe the crazy Jeeps who try and climb it! This obstacle is NOT passable by an ATV (or if it is, I want to watch you do it!!!) Essentially the Welder trail follows a creek up the valley to the top of the mountain, so you are ?in the creek? 80% of the trail. On our ?New Years Day? trip, a YJ sitting on 37? beadlocked boggers took the left line beside the tree. He hit it with the right momentum and made it look easy. The XJ running 33? LTBs followed the same line and also walked right up the falls! Naturally both of these rigs were locked front & rear.

That is some steep stuff...

On my first attempt, I tried the same line but my BFG M/Ts just did not want to hook up. I didn?t give it enough momentum and got about ? way and it started crab walking me to the far right. I backed down and tried the right side but the rear end of the Jeep just wanted to bounce around uselessly and not hook up. The spotters said my revolver shackles were opening and closing repeatedly. I was able to back up and over a tree stump that left a nice dent on my right rear corner. I re-lined myself up for another attempt on the left. This time I went for the extreme left and gassed it pretty hard but lost momentum again when the ujoint on the rear driveshaft spit out the caps and my driveshaft came flopping out! I ended up winching myself over the top and we replaced the ujoint.

The final driver in our group made a couple attempts on the far left with his Ford Ranger (37? Boggers) and decided to winch over as well. I have vowed I will return for my revenge! (?without the revolvers and WITH an anti-wrap bar to protect myself! Hmm, and maybe some Swamper SXs and beadlocks and?!)

Great trails, you may find a trail blocked after a windstorm!

One word of caution, there is a section further down Welder that is difficult to describe but has a significant chance of a rollover or flop. You come to a section of trail, where the hill is to your left, and the creek has dropped below you about 20? or so on your right. As you crest a ?small? hill, what is hidden below your sight is a creek crossing the trail that has washed out the right bank! My Jeep?s right front fell in this and the jeep pulled hard like it wanted to turn right and OVER the 20? hillside!! I yanked the wheel to the left HARD, gunned it and was able to escape by essentially getting sideways in the trail with my nose pointed ?uphill!!!? I got some folks on the CB to spot me as I did a 20 point turn back onto the trail, whew!!! [Moral of this story is stick on the left side of the trail (the side away from the cliff) and pay more attention than I did!!!!]

Shortly after this is an off camber section where you will want to hug the tree on the left as you make a SLOW turn around it. I have seen a picture at this spot with a flopped Jeep and I couldn?t understand how they flopped it until I was there in person. The hill is just off camber ?enough? that if you have too much speed over it and slide down to the right, your tires will catch in the rut and chances are you will be flopped before you know it! I did not explore this rut further, but my guess is that there is a ?good line? where you could go ahead and put your right side in the rut and be ok. I really think it is ?momentum? hitting the rut that would cause a flop.

Little Tellico

Yours Truly on Welder

Little Tellico is a fairly short trail, located near the ?Orange? trail head and is not currently marked on the maps. If you have been to Tellico recently, I would compare this trail to Upper 2. I took a picture of the entrance, which is a sharp turn to the right and it starts uphill immediately. There is a loose boulder section to start with then ending in a rock shelf that wants to hang you up if you hit it directly. We were successful at getting our front ends around to the left and only having to drag the rear of the jeep over it. The next part is a large off camber rock face on the left, with some pretty tall rocks on the right, big enough to catch your front axle/diffs if you are not on the best line.

I ended up hugging the left wall and creeping up the rock face after getting denied several times on the rock garden. The final obstacle on this section is a large boulder sitting directly in the center of the trail. This is a fairly narrow V shaped notch. If you try to go around it to the left you will get probably get your front right over it and then slide onto the rock. Your rocker guards robbing your rear of needed traction. ATVs and small vehicles like a Samurai can attempt to bypass the rock on the right side. The Samurai with us was denied on that side as well since the V-notch slides you right back into the rock.

Lots of Laurel on the trails

My line over the obstacle was to place my right front tire directly down the center of the boulder, which placed my left on the side of the hill to the left of the boulder. I positioned myself with the right front about ? way across the boulder and gave it enough gas to momentum the right rear up and onto the rock as my front dropped off. You have to make sure the right front does not fall off to the left/early or it will be coming off just when the rear is hitting and you will be on your right rocker again.

Little Tellico is a trail ?in progress? and thanks to the Carolina Trailblazers it will be extended further in the near future! We rode quite a few trails over the back of the park and then along the Skyline trail and ended our trip coming down Yellow to the main campground. A word of caution, Yellow has a section of VERY VERY steep trail, the bark is worse than the bite and we were able to creep down it in 4LOW/1st gear. I am looking forward to my next trip, I think we are going to CLIMB this section! I would be VERY leery of climbing this hill on a 2wd ATV or a vehicle that is not locked. I wouldn?t suggest trying to decend this hill on an ATV unless you are VERY confident of your riding skills.

Cracker's Neck

Crackers Neck Trail 3, 'waterfall' section

Crackers Neck was also created by logging, but appears to be inactive for several years now and is now home to some of the best rock gardens and hill climbs I have seen INCLUDING Tellico! Most of the rock gardens are full of rocks ranging from bowling ball size up to something the size of an engine block. There are several rock gardens that are going UP the side of the hill at the same time and those are quite challenging. I have seen stock Jeeps do almost every trail at Crackers Neck. The rock gardens are easily bypassed. ATVs will also find the trails easy to ride, and less crowded than Callalantee!

Trail 3 is fairly popular. It follows a creek up the mountainside and has a few interesting places in the creek itself. This trail CAN be traveled by vehicles with no lockers front or rear, but ground clearance can be an issue. I have seen a mildly built jeep with 32s and no lockers walk over a section but a stock Rubicon got high centered and had to be winched.

Crackers Neck Trail 3

As you leave the creek for a moment and come to a gooey black dirt/mud section, you will see a small optional rock garden/hill climb off to your right. It is full of loose rocks and the hill climb itself is fairly steep. Momentum appears to be key on this section because if you get stopped and ?sink? down into the rocks in the middle of the climb it is difficult to recapture that momentum to finish the obstacle without a winch. The garden ends and you will turn around and there is a trail off to the side that you can follow back down the hillside to rejoin trail 3.

There is another flatter rock garden section on the right, a few hundred yards further along Trail 3. I have seen an XJ on 32s, locked front and rear ease his way through it, but it required quite a bit of rock stacking in places. He did not have to use the winch. I have seen a YJ on 36s also ease through it with LESS rock stacking, and again with no winch.

Most of the trails are pretty open, with short sections of obstacles.

Trail 3 ends at the crest of the hill, you can follow it to the right and join an OLD blacktop road that is used to service the radio tower. If you need to head out quickly, you can take a left and follow the curvy blacktop out to Hwy 421.

?Big Wheel? trail is another great trail for the ?Jeep? crowd, it has a rock garden, V-notch and a long hill climb that is a real blast to watch! On rainy or snowy days the V-notch and hill climb can become a winch fest, especially if you are not locked! You could easily spend a full day at Crackers Neck exploring all the trails and you will see several trails off to the side that have not been re-opened, so the trail system is getting better all the time!

With over 5000 acres and 130 miles of ATV trails this is quickly becoming my favorite wheeling destination! The Callalantee section is much more crowded than the Crackers Neck side, and it is worth seeing both sides. Chances are you won?t see ALL the trails in a single trip! Overall I like the trails and park, they are working on good trail markers and have done a great job so far! The current map is outdated, but they are working on updating it and if you have a GPS and topography program you could create a nice one from your own adventures!