Knoxville TN to Dunlop TN
We lingered at our hotel until about 8am before heading down the highway to reconnect with the trail. and caught back up near Tellico Plains.
At the start of the road was a sign promising a waterfall, which we never did see. It was a narrow gravel road that quickly started to become overgrown and rocky with deep ravines all along, after a quick stop to air down the tires we continued on. This was the first of many times we’d need to air down the tires to smooth out the ride. It’s really nice having an on-board air compressor to make it easy.
We were about halfway down this section when we came to a large dead tree that had fallen across blocking the road at a creek crossing. It seemed like the perfect time to try out the winch we’ve not had an opportunity to use before. From our position straight on I dragged the tree in an arc about half way then moved the Jeep to get a new angle and pulled it the rest of the way off the road. T he stream we had to cross was about a foot deep so it was an easy crossing. Further down we came to another stream that had rocks sticking out of the water all the way across, this was trickier because it wanted to pull in directions we didn’t want to go! There were a few other streams to cross but those were the most fun.
At lunchtime we were following another stream in the Cherokee National Forest and pulled over at a scenic spot along the water for lunch.
Around 1:30pm we left the dirt roads behind for today and followed some winding country roads across southern Tennessee ending up in Dunlap, TN. Our dinner stop was at a nice Veteran’s Memorial with picnic tables where we made some fajitas for dinner. Early to bed at our favorite camping spot… Walmart to spend the evening listening to an audiobook and editing photos.
This was the best day so far, we’re finally getting a feel like we’re really on the TransAmerica Trail.
