[elusiv]

along with the must wheel trails, I got to thinking about the eternal question... "whats the hardest?"
Now we all know that the trails change a lot. I have seen 33's go up one week and the next nothing could touch it.

I have also thought about what makes a trail hard..length of the trail, obsticals, terrain, weather. It also has to balance between how difficult it is to traverse and the probability of breaking.

heres my top ten hardest trails list including ONLY the places I have wheeled:

10. Pink trail, Badlands off road park, attica IN... tight turns, good washouts, allways wet

9. Pipeline trail, WI.. I grew up out there, but the pipeline in the spring was challenging for any rig.

8. Horseshoe trail, Croatan National forest, Havelock, NC. by far the worst bottomless mud holes I have ever seen. the pic is me in 1999

7. Back door, Johnson Valley,CA. the hardest obsticals, but way too short. pic is me about 1.5 months ago

6. Stagecoach trail, Monteagle, TN...Brenda's hill is one on my all time favorite obsticals....the pis is double-pull hill from labor day this year.

5.El Hill, Los Coyotes CA.. too bad it's only one obstical..watched a good roll here though...

4.5 Slickrock, Tellico,NC. too easy to roll, always wet, loooong trail.

4. trail 11, tellico, NC...something about the catchnet lends to the excitement.pic is me last oct on guardrail

3. Big Johnson, Johnson Valley OHV CA...its good, but not that good, and I wheeled it without a winch or rear locker.

1 (TIE). sledgehammer, Johnson Valley OHV,CA....but I have driven this trail without the winch..and its really not that long. It only got the #2 rating because I have broken something every time I wheeled it. pic was me a couple weeks ago

1(TIE). the entire trail 2, tellico, NC... most folks limp home after lower 2, but the climb up upper 2 is getting GOOD. I have seen this trail claim more drivetrain parts than any other, but I have seen it fairly easy during drought conditions. I would have said it was the hardest, but since they blasted the BIG rock out, its no longer winch only] pic was taken last oct.

honorable mention: Uwharrie national Forest after a week of rain. This may have been the hardest wheeling I've ever seen.

there is is...flame away...I'll see the rubicon and moab this spring and colorado/arizona this summer..we'll see how the list changes

 

[rotozuk]

You forgot the worst.. The parking lot at Walmart. they have some crazy little yellow things to drive over.

My experience with the few obstacles you listed that I know of, I would not rate as all that hard.

Ell Hill is an easy climb for long wheelbase vehicle.

Sledge is not that tough. A nice trail with some great optionals on it.

Backdoor is not something I would want to run, but it might be possible. I have seen trails that I do not consider possible.

 

[Shoope1]

Upper 2 wasn't that bad in October. Matter of fact lower 2 was DRY... that made it easier...
Where in the hell did the ledge go at the end of lower 2.

I'll tell you...Slade(natural Bridge) ky is awesome...
You have to try it.

 

[johndeere0817]

the hardest trail I have run would deffinatly be Daniel trail at Uwharrie after all the rain. Daniel mountain trail has claimed more parts than all other rails including ALL tellico trails that I have run

 

[Beezil]

pink trail?

you gotta be fawkin kidding me....

you could stick that in a top 10 list of over-rated trails maybe.......

cool that the badlands was mentioned, but where is "puragatory" or "mission impossible"

pink trail is a "warm up".

where's upper helldo? where's upper proving?
pritchett?

dissin moab?

cool thread though.

 

[junkyard joe]

Glad to see the pipe line and wi represented i thought i was a loner on this trail, have you ever checked out blackriver falls?
when is the last time you were up on the pipeline?

 

[Geargoyle]

SURPRISE CANYON!

On the edge of Death Valley just outside of Trona. Closed now but possibly opening in near future. 7 water falls, you may drive a few but bring a winch.
Also Jack hammer in J.V. can sometimes be an ass kicker. I've not yet been to Arizona but I hear they have trails that are tougher than anything I've ever driven.

 

[elusiv]

your right. got them confused... I was only there once and it was last spring. Purgatory is the trial we were on.

 

[yarddog]

Not enough people have run all the hardest trails in the country to get a real idea of what the hardest trail is. But the pics of the trails the BTG guys run in AZ look harder than any of those.

You'll find CO has good trials. Make sure to hit Indy, Carnage in Beuna Vista and the Montrose trails.

 

[tjmark]

Poto O.k.?

 

[OkLaHoMaYJ]

You mean Poteau, OK?

JP rated it the Deadliest Trails in the US. I have been to Poteau twice and i think Anaconda and Transfer Case are absolutely horrible. Transfer Case is not as bad as Anaconda. I walked down Anoconda to take a closer look and shit my pants. The hill has a huge 2-3 ft. ledge on it going up a super steep incline. In the magazine of JP where there doing the Top 10 trails theres a red CJ on 2.5 tons and 44's doing a front end-do down what i can almost swear by is Anaconda. A blue YJ rolled there to a long time ago. Black and Blue is on the back of his YJ.

 

[rotozuk]

I'd like to change my response..


Any trail is a good trail. :smokin:

-Wayne

 

[gtisamurai]

In Arizona, the White Tanks are a pretty fun area with some awesome trails. I think the worst I've seen is Anaconda, an almost non-stop waterfall trail heading straight up the side of the canyon in which Lower Terminator can be found.

 

[Fueler]

elusiv- you seem to have been all over the place, but you live in socal and havent been to the rubicon

 

[texican]

It's way too subjective....I've wheeled all of it at Tellico, lots of Moab, all of Clayton Ok. Poteau is just f'n spooky, Axle breaker, 8 seconds broke damn near every rig we had one night running Panel Wagon backwards.........never try a trail in the dark a direction you have never done....Potaeu is loose, unmaintained and most trails have 100 yards of steep rollin' room below every obstacle.
Throw a small shower on most trails and they get real hard real quick.:flipoff2: :flipoff2:

Butch

 

[4plugz]

Having no firsthand knowledge of any of these trails, I'd have to say from the pics I've viewed in mags, and on the net, Alaska has my vote. If the terrain doesn't get you, then the weather or the animals might. It seems that rocks have an instant effect on a vehicle, and you know when something has failed. In the thread that Bgreen posted, it seems that what they have up there will just plain break the spirit of a vehicle by wearing it down until everything quits all at once.

I'd love to wheel the southwest, but I only want to watch what happens up in Alaska.

 

[Shoope1]

How about Rattle Rock at
Wind Rock??

 

[BJ On Roids]

BOOMTOWN BABY!!


(no seriously I think there would have to be a lot of the little known trails, the big name ones get too many rock stackers and homos through there, and they make it easier so they can get thier junk through)

Seen some awesome tough pics on here from Az!!

Really hard to judge an actual answer though, even if they were all side by side, things like, vehicle setup, wheelbase, axles, steering, differ greatly between vehicles, and one might find something easy while another finds it quite complex.

Far too many variables to make it even remotely accurate to judge.

Fun to talk about and post pics though.

 

[pup]

Rattle Rock is the best trail that I have ever seen, didn't think Tellico held a candle to it

 

[Danger Ranger]

Re: hardest trail

I don't know hard is relative to just about nothing... I usually seem to break and/or get stuck on stupid easy trails... but do fine on the hard trails/spots

But of all the pics I've seen, az looks the most bad ass... gonna get there one of these days