SNOW BOUND: Possible 1st time snow driving. Visiting Beech Mountain in early November

I just got off the phone with a Ranger from Mt. Mitchell State Park & it turns out that the entrance rd to the park along with 2 miles of Blue Ridge PKWY are closed due to ice & snow. They received 18"'s of snow last weekend and about 4 more 2 nights ago & more due for this Tuesday or Wednesday.

Hopefully they'll re-open the road before I leave. I would like to do a short trail or 2 at Mt. Mitchell besides the Laurel Falls trail near Gatlinburg & the Newfound Gap trail by Clingmans Dome.

 

Videos were glitching. I'm redoing the vids now. Will post them some time tonight along with some pics.

 

Good videos!!! Glad you enjoyed your trip, also glad that you got to see some snow!!!!! Well a dusting at least!!!! Looks like you were enjoying yourself. Glad your trip went good and you made it back safe and sound. I did t figure there would be any snow on the roads, the ground is still to warm for it to stick to the highways. But at least you got to see some snow!!!!

 

Thanks man! It was a great trip! Just needed my wife & boys there but God willing our next visit will be us 4 & in December, January or February (of which ever year we go) so we can see some real snow.

These are the total miles that I drove from midnight, Sunday morning to 6:45am, Friday.


931 of those were on the first day alone.

I even had time to drive the Tail of the Dragon which is 3 hours from where I was staying. I ordered my pics from killboy.com & US129photos.com.

I left the Inn in North Carolina at 1:00pm. It's a 13 hour drive from there to my house. I then checked on my phone & saw that snow was forecasted for Banner Elk (2 hours from where I was at the time) & I drove to Banner Elk & Beech Mountain. The weather report was accurate. Not a big snowfall by any means but still snow dammit , From there I drove home.

17:45 minutes on the road. And I was able to take my son to school & my wifes truck in for service so it worked out perfectly. Thank God!

 

Thats awesome man, glad to hear that things went well. It is a long haul from florida up to nc, we have been to florida a couple times and man its a drive, lol. This is what we had last year, it was more than that, this was just what we had on the only day i could get mt SxS out. Maybe you guys will be able to catch a snow like this sometime!!!!



This was up in the hills where i live at. Just taking a little joyride!!

 

Now THAT is snow and THAT looks fun! I hope to see that on my next visit!

 

Ive got a couple videos doin donuts in it as well. Ill try and upload one tomorrow. I just got my new iphone 6 plus and all my stuff isnt uploaded yet.

 

Cool!

Looking forward to the video & I hope you are happy with your phone. I'm going to give my older sons 4S to my mom-in-law & get him a 6 also.

 

Havent for gotten about the video, just my phone is taking FOREVER to download all my pics and stuff ya know.

 

No problem. No rush.

 

what's going on with these??

 

how is the snow around snowshoe during the month of March? I have been snowboarding at Snowshoe a couple times in the past but always in Dec. this year we will only be able to make it around March 14-22 time frame and I am worried it will be all gone

 

This was the parking lot beside the Beech Mtn sign as of this morning. You could get to this point with 4x2 and some weight. Anything past the ski resort would not be done with 4x2 unless you had chains. They maintained the road some up until the resort but past that was not touched. So yes you can get any where you need with 4x2 and weight in Nov. But if you really wanted to get off maintained roads chains would have been needed. I have 4x4 with MT's so this was a joke however I tried to finesse it in 4x2 and it just couldn't go up the steep roads. So OP to all the people telling you that you would never need chains at all in November at Beech Mtn, I think I just gave you your answer.

Edit: It was 8 degrees in this picture with a wind chill of -8.

 

And I saw plenty of trucks with chains right before lunch today at the top of the Mtn. So you wouldn't be the only one. Here is a maintained road:

 

THANK YOU! Basically, this could've been me & I DID bring my tire chains along.

YOU NEVER KNOW. I'd rather be prepared than not.

Thank you for the pics & info. I didn't know what a maintained road looked like. Your truck looks awesome also. Glad to know that I could have probably "gotten by" with 2WD chained but my next truck (4Runner or Tacoma) will be 4WD.

 

Hello folks,

My main stops on my trip were:

Goose Creek, SC (SOS SOS Offroad Concepts) Eddy Tengan
Grandfather Mountain, NC
Banner Elk, NC
Beech Mountain, NC
Laurel Falls, TN
Gatlinburg, TN

And a very remote place for about an hour because my GPS went hay-wire. Telling me to make left turns where there were no roads. Probably trying to kill me. HAHA!

I walked so many trails. If I can do this for 6 months I may lose some weight!

Down side. No wifey & boys with me.

On Thursday I left Alberts Inn (Burnsville, NC) at 1:00pm,
drove to Banner Elk & Beech Mountain again,
then made it home by 6:45am Friday.
Just in time to take my youngest son to school & my wifes SUV to the dealership. No sleep!

Leaving my house on Saturday night 11:45pm


SOS Concept (Eddy Tengans shop) in Goose Creek, SC


My Sliders. He made these at "0" degrees (flat) so they act as a step also. My wife is 5'0" so it's STILL too high for her. HAHA






Eddy's Trail-Ready truck!


On Grandfather Mountain


Somewhere between I-40 & Laurel Falls, TN. I finally put my machete to good use. HAHAHA




Weather in the mountains can really be fickle


Tail of the Dragon. I drove this road. It was fun. I guess these trucks have a body roll-over sensor because it kept going off on hard turns. Check out the vid.




Tail of the Dragon is popular among bikers & sports car enthusiasts but any vehicle can drive it. That's me on the left, just posing. HAHA


Where I stayed, Alberts Inn. No food or phone available but they have WIFI so you can Face Time & my wife prepared food for me. I was always the only one parked there. It was empty.


These people advertise Fall-off-the-bone ribs & damn it, they are! I ate lunch here twice. I wish they were in Miami also. They are a 40 minute drive from where I was staying.






One of my 2 trips to Mt. Mitchell's summit






No snow chains necessary HAHAHA


Banner Elk, NC




Beech Mountain, NC


Finally made it home. I usually do not like to return to Miami but I missed my family so I was looking forward to returning.



These pics were taken by killboy.com & US129photos.com on the Tail of the Dragon. They take pics of every vehicle that drives this road. They then post them on line for you to purchase if you like.
US129 PICS












killboy.com pics

 

VIDEOS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvLMj7rkASA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbqBk-o2s6A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6Na-PR5SEs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BotxO6iSTE0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVQwchTKRTQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcDZQeOAHFQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=warHZtm18Zw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhMWltJgVsc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKSHeyZ_qnE

Always be ready
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdMYitrsHY8

Putting my $5 windshield ice scraper to use
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PwUQHPF6XI

Walking a wobbly bridge. HAHA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSPWfIhA80g

Tail of the Dragon. Watch at :57 & 1:51 to see the photographers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhcrJ3hBZZI

Laurel Falls, TN
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq7Wu7vYVjY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H_KhTRrLtc

Mt. Mitchel summit, NC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU0AnxdpUCs

Beech Mountain, NC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GYNab3t290

 

Nice trip OP, hey quick question which Tonneau cover do you have?

 

Thank You Murica.





I bought it from 4WheelParts almost 2 years ago for $229.00. Very happy with it. At first, I wanted an Undercover Tonneau cover but the price & and the fact that I do put stuff in there that's taller than the bed height made me choose this one.

 

Hello Travesty,I read the description on your lift. 2.5" front & 1.5" rear.What type of lift is that? Are you happy with it?