Fenrir: TRD Off-Road Ragnarok Edition

Trip Log: Great Smokey Mountains NP (2019)

The focus of this trip wasn't the national park at all. It was because my wife's extended family rented a nearby cabin for the week and invited everyone to join. So while they were all out doing the touristy things in the small town of Gatlinburg, I took one of the littles and headed for the park for a night of camping and exploring. So while it was nice to have time away from work this trip essentially turned into 36+ hours of driving, round-trip, for a single night of camping. But the cabin was nice and it afforded me plenty of time to work on studying for an upcoming HAM license exam.

The cabin was tucked away up the side of a mountain that had an awesome view of Mt Guyot (I believe) to the south. Taking photos of this peak was pretty much the theme of the trip; trying to get that one that was just right.



When I and the little lady finally escaped to go on an adventure the first place we came upon was the old Noah "Bud" Ogle homestead, with cabin and barn.





Driving through the park was lovely. Much of it is paved and despite being the most heavily trafficked national park in the country it was relatively quiet.



While rain had been threatened before, the day we decided to go camping was the first day it actually happened. Fortunately is stayed dry during our short hikes and didn't start to drizzle until I started making a camp fire. Still didn't deter us from enjoying our s'mores.





We woke up the following day, packed up and set out on the Cades Cove loop in search of dirt... Rich Mountain Pass.





Taking the dirt road led us past one other vehicle and out of the park. The scenery of Great Smokey Mountains NP is quiet beautiful and calming. There's nothing majestic about the mountains themselves and, like any NP, expect to see lots of other people, but overall I enjoyed the area. There's also a ton of history to be found here if you have the time to explore. So many old homesteads and churches. And supposedly plenty of bears and elk as well though we didn't see any. We did manage to see a bunny back at the cabin.



The rest of our trip was quite cloudy and wet. But that made for a few more interesting shots of the mountain.





Our last night, I finally convinced the wife to go with me to check out the top of Clingman's Dome (highest peak in TN) at sunset. I was hoping to get some sunset photos and due to the recent weather it was sure to have some good cloud formations. A road leads nearly to the summit with only a short half mile hike to the end. Conveniently, since the mountain is encased in pine trees, the park added an observation tower at the top to offer visitors a clear view. Well, it would be a clear view if we weren't engulfed in clouds towards the top of the mountain.

 

Brown Santa making the rounds lately






*Actually not a TV

 

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Selling my RTT, Relentless crossbars and Wheel Every Weekend RTT mounts
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/fenrir-trd-off-road-ragnarok-edition.537413/#post-17307493

 

Leitner rack and iKamper installed and mounted. Kids approve Gonna miss having the tent and roof in-line with each other: I'm not of fan of it sticking up. Also gonna miss the overhang but I think what's there will be sufficient.

 

And the air compressor is officially installed. Got it mounted a few weeks ago but only got it wired up yesterday. Took a bit longer due to me being a dolt and forgetting to reconnect a ground that I had disconnected during installation. But in my defense, it had snuck off and was hiding. At least it gave me a chance to bust out the ol' multimeter and was a good reminder that that needs to go in my tool bag. Ended up mounting on a GTFO compressor bracket. Pain in the ass to get it in there and there's some rubbing under the hood but it seems OK for now. I may move it later and use this area instead for the solar controller.

 

Nice build man and I miss TN area. One of my favorite places to live.

So wondering. What camera do you use for you photos. Lenses?

 

Most scenic stuff is with a Sony a6000 and a couple kit lenses. 18 - 75 mm and maybe 100 - 250. I can't quite remember off the top of my head. Candid stuff is usually with my phone (Pixel 2)

 

Picking up some @Mobtown Offroad sweetness from the local shipping yard. Fork-lift driver was spot on getting the palette in the bed. Only had about an inch of wiggle room on either side and he nailed it.



My wallet hates me. I've lost control

 

That's awesome man! Your truck looks great

 

Thanks. Going through a lot of changes again lately

 

Not sure what they're called but those storage bins look tight af.

 

Part of Leitner's cargo system. Expensive af but really well made. Just wish they had some internal dividers for it. Gonna have to fab something together

 

Too legit to quit!

 

SNATCH BLOCK!

 

Slider Install - June 2017
Back when Pelfreybilt was a thing. Install wasn't bad. Pretty straight-forward except for pushing brake-lines around to clear the bolts.

 

Hidden Falls - July 2017
Spent the afternoon with @Texoma and @lilred95 still very green at off-roading at this point

 

Building my drawer system - Oct 2017
My first attempt at building a drawer system. Overall, I was very happy with how it turned out. It served me well on several trips. I could be broken down and reassembled with relative ease which helped prolong the life of the wood since I could store it in the garage when not camping. It was entirely too heavy though. Despite cutting holes out of the support joists the way I constructed it was overkill.

 

Quick overnight at Pace Bend to test out the new drawers