East Coast Tundra Route (pic heavy)

[carn_dogg]

Been planning a trip for a few months now. Getting the last of the supplies together. We are planning to leave this Saturday at the crack of dawn, stopping at Shenandoah first. We are from Maryland, so it’s not a far drive.

We are planning to stop at 5 or 6 spots over 9 days. Virginia. Tennessee. Kentucky. Georgia. North Carolina.

The rig will be a 13 tundra crew max. Feels like we are bringing enough stuff for a month...but since we have the space, we might as well use it.

I’ll be adding pictures of the trip as we go. Will likely end up with a little along the way and a lot at the end once everything is sorted out. Pics posted on here during the trip will be from my iPhone. Pics posted after will likely be a combo of iPhone and canon.

Here are a few pics of some of our supplies. Comments and recommendations are more than welcome. Enjoy!

I’ll be taking a few more as we finalize some things for packing and the last few supplies.

I’m going to be bringing water tanks, gas tanks, fold up table, 2 fold up chairs, bins that will contain dry food, tools, and kitchen gear. All bedding and whatnot will get closed into the RTT. Cooler in the bed for meals. Smaller cooler in the backseat for drinks and snacks.

-Pat


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[ZombieCat]

Have a great trip! Here are a few things ideas:
- In The Smokies, the elk come up to the meadow at Oconoluftee each evening. For a bit of a workout, hike up to Charlies Bunion for the fantastic view. Gregory Bald is also pretty cool and you’ll be happy to have a truck on Parson Branch Rd.
- Stop by Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, but book your cave tour ahead to get the good one. Diamond Cave is just off the interstate and worth a quick tour if you have time.
- In Nashville, the Grand Ole Opry is a must! Also, the Hermitage is interesting.
- Gatlinburg is cheesy, but fun. Take advantage of the free moonshine tastings. [emoji39]
I haven’t seen much in Georgia since the 80’s...

I’m off for 2 weeks car camping in Northern California and southern Oregon in late June. July will be Glacier and Waterton NPs for about 10 days. Both will be rental cars (no truck) and my camping gear.

Keep us posted on your trip and y’all stay safe!


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[carn_dogg]

Have a great trip! Here are a few things ideas:
- In The Smokies, the elk come up to the meadow at Oconoluftee each evening. For a bit of a workout, hike up to Charlies Bunion for the fantastic view. Gregory Bald is also pretty cool and you’ll be happy to have a truck on Parson Branch Rd.
- Stop by Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, but book your cave tour ahead to get the good one. Diamond Cave is just off the interstate and worth a quick tour if you have time.
- In Nashville, the Grand Ole Opry is a must! Also, the Hermitage is interesting.
- Gatlinburg is cheesy, but fun. Take advantage of the free moonshine tastings. [emoji39]
I haven’t seen much in Georgia since the 80’s...

I’m off for 2 weeks car camping in Northern California and southern Oregon in late June. July will be Glacier and Waterton NPs for about 10 days. Both will be rental cars (no truck) and my camping gear.

Keep us posted on your trip and y’all stay safe!


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Zombiecat, thank you for the info!
We are going to add that hike to the plan if our husky doesn’t get too hot half way there! Oh I’m a huge fan of some free moonshine tastings. Might have to stop by as we are passing thru.

Even without a truck, and just the rental car, that’s going to be a great experience. Be sure to post some pictures! You’ve carved out a nice chunk of time, I’m jealous haha.


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[carn_dogg]

Leaving tomorrow morning around 4:30 am.

Today has been exhausting to say the least. Between getting stuff down around the house and yard since we will be gone, and getting the RTT and truck set...I’m soooo ready to hit the road.

Filled up the gas and water tanks and got those strapped down in the bed.

Opened the RTT and put our sheets, blankets, and sleeping bags in.

Next we will be finishing up adding items to kitchen and tool bins (last second thoughts). Then pack up all dry food and towels and whatnot for us and the dog.
And last but not least...a bag for each of us for clothes. This is our first trip and I’m sure we are going to get home next weekend and realize we overpacked and could have had much less...but that’s all part of the experience!

I made our reservations for the Davis ferry this morning. Going Thursday and coming bank Saturday afternoon...seems there is a huge group of Toyota’s going Friday. Should see some other rigs out there.


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[carn_dogg]

Food for the week!

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[carn_dogg]

Alright so originally had our ferry booked for 5pm Saturday but got so sunburnt Thursday that we decided to change the ferry reservation a 8am Saturday departure. Overall, Cape Lookout was amazing but the flies and our sunburn was brutal. We lathered up bit it wasn’t enough for the NC sun.


From the beginning.
We drove to Shenandoah NP and drove around on skyline drive. Very cool drive with great views. We didn’t stay inside Shenandoah bc we didn’t want to be next to each person at their campsites.
It did however offer us a nice close up view of a lack bear. It was smaller than the picture makes it look. But still very close to us. About 15 feet.

We ended up driving around a bunch, exploring, and driving to George Washington National Forest about an hour away. Nice drive up the mountain with some good hiking trails. We drove up Chrisman Hollow road and found a turnoff that we could camp down.

We ended up here:

It was a nice little spot by the creek and we ended up meeting a nice family there. We had some chicken pot pie and had a few drinks. They were from Georgia and had a wealth of camping knowledge and a few nice spots to share. We took their advice and changed our route to include spots that they recommended. Prentice National Forest in TN and Sarahs Creek, in Georgia.

Here is the view leaving the site

We drove to TN next. This was a bit of a hike but the drive was nice and soothing. The truck did VERY well and exceeded all my expectations that I had. We listened to some podcasts that my wife had been listening to. They’re a bit dark, but very interesting. They’re both about murderers and wild hometown stories that people submit. Sword and Scale is a darker one, and I forget the other but it’s these two chicks that babble a little bit they can be pretty funny when going through stories. Anyway, this passed the time for us, along with music and snacks and conversation.

We got into TN pretty late cause we had a hell of a time finding the correct location to go. Once we got to Prentice, we had to go back 5 or 6 miles on a windy and hilly gravel and dirt road in the pouring rain. Kept the truck in 2wd and didn’t have any issues. We finally got the the back of the park, arriving at Davis Pond. It’s a man made pond that has gotten a bit overgrown. There are campsites and fire pits and bathrooms...that we did NOT use bc they were awful. We were better off digging a hole each time.

We spent two nights in GA and then headed to Sarah’s Creek in Clayton GA. We didn’t know exactly what to expect at Sarah’s creek in regarding to hiking and campsites, but we’re very excited to go after getting rained on in TN for two days. We did manage to hike around 10 miles in TN in the rain. The tent did very well and kept us nice and dry.

Once we got to Clayton GA, we took the turn up a windy single lane road that took us up the mountain to Sarah’s creek campground. This campground was awesome bc it has 23 primitive campsites with a fire pit, all on a creek, and some have a picnic table and are on a gravel pad. The gravel pad was nice for the dog to lay down on and not get filthy. The creek was FLOWING since it had rained for a couple days. Water levels were high and it was really nice to hike next to. There were trails going along the creek and a waterfall at the head of the creek. We were also able to hike the gravel road that went all through the park. This offered some nice views and a good distance to hike.

This was a cool water crossing but we didn’t drive through it. Wasn’t sure how deep it was since the water levels were high. Turns out, it wouldn’t have been a problem cause it was only about a foot deep...but it is what it is. My wife walked through cause her boots were already wet from our last hiking in TN.


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[carn_dogg]

We departed from Sarah’s Creek at 4:30am to meet our reservation for the Davis Ferry in NC to take us to the island of Cape Lookout at 4pm. We were told to arrive 30 min early. But we like to be real early and have time on the road to stop if we need for food, gas, and to let the dog out.

The pup slept most of the drive after some good hiking in GA.

We arrived in NC near Davis and had some time to kill so we explored a little and relaxed. Found a nice little spot by the water to let the dog out, change, and get ready for our trip over to the island.

We set off to the ferry and met a great group of guys that have been using the David Ferry their biannual trips for the past 35 years. Annette runs the business and it’s a tight family they have. Anyway, we loaded up and headed over! The ferry ride was about 35-40 minutes. It’s a crawl but we didn’t expect to be going quick.

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[carn_dogg]

The ferry drops you off about 2/3’s the way north the island. The flies are worse the north you are. So we headed south. There is a designated traveling road on the island but it’s still on sand and with ruts. I put the truck in 4hi and headed south. Didn’t slip at all. Didn’t air down. The lighthouse on the island is pretty far south. We didn’t get to the lighthouse until Friday. We arrived Wednesday evening.

We didn’t want to miss the caps game since they’re in the Stanley final. So we made it work!

I made a nice little fire on the beach and we decided to cook our dinner on it instead of the camp stove. It worked out really well.

This was our morning coffee setup. Everything worked well and the coffee was so good.

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[carn_dogg]

On Friday we headed south a few miles and went to check out the lighthouse. By this time, we were lobsters and the sun was our enemy. We got in the truck, cranked the AC, and went to the lighthouse.

We parked the truck about 12 miles north of the lighthouse so we were closer to the ferry for the morning drive. The last night sleep there was interested with the sunburn/sand combination.

We packed up the last few things, closed the tent, and headed to the bathrooms on the island before catching the ferry.

And that just about sums it up. I have plenty more pictures and some video from the trip and will add those as I go through them


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[Jeremyv]

Looks like a lot of fun! I love how you have a RTT and a tonneau cover. What brand racking is that and what Cover? How did you get it to fit with the cover on? I wanna do that on my Silverado but never found a setup I thought would work! Plan on getting a RTT next spring. Thanks in advance


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[carn_dogg]

Looks like a lot of fun! I love how you have a RTT and a tonneau cover. What brand racking is that and what Cover? How did you get it to fit with the cover on? I wanna do that on my Silverado but never found a setup I thought would work! Plan on getting a RTT next spring. Thanks in advance


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Thanks Jeremy.
It was definitely a trip to remember. There are some things we learned along the way that we would have done a little differently, but overall it went well.

The rack is a BAMF rack. I can't recall the brand of the cover, but it's a soft roll-up cover. It was NOT easy to get them to work together. Neither one of them are made to work with the other. I had the cover first, and I was determined to make them work together. I had to trim the outside edges of the base that sits near the cab, the bars that provide support for the cover, and the end over the tailgate that snaps into place to secure the cover. They were slightly too wide, after putting on the rack. The rack takes up about 3/16" on each side, so overall I lost about 1/2" of width for the cover to sit between. The hardware for the cover rails that bolt into the bed rails still worked well...I just had to crank down on the bolts so I could minimize the gap on portions were the bedrack was NOT. The cover blows a little more then driving, but it's still very secure. I'm going to remove the RTT and Bedrack today, so I will see how well everything still works after making the modifications to the cover and not having the rack installed.

My brother has a Taco and is currently having a rack fab'd up that will be compatible with his hard roll-up cover. I'm sure you're going to have to pony up a little, but you can always see if a shop will made a CAD design for you for your specific application.

Best of luck and let me know if you have any other questions.

-Pat