Land between the lakes OHV tennessee/Kentucky line

HightecRednec

Test Drive
Founding Member
Location
Bowie, MD
If you're specifically talking about the Turkey Bay OHV area inside LBL, I've been there twice. I still had my Rhino when I went but one of the times I went was with a couple Xterras and a FJ. It's kind of like a more well taken care of Wooly's, only smaller. Lots of hills that may or may not be rutted out depending on when they last did trail maintenance, and you never know when they may randomly have a trail closed for whatever reason. It would not be friendly to you because you're not lifted and only 4x2. A lifted and somewhat armored up 4x2 could handle it with the right tires but just about any 4x4 with a small lift and decent tires would be fine.

That being said, I have never gone up there to ride on the fire roads, although I know several people that have. There are a lot of those and I've heard they can be hard to navigate (i.e. get lost) if don't know what you're doing.
 

mudchet

Got Mud?<br><img src="http://i164.photobucket.com/
Founding Member
Location
Brentwood, TN
The fire roads are fun to explore and 2WD is fine in most cases. There are a lot of fire roads to explore. You can camp out there too. Airmapper knows the place pretty well. I have been up there with him running some trails.
 

JayAre

First Fill-Up (of many)
Location
Nashville
I went to Turkey Bay when my truck was stock and it did well but we stayed mostly on the easy trails. I haven't been back since then though.
 

Airmapper

First Fill-Up (of many)
Hey mudchet, you should come back sometime, I've been making maps, sifting through data, got a list of access roads I haven't driven that look like they might be worth exploring, and if those don't pan out, I know several more that are definitely 4x4 required.


I've had my X in Turkey Bay, like the others said, the main trails are not that bad, you get off them and on harder trails, you can get in over your head quick. I wouldn't bother with it, I don't really plan on taking my X back in there, way to much other ground to explore first.

I highly recommend the access roads, they can actually be significantly more technically challenging than Turkey Bay in places, and more fun for a Xterra sized vehicle. Traffic is better as well, most of the time I explore a trail it looks like I'm the only one that has been there in a while. On the more popular trails you might see a few other 4x4's, especially on a weekend.

Don't go alone in a 2WD unless you are prepared to turn back at the slightest challenge. I've been stuck out there in a vehicle that wasn't up to muster, and it had AWD. Not a good feeling and a lesson learned. It's all good until you find out that mud hole was a bit stickier than you assumed, and then your working hard to get back out. Cell coverage is spotty, and it's not like it's a highly populated area, you will be out there a long time if you cannot self recover. But don't let that scare you, it's just cautionary and I have no idea of your experience of capabilities so I throw it out there. LBL is the perfect place to take a 2WD high clearance vehicle and have a lot of unpaved roads to explore.

The access roads are generally under rated, most people don't know where to start, the more obvious roads closer to the main attractions get maintained better, hence you can quickly end up only finding 2WD friendly gravel roads on your initial unguided explorations. You have to study the maps to know what is legal to drive on, but there are still many miles of barely maintained dirt to see. FREE and completely legal. But if you know where to look, you can find some that are challenging. Maybe not hard core for built rigs, but for stock to mildly modified Xterra's it's about right. Some of the mud holes out there can be scary deep, they are few and far between but they are out there, I get out to make sure I'm not going to dive into a waist deep hole before I go into anything big enough to hide a hole like that.
 

Malin_Rebate

Skid Plates
Location
Tennessee
I'd be going with a guy who's 4wd. I'm just trying to plan what's best since I am 2wd


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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HightecRednec

Test Drive
Founding Member
Location
Bowie, MD
I'm thinking Airmapper needs to lead a little group of us around up there sometime. I've always wanted to check out some of the access roads but would prefer going with some one that knows where they're going.
 

XTP_Dyer

First Fill-Up (of many)
Location
Nashville
This sounds like a perfect weekend trip for me and my girlfriend. Assuming I'm not an idiot, do you think this would be a safe time to wheel alone? I wouldn't plan on doing anything intense with her there, just casual driving, camping, and maybe a couple semi-challenging spots.

I would DEFINITELY be down for a group ride there.
 

Airmapper

First Fill-Up (of many)
I'm thinking Airmapper needs to lead a little group of us around up there sometime. I've always wanted to check out some of the access roads but would prefer going with some one that knows where they're going.

Depending on the situation, I might be game. I'm unavailable until classes end in May though. If anyone gets serious about going let me know, message me or something.
 

mudchet

Got Mud?<br><img src="http://i164.photobucket.com/
Founding Member
Location
Brentwood, TN
I might be game as well. Maybe an overnight camp trip? You can camp in the campgrounds, but I believe you can also camp anywhere you want in the park. It being surrounded by water, there are some good camping spots along the water at the end of some of those fire roads.
 

FFPEAVES

First Fill-Up (of many)
Location
chattanooga, tn
Let me know if this little camping trip gets planned I'm def game for it but remember I too am only 2wd drive but I have been proven to be pretty capable of things I shouldn't be able to do lol
 

Shizane2002

First Fill-Up (of many)
Let me know if this little camping trip gets planned I'm def game for it but remember I too am only 2wd drive but I have been proven to be pretty capable of things I shouldn't be able to do lol


For what its worth, I've got some hardware to assist you if needed. Besides, we dont get stuck, we just take long breaks lol
 
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