Coal Creek !
Coal Creek Ride Report
By Ramjet - 07-22-05
Oak Ridge , TN

With unbound enthusiasm, I was looking forward to my trip to Coal Creek ATV park in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. 2005 had been a rough year for sneaking out of the office to play on the Pilot, but I rearranged my schedule to escape from the clutches of my clients and creditors to have fun with some of the best people on the planet.

In the past, I had read with interest about Coal Creek, but figured it was too far out of orbit for me to attend a ride. Fortunately, through the efforts of Pilothawk, a gathering of Pilot and Odyssey owners were preparing to descend on him for a weekend of trail riding, story swapping and beer. I reasoned that if Ludedude is coming all the way from Nova Soctia (driving) and Brandon (flying) from the land down under, why am I complaining about a seven hour trip from Ohio? Guilt is a terrible thing.

Off We Go!
Well, Sort Of

We're packed and just about ready to depart for Coal Creek. While preflighting the truck and trailer in the driveway, my wife calls to me to pick up line two from the office, there's a call from a client and an issue I need to address. I recall when I was younger, I use to be able to multi-task with ease; I'm not that good now that I'm in my 40's and get easily distracted by cute 24 year olds and bright shinny objects. I solve my clients problem and it's off to the truck. With Mrs. R. and Little Ramjet loaded into the Ford F-250, we depart my humble little home and head west to the interstate. In tow were two KTM dirt bikes in the bed of the 250, and my Pilot on its trailer.

If you never have been to the great state of Ohio you're missing something special. We call it "road construction" and it's a 24/7 event in Ohio. As a birth right, Ohio awards each citizen two orange barrels for public display on all our highways. You can drive past them everyday, and smile with the peace of mind, that your tax money has been spent wisely by your elected officials. Like weeds in your yard, Ohio has more orange barrels planted just about everywhere, except in front of the Governor's house.

Little Ramjet flips open his Game boy to pass the time and my wife dives into a book. We have a seven hour drive ahead of us to Coal Creek. The route is simple, but boring. As the Ramjet household merges onto interstate I-70, something in the back of my mind seems wrong, but I can't put my finger on it. I tell myself that I've left something behind, but I'm at a lost of what it is. Traveling to the on-ramp to capture I-70 west, I see construction ahead of me. Typical. As we build speed to the on ramp, there's a sign in front of the usual bridge construction that says "Bump". Now Ohio has many signs like this, and they are as numerous/pointless as the orange barrels. I check my rear view mirror to make sure all is well with the Pilot. It's riding fine behind me; just like so many other trips I've taken with it. I approach the bump sign that marks a defect in the pavement where the new pavement ends, and the bridge concrete deck starts. As I look ahead for traffic, the truck jumps into the air with a thump as it drops off the new asphalt to broken concrete bridge deck. The jarring startles Mrs. R and Little Ramjet. All of a sudden, the rear of the truck starts to vibrate and there this screeching sound coming from the back. At first I think it's little Ramjet's Game boy game, but I look in the rear view mirror to see my Pilot violently whipping back and forth. My wife screams "Honey!!!" and I say "Holy Cats!" or something colored to that effect. Little Ramjet shouts "Dad!" and drops his Game boy.

Sorry, no photo, but I did this quick pencil sketch.

I immediately put on the brakes and slow to the median while every Ohio knuckle head drives by me at 80mph. As we slow, the Pilot is hanging on for dear life as it fishtails behind me. Perplexed, I hit the flashers and hop out of the truck to see what happen. My poor dependable trailer had jumped the hitch when we hit the bump, but the tongue had landed on the set of safety chains. I looked at the lock on the tongue of the trailer and sure enough, it was still in the up right 'unlocked" position. I hadn't locked it down because right at that critical moment, I picked up my clients' phone call in the driveway. In my mind, I thought I had completed the task of locking the trailer to the hitch, but the phone call interpreted that task. The safety chains did exactly what they were suppose to do, they kept the trailer from departing the truck and saved the Pilot. I think back in horror what would have happen if the Pilot had taken off the trailer, bounced its way down I-70 and disintegrated into a million pieces.

And so, this is how I began my adventure to Coal Creek.

Old Friends, and New Faces

Buck and Oz-Pilot enter Coal Creek.

View from the top floor of the Comfort Inn.

Throttle (Luke) looking a bit exhausted as he
struggles with a bum tire.

It's pretty impressive to see so many Pilots in one parking lot. One of the first guys I meet at the Comfort Inn parking lot is dhjunkie looking like he's had a long day on the trails. VFRPilot is there with the largest trailer on the planet! The thing must be 90 feet long with huge Pilot vinyl graphics that dominate the sides of the trailer.It's a impressive display. Vroom is there with his loud, sixties style tie-dyed GE t-shirt. He's heavy into some repairs. I met Ludedude for the first time. He traveled half way accross the states from Nova Soctia. A very likeable guy even if he's from the great white north. He's okay in my book. I'm sure I made an idiotic impression.

It's the end of the day and all of us meet across the street for dinner.

What's This Coal Creek?

The Coal Creek OHV area is 72,000 acres of off road fun, located in Oliver Springs, Tennessee. Overshadowed by Oak Ridge, Oliver Springs is is about 10 miles from the miracle mile of Oak Ridge. There's very little to Oliver Springs anymore. It must have been something in it's day when mining was king in this area. There are duplicates of this town all over Ohio. Oak Ridge offers a wide variety of places to stay and eat.


The Coal Creek Registration Area.

The Coal Creek Parking Lot.

When you arrive, there is a generous stone, but treeless, parking lot with a small pavilion where your register your machine. In the sun, you bake like a potato. The staff was friendly, and the registration process was smooth and simple. After filling out the legal forms to sign away your rights when if you do something stupid, and paying your fee, you are handed a Coal Creek info packet with a brochure, map and a self adhesive decal to affix to your machine.


From left to right: Betel, Redrider and Kiowa.

Many old faces from POOA are in attendance and a few new ones. I was introduced to people who had until now been only a screen name on POOA. It's always a pleasure to meet new people who are passionate about this hobby. What struck me different about this trip is the POOA group is becoming a family affair. More wives, girlfriends, sons and daughters are going to these events and there bringing many different machines. I'm all for it!

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From left to right:Ted, Vroom, Rocketman,
Niles & his wife Sarah and Rooky.