Kentucky Harlan (Black Mountain) - Labor Day Weekend

Added to Calendar: 09-03-22, 09-04-22

gasiorv

I'm a new world samurai, and a redneck nonetheless
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Memphis, TN
A few of us from Memphis are heading to Harlan for Labor Day weekend. Going to wheel Sat and Sun (Sep 3 and 4, 2022) with travel days on Friday and Monday.
We are staying on the Putney side at the Harlan County Campground (there is no electric sites available, so we will be camping in overflow field).
Plan on running some of the harder trails and with the list of trails we plan on running fully expect some body damage throughout the weekend. None of us have been here before, so this is based on hearsay and talking/texting with others to get a list of must do trails.

We are expecting the golf cart crowd (sxs) to be pretty heavy since it is a holiday weekend, but this is a bucket list area and got to take the opportunity when presented. Talked to a friend who is somewhat familiar with the area and he stated that he would expect the campgrounds to be full of drunks and partiers but the trails should be OK.

If anyone is interested in joining, send me a PM. It will be a weekend of non-stop technical wheeling, not booze cruising, especially not sightseeing and taking selfies. Must be prepared to accept some scratches/body damage or just hang out on the access roads.
 
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We are still on for Harlan for labor day weekend. We found a Cabin for Sat and Sun night, will be tent camping at Harlan County Campground on Friday night. Right now, my jeep, a Samurai, and a Truggy; should get pretty rowdy especially if it rains (of all the Harlan videos I found, it is always wet!).
 
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Sounds like a blast! Im still on the injured list from Windrock and will be in Colorado for Phish that weekend. Get some good footage! I like watching your videos because it gives me a good idea how my Jeep would manage.

PS - from watching the flex rocks and rollovers it looks like a big rain changed one section of mason jar, so just a heads up!
 
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Well Black Mountain Off-Road in Harlan County KY is legit. We wheeled hard for approx 5 hours on Friday night, 12 hours on Saturday, and 8 hours on Sunday. It is a mixture of rutted out clay trails and rock gardens, it is steep, and some trails have no traction and some trails have some traction, exits to most trails are pretty challenging.

I took no pictures or videos, too busy wheeling.

Here is a list of trails we did in case anyone is ever searching in the future and looking for list of decent trails;
Lower Rock Garden
Killin Time
Lower Profanity (would not recommend doing this trail in small rig, too muddy and too deep of ruts at the top)
White Tail Crawl (awesome trail, I took ez out at the top)
Pin Ball
Rail Bed
Lion's Den (I did not do myself, I looked it over and just didn't feel that my rig was capable)
Mason Jar (I took the "easier" lines to the left, but it was still a tough trail)
Fossil Fuel (awesome trail, the exit is pretty tough with a giant very slick slab to climb followed by a rutted out steep climb)
Lil Jagger (short but pretty tough)
Your Turn (this was an awesome trail to the top, the exit at the top would have been hard to even winch through so I turned around and went back down backwards, up until the top it is probably my favorite trail there)

We stayed on the Putney side at the Harlan County Campground. Problem with the Putney side is that there is only one road that goes up and down and if you hit oncoming traffic it takes some backing up, finding a place to pull off, etc..... It is also a good 30-40 minutes from the Evarts side where most of the good trails are located. If I went back I would look to stay on the Evarts side.
 
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Just remember "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive"! My family is from there - my late father remembers hearing gunshots from the Coal wars in the winter of 30/31. They lived in Evarts at the time, Granddad was a coal miner at the time. I guess he decided it was hazardous to his health, and became a Methodist Minister.
 
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