Here are three of the many recoveries I have done in the Upper Tellico Area.

The Upper Tellico Area is a high-elevation basin formed by the Unicoi Mountains. The Tellico River and its numerous feeder streams are born amid the high oaks and dissect the 8,000 acres of rugged terrain. Elevations range from 2,500 feet on the Tellico River at the North Carolina-Tennessee State line to 4,979 feet on Grassy Top Mountain. The forest cover is mostly mixed hardwoods with some pine and a variety of under-story species.

The Upper Tellico Area has had many owners, including private timber companies. Between 1950 and 1969 the area was extensively logged. Many roads and skid trails were built to accomplish the logging. These roads were abandoned; nature restored some of them to nearly the original condition of the land. Other roads were discovered by ORV (Off-Road Vehicle) enthusiast and unfortunately, many of these routes had been poorly located - with steep grades and no drainage. They became deeply rutted and eroded as a result of the ORV use.

The Forest Service purchased the Upper Tellico Area in 1980, and began a program of restoration. ORV opportunities will remain available, but will be designed to be compatible with the environment. Most of the trails are old logging roads that follow ridge-tops or contour along the side-slopes. Some of these routes were excessively steep or badly eroding. They have been closed to protect water quality, fisheries, and other resources of the area. Please help nature restore these sites by not riding on any closed roads.

The road/trail system provides interconnected loops with no dead-end routes. The easiest routes have gentle grades (15 percent maximum pitch), sweeping turns, and a fairly smooth tread with no obstacles. More difficult routes have moderate grades (80 percent maximum pitch), more and tighter curves, climbing turns, sections of rough tread, and some rock or log obstacles. A most difficult route requires a high degree of skill and challenge to travel. It has moderate to steep grades (50 percent maximum pitch), numerous turns, tight curves, switchbacks, and a rough surface throughout, with frequent obstacles and sections of very rough tread.

Blue Jeep Crash 8-03-03

From left to right...Danny 'Clutch' Rich, Shane 'Baby Face' Crawford, Mr. Tunnell, the owner & driver of the Jeep, & me, Tim 'Timco' Dockery.

The first recovery is a Jeep crash I worked on Sunday, 8-03-03. The driver of this blue Jeep lost control coming out of a turn Saturday night and took quite a ride down the bank. It is unclear how many times the Jeep rolled over going down, but it obviously rolled end over end at least once, along with two or three barrel rolls. The Forest Service called me out to the scene on Saturday night to size up the situation. The rescue personnel were still at the site tending to the injured. There were three people in the Jeep when it crashed; it ended up a little over 200 feet down the bank.

By the grace of God, there wasn't any life threatening injuries to the occupants. This happened on Trail #1 in the Tellico ORV area, the gravel road portion leading to the trails. It was quite a job for the rescue people to get the injured back up to the road. Sunday morning we went out to retrieve the Jeep. I took my old 6x6 wrecker & my 3500HD truck. I called in my competitor and close friend, Danny Rich of Rich's Wrecker Service to help me. Danny and I have done several tough recoveries together. We think alike.

Photo #1 is looking down the bank to where the Jeep is laying. Photos sure don't do the grade justice; it is steep. We used a chainsaw to clear out some of the brush & broke down trees. The Jeep had jumped over some pretty big rocks.

Photo #2 shows how the Jeep landed. It actually ended up on an old logging road from years ago; this is all that stopped it from going on down the hill another 100 feet or more.

Photo #3 shows us getting closer to the road. I was getting concerned about overloading the wire ropes at this stage, so I ran another line from my small wrecker to the Jeep. I ran it through a snatch block on the back of the 6x6, not much room to work on this narrow road. The bottom Photo shows the Jeep finally cresting over the road bank. This was a highly modified Off-Road Jeep; notice the front axle has been extended forward several inches. Those are 39-inch tires on bead-lock wheels with a Dana 60 front, Corporate rear, winch, and a roll-cage that saved their lives. This thing was HEAVY.

Photo #5 shows the Jeep on the hook on the way out. All in all, this was just another Tellico recovery. This one had a happy ending. No one was carried out in a body bag. I am fortunate to have great help I can call on at anytime, and blessed to have cooperation with the U.S. Forest Rangers in this district. My Thanks go out to them all.

Grand Cherokee Crash 8-09-03

The next recovery is of a Grand Cherokee crash we got at Tellico Sat, 8-09-03. The driver of this Grand Cherokee met another vehicle and got a little close to the edge. He rolled at least three times, maybe more. It landed on the driver's side on some big rocks. This happened in exactly the same spot as the last one we got. The CJ crashed Sat. night, this one happened the following Friday night. Kind of weird, the same spot in less than a week. This one didn't go as far down the bank as the CJ did, only 100 feet or so. The Cherokee was down the bank on its side. With it getting close to the top, I hooked my small wrecker to this one at this point also. Just like the CJ, I was concerned with overloading the wire ropes. We pulled the front of the Cherokee up in the road and then towed the Cherokee to my dry storage. Danny 'Clutch' Rich and myself worked this one. Again, by the grace of God, no one was injured in this crash. The driver got out with only a tiny cut & bruise. I again appreciate the cooperation of the US Forest Service; the Officers in this District are great to work with.

S-10 Crash 9-07-03

The third recovery is of a S-10 Crash I worked in Tellico on Sunday, 9-07-03. The driver of this S-10 dropped off the shoulder of the road and was unable to get it back under control. The truck rolled a few times, ending up around 150 ft. below the roadway.

Once again the terrain is very steep. We had to get permission from the USFS Enforcement Officer on scene to cut a small tree & brush that blocked our recovery path. This is rough terrain. The truck was lying against a large dead tree. The large dead tree was all that kept the truck from going on down the hill. We hooked two wire ropes to the front of the truck, crossing them as we hooked them. The plan was to spin the truck around, and hopefully upright it at the same time. The plan worked. We positioned the trucks, back to back. I ran the upper line from the 6x6 wrecker uphill to a large beech tree, through a snatch block, and then to the casualty. I ran the lower line from the 6x6 straight from the mast down to the casualty. This stabilized my boom and truck. This was steep terrain with rocks and stumps littering my recovery path, so I was concerned with overloading my wire ropes. As soon as it was close enough, I ran a line from my small wrecker to it also. I ran the upper line to a tree and secured it to the tree. I then ran the lower line to a snatch block connected to the 6x6, and then to the casualty. The reason for hooking the upper line to the tree is so when we had the casualty as close as we could get it to the 6x6, we hooked the lower line of the small wrecker to the rear of the wreck. We could then drag the rear up in the road, as the boom & truck was stabilized. I would like to point out, any time we hook to a tree, for whatever reason, we use a tree strap. I strive to keep a good working relationship with our local Forest Service personnel here, & I refuse to cut corners. This crash happened just a short ways from where the last two went off. Total time of recovery, leaving from and returning to the shop, was five hours. I love my job.

Tim Dockery is the owner/operator of TimCo Transportation in Murphy, NC.