Went to Aetna today with some buddies from GA Trailriders. Chris, who owns a TJ on 35's, rode with me so he could see what the JK was all about. We had a blast as usual. Damage was minimal considering what all we got into. I bent my tie rod even more and my toe is out now. I also layed the JK over on it's side going through a really bad off camber mud hole with the ledge on the right. I've done it before, but it's much worse now. It looked and sounded really bad going through as I thought for sure I was going to have new racing stripes all the way down the passenger side. As it turned out, all I did was put some nice battle scars on the fender flares. No contact with the body. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of that, but I got lots of other nice shots. Jud had his XJ basically on it's side. If it wasn't for the three people pushing against it, he was a goner for sure.


Oh yah, There's an area they call the Peanut Butter Hole. It's basically just like a big playground where everbody gathers and rides around hitting the different obsticles. When I pulled in you could have heard a pin drop. You could see the expresson on their faces, like "What's this jerk doing bringing a brand new expensive Jeep out here. This is going to be good. I can't wait to see him f' somthing up." I drove right past everbody, picked the biggest ledge I could find and walked right up it. I circled back around and watched a buggy struggle getting over a different ledge, waited for him to finish, and climbed right up that one. When I pulled back around I parked and then I was everybody's pal. They were all over the JK.

Enjoy!!

http://s187.photobucket.com/albums/x...etna%20120807/

 

Cool pics!

 

Great shots!!!


Did you make it up this ledge? Looks pretty bad, and wet too.

 

those are great....I love the cherokee with no doors or roof.....

 

Yeah, everything was wet and slick all day. I did make it up, but the improvised road crew had to stack a couple of rocks. Don't tell anybody though.

 

Yah, that was pretty funny. I have no idea who those guys were, but it reminded me of the Beaverly Hillbillies.

 

Hey, it's good to see another JK going to Aetna. That pic on the ledge is great. I know what you mean about everybody watching while you are climbing ledges at Peanut Butter. That place is a mess when it is wet. Maybe sometime soon I will be able to get out again.

 

Thanks Renegade. I'm starting to hear news about Aetna closing down.

I hope we don't lose another good one like Aetna. Pretty soon there won't be anywhere to go except the Mall.

What part of Tennessee do you live in?

 

Aetna is about 20 minutes from my house. There have been various closings on Aetna for several years now. I don't know who ownes most of it, but there are several leases you can get on to get a key to some of the entrances. I know that Aetna Mountain Road (Cummings Cove) was recently ruled to be a right-of-way, so that part can't be closed. As for the power line areas, I don't know. I have seen the Wildlife Management boundary markers up for at least a year, but don't know how that will be enforced either. I wish someone would just make it an ORV park and start charging admission. At least then you would know the rules and could count on it being open.

 

renegade lives in chattanooga i believe. i live about 15 mins from aetna and go there alot. i saw you up there saturday and and took a look at your jeep down in the creek when yall were watching the buggys climb horsepower and balls hill, you were parked on the hill, very very sharp jeep by the way. i have a 08 silver unlimited rubicon with a teraflex 2.5" bb, 3/4" spacer, spidertrax 1.50" and 35" nitto mg's. its only been to aetna one time and i dont usually take it because i have another rig i take to aetna ( blue 99xj and its in the process of getting one tons and 37's). maybe when i get the cherokee back together we can ride sometime. there have been rumors about aetna being shut down for years and they have sold some of the mtn and sold parts of it once you go past the peanut butter hole, some is hunting club and some is in the process of being developed. now aetna has about half of the riding trails it once had just several years ago. i would say several years down the road there will be less and less land to ride on and there are so many different landowners that have land out there it will be hard to keep people off it and that is kinda the reason we get to ride out there now is because the right of ways. it is really starting to thin down around here on places to ride. there is another place that has some good riding down the road from aetna in sequatchie cove and if yall wanna ride up there sometime just let me know. RENEGADE i talked to travis wilson (by the way super nice guy and does some killer work by the way)out there the other day and i ask him about your jeep and he was telling me you got a set of pit bull tires so be sure to post some pics when you get them straighed out. he was telling me that you were having some death wobble issues that he was goinna try to straighten out for you. let me know when yall go back to aetna