Uwharrie Back Roads

This past Saturday, the weather was going to be sunny and 50. We both decided to take a ride to Uwharrie and tackle ALL the forest roads. We usually do not ride these since there are many 4wd tracks, hiking trails, and horse trails so the traffic can be a bit of a problem.

Since the 4wd trails are closed from Dec 16th - Mar 31st, we decided to drive them all hoping there would not be a lot of people driving on the roads. Also, the Uwharrie roads are noted for being EXTREMELY dusty.

We headed out about 11am (its about a 30 min ride) and decided to start our ride from the Hunt Group Camp. For those not familiar with this area, this forest has quite a lot to offer as seen on this map. If you are interested in the hiking, horse, and 4wd trails, check out this map as it is more detailed. We typically do not go on these roads since there can be quite a bit of traffic (we will just leave it at that).

We started from the group camp and hit Road 555. It is an out an back. Then continued on to Road 553 (again, another out and back). Both of these roads mainly serve as access points to the 4wd trails. We continued on Raod 476 taking it all the way to the end reaching the river.

There is a nice ending to this road as you descend to the river. We did not have any trouble negotiating it but then again, there were not any vehicles to block our way (we did this same trail in the summer but had a bit more difficulty due to other vehicles). We again doubled back and headed down to the Arrowhead campground and boat access. We stopped for a break at the campground. We noticed an interesting camper.

After our break, we proceeded down the road to Badin Lake campground, Badin Lake, and Pilot Mountain Point. From there we doubled back and took Road 597 back to Highway 109.

Once back on the highway, we wanted to do the road over by Yates campground. Heading down Highway 109, we turned Road 1147 to the campground and followed Road 1146 back out to 1150 and back to highway 109. This road ends at the Bigfoot Bar and Grill. We decided to stop, get some refreshment but then head out to the Getaway for dinner.

We had never been here on Saturday night. It is Ribeye night and it got packed. We had pizza and beer. Once we were done, we headed back home to end a wonderful day at Uwharrie.

We also shot video while riding. We cut out 99% of it and left the two interesting trails down to the water.