Recon America Series Hits DBBB

When Brad from TrailRecon announced he was heading East to attend a couple of events and film some Recon America content, sponsored by onX Offroad, I was excited to see where he goes. After appearances at Toledo Jeep Fest 2026, he made his way to Kentucky, pointed the Recon One into the Daniel Boone National Forest, and somewhere between a muddy creek crossing and a sandstone arch, something clicked….he got it.

If you spend much time exploring the backroads of Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia or the Carolinas, you probably know exactly what I mean. Western wheeling gets the postcards: towering mountains, desert vistas, giant rock obstacles and trails where you can sometimes see your destination miles before you reach it.

Eastern wheeling is different.

The trail disappears around a bend 50 yards in front of you. The forest closes around the rig. Creeks become roads. Roads become creek beds. A perfectly manageable trail on Tuesday can become an entirely different animal after three days of rain. And sometimes an old iron furnace, abandoned railroad tunnel or sandstone arch ends up being more memorable than the obstacle you spent all morning trying to find.

That’s essentially what Brad discovered in Kentucky’s DBBB.

TrailRecon Meets Spaas Creek

Photo: DBBB – Spaas Creek, courtesy of TrailRecon / onX Offroad

The episode opens after a week of Kentucky thunderstorms, with Brad heading toward Spaas Creek Road in the Daniel Boone National Forest.

He’d found the trail while researching Kentucky in onX Offroad, then received the endorsement every traveler hopes to hear once arriving in a new area: the locals kept telling him he needed to run it.

They weren’t steering him wrong.

Spaas Creek is part of the original Daniel Boone Backcountry Byway, or DBBB. The Byway currently describes the roughly six-mile dirt section as Light/Medium difficulty, following Spaas Creek through multiple stream crossings and National Forest land.

After heavy rain, Brad encounters exactly what you’d expect: standing water, mud, downed limbs and holes he estimates at roughly 18 to 30 inches deep. His Gladiator is sitting on 37-inch tires with front and rear lockers, so none of it becomes particularly dramatic.

But something he says is worth remembering.

He’d researched the mud holes and understood that many had hard bottoms.

That’s consistent with the DBBB’s own guidance. In fact, the organization specifically warns drivers not to go around the puddles on Spaas Creek. Years of people creating alternate lines have produced unwanted trail braiding. The established center route is generally hard-bottomed; stay on it rather than widening the trail.

That’s an important piece of Eastern trail etiquette.

Sometimes the environmentally responsible line is straight through the ugly-looking puddle.

“Now I Get Why Everybody Was Recommending This”

About halfway through Spaas Creek comes my favorite moment in the video.

Brad essentially says: Okay. Now I understand.

What surprises him isn’t some giant obstacle. It’s the environment. The trail is tight. The trees are close. Visibility is limited. It’s muddy, rutted and technical in a way that feels completely different from the Western terrain where TrailRecon has spent so much time. And he loves it.

That’s the part of this episode that resonated with me. A lot of people still judge an offroad destination by the size of its obstacles. I don’t. Some of my favorite Southern routes aren’t especially difficult. What makes them memorable is the feeling of disappearing into the landscape. A creek crossing. An old bridge. A road nobody has bothered to maintain in 80 years. A forgotten community. An overlook you weren’t expecting. A little general store where you stop for lunch.

Those things become the trip. And Brad is beginning to discover that on Spaas Creek.

Then Pumpkin Hollow Turns Up the Difficulty

Photo: DBBB – Pumpkin Hollow, courtesy of TrailRecon / onX Offroad

At the end of Spaas Creek, Brad studies the Daniel Boone Backcountry Byway map and follows a local recommendation over to Pumpkin Hollow Road.

This is where the driving gets considerably more interesting. Pumpkin Hollow is about 3.5 miles long and rated Medium by the DBBB. Mud, ruts, rock and a climbing section force Brad to think more about tire placement and throttle control than anything on Spaas Creek.

There’s one important caveat for anyone watching the video and thinking, That looks like fun after a big rain. The DBBB specifically asks users to avoid Pumpkin Hollow during wet conditions and to respect the area’s freeze/thaw cycle. Heavy rain combined with wheelspin accelerates erosion on these old roads.

Brad had just experienced a week of storms, so this is one portion of his trip I wouldn’t automatically duplicate under the same conditions. That’s not a dig on Brad or the episode. It’s simply information worth adding if we’re using this video to plan our own trip.

Trail conditions aren’t just about whether your Jeep can make it. Sometimes the better question is whether the trail needs you on it today.

A Word About onX and the Official DBBB Map

onX Offroad plays a major role in this episode. It’s the sponsor of Brad’s Recon America series, and Brad says he used it to find Spaas Creek during his trip research.

I use onX Offroad extensively myself for route research, offline navigation and trail information, and there’s plenty of value in having that information available when cell service disappears.

But the Daniel Boone Backcountry Byway deserves an additional layer of preparation.

The organization behind the DBBB says the Byway consists largely of historic public and county roads and is intended for licensed, insured, street-legal vehicles. It also says its CartoTracks map is the only official, current DBBB route map, warning that other circulating route files have sometimes led travelers onto private property or other areas where they shouldn’t be.

So my approach here would be simple:

Use onX. But use it alongside the official DBBB map, current Forest Service information and posted signage—not instead of them.

That’s especially important in the East, where public land, county roads and private property can intertwine in ways that aren’t immediately obvious from behind the windshield.

The Trail Ends — But the Adventure Doesn’t

Photo: DBNF – Nada Tunnel, courtesy of TrailRecon / onX Offroad

And then the video gets better.

Instead of finishing Pumpkin Hollow, washing the Jeep and heading for the interstate, Brad keeps exploring.

First comes Nada Tunnel, the historic narrow tunnel along KY 77 that once served the logging railroad and today forms one of the signature entrances into the Red River Gorge area. The Forest Service specifically cautions that large vehicles may not be able to pass through it.

Then comes Clay City, pizza, a little local history and finally a night off the trail.

Photo: DBNF – Sky Bridge, courtesy of TrailRecon / onX Offroad

The following morning, Brad heads back into Daniel Boone National Forest and hikes to Sky Bridge. The Forest Service lists the sandstone formation at approximately 75 feet long and 23 feet high—the same dimensions Brad gives in the episode.

And here’s where the entire episode changes tone.

Standing beneath that arch, Brad talks about how easy it is to travel somewhere, run the trail and head home without stopping to discover what else is around you. That may be the best observation in the whole video. Because that’s overlanding to me. The four-wheel-drive road is the thread connecting the experiences. It isn’t necessarily the entire experience.

And Then There Is Fitchburg Furnace

Photo: DBBB – Fitchburg Furnace, courtesy of TrailRecon / onX Offroad

Brad finishes his Kentucky exploration at Fitchburg Furnace, an enormous stone iron furnace tucked into the Daniel Boone National Forest.

The scale of the thing clearly gets him. It should.

Kentucky’s archaeological record identifies Fitchburg as an unusually advanced industrial site, built by brothers Frank and Fred Fitch in 1867–1868 and featuring two side-by-side stacks. Archaeological work has also uncovered evidence of its sophisticated hot-blast operation and substantial boiler system.

There’s one factual correction worth making here. Brad says in the video that the furnace was built in 1859. The Kentucky Archaeological Survey dates construction to 1867–1868, while the Forest Service gives 1868. Minor miss. His larger point is still 100%. The forest he’s been driving through isn’t merely wilderness scenery. People logged it. Mined it. Built communities in it. Constructed railroads through it. Smelted iron in it. And then much of the forest eventually grew back around what they left behind. That’s a pretty remarkable backdrop for a Jeep trip.

Kentucky Won Him Over

By the end of the episode, Brad says he’s developed a new affinity for Kentucky and plans to return.

I believe him. Because what he discovers isn’t simply that Kentucky has good Jeep trails. He discovers that Eastern backcountry travel rewards curiosity.

Run Spaas Creek. Absolutely.

But stop at the tunnel.

Walk to the arch.

Read the historical marker.

Buy the pizza from the little place that looks like somebody’s house.

Talk to the locals.

Take the road you hadn’t originally planned to take.

That’s where the story usually is.

TrailRecon came to Kentucky looking for trails. He found those. But judging from this episode, I think he found something considerably bigger: why those of us who explore the backroads of the South keep going back into the woods. And judging from the final few minutes of the video, Kentucky isn’t finished with him yet.

Brad points the Recon One south toward Tennessee next. Now that should be interesting.

Big thanks to Brad, TrailRecon and onX Offroad for the series. TrailRecon was one of the first channels I found after I bought my 2021 Gladiator Mojave new. 127K miles later, Brad’s storytelling and visual content are still second to none.

Before You Follow This Route

Conditions on the Daniel Boone Backcountry Byway (and the greater DBNF) can change substantially with rain, erosion, maintenance and seasonal freeze/thaw. The DBBB recommends traveling with another vehicle, carrying proper recovery equipment and checking current route information before heading out. The route is intended for licensed, insured, street-legal vehicles.

For Spaas Creek specifically, stay on the established route and avoid creating bypasses around mud holes. For Pumpkin Hollow, the DBBB asks travelers to avoid the trail during wet conditions.

Here’s to the road unpaved – Doug

Review: TrailRecon Finally Gets Kentucky — And Why Eastern Wheeling Hits Different