Big South Fork Adventure Race, 10-6-01

Before moving to Knoxville, I’d been able to race in several types of triathlons, including some standard run, bike, swim races, some winter races, and a single adventure race. But in Knoxville I hadn’t been able to keep up this pursuit. Living in East Knoxville I had access to great road bike riding and good trail running, but I hadn’t yet found anywhere suitable for lap swimming. And although I knew plenty of strong hikers, it took me a long time to find other trail runners to train with.

Steven was one of the first other trail runners I met. We both had an interest in running ultramarathons, and both wanted to try some adventure racing. It’s a tough field to break into. Typically, you need a team of people with all the gear, and skill, for several events. But the logistical hassles are offset by the fun of getting to use all your toys at once, and the chance to see so much new terrain.

Luckily for us, Riversports Outfitters, our local outdoor shop, started a series of adventure races. Riversports’ race at Pickett was relatively beginner friendly. We just needed gear for trail running, mountain biking. rappelling, and cross country hiking. Also, since we did not have a third team member we could race solo. Steven and I took a rappelling lesson at the Riversports climbing wall since he had never rappelled before, and I hadn’t either for several years. Though we raced solo, we planned to stick together. Neither of us did much other specialized training before the race, though we both were running a lot.

I remember that there was a mandatory gear list, and probably a results sheet, but I have long since lost those. I did retain my checkpoint card, and a copy of the race map. Neither of us took pictures, and we were well before the era of GPS. The race was based out of the Pickett State Park Group Camp. The night before the race we all went through a gear check, and received our course maps. The race would start with a trail run through the BSF, and then most of the events would be in the roads, trails, and forest of Pickett State Forest, before a final section back in the BSF. I much later traced the course map onto my Topo! software. The advertised distance was 32 miles.

The east portion of our 2001 race map.

  

The night before the race the racers slept and snored in the group camp. We began the day with a trail run on Thompson Overlook Road, onto the south side of the BSF Hidden Passage Trail, and back to the group camp which served as checkpoint 1 at about 6-7 miles. At each checkpoint we got our card signed. There were also 6 mini maps that we collected along the way that that we would jigsaw puzzle together to help navigate a tricky section near the last CP. Hidden Passage Trail was great running, scenic and with good footing.

At the group camp we hopped on our bikes and rode down TN 154 to Rock Creek. At least one biker got going too fast and crashed on the speedy descent. The John Muir Trail heading west up Rock Creek was a new(?) addition to the forest. It was very rough riding with 10+ creek crossings. It featured lots of riding on an old railroad grade where the ties had rotted out. Most racers just pushed their bikes along the grade to avoid the ruts, I hoped that section wouldn’t be included in future editions of the race. 

The west portion of our 2001 race map. 

Our race map purposely did not show the next section of the course in detail, but I expect we turned into the South Fork of Rock Creek, and then up its South Prong before reaching maintained gravel Store 14 Road. After about 1:15 on the bike we climbed north out of Rock Creek to better a road, then to maintained gravel Store 14 Road and the start of an out-and-back leg of the course. This was fast, easy riding with just a few mud holes. At one point Steven’s derailleur got clogged up (and may have locked him onto his middle ring), and he would be a little slower riding after this. The O&B leg followed Wagon Gap Road southwest to its end at CP2 and a spectacular overlook above Wolf River. The ride had strung the field out a bit. We were in contact with three other pairs, and we could see from the turnaround that there was a lead pair and another pack well ahead of them. But there were also a lot of teams behind us. 

The south portion of our 2001 race map.

We reversed course and rode the ~1 hour back to where we had emerged from Rock Creek. Then the route led up Store 14 Road and to Kentucky Overlook for CP 3, our rappel, and the bike drop off station. I would eventually do three of the Riversports Adventure races and this would prove to be the guts of each race; long sections of remote mountain biking, short trail runs, some special features, and a terrifying rappel. Steven went first down the rope. It was about a 70’ drop, all but the first 10’ were overhung. That was a big step for someone on only their second time rappelling. I followed slowly, as I never was comfortable with the heights while rappelling.

Next up was our bushwhacking section which would follow a short part of Flint Creek. The going was fairly easy, and we kept our feet dry until a small creek came in from the left. After that we were walking on the creek bottom over some slippery limestone. Since we were just progressing down the creek the navigating here was simple, except for locating the Checkpoint. Eventually we reached a gravel road with CP4 on the left, perhaps the only one we had trouble locating. We climbed up gravel Flint Fork Road to TN 154 where we picked up our bikes again.

Next we rode Coffee Road out to the overlook. There we had a rough, steep descent down to, and then upstream, along Rock Creek. The route was barely ridable to a point where there was an old railroad tunnel across the creek from the trail. Things got confusing here. The main complicating factor was that one trail went through the tunnel, while another trail went over the top. Neither trail was visible from the other, so most hikers missed this “2D” intersection completely. We stumbled into two solo women who helped us out, and we could now assemble our six mini maps into a detailed picture of the tunnel intersection. Apparently we were supposed to go through the tunnel, get a bone from the skeleton inside it, then go to CP5 and carve a pumpkin. Steve and I carried our bikes up a steep, muddy and eroded trail the long way around the tunnel, then went back thru the tunnel and got on a connector trail to Hidden Passage Trail. Then it was simply a matter of pushing our bikes to the rim, and riding HPT back to the Group Camp.

I was wanting to have a strong finish and left Steve at this point. He had a 50 mile trail ultramarathon coming up in two weeks, and wanted to save some energy for that effort. I was able to pass two solo men, but was unable to catch two pairs ahead of me. I couldn’t find the HPT through the brush on the far side of a powerline, but eventually hit a road and found my way back. The two top solo men tied for first and I was the next finisher. Total distance was about 32 miles and I finished in 8:15.

I had felt good throughout the race, despite not getting much sleep the night before. The weather was coo/cold. I drank three bike bottles of water. I wore my green army pants a T-short and long sleeve wicker at the start of the bike leg. I’d really enjoyed the course except for the rotted ties on the John Muir Trail (too jarring) and navigating near CP5 (way too complicated). I would again have trouble around the tunnel on my next visit while trying to hike all the BSF area trails.

My Topo! version of the 2001 Pickett Adventure Race.