Fall Creek Falls Adventure Race, 8-23-03

For 2003, Steven, Mark, and I decided to try the Riversports Adventure Race at Fall Creek Falls SP. This race required a crew, and we were lucky to be able to recruit Matt Zedler, who I knew from road biking with Mark. I don’t know if there was as a 2003 version of the Pickett race, or if we just decided to try a different course. I have only the course map, a finish list, and a T-shirt left over from the race. 

Falls Creek Falls in 2007.

We had some trouble getting organized for this race. Partly this was because of late changes; the need for a crew and the addition of a swim leg. Steven was a non-swimmer, but I thought he was being modest when he said he really couldn’t swim much beyond just paddling around. The Friday before the race was a minor fiasco. Steven and I made a late trip (out to the Farragut location of Blue Ridge Mountain Sports?) to buy a pair of figure 8’s for the rappels before driving to the park. Mark and Matt decided to get us room at the Inn. Steven and I arrived late, and we weren’t checked in and settled into our room until after midnight.

2003 Falls Creek Falls Adventure Race Map.

Stage one of the race was an easy jog from the park Inn to the Boat Launch. Its hard to run while carrying a canoe paddle. For the canoe leg, I took the stern, None of us did much paddling, but I could at least steer a canoe on flat water. We had a couple checkpoints around the lake, along with a section where we needed to drop off, then pick up a teammate who would then run along the lakeshore on the Gilbert Gaul Trail. We were surely a sad sight thrashing around the lake, but we did manage to stay ahead of a couple of other boats. Back at the boat launch, next up was the dreaded swim leg. We had to swim back to the Inn, wearing a life vest and carrying a dry bag. We crammed what gear we could into the bag and then splashed into the lake. It’s tough swimming with all  that gear. A few teams were good at this, we were not. Mark could swim, but about 2/3 the way across the lake Steven’s swimming gave out. I ended up towing him and the dry bag the rest of the way across the lake. We emerged from the water dead last.

Luckily we could make up some time on the bike leg. As was typical of the Riversports events, the race was essentially a long mountain bike ride with a few other events tossed in. Mark did most of the route finding on the bike leg, and did a great job keeping us on course. Basically, we rode a giant loop around the south end of the part with a side trip to the Bradden Knob Fire Tower. We overshot one turn, but teams riding towards us tipped us off to the mistake. Steven was eagle eyed and spotted a couple of the markers a long way off. The biking was easy at the start, but the route went from gravel to two track to barely visible until we connected with the FCF Backcountry Loop, which had recently been opened to bikes. One checkpoint turned out to be mismapped, and teams lost various amounts of time depending on how long they spent searching for it before giving up. There was one short cross country segment to regain the bike trail. By the time we reached the out and back leg to the Fire tower, our team was in the top ten (17 teams would finish).

We’d feared that the heat and humidity of August would be the biggest obstacle, and Mark was the first one to feel it. He recovered quickly, but by then Steven had started to fade. We took some longer breaks but Steven was not getting any better. We tried to cool him down at a creek crossing where there was a swinging bridge that looked in such poor shape that we opted to ford the creek. The day was hot, and we’d gotten a lot of sun on the lake, so I doubted Steve had drunk enough. I don’t know if weather was a factor, but he had similar issues last year at Pickett when the temperatures were near freezing. Typically for the Riversports races the biking was really long (I measured about 26.5 miles using my Topo! software). The time and distance we spent on the bikes was frustrating, but the designated bike trail fun, fast, and easy.

At one point Steven looked shot. He was very pale and just flopped down on the grass to rest. This is never a good idea on the Cumberland Plateau in summer, and he later paid the price in countless seed tick bites. I ended up with many bites on my ankles just from walking around. Mark and I were getting worried and decided we should quit at the next aid station/checkpoint (15 or 16?), if we could get there.

There was a nurse at the next stop who helped Steven, while her partner drove to the next transition area to get Matt. Good thing we had a crew! With Steven in good hands, Mark and I rode on, passing Matt along the road. We asked Matt to pick up Steven, get him settled back at the hotel, then come back to drop off our gear. Steven had been throwing up, had chills, and was very weak by this time. Matt got him back to the room.

But without our gear, Mark and I missed the cut off for rappelling into the gorge, and so we dropped out. One race person had told us we could continue, but the free rappel into the Cane Creek Falls plunge pool looked too scary for me. As a result, we also missed the orienteering section and the short bike ride back to the finish. I measured about 33.2 miles for the sections we completed.

Back at the room it took most of the evening for Steven to regain his usual good cheer. Not surprisingly this turned out to be last adventure race for us. Riversports sponsored a few more races, but those tended to be local, and in the newly burgeoning recreation areas in south Knoxville. It is likely that the big races such as Pickett and Fall Creek Falls were too expensive and labor intensive to maintain. 

The 2025 Falls Creek Falls park map.