Sometimes with guidebook writing you get lucky with your timing. For both my Black Hills and North Dakota Badlands guidebooks I was able to write the first book about an area that had just seen a major expansion of its trail system. Consequently, both those books have sold well. My backroads bicycling guide came out in 2003, at the opposite end of a similar cycle. The book was released just before Knoxville, Chattanooga, and other areas began to build extensive trail networks for mountain biking. I was able to cover places like Tsali, Ocoee, and Bent Creek which already had great mountain biking, but I missed out on describing a number of new, exciting places to ride. One of the places I most wish I’d been able to cover is DuPont Forest, south of Asheville, NC. Now a NC State Forest, DuPont has a large trail system and is one of the best places for riding in the region.
It
took a long and complicated effort to protect the area and open it to the
public. During the 1950s the DuPont Corporation began buying land in the Little
River watershed. The company purchased approximately 10,000 acres of to control
the supply of clean water for their manufacturing process. The company opened a
silicon chip manufacturing plant in 1955. Later on, the plant manufactured x-ray
film.
DuPont
State Forest was created in 1997 when the DuPont Corporation sold 7,640 acres
of property to the state of North Carolina through funding provided by the
Natural Heritage Trust Fund. The public purchase of the property was
facilitated by the Conservation Fund, a national non-profit organization.
Approximately 2,600 acres of the property was registered with North Carolina
Natural Heritage Program as having special ecological significance, limiting
land-use for the protection of those ecological communities. The 2,700 acres
directly adjacent to the DuPont Corporation production facility was sold to
Sterling Diagnostic Imaging in 1996. In March 2000, the Natural Heritage Trust
Fund financed the purchase of an additional 526 acres. In October 2000, an
additional 2,200 acres along the Little River corridor including Triple, High
and Bridal Veil Falls was acquired by the state from a developer through the
process of eminent domain, utilizing funds from the state’s Clean Water
Management Trust Fund. The forest was first staffed in 2002. Two small tracts
were added to the forest in 2006, and a key section along Conservation Road was
acquired in 2008.
In
2011 DuPont State Forest was designated as a State Recreational Forest. The
forest covers approximately 12,400 acres, has more than 40 miles of multiuse
roads, nearly 60 miles of multiuse trails that are shared by a variety of user
groups, and now receives more than a million visitors a year.
I
probably first heard of DuPont through my friend Steven who was living in
Asheville, and had helped me substantially on my bike guide. My manuscript was
barely at the publisher when the word of tens of miles of mixed single and two
track trails among huge waterfalls began to spread. We got our first
information from the MTB WNC web site and were able
to pick up a 2001 NC Division of Forestry Trail Map. The earliest of these
rides occurred before the advent of digital photography, so I have only a few
poor quality slide scans. I was using GPS by the start of my DuPont Riding, but
was not yet in the habit of saving individual trip maps. In addition, some of
the trail names and numbers have changed from that era.
For
our first ride Steven and I parked at the Hooker Falls TH and rode a clockwise
loop out to Wintergreen and Grassy Branch falls and then made a side trip to
the south to see Lake Julia and Bridal Veil Falls. Back then Hooker Falls had
just a small gravel lot and a port-a-potty. We took short trips at the start to
the 5’ drop at Hooker, which seemed impressive to us then, and then onto the
Moore Cemetery. Next we rode Holly north to the Lake Imaging TH, which was set
up for horse trailers. We then took Jim
Branch, which has since been relocated to a gentler grade.
We
then rode Buck out to Thomas Cemetery, which had about a dozen old graves. A
few more twists and turns brought us to the bike parking area from which we
walked to Wintergreen Falls. At the falls we met a group from the Greenville
Hiking Club. This was early in the discovery of DuPont Forest so, otherwise we
saw only a few other hikers and riders. But here we were only six miles in, and
we’d already seen two waterfalls and a pair of cemeteries, ideal habitat for
habitual Smokies hikers.
Just
past the falls we got on Grassy Creek. Steven took a showy wipe out fording the
creek on a section that has since been relocated. We next took Joanna toward
Grassy Creek Falls. This involved a short section of Buck Road, which was
apparently the popular horse trail. Grassy Creek was another falls we could
only approach on foot. This was a long sloping falls running 30-40’ downhill.
Here
we began our side trip by turning south on Buck to its junction with
Conservation Road by the covered bridge. There was some private land here still
owned by Agfa, the film company that last produced here up until around 2002.
We headed toward Bridal Veil Falls, and a viewing area at the junction with
Corn Shoals. This was the largest of the falls so far, and we could see a huge
flow of water over the nose of what appeared to be one of the granite domes
that are common along the escarpment. We talked with a ranger who gave us some
tips for viewing Triple Falls.
Our
next visit was to Lake Julia. This area had been slated for development, and
there was a large conference center alongside the road. From the lake we
climbed to the end of the airstrip that had once served the film plant. Looking
off the end of the runway toward the plant was a scene that would fit in a
James Bond thriller. 
Steven on the airstrip.
From
the airstrip we headed back toward Hooker Falls. The route got a little
complicated, but we made it to the picnic shelter and the stairs that led to
the base of the falls. We’d obviously left the best for last as High Falls
literally dwarfed the other falls we’d seen previously. But even better was
Triple Falls. These weren’t the waterfalls I was used to seeing in the Cumberlands; small
creeks falling over the lip of thin sandstone layers. These were big, important
streams with places to go and things to do. Their water raced recklessly along,
leaping over the edge to crash to the pools below. Both big falls were easily
accessible by foot from the trailhead and seemed to have most of the park
visitors.
High Fallls.
There
were rangers stationed at the falls and we managed to get copies of the updated
trail map. High Falls and Triple Falls are premier destinations. Even on the
Blue Ridge Escarpment, where falling water is common, these two fall stand out.
But even without them we’d seen four falls, two cemeteries, a covered bridge,
and the air strip vista, all while riding a mix of 18 miles of well-kept trail
and two track roads. 
Triple Falls.
Through
the late 2000’s Dupont became one of our favorite riding areas. On the next
trip that July Jean found the riding a good fit for her while we explored
similar sites. We extended the northern part of our loop out to Flatwoods while
still racking up 18 miles.
We
would end up making seven trips to DuPont, mostly staying the weekend with
Steven for two days of riding or hiking. Steven would eventually move back to
Knoxville, making the logistics for visiting DuPont more complicated. But by
then the trail systems in Chattanooga were growing, and we switched our biking trip
focus to that area (Raccoon Mtn. MB). 
2004 DuPont Route maps. 1-3-04 in green and 7-24-04 in orange.
