2006, 3-18 Big South Fork Car Camp and Mountain Biking

One of the great things about the Big South Fork is that it is close enough for us to be able to take advantage of those rare great weather weekends that pop up on short notice. This March weekend looked to be especially warm and dry, so Jean and I decided to try our luck with some car camping and mountain biking. We were lucky to be able to snag the old homesite location on the Duncan Hollow Road for our base camp. This was our first visit to the site which has turned into one of our favorite car camping spots.

It was early in the spring, so we  hadn’t yet done much riding yet, just some road bike rides in Cades Cove and on the Little River Road near Townsend. With the lack of biking fitness in mind, and little experience with BSF mountain biking, we decided to be conservative and planned a day of riding in the Duncan Hollow area to be followed by some riding on the gravel park roads south of TN 297 on Sunday.

Duncan Hollow Campsite

3-18-2006

Once we got set up enough at the Duncan Hollow campsite to claim our spot, we rode north on the smoothly graveled Duncan Hollow Road. It was easy riding out to vehicle gate and horse rack, but then the old road plunges into the gorge of Laurel and Station Camp creeks. The road was eroded enough on the descent by ATVs and horses that I walked my bike down two pitches. We knew from hiking the trails in the gorge that there would be no good riding there, so turned around near the junction of the Muir Trail and the bridge over Laurel Creek. Returning to our campsite we passed three horse parties.

Bridge over Station Camp Creek.

The five mile roundtrip to Laurel Creek wasn’t enough for us so we rode back south on Duncan Hollow Road, then turned east onto the Alfred Smith Road. This gravel road was also well maintained and had some twists and turns to keep the riding interesting. After two miles on the gravel road, we came to the trailhead for the John Muir and Grand Gap loop trails. This visit was long before these two trails were opened to mountain bikes, so we did not consider riding the hiking trails. However, back in the pre-pine beetle days  the forests were more open and many of the old two track roads predating the park had not yet grown over. One of these old roads splits the center of the Grand Gap Loop along Smith Ridge, and we decided to explore it for a taste of “off-trail” riding. Despite having no official maintenance, the road was still passable on bikes with only a few blowdowns. We were able to ride a little over a mile through the woods out nearly to the eastern end of the Grand Gap Loop before turning around. Apparently an old, pre-park trail continues beyond our turnaround and descends to a ford of the river, maybe a target for an off trail hike another day?

Archie Smith Grave.

We then returned back to the Duncan Hollow Road. With 12 miles now under our wheels, we decided to ride out to the end of the access road to the John Litton Farm. Though the riding was fun, we needed to turn around at the end of the vehicle access and didn’t hike down into the valley to visit the farm.

We next rode back up the Duncan Hollow Road to the junction with the Duncan Hollow Bypass Road. Now at 14.7 miles, Jean headed back to the campsite, while I turned left to ride the bypass road and the Duncan Hollow MB Trail. In 2016, late in our effort to hike all the BSF trails, we would walk the entire bypass road and found it a muddy, fouled mess nearly destroyed by horse traffic. But on this visit the bypass was still a smooth, pleasant gravel road. I made the first turn onto the mountain bike trail and rode it counterclockwise. Compared to the smooth gravel roads, it had a lot of fallen branches and other bumps, and I could see it had probably once been a road. The far end of the loop had a short steep drop, but otherwise the loop wasn’t too technical. When I rode back on the roads to the campsite, I had 19.5 miles for the day. I took one more short spin around the meadow around the campsite on what we thought was an ATV trail, but later learned it was a perimeter for a controlled burn.

My summary for the day indicated that ironically that the only official mountain bike trail we’d been on was the least interesting part of the day. Also, curiously we’d seen no sign of other mountain bikers, except some old tracks on the Duncan Hollow MB trail. Of the park’s designated mountain bike trails Collier Ridge, Grand Gap, and the John Muir Trail remain our favorites, while Duncan Hollow Loop and West Bandy we found less interesting. But our real favorite riding at BSF remains in exploring the park’s remote back roads.

 

3-19-2006

We planned two routes for our Sunday riding; heading out to the North White Oak and Leatherwood overlooks. Our first ride started at the Gar Blevins Trailhead just off TN 297. The Gar Blevins Road (now Multi-use trail) was more fine riding on well compacted fine gravel. In 2.3 miles we crossed the North White Oak Loop, one of the major trails carrying horse parties from the Bandy Creek or Leatherwood trailheads. At 3.2 miles we reached the vehicle limit and turn around, and then the horse limit at 3.5 miles. Near the end the road was a rough jeep track with ATV and horse tracks. The fenced overlook was only a 100 yard ahead. The river was partially obscured, but there were nice views of cliff bands across the river.

Approaching North White Oak Overlook.

North White Oak Overlook.

We took our time enjoying the views and then rode back to the junction with the North White Oak Trail. We had heard that the trail had been recently rehabilitated, and decided to try riding it back to the trailhead to make a loop. This was a big risk in the BSF. Often the horse trails are nearly destroyed by heavy traffic. Any type of grade gets carved into a deep, eroded trench. The flat trails don’t drain at all and become deep, wide muddy bogs. Much of the trail surface is sand and the horses churn that up so much that bikes can barely move. This day we were lucky and the riding on the old logging road was solid and fun. The loop made up for many of those days we’ve spent slogging along muddy, nasty trails, while wishing the BSF never saw another horse again.

The rehab had included seven new bridges which made the creek crossings on the bikes easy. The trail crossed the Gar Blevins Road briefly, then we made a short left hand turn onto the Cumberland Valley Loop to return to the trailhead at 9.6 miles for the loop. We saw no other visitors on the loop. The park closed North White Oak and some of the other more popular horse trails to mountain bikes around 2013, so we likely remain some of the few bikers ever to ride this loop.

Next up would be the Leatherwood Overlook. We moved the car to the large parking area on the south side of TN 297 and headed off on what is now the North White Oak Multi-use Trail. Again, we were lucky that this was another smooth, well-maintained gravel road. Less than a mile in, the horse loop would join the trail for about a half mile, but the trail never got worse than a little sandy with some pockmarks from hoof prints. The hitching posts for the end of the horse section of the trail were 2.8 miles in and again it was another short walk to a beautiful, fenced overlook with no other visitors.

The Leatherwood Overlook is one of the park’s less appreciated sites. It overlooks the River south of the Highway Bridge and across from the developed area on the east rim. The need to walk a few tenths of a mile means it is not a favorite of horse riders.

Leatherwood Overlook.

The weekend proved a great introduction to riding in the BSF. As Jean and I grew more familiar with the park, and especially once we started our project to hike all the trails in the park region (BSF Map Blog), we sought out similar quiet rides through the forests that presented great rewards. In our quest to balance new trails with the fear of riding through horse mires, we would use much of what we had learned on this trip; check with the rangers, examine the starts of any trails you plan to ride, go early in the spring when the trails may still be firm, and most importantly grab the good weather when you can.

Our day 2 rides shown in purple (Coyle Branch was a previous trip).

Smokies, Dry Sluice Manway, 3-11-06

The Dry Sluice manway is one of the best known off trail hikes in the park. The notoriety stems from its inclusion in the old Sierra Club blue book, and is fueled by a continued string of trip reports; some reporting epic ascents and others describing near disasters. The manway is not hard by the rigorous standards of the serious off trail hikers, but it is an important test piece for off trail ability.

The manway connects the south end of the Porters Creek Trail at Campsite 31 to the state line crest and Appalachian Trail at Dry Sluice Gap. The route is also called the Porters Creek manway. The old timers called it their road to market. The route was an important transportation link across the mountains in the pre-park days.

Mark and I had been interested in the Dry Sluice manway, and had been training hard for the Barkley Marathons. Mark’s buddy Brian had done 99%  of the manway the year before, but had been stopped by snow near the top. Together we thought we could finish an out and back trip in the short daylight of March. My caution about trying the manway led to the detailed route notes below.

Ready for the manway.

We left the trailhead at 8 AM, reached the campsite at 9:30 and took a 15 minute break. The manway started just past the post marking the campsite. We went left and south at the start. A second split to the left is another old manway up Porters Mountain. Brian had gone a good way up Porters Mountain on his first trip, before realizing that he should not be climbing from the start. Many others had strayed further up the mountain, including one backpacker who ended up being airlifted off Porters Mountain, and some running friends of mine who had barely made it to the AT by nightfall. link

The correct manway turns right down towards the creek. The beginning had good footing and was not overgrown, with just a few areas of rhodo and dog hobble. The whole route had scattered cairns, and there was evidence of scattered clipping and some older trail maintenance with sawed through logs.

After about four fords we reached the obvious confluence with Lester Prong, the last named tributary of Porters Creek. The fords had been tricky, but we all got through with dry feet. We saw no evidence of a manway going up Lester Prong. The fords above the confluence were easy, and the trail stayed close to the creek bottom.

The Mother Cairn.

The stream went underground just past BM 3967’ (on the 1931 map where an unnamed branch enters from the east). The trail essentially enters the creek here. The next landmark is an old 4’ high cairn which we nicknamed the Mother Cairn. Just beyond, the creek reappears. It seems there is so much big rock that has sloughed off onto Porters Creek that in low water there isn’t enough flow to supply groundwater and have surface water left over.

Stuck in the blowdowns.

The main valley becomes less well defined as the grade steepens. A second tricky turn occurs where the cairns suddenly traverse left through rhodo from one gully to another. Hikers who miss this turn typically come out directly at the park’s Charlies Bunion overlook after a difficult, dangerous, and exposed climb. This “new” gully is suspected to be the original route of the manway, which was blocked by a landslide in historic times. The landslide required a bypass route, which is the current manway route from the traverse back to the main creek.

Approaching Dry Sluice Gap.

In the new gully you quickly hit a 50-100’ high set of steep, narrow, and wet rock steps. Luckily these tiny footholds are solid. Above the steps the manway begins to switchback up steeply. Finally, a bit of footway is discernable just before you reach Dry Sluice Gap at its west end, about 100’ west of the junction of the AT and Dry Sluice Gap Trails.

We were really pleased with completing the round trip. The navigation had been straight forward with all the info we had before the start, but we also felt that in those conditions it would have been possible to simply follow the cairns.

5-13-07, Wooly Tops via Dry Sluice Gap and Kalanu Prong

13 miles, SMHC Trip led by Dick Kettelle and Alan Householder

As often happened with off trail hiking in the Smokies, a route that once was a major challenge soon became the path to a newer challenge. In this era, one of the tougher SMHC trips for the year would be the one led in spring by Dick and Alan. For 2007 they chose to go up the Dry Sluice Gap Manway, over on the AT to Laurel Top , and then descend back to Greenbrier via Wooly Tops and Kalanu Prong. This trip deserves its own blog write up.  

8-24-08, Smokies, Dry Sluice Manway #2

After my two trips up Dry Sluice Jean became interested in going herself, especially as she realized it was within her ability range considering all the off trail trips we had been doing. We were able to plan this trip at the end of a three week dry spell. The overall trip took 9 ½ hours, 9AM to 6:30,  and came in at near the limit of Jean’s endurance. Claudia and Ed joined in. I’m sure Ed had done the manway before, and he would go on to hike it many times over the next few years.

We made the classic mistake of briefly starting up the Porters Mountain manway from CS 31, and needed to bushwhack back down to the Dry Sluice.

At the Mother Cairn.

With midsummer growth, the start of Dry Sluice Gap manway was more overgrown than we expected, with rhodo and blackberry thickets up to the Lester Prong junction. We had some trouble following the manway, mostly because the heavy growth obscured the cairns. One narrow section of creek was especially thick, and we needed to stop there for some map work.

Preparing for the final climb.

I noted that the toe of the landslide was just below the mother cairn. The climbing really starts at the mother cairn, heading up a steep rocky drainage. We didn’t see any cairns marking the traverse over to the left gully, but I rebuilt two as we went by. 

Jean approaching the crest.

Neither Jean nor Claudia had any trouble on the steep wet rock face. We topped out about 1:30, and then went to the “real” Charlies Bunion (as opposed to the “tourist” bunion) to enjoy some views.

Success!

The hike back down was nearly as hard as the hike up, but we had no trips or stumbles. We saw some fresh bear scat, but no sign of recent hiker activity. We ran low on water, and I had to treat some of the creek water with an iodine tablet. Ed, Claudia, and I traded lead on the navigating.

Looking from the "real' bunion to the "tourist" bunion.

8-25-12, Dry Sluice to LeConte Run

On this trip I helped my running friends purge the memories of their climb up Porters Mountain by leading them up the Dry Sluice manway. We made a  21.3 mile loop over the top of Mt. LeConte on a trip that is described here: link

4-14-18, Rocky Crag and the Dry Sluice Gap Manway

On this SMHC trip Mark, Mike, Mike, and I split off the group after ascending the Rocky Crag to descend the Dry Sluice manway on a trip that is described here: Rocky Crag Link