2009, 11-14 Upchuck 50K Race

In 2009 I decided to run the Upchuck 50K race on the Cumberland Trail near Chattanooga. This would be the second edition of the race, which derived its name from an unfortunate incident involving the race directors and a visit that went bad to an on course convenience store. The course was reputed to be hilly, but very pretty, and the need to bus the runners from the finish to the starting trailhead would keep the field small. The course would go through the Rock Creek, Possum Gorge, and Soddy Daisy sections of the CT and I was eager to see these three, relatively new at the time, trail sections.
My training for the race had gone well. I did a lot of running on the northern end of the Cumberland Trail, including course scouting, marking, and aid station work for Susan Donnelly’s Cumberland Trail 50K race which had debuted a month previously. I’d also done several long trail runs in the Smokies, with the 20 mile out and back course from Tremont to Elkmont being my longest run. My training group at Haw Ridge was very active then, and I had a large, diverse group to train with.
I went down to the race with my friend Bruce. Even though the drive to Chattanooga only takes two hours, we decided to go down the night before to have fresher legs for the race. We stayed in a downtown Super 8, and ate at the Mellow Mushroom. In the morning we checked in at the Recreation Center in Soddy Daisey, and then hopped on the bus to Lower Leggett Trailhead for the start.

On the bus to the race start.

The start was a bit crowded until the runners were able to sort ourselves out. I started further back and worked to move up after we hit the Leggett Loop. The starting temperature was about 40F. I began with gloves and a Smartwool top, but soon warmed up and tied the top around my waist. The next section through Rock Creek Gorge was beautiful, featuring lots of cliffs and waterfalls. The first significant climb was out of the gorge to Aid Station #1. I was feeling good, and enjoying the easy running on the ridgetops compared to the technical running in Rock Creek Gorge.

Early in the race.

Next up was a shallow ford of Little Possum Creek. By then the runners were well spread out. I saw a few campers near Immodium Falls, but the trail didn’t offer a good view of the falls themselves. Beyond the falls there was a long stretch along some coal ponds. Leaving Little Possum Creek was the race’s toughest climb up, then over, Perkins Point. I was able to pass several people on the climb. By coincidence, the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club was having a hike that day along the Possum Creek Section and I encountered the group led by Tim Bigelow there. I stopped to chat for a bit, but kept track of the runners passing by until I got to 11, and realized that I needed to stop talking and get back in the race! Luckily, I was able to recatch most of the runners on the long climb out of Big Possum Creek to Aid #2.
After Aid #2 there’s a long section parallel to TN 111, that thankfully stayed mostly in the trees. It was becoming hot and steamy, and would reach 70F by the finish, but I was still feeling strong heading into Soddy Gorge. The Cumberland Trail SP rangers had set up ropes at the ford of Big Soddy Creek at the 26 mile point, and at the shallower one ford of Deep Creek just beyond. These ropes, and the bridges recently installed at other spots further back on the course, made the 2009 edition of the race overall much faster than the 2008 edition. Though we all still lost a little time waiting for our chance to cross, we all appreciated the effort it took to make sure the crossings would be safe for us. The Cumberland Trails Conference has since constructed bridges at both fords.

The ford of Big Soddy Creek.

After the fords we had another long climb that eventually would lead to Posey Point. My earlier strength and enthusiasm were fading, and I tucked in behind a couple from Chattanooga for the remainder of the race. I did more walking than should have been necessary on the long traverse around Posey Point. We lost the trail briefly on a steep climb up to a coal bench, but overall, the course was well marked, and it was easy to stay on course. A few of the rocky sections had been tough, mainly because most of the leaves had already fallen.
Once we hit Hotwater Road it was an easy downhill run, though I was passed twice by runners with stronger legs. I was lucky to not have any knee issues at all during the race, and was still able to run this section, though slowly. I finished in 6:52, good for #23 out of 65 finishers, and right behind the #2 female. Bruce came in not too long after and after some recovery time we were able to drive back to Knoxville that afternoon.

2009 Upchuck course map.

My spits were roughly 1:39 at Aid 1, 3:50 at Aid 2, 5:30 at the ford of Soddy Creek, and 6:38 at Hotwater Road. At the time, my 6:52 at Upchuck was my slowest 50K. The course was a bit tougher/hillier than the other 50K’s I tried (Holiday Lake, Oak Mtn., and Mountain Mist), but I was in the middle of spell where I was not having IT band or tendonitis issues in my knees, and hoped to be a little more competitive. Ironically, it was a couple of years before I ran another 50K, and I haven’t broken 7 hours since Upchuck. 

Cumberland Trail, New River to Bowling Branch 11-11-09

 I had Veteran’s Day off, and almost no one else did, so this would be a solo hike for me. I also had a 50K race coming up on the weekend, and decided to try a hike that was more exploring than training. Since the previous winter the CTC had extended the Cumberland Trail west of the New River to Bowling Branch through part of the TWRA North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area. I decided to hike the new section and see if it was as nice as the trail east of the river.

Cumberland Trail at the New River.

It was a bit over 55 miles, and a 90 minute drive, to the CT trailhead along the New River on the Norma Road. I parked in the new TH lot, crossed a double set of railroad tracks, and then took the concrete bridge over the river. On the far side, I crossed an ATV road and started on the CT which gave me some river views. It was a cool, cloudy day, with some wind, but no rain, and wet vegetation from the previous day. The leaves had all fallen.

Vehicle ford over the New River.

After a mile a logging road split right, and I crossed gravel and ATV roads. Just beyond was the first CT bridge, where the trail turned up the valley of Lick Creek. There was a second bridge a half mile beyond. At two miles the trail followed the logging road a short ways before splitting off onto a maze of single tracks and old skid roads up to a saddle between Lawson and Lick Creek Mountains.

Former logging road

At 2.9 miles, there was a signed junction at the saddle with an ATV road. I followed a 0.6 mile side trail to the north up Lick Creek Mtn. but found the view from the top not any better than what I was seeing on the trail. A few lots were marked off dating back, I supposed, to before the property had been sold to the state.

Cumberland Trail on Lawson Mountain.

The main CT went south along the crest of Lawson Mountain with nearly continuous views for a mile. I saw spur roads leading north and west from Lawson, but these roads remain part of the unexplored maze of ATV roads in the NCWMA. The top of Lawson Mtn. looked to be a reclaimed strip mine, and lower down on the mountain were old strip mine benches and much evidence of recent logging. Theis ridgetop hiking was really nice, showcasing what the CT could do in otherwise recovering coal mining land. The trail descended for a mile down the mountain to the signed end at an ATV road in Bowling Branch. There was an old coal pond near the end that made a great lunch spot.

Cumberland Trail.

From my saved CTC Maps from the hike, it looks like there was a gap in the CT at that time between Bowling and Cave branches, but that the CT had been constructed down Cave Branch, and then up the Straight Fork toward Arch Mountain. I’d be back the next fall to close the Gap between Bowling and Cave branches.

Coal Pond along the Cumberland Trail.

From the end of the trail, I turned around to retrace my route. But at the two mile mark, I left the CT and decided to follow the logging road, just for variety. There were no ATV tracks, and the road offered some good views. The road made one crossing of the CT, where it looked like some fallen trees were keeping the ATVs off of the CT. The logging road was 0.4 mile shorter and seemed faster than the CT, though that likely has changed.

On the drive back I went down to the Hembree store and Hembree townsite to map and measure some road mileages with future trips in mind.

My route map to Bowling Branch.

Smokies Off-trail, Mt Cammerer via Leadmine Ridge, 11-8-09

With this hike, Ed and I were starting to specialize in leading the SMHC’s fall off trail trips to Mt. Cammerer. These were super fun trips, there were a number of great routes to explore, all ending at the Cammerer Tower and its unobstructed views of some of the finest fall colors in the park. In 2007 I’d led the club trip up Toms Creek, and just two weeks prior we had led the club up Panther Branch and Rich Butt to the summit.

This time we would move over a ridge, and attempted the climb via Leadmine Ridge. By now we were aware that upper reaches of all the ridges on Cammerer were guarded by steep, rocky walls of massive Thunderhead Sandstone. In honor of the similarity to the  scramble route up Greenbrier Pinnace, Ed had named the cliffs on Rich Butt “the Panther Stairs”. And so, to honor all my buddies at work we named the cliffs on Leadmine Ridge “the Miners Stairs.”

Our original route plan was to start from the informal Groundhog Ridge Trailhead on TN 32 and follow either lower Rowdy Ridge, or the west fork of Groundhog Creek to the Lower Mount Cammerer Trail. Then we would follow the LMC trail west to the crest of Leadmine Ridge. The final leg would follow Leadmine Ridge to the spur trail to the Cammerer tower. This would be a scouting trip for a planned 2010 club hike. I took a GPS track and Jean took pictures.

From the trailhead we turned uphill to climb to the crest of Rowdy Ridge. But we found the broad and relatively gentle crest choked with rhodo. Rowdy Ridge has a fearsome reputation for its dense clusters of ill-tempered rhodo, as Janes and Mary had found out in a 1990s trip, and Charlie had confirmed from his experience. So, we quickly backed off and decided to try the right fork of Groundhog Creek.

The right fork was easy at first, and then picked up some minor rhodo where the creek split again. We stayed right at the fork and followed it directly, but steeply, to the LMC Trail. In later trips we’d try a number of alternatives to gaining the LMC Trail from this fork, with none having a substantial advantage over the others.  We turned west on LMC to Rowdy Creek, which divides Rowdy and Leadmine ridges, then climbed steeply west to gain the crest of Leadmine.

Fall vista from Mt. Cammerer.

The Leadmine Crest was variable, never awful for long, but never that open either. Fairly soon we hit rock outcrops and enjoyed some views. The crest was very narrow and there was a continuous bear trail along it. Bears are not known for diligent trail clearing so the going was still rough. The bushwhacking and scrambling proved too much for Jean’s old hiking pants which busted out in the seat. We hit the steep, rocky section later than we expected.

Ripped hiking pants.

There was only one great vista from the rocks, and we had less of the fun scrambling that we had anticipated. But that may have been because we left the crest near the top to the right to try some hardwoods in a small draw, potentially bypassing the fun stuff. The draw led directly to the Tower spur, popping out about 100 yards from the tower. We had lunch at the tower while enjoying the views on a typical clear fall day.

Ed emerging onto the trail.

The climb took about 4 hours, including our early detour onto Rowdy Ridge, but barely covered two miles. We would end up overstating the trip mileage in our hiking club reports, assuming no one would believe how short the trip actually was. We enjoyed the route, and knew it would make a good club trip, but thought that Rich Butt was a more interesting climb.

We descended the Groundhog Ridge manway back to TN 32.

Ed and I on the summit of Mt Cammerer.

10-16-10, SMHC Mt Cammerer via Leadmine Ridge

This SMHC hike repeated the route of the 2009 scouting hike by Jean, Ed, and I. Jean took pictures again, but this time I did not save a GPS track. Once again, my notes are brief since I was leading.

Climbing the Miners Stairs.

From the trailhead we followed an old road on the left bank of the right fork of Groundhog Creek at the start. I lost my Brunton altimeter down a hole in my pants, but we backtracked briefly, and Chris found it. Once on Leadmine Ridge we found cliffs at 3600-3700’, and then once again near the top.

Near the top of the Miners Stairs.

This time, instead of leaving the ridge to the right near the top, we kept to the crest despite the thick brush and found a fun rocky section with spectacular views that included the tower. I thought this direct route far superior to our bypass, and felt it made up for the occasional tedium in the brush on the ridge crest.

At the Cammerer summit.

At the top we ran into the other SMHC hikers who had come up via the Low Gap Trail. After lunch and appreciation of the fall colors our group descended down the Groundhog Ridge manway. The manway was more grown over than I had noticed on previous trips. Jenny mentioned that the club used to descend via McFalls Branch, but that route was becoming more overgrown through lack of use. 

David descending Groundhog Ridge.

2009,9-26, Old Cumberland Trail Run, Oliver Springs

 I’d heard about some local bikers working with the folks at the Windrock ATV Park to reopen a trail on Walden Ridge south of Oliver Springs for mountain biking and wanted to check the area out for myself. This is an old section of the Cumberland Trail, probably built in the 70s or 80s, and abandoned in the early 90s when the State of TN let their easements for the Cumberland Trail lapse. The biker group had rehab’ed about 5 miles of old CT, and connected it an old road on the north side of the ridge to form a long loop. Expecting a technical trail, I planned to run southwest along the crest of the ridge on the old CT, then swing down to the old road on the north side to return to TN 62.

This trip was back in the days before the Ijams/Meades Quarry/Dirty South MB trail system was developed in Knoxville. Haw Ridge was still the premier local trail system and there was little other local single track. For a while it looked like Windrock might become the answer for local riders looking for local single track, especially after Windrock built their nature trails on the ridge above the east side of Oliver Springs.

I had been reading about riders biking this old section of CT on the old Knoxville Cycling message board. But I think before I got the chance to do this run that most of the local Knoxville bikers had already abandoned Windrock for the developing south Knoxville trails. I’m not sure that I saw any indication after my run that anyone was still riding this old CT section.

I picked up a WR permit at the gas station before Oliver Springs. I felt a bit foolish since the weather forecast called for heavy rain. I started in a light rain and got mixed rain all through the day. Knoxville would record over three inches of rain for the day. I parked in the lot for the motorsports store located just north of Oliver Springs where TN 62 cuts through the gap in Walden Ridge. The trail starts at an old bridge behind the now abandoned flower shop. I recorded a GPS track, but didn’t take any pictures.

The old trail heads up the crest of the ridge and is signed for Windrock. At the first switchback was a CT-era sign about camping in designated sites only. The climb was steep at the start, maybe an important reason that the trail didn’t catch on as a bike ride. In the first saddle appeared to be an old campsite for the CT. The trail on the ridge was in remarkable shape, a beautiful single track, though too steep and too technical to be ridable for me, running had been a good choice (I would have the Upchuck 50K on a brand new section of the CT in two months). The trail stuck to the crest of Walden Ridge, which appeared to be the southern boundary of Windrock property. There was lots of blue paint on the crest, presumably Windrock boundary markers.

About 30 minutes out was a powerline where white blazes and painted “CT” markers were still visible. There was one spot near the end of the loop where ATV’s appeared to intersect the trail, but the trail remained undamaged. Lucky for me the turnaround was well marked. The bikers had built some switchbacked single track down to a gas line road to connect the inbound and outbound routes. Before dropping down it, I continued out on the crest another quarter mile or so. Here the CT was hard to follow, at least for me in hard rain and with foggy glasses. But the crest forest was fairly open.

The first three miles of the gas line road was easy going, except for a lot of dips and rises. There were too many side trails made by ATV’s for me to keep track of, especially with the rain continuing. After passing a well site the road became overgrown, and the running got slower. At some point I passed the shell of an old white boat (the gas line “road” wasn’t too far above TN 62, so maybe I was close to someone’s backyard). I may have gotten off track near the end as the nettle and blackberry got denser. Then I was able to drop down to a clearer road that closed the loop.

Overall, I found the loop really nice and measured it at 11.2 miles. Despite the rain I headed backout on the old CT section to the first powerline, and back, I guess I needed to get my $17 worth. I finished up with 15.2 miles in approximately 4:10, not bad for a trip involving route finding on new sometimes obscure trail. If the lower road was cleared, this would have made a nice, but expensive loop hike. I have no info on the eventual fate of this loop, except that it was still shown as a bicycle trail on the 2012 edition of the official Windrock Map. I have since done some exploring on the Windrock portion of the old Walden Ridge section of the CT northeast of Oliver Springs, but wasn’t able to connect anything to this section south of Oliver Springs.

Final Stats:  15.2 miles Run, Solo, 4+ hours, $17 Windrock Pass

9-26-09 Route Map.

2009, 8-9 Bootjack Mtn. Mountain Bike Ride

The Bootjack Mountain route is part of the Fork Mountain Area mountain bike rides described by Tom Dunigan on his web site: http://www.cs.utk.edu/~dunigan/mtnbike/fork.html. I had been exploring some of the routes described on this web site and was looking to use the trail information to connect up another ride that I had done near Frozen Head. On this ride I was able to make the connection I was looking for, but didn’t find the type of riding that I’d hoped to discover.
The route starts at the north corner of TN 116, where TN 116 intersects the Norma Road, and also the gravel Wildlife Management Area road up Bootjack Mountain. I planned to get a really early start to avoid the heat, but wasted a good bit of time trying to find out where TN 330 leaves Oliver Springs. I didn’t realize that the road goes off the highway and down into town, and kept ending up on the road to Windrock before I found the correct route. Getting lost on the drive to the trailhead is never a good omen.
Once at the trailhead, the gravel WMA road was fine for riding, just a long continuous climb of 1600’ over the first three miles. I spent much of the climb in first gear going at about a walking pace. At 0.2 mile a good gravel road headed off to the right along contour. Beyond, there were a number of other turns ether leading left along old coal benches, or off to the right side of the mountain. The key turn here happens about 3.5 miles in, where the route turns left off the main WMA gravel road onto a steep rutted ATV trail up the north face of the mountain.

An easy section of the gravel WMA road.

But before I reached the key turn, I got pulled off course onto a coal bench on the south side of Bootjack at 2600’. This road dead ended after about a mile and a half, and after some fruitless thrashing in the brush looking for a way out, I gave up and backtracked. On the return I tried to bushwhack up to the crest, and came agonizingly close to it, but was forced to retreat by the thick brush and had to thrash my way back down again. Luckily on the backtrack I met three guys on 4 wheelers. They were very knowledgeable about the area, and were able to describe exactly where I needed to go to reach to regain the crest of the mountain.

Looking down the powerline cut into Cage Creek.

Once I left the WMA road at 3.5 miles, the route is a rough ATV trail, steep, loose, rocky, overgrown, and muddy etc. up to, then along the mountain crest.  The 4 wheeler guys had told me the ATVs even have trouble with some sections of this. The route took me over the tops of two highpoints at 2790’ and 2998’.  Beyond the 2998’ highpoint, the route turns southwest and follows the Scott/Anderson County line toward Grassy Gap. I did a lot of walking here, both uphill and downhill. Beyond Grassy Gap the trail was less steep, and beyond a powerline at about 7.5 miles, the trail is a more ridable. Eventually I reached the main gravel road on the west side of Burge Mountain at around 9 miles. This section on the crest has some good views and catches a nice breeze. Since this ride, the crest trail from Grassy Gap to near Bunch Gap has become part of the Cumberland Trail.

Taking a break near Burge Mtn.

I’d planned on riding back via Bootjack, but couldn’t face struggling on the connector again back to the Bootjack WMA road. From earlier rides I was familiar with the area around Burge Mtn. and the Indian Fork drainage. I decided to take the longer, but far easier, way back on the gravel roads and TN 116. From Burge I rode through the heart of coal country around the head of Indian Creek, onto Fork Mountain, and then down to the Devonia Coal Plant. These are major gravel roads, but I found that since my ride the previous year there’s a lot more coarse loose gravel, and that even the long downhill ride wasn’t all that much fun as I bounced around trying to control the bike through the coarse loose gravel. I’ve since found over the years that conditions on this road change a lot, from almost suitable to passenger cars at best, to almost too rocky and rutted for jeeps at worst.

Coal Mine Entry.

From the coal plant, I rode 6 miles north on paved, but lightly trafficked, TN 116 to my car for about 26 miles total. Along the way I scouted out the gravel roads leading west from Rosedale School and along Cage Creek that would be the starting and ending points of my Cage Creek Ride. Cage Creek Blog 

Descending toward the Coal Plant.

This loop wasn’t nearly as fun as some of the other big loops in the Cumberlands. With the foot travel only Cumberland Trail now on the crest this route isn’t feasible except on foot. However, at the time it was worth exploring Bootjack as I was looking to make a cross Cumberlands ride from Caryville west to Frozen Head. As things turned out, I choose to do that ride via Smoky Junction up Smoky Creek past Hembree to Burge Mountain on fairly major gravel roads. Cumberlands Challenge Ride Blog 

Where, and where not to, ride on Bootjack Mtn.

DuPont SF MB Reasonover & Joanna Road, 7-3-2009

Soon after discovering the mountain biking at North Carolina’s DuPont State Forest (DuPont Intro) Jean and I began making a regular biking summer trip over to Asheville. Our friend Steven was still living there, and we’d visit to ride DuPont one day, ride Bent Creek or another Asheville area the other day, and then binge on Tour de France coverage in between.

Near Corn Mills Shoals

 

It was on these trips that Jean learned to ride single track while cruising along some of the region’s finest trails like Reasonover Creek at DuPont or Boyd Branch at Bent Creek.

Inside Bridal Veil Falls.

DuPont’s trail system was much in flux in those days. Each year there was a new map, and some trail names or numbers that had been added, eliminated, or changed.

The old Rambler near Poplar Hill.

I tried to keep up a master map of what we had ridden, but even after 6 or 7 trips there were still a lot trails left to ride.

An old lean-to in the forest.

  

One of our big break throughs was a July 07 trip from Fawn Lake where we discovered the Reasonover Creek Trail south of Lake Julia.

The lodge near Lake Julia.

While most of the trails and roads at DuPont were built before the area became a state forest, Reasonover Creek had been built (or rebuilt) for biking with the smooth flow and humane grades that make mountain bike riding so fine. Reasonover, along with a rebuilt Airport Trail, proved ideal riding for Jean, who developed a good feel for single track riding. On later visits we added small loops around Buck Forest and Burnt Mountain to our trip.

Always good to keep an eye on the map.

For our 2009 trip, we planned to try a long loop out of the Fawn Creek TH around a loop with the Joanna and Turkey Knob Roads. This route would give us some new trails in the southeast corner of the forest. To maximize the fun riding, we started with a shorter loop out of the tailhead.

Riding down the Airstrip.

We started by riding the Mine Mountain Trail, which was one of the new ones, then riding the Airstrip (one of the rehabilitated trails) down to the side trail to picturesque Bridal Veil Falls. In those days Steven had us geocaching, and we were able to find two new caches near the falls. Then we headed over to Lake Julia and rode the Reasonover Creek Trail clockwise back to Fawn Lake. Reasonover with its flowy single track was probably our favorite trail in the Forest. This loop was pure enjoyment and could be a great introductory ride to the forest.

Bridal Veil Falls from the outside.

After the shorter eastern loop, we rode a longer loop more to the north and east. We took the east side of the Fawn Lake Loop to the Airstrip, but this time skipped Bridal Veil Falls and rode past Lake Julia.

Steven underneath Bridal  Veil Falls.

The main road north of Julia was sometimes closed as the landowners and the state worked out access, but this time we were able to ride it north to Joanna Road. We’d ridden the west part of Joanna Road previously, but the east end would be new to us. Joanna Road was rough and rocky, and the payoff wasn’t worth the effort. We ended up getting off the bikes and pushing a lot on the eastern end of the road.

Bike portaging.

At the end of Joanna Road, we hit the local Pinnacle Mountain Road on the boundary of the forest, and took it to the forest’s Turkey Knob Road. The boundary road was fast maintained dirt. Turkey Knob was a smooth old contour road and fun riding.

Two thumbs down for the east end of Joanna Road.

Steven and I did an extra clockwise loop on Poplar Hill, just to mark it off our map. But Poplar Hill surprised us with some fast, smooth, and twisty downhill. After one more stretch on Turkey Knob we repeated the super fun southern leg of Reasonover Creek Trail back to Fawn Lake Trailhead to complete a 22.5 mile loop.

Our 2009 route map.

This ride would end up being the last of our visits (so far) to DuPont. Partly we did less biking overall, but after Steven left Asheville we lost our riding partner, host, and local guide. We also had begun our exploration of the Emory Tract near Frozen Head and that adventure consumed much of our spare time. But with the current (2023) rebirth of my interest in mountain biking, maybe I’ll get to ride at DuPont again someday.

Jean and Steven at Bridal Veil Falls.

2009, 6-13, Caryville Mountain Bike Loop

One of the things that first attracted me to exploring the Cumberland Mountains by mountain bike was the hope of finding a nice long loop ride that avoided most of the work of climbing high into the mountains. This of course would require both some easy road access to the high country, and finding a long continuous loop. Finding the good loop would be the harder part, generally anything remotely level in the Cumberlands would be a road following a single coal seam, and these are rarely continuous enough to wrap far enough all the way around a mountain.

By 2009 the Cumberland Trail (CT) had been built in the North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area (WMA) between I-75 and Cove Lake SP on the east to the Norma Road along the New River on the west. I had explored the CT with Susan Donnelly and some other friends to develop a course for what would become the Cumberland Trail 50K Race. This work showed me the outlines of the major vehicle and ATV routes in that part of the Cumberlands. Going back to Tom Dunigan’s East Tennessee Mountain biking site, I thought I could put together a loop over Massengale and Smoky mountains that might match my goal of a long high cool ride through the mountains.

The Original Dunigan Map.

I recruited my friend Mark to join me for an exploring ride. We used Dunigan’s map for all but one section of the loop in order to follow his lettered waypoints with less confusion. We drove I-75 to Caryville (Dunigan A) and then up paved Tower/Mountain Road to (B) at the crest of Smoky Mountain. We parked here and then turned right to start the ride up a gravel WMA road. After 1.1 miles at (C), the main gravel WMA road turns left, but we stayed straight to continue north. This next section from C to D was the only section of our route not being maintained at that time.

A mud hole along the way.

For most of its length C-D was a wide jeep road. One deep mud hole would prevent any ordinary vehicles from driving through, but the riding on bikes or ATV was easy. The road soon crosses the Cumberland Trail, at the site that the CT 50K used for the first aid station. After 2.1 miles of mostly downhill riding the road makes a T-junction with the unsigned, but well maintained, Red Ash (aka Mine 10 Haul) Road (D). The Red Ash Road would lead about 3.1 east back down to I-75. The Red Ash/ Mine 10 Haul Road proved to offer the flat easy riding I’d sought.

Riding along the haul road.

We turned left to follow the smooth gravel south and west to a second crossing of the Cumberland Trail in 2.0 miles at the site of the old CT 50K aid station #2. The road would continue to hug the 2400’ foot contour, presumably following the major coal seam usually found at about that elevation. Just past the CT crossing we rode past the site of the then operating National Coal Mine #14. The mine and its equipment yard were located so close to the road that it appeared we’d end up riding right through it. From the road we could see entrances for underground mining, and evidence of auger mining in some of the higher seams.

National Coal Mine #14.

In another 2.0 miles a very rough ATV road branched left up toward (E). Though the Dunigan map didn’t show it, the main Red Ash/ Mine 10 Haul Road continued west along contour. We happily stayed on the main road still enjoying easy riding. 2.5 miles later we came to an unsigned, but gated road on our right across the top of Horseshoe Ridge. We didn’t explore this side trip, but this spur would eventually become the site of the turnaround point for the CT 50K.

Waterfall along the haul road.

In 0.8 mile past the gate we came to a junction at the far end of the loop. Mark and I rode and extra 1.5 miles roundtrip to the right down the main road. This side trip was to check the point where the CT 50K course would join the road after climbing up the Greens Branch ATV route.

Massengale Overlook.

Mark Riding.

After our side trip we continued south on a gravel road signed in 2010 as “Massengale Mtn Rd”, now at around 2600’. In 0.4 mile we passed a signed spur on the right down to Mine 6. In two more miles we’d come to the shell of an old concrete block mine building, probably used to service the mine equipment. Beyond here the road the road would climb, making up for the elevation we had lost descending from C to D. We rounded a switchback and then climbed more steeply to reach an intersection in another 1.0 mile at (N) on the Dunigan map. From here we detoured a bit south to explore Ash Log Gap, but returned shortly to (N).

The old mine shop building.

Another 0.4 mile of gentle climbing brought us to Grave Gap (E). From here the road continued northeast to hug the crest of the ridge just above 3000’ to close the loop, and rejoin (C) in 1.8 miles. Mark and I rode out a short distance past one of the gates to an elk feeding area before riding down to our cars at (B).

Mark and I had a total of 21 miles for this ride, including several short side trips. Besides the activity at Mine 14, we’d only seen three groups of ATV riders the entire day. This was the long gentle loop that I craved for the Cumberlands.

This ride was interesting enough that in 2010 I was able to convince Jean and Claudia to give it a shot in a shorter 15 mile version that avoided all the unneeded side trips. On that trip we saw only two other vehicles all day. As with my other descriptions of mountain bike rides in the Cumberlands from that era, don’t assume that trail conditions are the same now as I described. Much of the maintenance of these roads was done to support coal mining and gas extraction, and after those operations cease, road work does as well. For more on the Cumberland Trail 50K see; https://hiramrunhikebike.blogspot.com/2014/10/2014-10-11-cumberland-trail-50k.html

Nebraska Cowboy Trail Bikepacking, 5-20-09

For several years in the late 2000s and early 2010s Jean and I had trouble getting away for the longer trips that we craved. Part of this was some job instability on my part, new jobs always meant setting the vacation clock back to two weeks a year. And some was due to the trips needed to research an updated, but ultimately unpublished third edition of my Black Hills trail guide. But much of this was also due to an increase in our family obligations. But we still looked for opportunities to combine family visits with some adventures for us.

Going into 2009 Jean had read about Nebraska’s Cowboy Trail, most likely in the Rails to Trails Conservancy’s magazine. The trail wasn’t that far from Ames, at least by western standards, and so we were hooked. The trail was only partly complete, but 147 miles were open from the east end at Norfolk west to Ainsworth. The trail was newly opened, and information was sparse beyond a single sheet flyer available from Nebraska State Parks. Jean was able to contact NSP, and get more information on the trail, including a contact for a shuttle. With the old railroad grade following US 20 through several small towns, we were able to plan an overnight bikepacking trip. We would append the bikepacking to a driving trip to visit family in Ames, Iowa, and ride a few other trails along the way.

5-16-09

We’d left Knoxville on Friday afternoon and drove through a storm to Cadiz, KY before stopping for the night. The next day we drove through another storm to Rocheport, MO, where we had first discovered the Katy Trail just off I-70, west of Columbia. Rocheport has lodging, food, and a bike shop, but we just needed to unload our bikes and stretch our legs.

The MKT Tunnel.

We first rode west though the old MKT railroad tunnel for pictures and a short side trip to an overlook. We then headed east on the trail through McBaine to MP 168. There were a couple of new interpretive panel plus a new store and campground at Huntsdale. Along the way we saw some huge jack-in-the-pulpits (how do they get so big in the Midwest?), spiderwort, a blacksnake, and lots of Canada geese. They trail was busy with a giant group of boy scouts spread between the trailhead and campground. We went into Columbia after the ride to spend the night. I’ll have more on the Katy Trail, including its own bikepacking, in a later trip report.  

Diana Bend Conservation Area.

Katy Trail, east of Rocheport, 21.8 miles

Columbia, MO

5-17-09

From Columbia we drove north to Ames via Linneus, MO where we stopped to visit the gravesites of some of Jean’s mother’s family. We drove through a brief shower near Des Moines, but reached a trailhead for the Heart of Iowa Trail near Cambridge (just south of Ames) after the rain stopped. After some discussion on the weather, we unpacked the bikes and rode 7.8 miles west to a geocache just short of Slater then back to the car.

Jean at Heart of Iowa Trailhead.

Geocaching uses GPS coordinates to help find caches of various items hidden by other users, much like a far flung Easter Egg Hunt. We cached enough to know that often the search led to an interesting, but out of the way place.

Jean geocaching.

The Heart of Iowa Trail is another converted railroad line with a new crushed gravel surface. There is about 24 miles of the trail in place, and the west end connects to the High Trestle Trail, forming part of an impressive collection of connected trails. The section we rode was very pretty with a nice balance of agricultural land and a wooded creek. There was a new pavilion at Huxley, where we stopped to get sandwiches for lunch. Despite the recent rain we saw 6 people on the trail.

Riding back to the trailhead.

Heart of Iowa Trail, Cambridge to Slater, 15.6 miles

Ames, Microtel

5-18-09

While in Ames we were able to get away each day for a walk or bike ride. McFarlane Park was a new stop for us, and we got up early to visit. It is a 200 acre area just north of town with 5.5 miles of trails. We rode 8.7 miles on a variety gravel roads, mowed grasslands, and dirt mountain bike trails. We took a side trip to Soper’s Mill and checked out a campsite on the west edge of the park. The grassy sections were OK to ride, but there was not a lot of mountain bike trail. The area could have used a few more signs and trail markers. But it was very pretty with a lot of birds and flowers.

McFarlane Park.

In the afternoon we rode our bikes 17.5 miles around the various parks in Ames including Stephen Smith and Brookside parks, plus the Sports Complex.

Jean at McFarlane.

McFarlane and Ames 25.3 miles

Ames Microtel

Near the river bridge.

5-19-09

We rode on the paved trails at Ada Hayden Park on the north end of Ames. The park is a restored quarry with ponds and a nice trail system, by now our favorite place to walk in town. We rode about six miles and found two geocaches before heading back to the hotel to pack for the Cowboy Trail.

Branch weaving at Ada Hayden Park.

Ada Hayden Park, 6 miles

Ames Microtel

5-20-09

Jean had a meeting in the morning, so we headed out later for the ~300 mile drive to the Cowboy Trail. From the east end in Norfolk the Cowboy Trail follows US 275 and US 20 west to Ainsworth. We’d heard stories of Goathead thorns and Texas sandburs on the trail, so we stopped in the local bike shop for slime tubes to line our tires. Then we headed out to the trailhead to walk out and back on the first mile and a half. That section was paved, along the Elkhorn River, and in use by several walkers and bikers. The start was in a city park, with few signs for the Cowboy Trail.

Cowboy Trail, Norfolk.

On the advice of our shuttle driver, we planned to ride a section of trail further west so that we would see more of the scenic sand hills section of the trail. That meant we still had another 30 miles to drive to Neligh. The Deluxe Motel had been recently renovated and was looking forward to more trail traffic. There was a nearby steak house and plenty of room out front for me to install the liners on our bike tires. We did not have any troubles with the thorns on the ride. This would be only our second bikepacking trip, but we managed to get all our gear into two panniers and a pair of saddle bags.

Jean at the Norfolk Trailhead.

Bike prep in Neligh.

Cowboy Trail, 3.0 miles

Neligh Deluxe Motel

5-21-09

Mary Bott, our shuttle driver arrived on time at 7:30 and took us to Newport. We had planned to start ten miles further west at Bassett, but she had heard that a section of trail there was too soft to ride. We started one block off US 20 at Grandmas Park with an overcast sky and light wind. The few sprinkles we’d seen in Neligh had stopped. There was no trail sign in the park, and we didn’t see a Cowboy Trail sign all day.

Jean in Newport.

The warning of soft trail to the west should have tipped us off, as we struggled with sections of soft surface all day. The ten mile section to Stewart was soft and covered with red chips, we would learn to identify the changes in surface by the color of the chips in the trail bed. As a result, we were only able to ride at 7-8 mph, a decent running pace for me in those days. But this might have been the prettiest part of the trail. Mary had made a great move suggesting to us to add in this section. The trail was well away from the highway allowing us to see lots of birds including some meadowlarks and red winged blackbirds.

And away we go.

But just a few miles down the trail we had had an equipment failure. Luckily not with a bike, the retraction on the lens of our camera jammed so we would be without pictures for the rest of the ride.

This will be the last picture!

Most of the mileposts along the route were up, and we saw quarter mile posts as well, marked by one, two, or three bands on the post. We saw a few “W” signs that we assumed were whistle stations at road crossings. We were impressed by the trail's bridgework spanning creeks and wet spots.  Most of our attention was on the trail surface, we had 40 miles to go, and we were riding far slower than we anticipated. Starting ten miles earlier than we had planned turned out to be a very lucky break! Occasionally there would be vehicle tracks in the trail, we would drop into those and rocket off until the tracks disappeared. I’m usually irate when motorized vehicles use nonmotorized trails, but now I was eagerly awaiting the next set of tracks.

At Stuart the trail changed to a white chip surface that was well compacted near town and got gradually softer as we rode east. I usually led and Jean riding behind told me a leaving about an inch deep rut behind me. We later talked to a few locals who wondered about seeing riders on the highway shoulder and ignoring the trail next to them, I imagined it was easy for riders to abandon the trail, and take the much faster highway shoulder, but we were too stubborn to do this. We didn’t stop in Stuart, but generally took a break, or got a snack, in the small towns along the trail which seemed to be about ten miles apart.

From Stuart to near Emmet the trail was mostly alongside US 20, but 50 yards or so away, enough to dampen the road noise a bit. US 20 had very light traffic so the “ride the shoulder strategy” was very tempting. But, I was not long out of Barkley training and by God, I wasn’t going to stop on a trail with less than a 1% grade, even if just keeping the bike moving forward was about killing me. Jean was having a bit easier time since she did not have the load of the panniers and didn’t sink in as far.

We had a trailside lunch and then pulled into Atkinson for a treat. We went to Goeke’s and had chocolate malts. The store is straight out of the 1950s with an old fashioned soda fountain. The malt was delicious, even though the temps were in the 60s and we were wearing wind and wicker layers to cope with the wind. East of Atkinson the trail became very soft again. We were working really hard to go 6 mph (sometimes its not great to have a bike odometer right in your face all the time) and I had to stop every few miles to rest. About five miles out I was wondering if we would get to O’Neill on time when the surface changed back to the harder red chip layer. We sped back up to 7-8 mph and had some confidence in reaching O’Neill.

Of course, the firmer base held up, but other conditions did not. Soon the wind changed direction and started coming directly in our faces. Coming into O’Neill, we had to bypass a short piece of trail that was being used as a spur by an ethanol plant. We saw our first trail signs in town, we’d see only two others on the entire bike trip. At the center of town we turned off the trail to go to the Golden Hotel. This was an old railroad hotel (built in 1913) and had been recently renovated. Everything was in great shape, and it felt a privilege to be staying in such a grand hotel. O’Neill is one of the larger towns along the trail and has a few chain hotels, but those are not the places you want to stay on a trip like this. The town has an Irish theme, with a huge shamrock painted in the town center so we celebrated by walking a block to an Irish pub for dinner.

Cowboy Trail, Newport to O’Neill, 37 Miles

Golden Hotel, O’Neill, NB

5-22-09

We woke to a light rain in O’Neill, that turned to heavy rain by the end of breakfast. But one advantage of our hotel was cable TV, not for the entertainment, but for the weather radar. We spent 80 minutes watching the storm clear out, before launching just as the rain left town. Not something you could do on a backpacking trip, in those days. We had a nice ride to Inman with just a little rain at the start.

But the next section to Clearwater was close to the highway, arrow straight, and had no buffer to the road. The trail was also soft east of O’Neill, but we were able to ride in some tire tracks to around Ewing and that let us buildup to 7-8 mph. We had another batch of light rain between Inman and Ewing. In the middle of this section was the split between US 20, heading due east, and US 275 heading southeast to Norfolk along with the Cowboy Trail. Ewing to Clearwater had no tire tracks so it was very slow going. We stopped in Clearwater for a snack at the gas station. We later decided we wouldn’t reride Inman to Clearwater if given the chance because it was too soft, too straight, and too close to the highway, but you really can’t skip sections of rail trails, they are linear unlike the hiking trail networks we are used to.

Beyond Clearwater was a pretty section 4-5 mile section away from the highway and closer to the Elkhorn River, which we had been following from a distance since the start of the ride. We really missed having the camera here, we got lots of good river views. This section had a lot more vehicle tracks (including snowmobiles), so it was much firmer and faster. We saw a family dog walking about two miles west of Neligh, the first other trail users we’d seen (no fresh tracks either) since our walk in Norfolk two days prior. We would see one trail runner after we started the drive back to Norfolk. We’d also find three geocaches on the ride, including Cowboy Saturn which was part of a set placed to illustrate the scale of the solar system by placing caches the same relative position from the start of the trail that the planets are from our sun.

After 41 miles, we got back to our Subaru at the hotel in Neligh. We drove to Carroll, Iowa for the night and got another hotel room. The next day we were back in Ames to wrap up the family visits, and then came the long drive back to Knoxville.

Cowboy Trail, O’Neill to Neligh, 41 Miles

As of 2022, 187 miles of the Cowboy Trail are open from Norfolk to Valentine where the trail crosses the Niobrara River. A section between Gordon and Rushville (15mi) west of Valentine is also developed and opened in 2019.There are plans to eventually extend to 321 miles at Chadron.

We were a bit disappointed with our ride, mostly since the trail surface was soft it often seemed like riding at the beach. From watching comments posted on bikecowboytrail.com in the years after our ride we could see that the trail was still struggling with the issue. Scanning more recent comments on that web site it seems that the trail surface is still a bit of an issue, especially for folks that are used to riding compact gravel as on the Virginia Creeper (VA) or Mickelson (SD) trails. There now (2022) is a shuttle service in Norfolk, which is active in the forums on the site, and another active forum user may be from NB State Parks.