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