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.
