2010, 12-5, Pine Mtn. GA 40 Mile Race

This race took place during the era when our Haw Ridge Running Group was at its peak attendance. We’d gather on Tuesday evenings for trail runs year round through rain, snow, thunderstorms, and the thick soul sucking humidity of summer. With a group of around 20 we had a number of ultrarunners in the group, and regularly saw newer members of the group finish their first ultras. The core of the group was the Quick Chicks, a local women’s running group. One wanted to run a 40-miler to celebrate her 40th birthday and gradually more of us came on board to run the race. 

The Haw Ridge Crew.

The Pine Mountain 40 Miler in FD Roosevelt State Park near Warm Spring, GA is one of the region’s oldest races, dating back to 1980. The race had nearly died out, but was rejuvenated (in 2008?) by the Georgia Ultrarunning and Trailrunning Society (GUTS), who now sponsored the race. Susan and Rob of our group had run the race in 2009 and gave us the key info we needed to plan for it.

My running had been going well that year with two 50K finishes in 2009, low 6 hours at Mountain Mist early in the year and high 6 hours on the more difficult course at Upchuck later in the year. Most encouragingly, I finished two loops at Barkley for the first time. I’d been doing a lot of mountain biking and was late starting my race training in the Smokies in September. But, I had three solid 20 milers under my belt by race time. The median time for the 2009 race was 8:58, but I had done the presumably more difficult Mount Mitchell Challenge 40 miler twice in around 8:40, and optimistically tried to plan for an approximately 8:30 finish.

I ended up riding down and back to the race with Susan and Rob, including a stop at the Atlanta IKEA on the way down. Our extended group was renting some cabins just outside of the park. I stayed in a cabin with Shane, Bruce, Kathy, Leah, and Tony after meeting up with everyone at the somewhat chaotic registration area.

Conditions were cool at the start. I wore two long sleeved wickers, shorts, an ear band, and light gloves. Though we’d been cautioned otherwise, I didn’t need a headlamp for the start. The course was essentially two lollipops/lassoes in series with ten aid stations and several cut off times. There was a large field (~150+), but everyone got spaced out well early on. My goal pace was 12 minutes/mile, and I kept that through the second aid station at mile 11. The course was all single track, with some rocky sections, but in general well maintained trail. Everything was well marked, but as usual I had my copy of the course map. Laurie was at the first two aid stations and told me that I was ahead of the rest of the Knoxville crew, which should have been a caution to me.

Tony caught me at around mile 15 and shortly after that I began feeling pain under my left knee cap. This was a different issue than the IT band problems that had plagued much of my running. I’d taken a meloxicam before the race, but it hadn’t helped. The pain rapidly got worse and within another 2-3 miles I could barely run. I was just entering into the outer loop, and still under halfway through the race. But I did have a lot of cushion on the cut-offs, thanks to my now obviously too fast early pace. I did some math and figured that if I could walk the rest of the course at 15 minute mile pace, I still could finish under the cut off. That’s a fast pace for just walking on a technical trail, but at least there were no major hills.

Kathy was the next one to pass me and she offered a few ibuprofens as she went by. I next felt like I ended up getting passed by about half the field. By the Tower aid station at mile 22 I was still on my new pace, but most of the faster runners had gone by and my new peer group was doing a lot of walking. Leah passed me on a nice gentle downhill section that would have been heaven to run. I got settled into a routine where I could run about 30 paces on flat/easy terrain and then go back to walking while the pain subsided.

At around 30 miles I hooked up with another runner who had turned an ankle. We both had good energy and by mile 34 figured we could make the final cut off and maybe even finish under 10 hours. Near the end we caught Leah, who was practically skipping along as her IT band had made bending her leg a torment. I finished in 9:51 with my buddy and Leah just behind. 

Overall, our group had done well. TR, Liza, and Shane had all finished their first 40 miler. Tony and Kathy both finished under 9 hours. Rob and Susan had finished in just over 10 hours, and Leonard came in 10:14. We had two runners feel ill and drop early, and two more dropped in anticipation of not making cut-offs. Ultrasignup listed 110 finishers and 53 DNFs. I was #89.

Mercifully, Rob and Susan drove me back. A mere 40 miler was just another weekend run for them, but I could barely get out of the car on our few stops during the drive. My knee took a while to heal, and the tendonitis under the knee would be an on and off issue for me the next few years. I suspect that I didn’t have quite enough long runs for the knee to stand up to the stress of racing. It was late January before I started serious Barkley training again. That year I needed to quit the race during the second lap at the Fire Tower, but the silver lining was that the cause was simply fatigue, and that my knee had held up fine.

Cumberland Trail, New River to Cave Branch 10-23-10

In the year since I had hiked the CT from the New River to Bowling Branch, the CTC had extended the trail west and south to Cave Branch to meet up with the previously built section on Arch Mountain. Warren Devine had helped with the trail construction, and was leading a Sierra Club Trip on the new section. Bruce and I had agreed to lead  a SMHC trip on the same section next April, and realized the SC trip would be a great way to scout our own hike.

Our group shuttled cars to Cave Branch and then returned to the north end to start the hike. The SC groups are usually a bit slower vs the SMHC, and in this case we had three trail builders who also wanted to check out how well their work was holding up. We found that the trail had held up well but seemed little, if any, used. There was plenty of opportunity to lose the trail in the maze of old logging roads around Lick Creek.

We saw one ATV along the trail on the top of Lawson Mtn. and had lunch in one of the meadows on top. The CT heading off of Lawson Mtn was completely overgrown. Warren said they’d dug the trail down to bedrock two years prior, but we saw no trace of the footpath. Beyond Bowling Branch was new trail for me. Further up Bowling Branch on the new trail we saw what looked to be old homesites.

The ridge line between Bowling and Cave branches was open and featured some great rock formations around the crest. There was an old outhouse and a huge rock with some recent graffiti, a real stain on an otherwise beautiful place. After too short a time on the crest, the trail dove down into Cave Branch, with some now dry waterfalls. The last two miles followed parallel to an old road down Cave Branch with a pair of crossings of the creek. I had no pictures from the trip but did GPS the route.

There were a few miles of unopened CT across Smokey Creek on the Arch Mountain section, with more work trips planned for that fall. Warren expected that in another year or so the CTC would have the CT completed to Frozen Head SP from Cove Lake SP.

CT New River to Cave Branch.

4-23-11 SMHC Trip

The SMHC hike crew.

For the SMHC trip Bruce and I organized a key swap with my group hiking north. Susan and Rob did the trip as an out and back run. My notes are a bit sparse, but Jean took pictures. It was a perfect weather day, cool, clear, and dry. The trail was generally well marked.

Creek fording.

Red bud on Lawson Mountain.

There was some new logging in Cave Branch, and some new road building in the first 0.5-1.0 mile of Cave Branch. Otherwise, the trip was similar to our October hike. Susan reported seeing an ATV head down the CT toward Cave Branch. We saw some evidence of the recent heavy rains, and Cave Branch was a tough rock hop. The flowers were out including little brown jugs, iris, lemon trillium, and pink lady slippers. Bowling Branch seemed to have more flowers vs. Cave Branch. We also saw one morel. The groups met for lunch at the old coal pond in Bowling Branch. Still great views from the old strip mines on the top of Lawson Mountain. There seemed to be keen interest in having more hikes on the CT in this area, and Jean and I would eventually lead the SMHC on the Arch Mountain section.

Rockstack on Bowling-Cave Branch divide.

Morel.

2010 7-4 Rocky Fork Mountain Bike Ride

The 10,000 acre Rocky Fork tract is located along the boundary of Tennessee’s Cherokee National Forest and North Carolina’s Pisgah NF, and is bordered on the west side by the Appalachian Trail. The property was bought from a forestry company in 2008 by a coalition of conservation groups to protect it from development, and to preserve the spectacular hiking, mountain biking and fishing opportunities. At the time Rocky Fork was considered one of the largest contiguous tracts of private forest land left in the eastern United States.

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, which had leased the land for the last 50 years, had kept the lone gate to the property closed, yielding a well kept and outstandingly beautiful area waiting to be explored. At the time of our ride the Forest Service had purchased the western third of the property and the Conservation Fund had acquired the rest. The middle portion of 4000 acres were expected to be bought by the State of Tennessee, and the eastern 3,000 acre block by the Forest Service. Tennessee eventually was not able to acquire all of the central block, and those other lands are now managed by the forest service. The property was designated a Tennessee State Park in October 2012, and officially opened in May 2015.

I had read about the land project but had not thought to visit the area until I saw an article in Blue Ridge Outdoors that described thee area as one of the best mountain biking areas in the Blue Ridge. The article stated that the guys whom they had interviewed were exploring the area, and were working on a map of the trails. I dug around and found a useful map on the web site for the Northeast Tennessee Mountain Bike Club. My friend Mark was familiar with Rocky Fork Tract having grown up in nearby Greenville, TN and was especially eager to visit now that the property had been protected. Our friend Steven was also hot to ride the area, so we headed up on the fourth of July for an exploring ride.  The drive took 2:20 from Knoxville to Johnson City, and then south down Interstate 26.

 

The Original Rocky Fork Bike Map

The mountain bike map was a savior. The existing road systems didn’t match well with the topo or other published maps. The MB map was accurate and did a great job of distinguishing the ridable stuff from the old overgrown roads. Most of the roads in Rocky Fork were probably built originally for logging, but by then had degraded to old two track roads. Beyond the trailhead there were no signs. There was very little evidence of any use by vehicles or bikes, so the tread was pretty solid. We saw some horse poop, though there were also “no horse signs” posted.

 

Rocky Fork Trailhead

The trailhead had a tiny parking area with room for only 3-4 cars. We crossed the gate to enter the area on a well-groomed gravel road. From the parking area we started a long grunt up to Higgins Ridge. Mark immediately sped off leaving Steven and I to trundle slowly upward, mostly pedaling, but with a few hike-a bike sections. The climb was a 90 minute, 5 mile 2,000-foot effort. Our ascent route followed what are now the Rocky Fork, White Oak Flats, and Birchfield Camp trails, all of which are still open to mountain bikes.

We reached the end of the climb at a small saddle on Higgins Ridge at a point that is now outside of the state park, but within the Cherokee National Forest. We made a side loop east to the lake on Birchfield Camp Branch, but that was a bit of a letdown. You could see the lake but there was no place to hang out there. From the lake we completed the side loop and then turned west and rode along the north slope of Higgins Ridge. The current (2020) Rocky Fork SP map shows these trails in the CNF, but does not show the names, numbers, or give any idea of their condition.

 

Mark and Steven at Birchfield Camp Lake

After about 9.5 miles we reached a small saddle and hiked up a faint trail to the open summit of Wilson Knob. Beyond a huge field of stinging nettle, there is not much to see from the top. Next up was a rolling section of old two track road heading west along Rich Mountain. Here Mark’s local knowledge paid off. At around 12.5 miles we decided to take the one mile side trip to Buzzard Rock Overlook on the Squibb Creek Trail in the Sampson Mountain Wilderness. After ditching the bikes temporarily, we finally got some great views of most of our route including Rich Mountain and the upper Rocky Fork Valley.

 

View from Buzzard Roost

Finally, we had a fun three mile descent down to, and alongside, Rocky Fork. We could have continued ahead about a mile ahead on what is now the Headwaters Trail to close our loop and reach the trailhead in another two miles. But since it was still early in the day, we decided to explore the routes shown in the Blockstand and Flint Creek drainages. This route is now the upper part of the Blockstand Creek Trail. Here we made one wrong turn (our fault, not the maps), and started riding further west into some overgrown trail before retreating. Back on Blockstand things weren’t too bad until we decided to drop off the side of Snakeden Ridge down to Flint Creek on what is now the Blockstand Creek Access Hiking Trail. That route turned out to be choked with blowdowns, stinging nettle, and boulders. Mostly we were dragging our bikes downhill. The route was rated moderate on the map, but we figured it had to have been ridden in winter when the vegetation had died back.

Upper Flint Creek turned out to be just a boulder field and was also unridable. Lower Flint Creek is really nice, once the valley opened up. The Flint Creek Trail is now also hiker only. From the end of it we had only 0.7 mile back to our cars at the trailhead. We had seen no people or vehicles all day long. This is a beautiful area of mature forest and excellent bear habitat.

 

Our route shown in blue

We spent about 7 hours riding about 27 miles (including a lot of map reading time, our hiking side trip, and some long breaks during the initial climb).  Our GPS estimate of 5,500’ of climb is almost certainly too high. If you liked exploring, and didn’t mind some huge climbs, this may indeed have been one of the best rides in the area. The area is flat out beautiful.

As of 2020, the 2,000 acre core of Rocky Fork is now a state park, renamed in 2019 for Senator Lamar Alexander. Some of the trails we rode back in 2010 are now hiker only, and since I have not been back to ride since, the status of the trails in the adjacent CNF on he north side of the loop are unknown. With current management the Birchfield Camp Trail may now be restricted to an out and back ride. Part of Blockstand Creek Trail is open to bikes, but the lower sections that we found so rough are now open to hikers only. It appears that the only option for a long loop would be to ride up Birchfield Camp, west to Rich Mountain, descend to Rocky Fork and finish on the Headwaters, White Oak Flats and Rocky Fork trails. The part web site states that 15 miles of bike trails provide access to 8,000 acres, and that there are 20 miles of hiking trails.

Katy Trail Bikepacking, 6-5-2010

Jean and I had first discovered Missouri’s Katy Trail in 2000. Typically, driving to Iowa to visit family we pulled off the road at rest areas or small parks to walk and stretch our legs. One year we saw signs for the Katy Trail as we cruised along I-70. Once home we did some research and found it was the country’s longest developed rail trail, now 237.7 miles long. Best of all the section we’d seen from I-70 at Rocheport was reputed to one of the trail’s most scenic, and was just a couple miles of the interstate.

We rode the trail leading out of Rocheport in 2000, 2004, and 2009 riding east to the spur to Columbia and west through the MKT Tunnel to the conservation area. Katy was the best developed, maintained, and most fully serviced of any rail trail we’d seen and for our 2010 trip we decided to try a longer section of it as a bikepacking trip.

We knew the Rocheport section would be the highlight of the ride and had good places to eat and sleep, so we planned our overnight there, reserving a room at the Katy Trail Bed and Bikefest. We knew we should be able to ride ~40 miles a day easily, that would let us go east 35 miles to North Jefferson. Going west it was 49 miles to Sedalia, but from the Dufur guidebook that town looked fun enough to be worth the extra miles. We also arranged for a shuttle using one of the providers listed in the guidebook. This would be our third bikepacking trip, and though this didn’t make us jaded veterans, we felt ready for the challenge of another overnight ride.

6-5-2010

The previous day we’d left Knoxville and drove west four hours to stay at Cadiz, Kentucky on I-24. The next morning, we drove another 375 miles over about 6 and a half hours to the North Jefferson Trailhead (MP 143.2). This was a tough spot to find, but was signed off US 54 and just south of the junction with US 63. However, to reach it required driving past a different trailhead for a spur trail off the Katy. Our driver from Victory Shuttle was late, and first went to the spur trailhead before finding us sweltering in the 90F heat at the TH. We managed call him by cell phone (those things can be useful sometimes) and give him the right directions to our trailhead. The shuttle vehicle didn’t have a bike rack (how can this be for a bike shuttle?) so we ended up attaching our bikes by a rat’s nest of bungees to a wheelchair rack on their van. We left an hour later than we planned, but that would only cut into the rest time we wanted in Sedalia.

Our bikes and gear.

Sedalia, though was fantastic. It is the home of the Missouri State Fair and also has a Scott Joplin Festival, so there are plenty of services for tourists. Based on the guidebook, we had gotten a room at the Bothwell, a 1927-era renovated old railroad hotel, that reminded us of the Golden Hotel in O’Neill, NB from our ride the previous year on the Cowboy Trai. The Bothwell though was much grander, we had a corner room. The hotel had valet bike parking (not many do) and there was a brew pub only a block away. 

Bike check in at the Bothwell.

We spent the rest of the evening walking around town and taking pictures of the hotel in the perfect evening light. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever be able to get Jean to leave the hotel.

Jean at the Bothwell.

6-6-10

We ate breakfast at the Bothwell and then had a short ride to the trailhead. The museum there was unfortunately was closed on Sundays. Using the guidebook and trail brochure sure helped our planning, but one small issue was that places were often closed when we arrived. Our book was a few years old (and I know how things can change once they get in a guidebook) and it often seemed the small stores etc. were only open when their owners had extra time for them. At least we learned quickly to carry extra food and drink. The trailhead building (MP 227.1) was beautiful and looked packed with displays, but we could only take a few pictures and move on.

The first bit of Katy used city streets through town, but in a mile or so we were back on the railbed. Katy has a well compacted gravel surface over the abandoned railroad line. The whole trail is well signed and maintained. After struggling to ride on the Cowboy Trail the previous year it was a joy to speed down the manicured surface of the Katy, often even fast enough to catch a breeze. The whole trail east to Booneville at MP 191.8 was mostly a well shaded strip between farms and ranches. There were no really great views, but it was mostly pretty countryside.

At Clifton City we saw their old jail building, then took a side path to check out a quarry just north of town. We’d had the start of the trail to ourselves but east of Clifton City we began to see more other users. One rider we met turned out to be the first guy who ever rode the entire trail in a day. It was amazing that he would still be out riding the same trail all the time, but I suppose he still loved to spread the story of his ride. Another item of interest was a two seat, side-by-side mountain bike that passed us on the edge of town. 

Side-by-side bike on the Katy Trail.

At Pilot Grove all that was open for lunch was a convenience store, so we pushed onto to Booneville. 

In Pilot Grove.

At Booneville the trail picks up the Missouri River to follow it to St. Louis. The visitors center was open, and they gave us information on four options that were open for lunch. We stopped at the Katy Caboose Museum, but passed up a casino on Main Street.  We chose the Riverside Café for lunch and got a good burger and chicken sandwich in a place packed with locals at 2PM. We were well above the river, but could see the highwater mark from the 1993 floods painted on the wall. The Booneville Railroad Bridge wasn’t open for bikes yet, so we used a bike lane over the newer highway bridge. 

Crossing over I-70.

Just across the river is New Franklin (MP 188.2). The next 5-6 miles east were stark with no shade through fields on either side. But approaching Rocheport were cliffs along the river that broke up the scenery, and the trail was better shaded. We rode through the now familiar MKT Tunnel into town. After yesterday 90’s, we were glad to have temperatures in the 80’s for our ride. When we arrived in Rocheport both my GPS and the bike odometer read 51.6 miles, but I could tell during the ride by looking at the mileposts that my odometer had been reading about 3% too high. 51.6 miles might have been an all-time high mileage day for Jean and I, even including our road biking trips.

High water mark in Booneville.

We ended up in the Jefferson Room of the Katy Trail B&B for the night. We immediately hit the Trailside Café for ice cream and then went to room to clean up. The room itself was small but there was a spacious public area, and I think we were the only ones in the building. They also had a  nice porch where we watched swallows maintaining a nest under the eaves. We had neighbors in the surrounding building and swapped strategies for shuttles and Amtrack for riding other sections of the Katy with them. 

Our B&B in Rocheport.

Katy Trail, Sedalia to Rocheport, 51.6 miles

6-7-2010

We had another cool morning and coupled that with an early start. Temperatures would be in the 80’s and it was overcast. The trail east of Rocheport is some of the trail’s most scenic, with high limestone cliffs along the Missouri, and an abundance of interpretive panels about the Lewis and Clark expedition. We spotted Pierced Rock Natural Arch at MP 166.9. We passed a campground at Huntsdale that looked nice but had lots of mosquitos. The bugs would plague us the rest of the day, to the point we had to be careful in choosing our break spots.

Interpretive panel along the trail.

Most of the ride was in and out of agricultural fields, with less shade than yesterday. But we had occasional river views. The towns along the trail were smaller and generally without services. The campground in Coopers Landing looked run down. But the big attraction in Coopers Landing is Boathenge where six boats are half buried Stonehenge style along the river. Nothing in Hartsburg was open but we had enough snacks to make do for lunch. Claysville had a store, but it was only open on weekends.

McBaine.

We were riding around 10 mph, and probably averaged 10-13 mph over the whole ride. I got a GPS track of our entire route. Jean spotted some indigo buntings and we saw both a box turtle and a mud turtle. We really enjoyed the trail. It was easy cruising, and we could ride comfortably side by side and be able to chat. 

Jean at Boathenge.

By the time we reached our car at the North Jefferson Trailhead (MP 143.2), and within sight of the dome of the state capital, we were both a bit stiff from all the riding. But our fannies had taken more of the brunt than our legs. We were both looking forward to our next ride on the Katy. Maybe we could use Amtrak for a shuttle ride to finish the east end of the trail, or ride from Sedalia west to Clinton to finish the west end. 

Trestle bridge.

After the ride we used US 63 to drive north to Ames, about 280 miles from Columbia and 4:45. 

Capitol from North Jefferson Trailhead.

The Katy Trail now connects to the 47 mile long Rock Island Trail. For the latest check https://bikekatytrail.com/

2010, 5-22 Cage Creek Mountain Bike Ride

Cage Creek was one of a series of solo mountain bike rides I took in the Cumberlands between 2008 and 2011 to try to follow the routes described on Tom Dunigan’s East Tennessee Mountain Bike Web site (tnlandforms.us/mtnbike). The State of Tennessee had acquired much of the Cumberland Mountains in an epic land deal in 2008 opening up a huge tract of land that was barely known outside of hunters and ATV riders and is now part of the North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area. In 2009 I had ridden a longer loop in the area around Bootjack Mountain and now I was looking to explore Cage Creek, which, at least on the map, looked to be an easier ride.

This post was written ten years after the ride from detailed notes, gps mapping, and pictures taken in 2010. Several mines operated by National Coal were active in the area in 2010, but have since closed. At that time, the Google Satellite maps for the area were a particularly sharp set of images taken in the winter when the tree canopy was bare. The resolution on those maps was good enough that it was possible to spot ATV trails through the canopy, so this made my route finding easier. The current Google maps were taken in summer with less resolution, so many areas in the Cumberlands simply now look monotonously green. The old roads described here often had seen recent maintenance, likely by the coal or gas companies. Today’s riders should not expect that the conditions described here remain the same.

Tom Dunigan’s original map

It was 43 miles and 65 minutes of driving to the start of the ride which was at the junction of TN 116 and the gravel Norma Road, essentially at the apex of Devils Triangle. The Bootjack Road leading to the west had a new coat of coarse gravel that guaranteed tough riding from the start. To add any apprehension there was a light rain at the start.

The start of the ride is a steady climb. I rode 0.2 mile to the west where the main (coal?) road split right and soon lost the loose gravel. The next two miles would feature almost one thousand feet of climbing. I then passed the first of three gas well pads before reaching a split at 1.9 miles where I turned left to follow the Cage Creek Coal bench. These coal benches follow the outcrops of the coal seams that are mined in the Cumberlands. Since rock formations in the Cumberlands are generally flat-lying, these coal benches provide some of the only level riding available to the mountain biker. The 2300’ elevation is about the right elevation for the Big Mary or Windrock coal seams, two of the major producers in the Cumberlands. So, it is never a surprise to find development in the mountains at this elevation. Happily, the Cage Creek road was smooth, gentle, lightly gravelled, and well maintained. There were several rough spur trails leading off the bench road, but none seemed ridable, or likely to lead anywhere interesting.

Gravel roads don't get better than this

I whizzed along the bench to a small coal pond at 3.6 miles where an unridable looking path branched right up the hill. Not much beyond I saw my first wildlife of the ride; a giant mud turtle moseying along the road. The riding was still nice and easy, but I noticed that around 5.3 miles that the road was getting narrower and water holes were more common.

The road along the 2300' Bench

Some slower traffic along the road

I crossed a powerline cut at 6.7 miles and then at 7.0 miles a steep ATV track entered on the right. This is potentially “Cheryl’s Cutoff” a key link in the efforts of Cheryl and Curtis Travis to explore this area back in the Dunigan era (probably pre-1999 by looking at the dates on his web site). Looping around the head of the drainage, at 7.8 miles, I recrossed the powerline where I spotted a small band of wild turkeys. Luckily, the condition of the road was holding up. Someone even had thoughtfully placed an old recliner along side the road at 8.9 miles, a great place for a tired rider to relax. At 10.1 miles I reached Brier Gap, and a demolished trailer, where the route leaves the Cage Creek drainage.

An old highwall left over from coal mining

Remains of an old trailer

At 11.5 miles I reached another major junction. A left turn here would take me down to TN 116 at Rosedale and close to the end of my ride, but I decided to try the right fork that would lead out another coal bench to the top of an old cable used to transport coal to a coal processing plant along the New River.

View down the powerline cut

The right fork continued to lead west at 2300’ out to some abandoned coal piles at 12.0 miles and a concrete foundation that presumably mark an old coal loading station. The road got rougher beyond this point, and I was only able to ride the bike to 12.7 miles before dismounting and walking the rest of the way. Without the bike odometer I used my handheld GPS to measure this side trip. I crossed the powerline again, this time with good views of the windmills on Buffalo Mountain. I got to the top of old cable line in another 0.7 mile, but all I could see was a large flat area and some iron staining in the creek. I saw no old structures or remains of the cable line. However, even by May standards the area was very overgrown and potentially some exploring in winter might reveal some artifacts. There is now a gas well just short of the powerline, so at least the start of this road is open.

Returning to the original 11.5 mile major junction to Rosedale my bike odometer now read 14.0 miles after the side trip. The descent started steeply and was badly rutted. At one point the road split, and I went left off the map route where the main grassy road continued straight. About a quarter mile later the two routes merged. Things stayed steep and sketchy for the 900’ descent. I ended up walking my bike a few pitches downhill. At 15.6 miles, I reached TN 116 by a house and across from closed Rosedale Elementary School.

 Rosedale School

Rather than ride directly back to the car I took two detours off TN 116 on the return. The first was only 0.4 mile past Rosedale at 16.0 miles; I rode across the New River on a road leading to National Coal Mine 3B. As this road was covered in coarse gravel I turned around after only a quarter of a mile or so. Next at 18.5 miles I turned left off the highway to ride up the road along Cage Creek. In two miles I came to the remains of National Coal Mine 3, a series of small adits driven into the walls of the north side of the creek. The watchman was amazed to see someone ride up on a bike. He told me the mine was preparing to close. There were a few trailers remaining, but the rest of the equipment had been moved off site. Looking again at the Google Satellite images it appears that the entire north side of the Cage Creek drainage has been logged, but the access road still looks open. Back at TN 116, it was only another 0.8 mile on the road to close the loop at 19.3 miles.

The current (2020) Google Maps for Cage Creek show that the north side of the watershed has been logged, and that the bench road is still easily visible, and therefore likely ridable. It is not possible to tell how long ago, but recent logging would indicate the road system is likely in place, but older logging would more likely lead to a brier infested nightmare. There aren’t any other gas wells on the road, so likely it won’t be maintained.

The south side of the road is less visible on the Google Map. However, there is now a gas well at Brier Gap, so it is likely the road up from Rosedale receives some maintenance, and then it is likely that at least ATV riders can complete the whole loop.

Subtracting the mileage counted at the start of my side trip to the cable the main loop at Cage Creek is 16.8 miles around. Adding in another 1.5 miles for the foot travel to the cable, 0.6 mile RT on the Mine 3B road, and 4.2 miles RT along Cage Creek, the route as I rode it is 25.6 miles. I saw no other people on this trip.

My Cage Creek Route