This was one of our more interesting mountain biking trips
done as part of our goal of completing all the trails in the Big South Fork. We
were still mountain biking a decent amount then and had been lucky in using the
bikes to cover some of the horse trails and multiuse trails in the park. The
multiuse trails we had seen by this time were generally well maintained gravel
roads that were the type of easy cruising we really enjoyed. The horse trails
were a literal crap shoot. Often these had a firm enough surface to be fun riding,
but other times they were such boggy eroded messes that that having the bikes
was just a hinderance for us.
Our plan was to drive up for the weekend and spend the night
at the Jordan Motel in Jamestown, our go to spot for exploring Pickett and the
west side of BSF. On the first day we would try to ride as much as possible of
the Darrow Ridge area in the remote SW corner of the park. On Sunday we would
ride the park’s wagon trail and part of the Fork Ridge Road over to the Charit
Creek Trailhead.
The Darrow Ridge area was unknown to us. All the trails in
that corner of the park are open to horses, so we found no accounts of hikers
visiting. Satellites maps showed that the major road were gravelled, a good
sign. There was also a lot of recent development around the Timber Ridge Horse
camp so we expected we could find our way to the camp and then to a parking
area. We knew that the O&W Trail in the western part of the park was too
damaged by horse traffic to be either ridable or enjoyable to walk so we
planned a small lasso shaped hiked on the Darrow Ridge and Upper Panther Branch
trails, plus side trips to the ends of the Darrow Ridge, Little Cliff, and
Christian Cemetery trails.
Day One Darrow Ridge 19.6 miles
It two hours to drive to the horse camp (~ 2 miles off the
highway) from Knoxville. We found the road east beyond the camp rutted and
muddy, so with the possibility of rain in the forecast we backtracked to the
end of the gravel segment and parked at a junction with one of the development
roads. We started east on the road which followed the park boundary. We
took the side trail to Hippy Cave and
found a new horse trail that ran parallel to the park road. The cave was large,
pretty and campable, a pleasant surprise for a feature located so close to the
road.
Hippy Cave
We decided to ride the new horse trail to the east and found
it to be the most enjoyable riding of the day (with the warning that the trail
may have degraded significantly since our 2014 ride). It had all the twists and
turns of a great mountain bike trail with a smooth firm surface as well. We
also took a side trip on an unofficial horse trail to Fiddlers Arch. The arch
was essentially a rock house where the back wall has collapsed.
Fiddlers Arch
Where the road enters the park, it becomes the Darrow Ridge
Mutiuse Trail and is a well maintained gravel road with a firm packed surface.
Just before the first junction there is a well-marked, unofficial horse trail
leading south. The park map shows an inholding at the junction with Christian
Cemetery Road, but we saw no signs for this.
Jean on the Darrow Ridge Trail
The road was gravelled a short distance past the
intersection with the Little Cliff Multiuse Trail. We couldn’t ride much
further, and ended up walking about a mile to where the distinct roadbed ended
in a jumble of blown down trees to complete our first side trip. This was a
recurring pattern for the dead end multiuse trails that we would see for the
rest of our map marking project. The dead end roads might begin by following
the TI Map, but the ends were always in seemingly random places determined by
blowdowns. These trails must have led to hunting spots or other little used
features and it seemed it didn’t take much to make them impassable.
On our return to the bikes a heavy rainstorm blew in and
pinned us down for 20 minutes. Luckily it was a warm early summer day and we
fine, just soaking wet, but the rain wet the roads enough for our fast easy
riding to be over for the day. On the other hand, the rain brought out the box
turtles. Jean counted 16, and we also saw a deer and a turkey.
After the rainstorm blew in
Next up was a descent down to North White Oak Creek and the
O&W Trail on the Little Cliff Trail for our second side trip. We were able
to ride to a locked metal gate. In the BSF these gates usually mark the start
of steep rocky descents, so we locked the bikes to the gate and walked down.
The rain was now just a light drizzle, but enough that we turned around
immediately after reaching the O&W
Trail. We saw four horse riders ascending Little Cliff, the only other
people we saw all day.
We’d hoped to make a bit of a loop with the Upper Panther
Branch Trail, but we found it to be narrow and muddy. There appeared to be an
old drill site at the west end of the road. With that trail section no fun to
ride, we decided that there really weren’t any decent mtn bike loops in the
Darrow Ridge area. Our final side trip was an out and back leg on the Christian
Cemetery Road again down to North White Oak Creek and the O&W Trail.
Christian Cemetery Road was also in bad shape with lots of
mud holes and we abandoned the bikes even before we reached the cemetery and
gate. The cemetery did not look like it was being maintained. Jean and I were
starting to tire by this point as we descended to the O&W. The old railroad
grade looked in decent shape. We climbed back to the bikes and found the upper
leg of CC trail to be gravel and zipped back along it and along the gravel part
of the Darrow Ridge Trail. But once out of the park, and presumably under
county maintenance, the Darrow Ridge Road back to the horse camp was muddy with
lots of deep sand, and not helped at all by the day’s rain. We never had to
walk the bikes, except around a few mud pits, but it was tough, slow going. At
one point my tire was wobbling about so much that I stopped to check to see if
I’d had a flat tire.
Mud Splatter
We did our best to get some of the mud off our bikes at the
trailhead, but mostly were thankful we hadn’t parked the Forester further east
out on the muddy section of road. On the return drive we saw the Hicks Ridge TH
on the north side of the horse camp. We spent the night at the Jordan Motel in
Jamestown.
Our Darrow Ridge Route
Day 2 Wagon Trail and Bear Attack 18.4 Miles
Our day two objective was to knock off the park’s entire
system of wagon trails in a single day. There being only the Gobblers Knob
Trail we figured we could make a return loop on the Divide Road and still have
time to ride the section of the Fork Ridge Road out to Charit Creek TH and
return. Gobblers Knob launches from the Middle Creek Equestrian TH, a new
locale to us.
The trailhead looked little used and we found the wagon
trail be nice riding. It is mostly an old road, and had received from very
recent maintenance. There were plenty of twisty turns but also a few short
hills we needed to push up. A side road at 1.4 miles was marked “TVA only” and
was far to overgrown to explore. It was a hot muggy morning, but we were able
to ride quickly enough to generate our own breeze.
The Gobblers Knob Wagon Trail
After crossing the Twin Arches Road, the Trails Illustrated
map shows a 0.3 mile connector trail to the Divide Road. The trail looked to be
all uphill, but being good little map markers we decided to walk it. Good thing
too, the trail was covered with blowdowns and obviously was little used. The
map also showed that the trail would next parallel a section of gravel road
leading to the Gobblers Knob TH. We had been skeptical that the trails existed,
assuming that folks would most likely just take the gravel road. This trail
also turned out to have been recently maintained and was fun riding. We spent
about 2 hours riding the wagon trail to the end, and only 50 minutes riding
back on the road. We saw 4 vehicles, but no hikers or riders all morning.
But we had bad news when we arrived back at the trailhead.
It was obvious that we had a flat tire and even worse that the tire had been
slashed. There were three spots on the sidewall that had a series of wet,
jagged cuts. We were sad, disappointed, and couldn’t figure out why someone
would vandalize our car that way. Luckily, the Forester has a full size spare
and I was able to change the tire.
Bear Damage to our Bumper and Tire
Though we were pretty bummed about the tire slashing we
decided to go ahead with the ride on the Fork Ridge Road. This was a flat fast
ride on good gravel.
On the way home we decided to stop by the Bandy Creek
Visitor Center to report what happened. We waited a bit for a ranger and then
showed them the pictures of the damage (we’d already stowed the tire back in
the car.) The ranger asked if there was other damage, and Jean showed her two
bb-sized holes in bumper that weren’t in the picture she took of the car when
we started the ride. We were amazed when she suggested that the culprit might
have been a bear. She called in another ranger and they agreed that the bb
holes were about the right spacing for the incisors of a bear. Apparently,
bears can digest horse poop and we must have driven over some. The bear was
attracted by the smell and must have gone after our tire like a giant wheel of
black licorice. Though our bumper was ~1/4 inch thick, they assured us that
bears can easily bit through that. I got really nervous when I realized that
the wetness on the busted tire was likely bear saliva, and that we probably had
scared it away as we rode into the trailhead.
Our sadness at having our tire vandalized was now replaced
by the joy of knowing we now had a story that was so good we wouldn’t even have
to fib when we told it. The final note was that the Forester was rear ended not
too long after our bike trip. Jean told the story to the guys in the body shop
and they were kind enough to cut out the section of the now ruined bitten bumper
for us as a souvenir.
Our Wagon Trail Route
