2020, 10-25, NCWMA Mountain Bike Ride, The Four Lane

The North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area is a tough place to find your way around. The maps of the area are lousy, there’s almost no signing, and there is a dense, confusing network of ATV roads. This means that hikers generally stick to nearby Frozen Head State Park and that mountain bikers rarely visit the area at all. But the area is still popular with ATV riders who pay a much smaller penalty for getting lost, just some time and a little fuel. No gut busting climbs for them.

A few years back I’d spent some time exploring the area, mostly by mountain bike and occasionally on foot, but it had been several years since I’d done an exploring ride there. One of the few items left on my list was the “Four Lane” aka the Brimstone Haul Road, reputed from information on Tom Dunigan’s East Tennessee Mountain bike website to extend from the Brimstone Recreation Area near Huntsville, TN south into the NCWMA. On a prior ride I’d ridden the first couple miles of the Four Lane on the south end.  I started looking into taking another shot at completing it after reading two articles online in the Oneida Herald written by Ben Garrett. Hypothetically, the Four Lane could give me a long ridgetop ride through the heart of the Cumberlands, without requiring multiple major climbs for just the modest price of a TWRA permit.

My older rides in the Cumberlands had been replaced by some exploring in Windrock, usually with my friend DK who had tons of experience running, riding, and jeeping in that area. We were still doing some modest mountain biking together and thought we might be able to pull off a 28 mile out and back ride to connect the north end of my NCWMA riding to the south end of what I’d ridden on a previous trip to Brimstone. The weekend offered a pre-gun season, rain free forecast, and prime fall colors, so we decided to give the route a shot despite being far from trained up for the adventure.

Key to the plan was using DK’s jeep to climb into the heart of the mountains and deposit us up on the mountain crest.

We started at the coal plant and soon were bouncing up the rutted, rocky road. Not too far in we got a warning light on the jeep, but a quick stop and some easing of the road grade enabled us to continue. Once at the awesome overlook that marks the end of the main climb the driving improved. But the road proved to be much rougher than in past years, and we decided to start riding before reaching our intended launch point, figuring we could go about as fast of the bikes as we were driving.

Overlook

The start of our ride was on road I hadn’t been on recently and proved much rougher than I remembered. But soon we were on familiar ground with enjoyable riding. Most of our riding would be on old gravel roads, dotted with puddles and mudholes on the flats, and loose and rocky on the steeper sections. The roads receive some maintenance, probably to allow access to the gas wells that dot the Cumberlands, but we also saw that much of the Four Lane was also marked as a pipeline route. Though it had been a day and a half since our last rain, the well shaded roads hadn’t dried up at all, and we rode all day with a thin layer of mud covering the hardpack.

It was about four miles of riding to our intended launch spot and by then we were riding smoothly. Much of the way we had the modest curves and rolls that make riding so much fun. We met two guys on a four wheeler, and they confirmed we were on the right road and that there were no major climbs ahead. Next, we came to “the slide” where part of the roadway had washed away and collapsed. The route was still plenty wide for bikes (and ATVs).

Landslide on the Four Lane

Almost the entire Cumberland Mountains have been mined for coal. The existing roads tend to follow the coal seams or have been used to reach the mining sites. The highwall mining used often in the later stages of mining had its advantages though. Many of the roads, including much of the Four Lane, are bordered by high rock walls opened up by the miners. With the regrowth of the forest these areas are now remarkably pretty.

DK at the Slide

We were seeing a few signposts marking our route as trail 1. Though there were numerous side roads splitting off, we only saw a TWRA sign at the intersection with Wolf Pen Trail #22. Maybe this lack of signage was for the better. In contrast to the sign, the online map for the NCWMA shows this as unnamed trail 56 and that Wolf Pen Hollow itself was several drainages away. Next up we made two crossing of a powerline cut that opened up some views for us, including the transmission tower aptly on top of Signal Mountain.

NCWMA Trail Sign

Given our slow time on the drive in and our need to ride 4 extra miles to the start we’d realized right off that we wouldn’t make it to our original intended turnaround. We rode down one more significant hill before stopping for lunch at the intersection with an ATV trail that turned out to be NCWMA #55.

Though we’d lost elevation on the ride out, the ride back went more quickly. Maybe we’d rediscovered some bike handling skills, or were just nervous about having issues with the jeep driving back. DK, though complaining mightily about the hills, attempted to ride all of them and was successful on most. I’d ridden a lot less this year and knew I needed to conserve my energy, so I could rationalize walking my bike up anything long or steep. We’d only seen a couple folks on the ride out, but there was more ATV traffic on our return. Bikes were obviously a novelty, and we got a lot of friendly comments from the other riders.

By after noon the dense clouds in the valley had dissipated and we got better views at the few overlooks. Our pattern was to ride together on the flats, and DK would wait on my at the top of the hills. I was really enjoying the Four Lane, it was exhilarating riding and would also make for great “trail” running.

Muddy Bike

With plenty of time, but not much energy, to spare we made it back to the jeep. Both riders and bikes were coated with thick layers of sloppy mud spun up from the tires. The trip down the mountain proved blessedly uneventful. We talked up a couple of ideas for future rides, always the sign of a successful trip.

 

Links to articles in Oneida Herald:

Destination: The high country

https://www.ihoneida.com/2020/09/29/19th-century-surveyors-used-scott-countys-tallest-mountains-as-their-waypoints/

2020, 10-5, Smokies Run, Clingmans Dome from Elkmont

In Tennessee, early fall is my favorite time for trail running. Summer’s oppressive heat and humidity have finally broken, and the leaves have not yet buried the trails, hiding all the rocks and roots. As a bonus, most of the bugs are gone and the weather tends to be reliably dry. Consequently, there are a lot of races this time of year. My friend Leonard had just finished the 50K Barkley Fall Classic, and was preparing for the No Business 100 miler in two weeks. He’s been preparing with a lot of runs in the Smokies, and invited me to come along on one of his longer ones. 

Leonard has got one of the more interesting resumes in ultrarunning. He started running the Barkley Marathons in the 1990s, but didn’t try a “conventional” ultra until 2000. He’s now run an amazing number of races including 175 that show up on ultrasignup, and has multiple finishes at a number of the 100 mile classics. We’ve been running together for close to 15 years, and he still manages to come up with some new stories every time. He does a lot of his training from the trailheads on the north side of the Smokies that lead up to the Appalachian Trail. 

Leonard at Clingmans Dome.

The route from Elkmont to Clingmans Dome follows the Little River, Goshen Prong, and Appalachian trails for 13.7 miles from the trailhead to the summit observation tower. It is one long continuous 4,500’ climb all on trails. We had done this same run last year, but slightly later in the fall. The combination of more downed leaves and a balky hip flexor on my right side made this a ten hour trip in 2019, but after successful BFC’s we both expected we could do better this year. 

According to Schmidt and Hooks in “Whistle over the Mountain,” the Little River and Fish Camp Prong drainages were logged by the Little River Lumber Company between the early 1910s and early 1920s. The current trails follow these old railroad grades from Elkmont to about the 4,200’ level along Goshen Prong. The 1931 Park map, shows no routes up Goshen Prong, so it is probable that the trail from Campsite 23 at Fish Camp Prong to the AT was built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. 

We started our trip at 745 in the light from the Elkmont Trailhead at 47F and overcast. Despite the gentle grades we hiked all of the climbing sections, trying to mirror the same balance of walking and running he would get in the race. Some leaves in the understory had started to turn color, but most of the canopy was still the deep green of summer. On our previous run the trails had been simply a tunnel of gold with the leaves and sunshine. The Little River and Goshen Prong trails are two of my favorites as they offer so many views of the magnificent streams that they follow. It was still chilly when we turned off Little River Trail to follow Fish Camp Prong. In 2019 this trail was getting a bit overgrown with dog hobble. There had been much recent work this year on cutting open the trail. Kudos to whomever performed this work. 

We passed two parties of backpackers heading out from Campsite 23 before the trail turned south to follow Goshen Prong, near the end of the old logging grade. After about another mile and a half the trail finally begins to climb away from the Prong. I had finally warmed up enough to take off my medium weight shirt. Despite the remoteness of this section of trail it is still well maintained. The grade increases some approaching the AT, but never gets too steep. I had noted a good water source at the very head of Goshen Prong about 5 minutes below the AT and used it to refill my bottle both times we passed. 

Once on the AT we started passing other hikes again. The climbing still wasn’t over though, we still had another 900’ to gain before reaching the tower on Clingmans. The morning clouds had burned off and we now had a clear blue sky to enjoy the limitless views off the stateline crest. It took 5 hours even to reach the top. The tower itself was a zoo. There were enough people that it was hard to find a spot along the rail to enjoy the views. We took a few pictures before ditching the crowds and heading down. 

Leonard and I on Clingmans Dome.

I was lucky to not have any knee issues on the long descent. We walked the rocky AT section and I filled up with water again just after leaving the AT. We set a good pace down Goshen Prong Trail, but still mostly hiking. The 7.7 miles of Goshen Prong seemed to take a long time, but we were still moving well and enjoying a perfect weather day. Finally, the bridge over the Little River appeared. I finally took off my other long sleeved shirt and ran the last few miles back in about 45 minutes, for a total time of 9:36. I got back to the car with no knee, foot, or hip issues flaring up, just the tiredness that’s unavoidable for an ultra-length training day.

View east toward Mt LeConte.