For an area so close to Knoxville, the Catoosa Wildlife Management Area remains little known, except to hunters. To most of us it is the East Tennessee equivalent of flyover country, a place you drive through while shuttling hiking trips on the Cumberland Trail, or white water trips on the Obed River. But for those willing to navigate the maze of roads, and the equally daunting maze of regulations, Catoosa offers some nice gravel road mountain biking.
I first got interested in Catoosa from reading Tom Dunigan’s East Tennessee Mountain Biking web site. His site described a nice 18 mile gravel loop starting at the Catoosa checking station, then winding around to Buck Switch, on up to the Bicolor intersection, and then down to Island Creek. I thought this might make a nice loop for Jean and me.
Access is the big stumbling block for riding at Catoosa. The area is completely closed in February and March, and during big game hunts it is closed to non-hunters. I was initially set to visit the area in the spring, but arrived during wild turkey season, which I had not realized was classified as big game. Finally, in mid-May it appeared the hunting seasons were over, and we recruited our friend Claudia to join us for the ride.
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| Catoosa Riding |
To start we drove through Wartburg, down to the Nemo Bridge, and then up and over the hill to where the Catoosa Road meets Island Creek, and parked near the sign for the WMA. We would ride the loop to Buck Switch and Bicolor Campground with Jean taking pictures and me mapping the route by GPS. We started with a nice flat section along Island Creek for 0.6 mile to a large culvert, then climbed steadily to the northernmost point of the loop. Our timing for the ride was lucky, the laurel was blooming, and the creeks were full of water and rollicking along. The weather was drizzly, cool, and overcast, were wore long sleeved shirts rather than having to worry about oppressive heat and humidity.
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| Island Creek |
The gravel road was well packed, but the road corridor had been cleared far to wide to offer shade to any mid-summer riders. The road was hillier than we expected, and I hoped that later sections would be flatter. I mapped in a series of old dirt roads and trails that intersected the main road. Surprisingly, we saw no evidence of the type of ATV damage that seems so prevalent elsewhere in the Cumberlands. At 6.2 miles we reached an unsigned intersection with a dirt road on our right that leads to the Pilot Knob Lookout Tower site. We’d had enough climbing with the rolling gravel road by this time, so we skipped the tower spur.
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| Auto Ford |
At 7.4 miles we came to Buck Switch, an unsigned 4-way junction. Here a right turn winds down to Daddys Creek, a popular boater put in, and the west end of the Obed section of the Cumberland Trail, and straight ahead will lead to Hebbertsburg Road. We turned left to continue our loop toward the Bicolor Campground. Luckily, for us the south half of the loop did prove much gentler. At 10.9 miles we stopped for lunch at a concrete bridge over pretty Island Creek. The road climbed steadily from the creek for about ¾ of a mile.
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| Jean and I at the Campground |
One more mile of climbing brought us to the campground at 13.9 miles where we saw our only two vehicles of the day. There were campsites, latrines, and a water pump. Here also another gravel road branched right and south to a game check station. We continued left along our loop on the smooth and fast gravel. After a gate and sign for the WMA we reached a wooden bridge over Island Creek that had been topped in a recent flood at 18.0 miles.
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| Final Bridge over Island Creek |
We were back at the car at 18.7 miles after about a 4:15 ride including lunch and other stops.
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| Catoosa Wildlife Management Area |
Here’s my summary of the ride that was originally posted to the Knoxville Cycling Message Board:
Last weekend I did the Catoosa WMA ride described on Tom Dunigan’s E TN Mtn Bike site. This is a really great 18 mile non-technical loop. The whole loop is on smooth and fast gravel roads, the area is really pretty, and there’s no signs of the kind of abuse by ATV’s that you see in the North Cumberland or Royal Blue WMAs. We only saw two vehicles all day, though it was raining most of the AM. We rode counterclockwise. There 5-6 miles of rolling climb at the start, but this gives you a great 4 mile downhill run from Bicolor CG the end of the ride. There may be some good potential for technical riding on some of the other roads and trails, but we just stuck to the main loop. Tom’s site has a good map and a GPS track.
Catoosa is about a 75 minute drive from Knoxville. The only downside for Catoosa is access. It is closed to non-hunters during any big game hunt (which includes turkey season) and to everyone in February and March. It’s harder than hell to figure out the open dates from the TWRA hunt guide, so the best thing to do is call TWRA at 800.262.6704 to find out if it’s open.
