One of the great things about the Big South Fork is that it is close enough for us to be able to take advantage of those rare great weather weekends that pop up on short notice. This March weekend looked to be especially warm and dry, so Jean and I decided to try our luck with some car camping and mountain biking. We were lucky to be able to snag the old homesite location on the Duncan Hollow Road for our base camp. This was our first visit to the site which has turned into one of our favorite car camping spots.
It was early in the spring, so we hadn’t yet done much riding yet, just some road bike rides in Cades Cove and on the Little River Road near Townsend. With the lack of biking fitness in mind, and little experience with BSF mountain biking, we decided to be conservative and planned a day of riding in the Duncan Hollow area to be followed by some riding on the gravel park roads south of TN 297 on Sunday.
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| Duncan Hollow Campsite |
3-18-2006
Once we got set up enough at the Duncan Hollow campsite to claim our spot, we rode north on the smoothly graveled Duncan Hollow Road. It was easy riding out to vehicle gate and horse rack, but then the old road plunges into the gorge of Laurel and Station Camp creeks. The road was eroded enough on the descent by ATVs and horses that I walked my bike down two pitches. We knew from hiking the trails in the gorge that there would be no good riding there, so turned around near the junction of the Muir Trail and the bridge over Laurel Creek. Returning to our campsite we passed three horse parties.
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| Bridge over Station Camp Creek. |
The five mile roundtrip to Laurel Creek wasn’t enough for us so we rode back south on Duncan Hollow Road, then turned east onto the Alfred Smith Road. This gravel road was also well maintained and had some twists and turns to keep the riding interesting. After two miles on the gravel road, we came to the trailhead for the John Muir and Grand Gap loop trails. This visit was long before these two trails were opened to mountain bikes, so we did not consider riding the hiking trails. However, back in the pre-pine beetle days the forests were more open and many of the old two track roads predating the park had not yet grown over. One of these old roads splits the center of the Grand Gap Loop along Smith Ridge, and we decided to explore it for a taste of “off-trail” riding. Despite having no official maintenance, the road was still passable on bikes with only a few blowdowns. We were able to ride a little over a mile through the woods out nearly to the eastern end of the Grand Gap Loop before turning around. Apparently an old, pre-park trail continues beyond our turnaround and descends to a ford of the river, maybe a target for an off trail hike another day?
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| Archie Smith Grave. |
We
then returned back to the Duncan Hollow Road. With 12 miles now under our
wheels, we decided to ride out to the end of the access road to the John Litton
Farm. Though the riding was fun, we needed to turn around at the end of the
vehicle access and didn’t hike down into the valley to visit the farm.
We
next rode back up the Duncan Hollow Road to the junction with the Duncan Hollow
Bypass Road. Now at 14.7 miles, Jean headed back to the campsite, while I
turned left to ride the bypass road and the Duncan Hollow MB Trail. In 2016,
late in our effort to hike all the BSF trails, we would walk the entire bypass
road and found it a muddy, fouled mess nearly destroyed by horse traffic. But
on this visit the bypass was still a smooth, pleasant gravel road. I made the
first turn onto the mountain bike trail and rode it counterclockwise. Compared
to the smooth gravel roads, it had a lot of fallen branches and other bumps,
and I could see it had probably once been a road. The far end of the loop had a
short steep drop, but otherwise the loop wasn’t too technical. When I rode back
on the roads to the campsite, I had 19.5 miles for the day. I took one more
short spin around the meadow around the campsite on what we thought was an ATV
trail, but later learned it was a perimeter for a controlled burn.
My
summary for the day indicated that ironically that the only official mountain
bike trail we’d been on was the least interesting part of the day. Also,
curiously we’d seen no sign of other mountain bikers, except some old tracks on
the Duncan Hollow MB trail. Of the park’s designated mountain bike trails
Collier Ridge, Grand Gap, and the John Muir Trail remain our favorites, while
Duncan Hollow Loop and West Bandy we found less interesting. But our real
favorite riding at BSF remains in exploring the park’s remote back roads.
3-19-2006
We planned two routes for our Sunday riding; heading out to the North White Oak and Leatherwood overlooks. Our first ride started at the Gar Blevins Trailhead just off TN 297. The Gar Blevins Road (now Multi-use trail) was more fine riding on well compacted fine gravel. In 2.3 miles we crossed the North White Oak Loop, one of the major trails carrying horse parties from the Bandy Creek or Leatherwood trailheads. At 3.2 miles we reached the vehicle limit and turn around, and then the horse limit at 3.5 miles. Near the end the road was a rough jeep track with ATV and horse tracks. The fenced overlook was only a 100 yard ahead. The river was partially obscured, but there were nice views of cliff bands across the river.
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| Approaching North White Oak Overlook. |
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| North White Oak Overlook. |
We
took our time enjoying the views and then rode back to the junction with the
North White Oak Trail. We had heard that the trail had been recently
rehabilitated, and decided to try riding it back to the trailhead to make a
loop. This was a big risk in the BSF. Often the horse trails are nearly
destroyed by heavy traffic. Any type of grade gets carved into a deep, eroded
trench. The flat trails don’t drain at all and become deep, wide muddy bogs.
Much of the trail surface is sand and the horses churn that up so much that
bikes can barely move. This day we were lucky and the riding on the old logging
road was solid and fun. The loop made up for many of those days we’ve spent
slogging along muddy, nasty trails, while wishing the BSF never saw another
horse again.
The
rehab had included seven new bridges which made the creek crossings on the
bikes easy. The trail crossed the Gar Blevins Road briefly, then we made a
short left hand turn onto the Cumberland Valley Loop to return to the trailhead
at 9.6 miles for the loop. We saw no other visitors on the loop. The park
closed North White Oak and some of the other more popular horse trails to
mountain bikes around 2013, so we likely remain some of the few bikers ever to
ride this loop.
Next
up would be the Leatherwood Overlook. We moved the car to the large parking
area on the south side of TN 297 and headed off on what is now the North White
Oak Multi-use Trail. Again, we were lucky that this was another smooth,
well-maintained gravel road. Less than a mile in, the horse loop would join the
trail for about a half mile, but the trail never got worse than a little sandy
with some pockmarks from hoof prints. The hitching posts for the end of the
horse section of the trail were 2.8 miles in and again it was another short
walk to a beautiful, fenced overlook with no other visitors.
The Leatherwood Overlook is one of the park’s less appreciated sites. It overlooks the River south of the Highway Bridge and across from the developed area on the east rim. The need to walk a few tenths of a mile means it is not a favorite of horse riders.
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| Leatherwood Overlook. |
The weekend proved a great introduction to riding in the BSF. As Jean and I grew more familiar with the park, and especially once we started our project to hike all the trails in the park region (BSF Map Blog), we sought out similar quiet rides through the forests that presented great rewards. In our quest to balance new trails with the fear of riding through horse mires, we would use much of what we had learned on this trip; check with the rangers, examine the starts of any trails you plan to ride, go early in the spring when the trails may still be firm, and most importantly grab the good weather when you can.
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| Our day 2 rides shown in purple (Coyle Branch was a previous trip). |
