With all the attention that Frozen Head gets for its hiking and trail running opportunities, people tend to forget that there are options for mountain biking as well. The entire Lookout Tower Trail (aka the Jeep Road) is open for riding from the campground to Tub Spring and the Lookout Tower, and then down to TN 116 at Armes Gap. In addition, the side road to Coffin Springs is open to bikes, or at least it was when I rode it in 2003.
There
are a couple reasons why mountain biking hasn’t caught on at Frozen Head. The
first is the three mile long, 1,600 foot climb from the main trailhead to the
crest of Bird Mountain. After the main climb, there’s a nice long stretch of
rolling terrain to Panther Gap, but then it’s another 400’ climb in ¾ of a mile
up to the Lookout Tower. The back side is just as hilly, 1200’ of climbing in
2.7 miles from Armes Gap.
The
second reason is the roadbed. Sure, a jeep road sounds like a nice cushy
surface for riding, but the reality is often different. The first three miles
of the road that climb to the crest of Bird Mountain can be loose and rocky,
depending on how long it has been since the road was graded. Some summers the
road is washed out enough that ATVs rather than pickup trucks are the main mode
of transport. The Park does it best to keep the road and its networks of culverts
and drainage ditches clear, but this only postpones how long the road can stay
open before regrading is necessary. I’ve spent enough volunteer days clearing
culverts to know that it doesn’t take much rain to plug things up again.
I
know a modest number of riders who’ve ridden at Frozen Head, but not too many
who have come back to repeat their rides. Dave Engebretson, the former park
manager was the only regular rider I knew, but then he lived in the park. Most
of us ride there once, and quickly realize that there are many easier places to
go.
By
the summer of 2003 I was in good biking shape, just having finished the riding
that would result in my third guidebook “Backroad Bicycling the Blue Ridge and
Smokies.” I was also starting to learn how to use my GPS unit more efficiently,
but not well enough for me to map out a trail yet, I was still just recording
waypoints of features along trails or routes. Still, I was looking for new
places to ride, and was curious to measure distances along the roads at Frozen
Head.
My
notes on the ride are mostly distances between features, primarily the trail
intersections, and transcripts of the trail signs that I passed. I did take a
few GPS waypoints, but I have no pictures from the ride.
I
started at 8:10 at the Macs Trailhead and rode through the campground to reach
the start of the Jeep Road. It’s a steady three mile climb to the top of Bird.
For me it was long first gear grind, I remember going slowly enough that I
thought I might tip over. The east end of the Bird Mountain Trail was well
marked then, but I didn’t see any sign of the connector trail at Bald Knob
leading north to the North Boundary Trail. I explored a bit there on foot, but
couldn’t match any of the overgrowth to the trail shown on the park map.
Beyond
the Bird Mountain Trail junction, the Jeep Road rambles along the mountain
crest far more amiably. I found the side trail to the campsite at Squire Knob
and walked to the little used area, and its cook table and fire ring. I also
took a side trip down the Coffin Springs “Trail” also a road, but one less
used, more overgrown, and more rutted. At the Coffin Spring Campsite, a trail
turned north and downhill, and a gate marked the park boundary. ATV tracks
stopped on the other side of the gate. The Cumberland Trail (now relocated)
exited the park up the ATV road.
I
rode back up to the Jeep Road, realizing that the ride to Coffin Springs loses
more elevation than one might expect. After the junction with North Old Mac
Trail in Panther Branch the Jeep Road steepens again. It’s a short, but
breathtaking climb to the South Old Mac junction at Tub Spring. The last piece
is the familiar spin up to the old Firetower, which hosted a designated
campsite back then. I reached the tower at 11AM and in 8.9 miles, including my
side trip.
Not
surprisingly, the descent back to the trailhead was easier and quicker. But not
as much of either as I’d hoped. The mountain crest segments were fine. Relieved
of my mileage recording duties, I could just roll on and enjoy the scenery. But
the descent down to the campground was still a bit of a chore. The road was
rocky and rutted enough that I couldn’t just let the bike roll and needed to
keep on the brakes the entire three miles, long enough to get a bit of cramping
in the hands. Without the side trip, I was back to the Old Macs TH in 16.2
miles.
Besides
my own trip, I’ve only seen sign of other riders at Frozen Head twice. The
first was on a snow covered winter day when I was doing some early Barkley
Training. I followed the track of a single rider along much of the Jeep Road to
Tub Spring. There, instead of continuing on the road or turning back, the trail
continued out on the Chimney Tops Trail. In those days I often finished my
training days with a descent down the Spicewood Trail because of its smooth
footing and gentle grade. The bike tracks that day went out to, and then down
the Spicewood Trail as well. I remember that the tracks were recent, with the
tread pattern pressed crisply into an inch or two of snow, and I wondered who
had the stamina to do the ride, and the nerve to leave their tracks so
obviously on a closed trail.
The
other rider I saw was even more unusual. Jean and I had just completed our
first volunteer training day for the E-mammal project at Frozen Head. E-mammal
was a research project investigating the effects of trail/roads and their use
on wildlife movement using game cameras. We’d learned to set up and calibrate
our cameras in the morning and then Jean and I went out in the afternoon and completed
our first placement near Bald Knob. As we approached the campground on the Jeep
Road, we were passed by the principle investigator for the project, on a
unicycle. According to his coworker he was a wiz, and had ridden up to the
tower and back.
