On this weekend’s Bent Arm Manway hike Ed Fleming and I got talking about mountain bike riding. I mentioned that I was looking to ride more this year, which is something I always say, but rarely do. He asked if I knew about the new mountain biking trails in Townsend. I don’t follow the MB action around town, and hadn’t heard of the area.
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| Entry to Vee Hollow. |
Ed is a unicyclist, with video that Pam has posted online to prove it. He was looking to try some trail riding (and he’s got the athletic ability to pull it off). He’d heard about Vee Hollow and went riding on some of the easy trails with Pam. He mentioned some signs at the trailhead and a gravel parking area, but didn’t know how large the system was. I checked online and found an advertised 14 miles of new machine built trail that opened early last winter. The overall area was small, and so the trail map looked like a bowl of spaghetti. There had been an enduro event there on Sunday, but with the weather clear on Monday I thought I’d go over and check it out. I hadn’t ridden much new trail around Knoxville lately, and this looked like it could be a fun new place.
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| The Little River from Vee Hollow Bridge. |
The parking area is next to Burger Master in Townsend down near the KOA. There was one other vehicle in the lot, and lucky for me the owner soon rode up. Frank lives in Walland so Vee Hollow was the closest riding for him. He was more into downhill type trails, but new the system well enough to give me tips on finding my way around and where to go. The tips helped a ton, as the trail map was hard to follow with unmarked junctions and few signs.
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| Boardwalk on the TN Trot Trail. |
I
rode past a skills area and then found the start of TN Trot, the main “easy”
trail up the hollow. Easy maybe wasn’t the right word for a 60+ guy who hadn’t
yet been off the greenway that year. There were a few tight turns and some
bumpy sections. But the flowers were nice and there was a long boardwalk near
the end. The trail is basically a long skinny loop up and down the hollow. Near
the bottom I ran into Frank again. We talked a bit more and he asked if I
wanted to follow him on a loop on the west mountain. His info on the trails
were that the land was privately owned by part of the Clayton family. They
owned campgrounds around Townsend and were trying to improve the recreation
options. He thought some of the climbs in the system were pretty tough, but
though there was a plan in place to rent E-bikes for the trails. We rode up
White Lightening with me struggling with the bike handling on the turns, then
down Juice, with me being super cautious on the rolling, bermy descents. We saw
our only other rider of the day for the first time here. Back at the bottom,
Frank took off and I went out for another loop, this time taking TN Trot to the
east mountain.
I
started up Angel Share, then turned onto Bandsaw, assuming it might have more gentle climbing. But these
“intermediate” trails were tough for me. There were lots of short steep climbs
and the trail was narrow, carved into a steep slope, and really twisty. This
would be just what an advanced mountain biker would want, but more than I could
do. I walked the bike on a lot of short steep pitches and around a series of
tight, bermed, hairpin turns. It was hard to imagine an average family group of
tourists riding that type of trail, but the terrain was steep and maybe the
builders had few other options. At one point I must have hit a rock throwing my
front wheel straight down the fall line. I managed to hook my arm around tree
bordering the trail to stop my fall and preventing a more serious crash, but
paid the penalty of two large abrasions on the inside of my arm. The contour
sections of Bandsaw never seemed to come, and the trail kept climbing upwards.
Finally, I gave up and tried a descent down Over Yonder, which seemed to have
been the route of the enduro, based on a ton of fresh tracks.
If anything, descending down Over Yonder was harder than climbing Bandsaw. There was a horde of tight, near vertical switchbacks. I had to walk all of those, and could barely scamper down while controlling my bike. I could see tracks where many of the enduro riders looked like they had left the trail.
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| Steep turn on Over Yonder Trail. |
But I made it down in one piece and with enough energy to ride another loop on TN Trot and add a quick trip up the dirt road that most closely follows Vee Hollow. My total for the day was 8.4 miles and 1,200’ of climbing in 2:50. Back at the trailhead I discovered that Burger Master is only open Th-Su in spring. Coming back again I need to stick to sections I rode with Frank, and possibly add the start of Bandsaw again, but this time short cut myself down Side Saddle, which was signed, and is shown as easy on the map. Is there enough doable riding for me to make another trip? Maybe, I’ll come out here with DK and see what he thinks.
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| Vee Hollow Trail map from website. |
