Grand opening -- New mountain-bike route brings 'time-share' trails to Big South Fork

By Morgan Simmons
Knoxville News Sentinel
July 9, 2006

ONEIDA, Tenn. - We dismounted from our mountain bikes and walked to the edge of the overlook. Five hundred feet below us was Angel Falls Rapid - a boulder-strewn stretch of the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River that already has claimed two lives.

Back on our bikes, we followed the single-track trail past several gorge overlooks that rivaled the one at Angel Falls. Close to the cliff line, the surface beneath our tires switched from sandy soil to bare rock. It was like biking in Utah, but with trees.

We were on Grand Gap Loop, a seven-mile trail in the heart of the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area that will open to mountain bikers on July 17, under an experimental plan that allows mountain biking and hiking on weekdays, and only hiking on weekends.

While "time-share" trails aren't exactly new - the Tsali Trail system in North Carolina's Nantahala National Forest designates alternating days for mountain biking and horseback riding - this is the first time the Big South Fork has put such a management strategy to the test.

Until now, the Grand Gap Loop has been strictly for hiking. The loop is best known for its overlooks along the Big South Fork River gorge. There are numerous switchbacks that require fairly technical bike-handling skills, and special caution is advised in places where the trail hugs the cliff line. In terms of difficulty, Grand Gap Loop is an intermediate-level mountain-bike ride.

Congress authorized the Big South Fork in 1974. The area was established in part to protect the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River and its tributaries, which provide some of the finest whitewater boating in the Southeast.

In addition to protecting the river gorges, the National Park Service also is charged with providing public recreation opportunities in the Big South Fork. Horseback riders, hikers, hunters and mountain bikers are among the user groups that share the 120,000-acre area.

The experimental time-share between mountain bikers and hikers on the Grand Gap Loop is part of the park's new general management plan. Park managers will be soliciting input from both user groups over the next couple of years, and if the Grand Gap experiment is successful, other trails may open up to mountain bikers under similar shared-use management.

"It's a way of accommodating two user groups with only one facility being needed," said Paul Stoehr, assistant superintendent for the Big South Fork.

We recently test-rode the Grand Gap Loop on a sweltering weekday summer afternoon. Leading the trip were Joe Cross, president and founder of the Big South Fork Bicycle Club, and Bryan Wender, botanist for the Big South Fork.

Initially, the trail took us through dense woods, but the scenery changed dramatically after we reached the rim of the gorge. Most obvious were the dead pine trees, which, having been killed during the Southern pine beetle epidemic that swept through the Cumberland Plateau six years ago, jutted out of the ground like bleached bones.

A set of downhill switchbacks brought us to a second overlook. Riding parallel to the bluff line, we biked through boulder gardens, and as the trail dropped, we passed rock shelters carved out of sandstone.

It was an opportunity to see some of the finest geological treasures of the Big South Fork, but by bike, rather than on foot.

Big South Fork is one of the few areas managed by the National Park Service that permit mountain biking. Over the years the Big South Fork Bicycle Club has been one of the park's most active volunteer groups. They played a key role in getting the park's original mountain-biking trail system built, and they have agreed to maintain the Grand Gap Loop.

Additionally, the club has entered into a formal agreement with the National Park Service to patrol the trails in the park to provide aid and assistance to visiting mountain bikers.

Cross said the Grand Gap Loop would be a step up in terms of difficulty from the Collier Ridge Loop, West Bandy and Duncan Hollow Loop - the park's original mountain-bike trails.

"Those first trails are a great place for beginner riders," Cross said. "The new trails require a little more advanced riding skills."

During the last few miles of Grand Gap Loop, we left the rim of the river gorge and rode through the deep woods. One of the pleasures of mountain biking in the Big South Fork is experiencing the change in scenery as you travel from the top of the plateau to the moist, cool environs below the bluff line.

Wender, who oversees the park's vegetative management, said the gorges of the Big South Fork contain forest types similar to what's seen in the higher elevations of the Smokies.

"This place is topographically complex, which makes for an interesting array of plants," Wender said. "The Smokies get so much attention, but we're on the same level, with our own unique set of plant species."