Big South Fork Tennesse

NPS staff, local mountain bike advocates and Trail Care Crew leaders rolled up their sleeves together in the Big South Fork National Recreation Area.
Anna and Jason pause on one of their new favorite trails: the Grand Gap to John Muir link-up.
The Grand Gap to John Muir linkup stands out as one of Jason and Anna's favorite rides in the Southeast.

After quite a bit of time spent in some very flat terrain, Jason and I were in awe as we plunged into the canyons of Big South Fork National Recreation Area in Tennessee. The canyon walls seemed to extend forever and we were thrilled to spot a ribbon of singletrack rolling along the top of them. Not knowing if the trail was open to bikes or if we would have time to check it out we drove on to meet Joe Cross, the mountain bike trail guru of Oneida TN and local coordinator for our Trailbuilding School.

Joe started us off with a tour of the Collier Ridge trail, stopping to assess problem areas and layout our project for Saturday. Collier Ridge was enjoyable, but we wondered quietly if we would get to ride our bikes on the trail atop the cliffs. Big South Fork National Recreation Area is one of a growing number of National Parks focused on creating sustainable shared-use trail opportunities for mountain bikers and hikers. Joe Cross has been very involved in making this happen at Big South Fork by volunteering hundreds of hours every year to maintain and build trail in the park while working closely with land managers and local cyclists. We're pretty sure he has also invented a time machine as he is a full time pharmacist, dad, and husband who still finds the time to ride and work on trails, always with a smile on his face.

Saturday brought a crew of enthusiastic trail builders and National Park representatives. IMBA's newest IMBA Trail Care Crew, Kelly and Collins Bishop, drove up from their home in Chattanooga to play in the dirt. The conditions were prime for putting some fun twisty trail on the ground and we all had a great time working, learning and talking trails. Our project consisted of rerouting a fall line segment to the contour of the hill. As soon as the work was done the enthused volunteer builders hopped on their bikes and gave it the stamp of approval.

As for that elusive ribbon of trail perched on top of the endless cliffs...

Big South Fork offers some of the most scenic singletrack we have ridden in quite a while. The ridge-top trail is formed by linking the Grand Gap Loop and John Muir Trail. Better yet, we got to ride with a great crew of locals and two National Park Rangers. The fact that these trails are in a National Park, they are open to mountain biking, and are hands down some of the best trails we've seen made for a thrilling experience.

If you would like to test our claim, go visit the park and grab a map. Look for Grand Gap Loop and the John Muir trails. Both trails are open to mountain biking and hiking Monday through Friday but closed to mountain biking on Saturday and Sunday. Park managers are looking at the possibility of keeping these trails open on the weekends but have not decided to do so yet. Please be courteous and only ride when they are open.