Big South Fork, KY. has been waiting all these years

November 2, 2002 on 7:08 pm | In Mountain | No Comments

There was lots of anticipation going into Bio-Wheels’ 7th Annual Fall MTB Retreat.  Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area is far enough away from Cincinnati and Asheville that is seemed a fresh alternative to the usual venues of S-Tree and Cave Run Lake. BSF has a similar landscape to many of the areas around Kentucky, but it feels ‘bigger’.  Big South Fork sits in the Cumberland Plateau. Landscapes here are defined by drainages, instead of mountain ridges found just to the south and east.  Imagine starting with a flat surface, then chisel out gorges limited in breadth by some pretty strong sandstone rim-rock. Beneath the edge of the rim are countless cliffs and rock-houses hosting salamanders in mossy carpets, hold campfires and are often penetrated by waterfalls. Most in our well-traveled group the feeling of being in canyon-country of the southwest, only these gorges are draped in a thick coat of the Southern Appalachian biological community.

Saturday afternoon saw numerous small rides, as different groups tried to figure out which trails were best. The food was flowing all day long and everybody worked together to keep the big fire raging. From our base camp, we could check out many miles of Multi-Use Trail, and get some dedicated singletrack.

The group camp turned out to be pretty sweet. Very nice pavilion with beauty stone fireplace! Heated restrooms with hot showers! Are we camping?!?

It was very cold and well into the low 20’s by Friday evening. The weekend hosts Matt Johnson & Eric Krause lit the fire, made sure the Highland Ales had made the trip OK, and struck out on a night ride with the on-timers.  Far away from much light pollution, the display of shooting stars in such a clear, dark sky elicited lots of oooohhhhs & aaaahhhhhs

After lots of  planning,  Sundays ride looked to be pretty extensive. It would be a loop covering lots of ground, getting as much of this place scoped out as we could. A strong group of 17 got out of camp by 10:30. We cruised the first 4-5 mi. in no time; pretty good speed, double file over the table-land through the Oaks. It practically felt like we were in the warm-ups of a road ride.  Then came the edge, and what would be one of 4 drops into creek bottoms, followed by long slogs through mud to the steep climb back up to rolling doubletrack.  As the day progressed, trails seemed to get heavier impact from horses and ATV’s. Toward the end, we may as well have been riding on the beach. The fire road was almost level, but still, sand deep & fine enough forced a few from the expert crowd to just get off & walk a bit.

The group endured a rather harsh weekend, hammered average doubletrack with highlights (and sandpits), rekindled friendships and reaffirmed our mutual love of cycling in the woods.

Big South Fork is definitely horse country, but holds promise for those looking to choose their trails with care, and work like hell the rest of the time.

(Next Year- Asheville, for sure.)
Enjoy these old pic’s