Citico Creek - E TN goodness!

I've heard of people riding down in Citico Creek for a long time. For some reason, it never really sparked my interest...I kinda had this image of large, chunky, deep gravel, and endless, steep climbs...a long day in the saddle moving slow...but WOW, was I wrong.   A couple weeks post-Kanza, I was itching to get on my gravel bike again and threw out the idea of riding Citico to some of the local long ride guys in town. I wanted somewhere different, somewhere shady and hopefully a bit cooler than Knoxville, somewhere to avoid the same ol' same ol'. They were all about it. Let the adventure begin.

Jimmy Deane leading the way

The ride started on Citico Creek Road - a river-grade road that gently climbed for the first 10 miles or so. You really couldn't ask for a better warm up, the road was fast rolling and meandered along the creek, allowed us to move along in a pack, keeping cool from the air coming off the water.  Every once in a while there'd be a random sections of pot holes that would sneak up on you. No big deal, unless you were riding behind others and not really looking at the road...I learned the hard way that hitting these holes would (and did) eject some of my food from my (not closed) Revelate Mountain Feedbag...hope I don't need those 500 calories.

Farr Gap.  I've heard of this climb, kinda expected hard and steep.  In reality, fun, fast and easy.  It too was hardpacked dirt, fast rolling, and maybe 4-5%, nothing big deal.  It climbed for 6 miles or so, but really didn't seem like it, stayed a pretty consistent grade.  Once on top, the road pretty quickly turned down, terminating close to where it started.  The downhill was a bit more varying, kinda more of a rolling downhill. It too would be a fun climb if you reversed the route and rode in a clockwise direction...next time.

The view up on top

One great thing about riding over here was access to the campground store in Indian Boundary Campground, its pretty close to  most of the dirt roads on the north side of the parkway. They had the typical campground treats,  soft drinks, candy bars, ice cream....all over priced, but well worth it as a mid ride fuel stop.  We consumed many calories, filled our bottles and were shortly off to part two of the ride.

This is where the adventure portion of the ride started...meaning lets go find some roads that were new to all of us, lets go seek and ride the unknown. A few things you should know about riding in National Forests are 1. You need to have a map, 2. Not all roads/ trails are on the map, and 3. Some roads/trails that are on the map may not really exist anymore.  We were armed with this knowledge, and set off to ride some new roads...what we found was some incredible riding. We rode twisting downhills that winded around and below gigantic rock formations (Turkey Creek), climbed steep broken asphalt roads(Shaw Mtn), and descended blazing fast slopes that ducked in and out of the trees as it dropped into the ravine (Shaw Mtn too)- and then, we we back at the store?  Hmmmm, ok, lets grad some water, then go try to find this one road that would be a short cut back to the cars. Lucky for us, we ran into a local who told us the road we desired was just up the road, across from the "for sale" sign, easy to find.  And one more thing, it was "pretty much all downhill."  Great!   We rode on, found the road (36-1?) just as he described, then proceeded to climb and descend a decent amount over the next five or so miles.  Granted the road did drop off the mountain the last couple of miles (fast, and rutted to keep you on you toes), but the six or seven miles prior were at best as described as "a whole lot of rollers." Thing to know #4. people in cars don't really have a good grasp of whats pretty much all down hill.

Checking the map before the unknown

The ride ended with an easy cruise back to the car along for a total of 70ish miles.  Great stuff, and we barely scratched the surface.

Our route

The beta: Citico Creek is closer than you think, you don't have to drive down to Tellico to access the roads.  We parked at the church here, it seemed pretty secure.  Outside of camping season, you can park at any of the campsites on Citico Road, but it's pretty busy in the warm months. Food and water are available at Indian Creek Campground, I believe its closed in the cold months, so be prepared.  Fat CX tires are good, but bring tubes with ya, we had a few flats.

It starts with Kanza

Kanza, what can you say? It's weird to start off an Appalachian blog with a post about Kansas, but that's where it starts...so here goes...Kanza.

They said Kanza would be an experience that you wouldn't forget, something that would change you, something unlike like what you've done before...Did it live up to its hype? Yes.

Waiting for the sun to rise.

Kanza was an experience  that I was very happy to be part of. It's an interesting event, partially due to its length, partially due to it wide open expanse, partially to the heat, wind, & dust and partially due to its endless rollers that disappear into the horizon.

10 miles from the start, before the true Flint Hills

The scenery in the Flint Hills was amazing. Endless, I mean endless rolling, green, grassy hills. The most azure blue sky you will ever see...clouds that just pop out at you. The dirt roads. oh the dirt roads.  Whether they rolled over the hills like a ribbon until they disappeared into the horizon, or whether they wound up and around the panorama in front of you, you had no surprises in where you were headed...you were out there, really out there. This was Kansas, but not the Kansas anyone knows.

Early morning

It's weird how this race plays out. The first 50 or so miles everyone is riding fast, trying to get a good position, deciding of if they are going to be a contender for a top spot, or if they are just racing for a good finish time (and Racing the Sun), or just trying to finish. Its a fun time, riding with big packs, bombing down sketchy roads trying not to hit anything too hard, trying to hide from the wind -and not to burn too much energy. This is very different from how the last 50 or so miles is described. It kinda eerie. Riders riding in small groups of two or three, riding in silence. Each rider dealing with the pain and fatigue in their own way.  There's nothing really to say, everyone is feeling the same thing...sore back and neck, tired legs, tired of sitting on the most comfy seat you own and tired of holding on that vibrating handle bar. You understand each other without any words needing to be said.  You become two or three riders riding as one.  It doesn't matter who of your groups finishes first, or if you catch that guy you see a mile up the road.  In silence, everyone is in agreement, you ride as one to finish the race. A bond definitely forms.  If one of my group fades, we slow to wait, I someone needs to stop for a second, we all stop. Some would call this section the Death March. I'm not so sure... yes, we were in survival mode, but it wasn't a ride to death, I was a ride to completion.

The experiences. Being on the bike for 12 hours, you just have them. Having a cow stampede cross our path, with a break in the cows just big enough and timed exactly for our group to pass through is something I'll never forget...not sure how that happened, but wow it was rad. The crop duster that made a hard 90 degree turn a 100 feet above the road, then flew right along the road giving me the thumbs-up...talk about a boost to the moral.  Rolling into the small towns, with the local kids giving you five...yes!  And then there's the finish, quite an amazing finish. the long shoot, with hundreds of people on either side out you shouting, ring bells and giving you five. It's a fine way to finish the day.  My mind is kinda foggy during those last few blocks of the race, but I remember the cheering, I remember the announcer saying my name and mentioning Tennessee, and I remember shaking Jim Cummins hand (the race director) right after crossing the line...I looked him in the eye and said "That was hard." I just got a little smile and a chuckle back.

 It was hard, and it was great

The finish