To paraphrase Robert Burns, sometimes the best laid plans often go awry and leave us nothing but grief and pain for promised joy. The Vigilante 120 is 120 miles of mixed trails and gravel roads traversing the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, Daniel Boone National Forest, and Picket State Forest. About 50 miles of dirt with 70 miles of gravel and very few miles of pavement. We’d planned it months in advance. Lining up a single weekend where 13 of us could join up and hopefully not have horrible weather. Well… 2 outta 3 ain’t all that bad.
“Why is it called Vigilante? The title is in reference to a true story about a local event in 1933. A young moonshiner named Jerome Boyatt was about to be arrested when shots were fired. A lawman from nearby Byrdstown, TN was killed and another one was wounded. (He died a couple of days later). Boyatt fled the scene and hid out near the community of No Business. After a few days, his father’s body was found hanging in his kitchen. Jerome turned himself in to authorities in Scott county…he thought he would be safe there because all of his trouble had begun in Pickett county. However, soon after his arrest and incarceration in Huntsville, men wearing hoods entered the jailhouse, assaulted the jailer, and left with Jerome and his cellmate (who also was in jail for shooting a lawman in an a completely different event). Both inmates were killed. The bottom line: 5 people were dead–and no one ever stood trial for anything. Vigilante justice was served. Enjoy your bicycle journey as you travel through No Business.” — bsfmtbgg via RideWithGPS
We all met up early Friday morning at Pickett State Park to bluebird skies and cool temps. It looked to be a glorious weekend of bikepacking and camping in the BSF area. I’d ridden the gravel loops before, but adding in the singletrack along with getting to ride with friends whom I don’t get to see nearly enough anymore, was the proverbial icing on top of an already mouthwatering cake. We’d planned a 3 day – 2 night excursion accumulating 40ish miles a day with some bailout options for a few that couldn’t stay the entire weekend.
A late winter storm had ripped through the area wresting trees from the ground and scattering them across the roads and trails mere weeks before out trip. Thankfully the rangers and several volunteers (such as our co-route planner Kenny) worked for days to clear the way. Their work was immediately noticeable upon the first turn onto singletrack. A slice of heaven upping the excitement for the days ahead. This was going to be a killer trip and thanks to the hard work of others, we’d be reaping the reward of clear trails.
When planning a group ride, the successfulness of an adventure not suffering from multiple mechanical failures derailing the fun is inversely proportional to the number of people invited. Past personal experiences has the magic number at 5 with decreasing success occurring from 7 on up. We had lucky 13. A baker’s dozen. I had my doubts but the amazing trails, the bluebird skies, and the instant camaraderie amongst disparate riding factions (aka many just met before we rolled out) had me quell the little doubt monster lurking in the back of my mind. Everything was going according to plan.
Shortly after snapping the photo above, feeling really good and enjoying the flowy singletrack, me, Jeremy, and Andy (left in the photo above) opened the legs up and bit and took off down the trail. We got a few miles ahead and came across a downed tree and decided to wait for the rest of the group which would be along shortly. Or so we thought. Several minutes later Chandler (above right) showed up without the group. Apparently someone had suffered a mechanical back in the group and Stephen was working his trailside magic on it to get everyone rolling again. We decided to sit tight as the group should be coming along any minute.
After more minutes than should have elapsed, I decided to roll back and see if they needed help. Rapha Rick had cleanly snapped the upper bracket off of his rear derailleur. Normally a quick singlespeeding setup would have allowed him to limp out of the woods while still being able to ride, however a unique quirk of the offset hub spacing of his rear wheel had the chain trying to climb UP the cassette upon pedaling and down the cassette when freewheeling, making it nigh impossible without a tensioner to run an SS setup on his bike. And without the upper bracket, his RX800 rear derailleur would be of no use as a tensioning option. Rick was left with the option of hoofing it on foot and scoot-biking the downhills. We weren’t even 20 miles into the ride yet and already having to make plans to cut part of the trip short for some. Luckily for Rick, Geoff offered to ride back and get his car while Rick limped his way towards Pickett via a gravel road.
Before we’d split as a group, we were just a mile and a half or so from the planned lunch spot – an overlook looking down into No Business where we’d planned to camp night 2. It was a perfect lunch spot and given the passing hours and lack of food stops, morale could use the boost a bit of glucose and calories provide. We all took in the views and stuffed our faces with our lunches while discussing options. We’d planned our departure to allow us enough daylight to get to camp without the need for lights. However due to the size of the group and other technical hurdles, we’d been burning daylight faster than initially expected. The next section of trail, the Kentucky Trail, was notorious throughout portions of the group as being difficult at best and “I’m not riding that again” – esque at worst. So we planned to split the group. Geoff and Rick would head back and meet back up with us at camp. A second group would skip the singletrack and just take the gravel road up a few miles and reconnect with the route there and continue to camp. While the rest of us rode the KY trail and original route, because “you don’t get a patch if you don’t complete the route”.
Apparently not all of us understand sarcasm and by the time we reached the turn off for the KY Trail, most of the group were no longer going. So rather than split the 2 route planners from the rest of the group, we made the call to stay together and head on to camp as it was still going to be another 4 or so hours. So we pressed on filtering water from springs (thanks Kenny) and making our way up into Kentucky and around Daniel Boone National Forest towards camp.
Once at camp we all set about getting our tents up and gear sorted before settling in to cook dinner together. It’d been a long but fun day. Everyone’s spirits were up, stories and beverages were shared, and all were excited about what day 2 would have in store for us. Sadly Ma Nature had other plans, but we’ll save that tale for part two.
