This past weekend, I was fortunate enough to get some adventure time with my good friend Kenny. We’d just built up a brand new 2022 Brother Cycles Mehteh adventure gravel bike for him and I knew the perfect way to break it in: an often talked about but never acted on packraft trip around Big South Fork.

A rough outline of a plan was hatched about a week or so out from the upcoming holiday weekend. Initially a multi-day adventure was planned, but as life has a way of doing, as the weekend drew nearer, our available time had grown smaller. So a big day of adventure was the final plan. Some earlier route scouting had concluded some trepidatious cliff access only potential, so we made the call to play it safer (for brevity of an already long days adventure planned) and started the trip with a gently paved descent to the Leatherwood access point.

After the short ride from the Bandy Creek Visitor center, we found ourselves surrounded by grey skies and billowy fog rising from the trees above. We quickly settled in to inflating and packing up our rafts for the 8 mile paddle. Storms raged in the area overnight and had been predicted all morning long, but the skies remained bright but overcast with just some gently off and on drizzle. The radar showed strong storm potentials around 1pm so we’d need to be swift to avoid being stuck on the river in a lightening storm.

The paddle to Angel Falls was swift and adventureous with myriad rapids and rock puzzles to paddle through. We’d feared having to portage much of the river due to earlier scouting trips and low-ish water levels, but we had plenty of float thanks to the recent rains and only a few minimal bottom scrapes through the larger rock features. It was shaping up to be a fantastic day on the river. After a slighly more arduous than expected portage around Angel Falls (practically manditory simply due to lower water levels through the falls) we found ourselves in tranquil waters with amazing views. Neither of us had seen the park from the river before. Looking up you could see the Grand Gap overlooks and the bike trail covered in a thick blanket of mist and fog, all the while river level was clear and crisp. Knowing we had friends up enjoying the trails of the IMBA Epic, we kept keen eyes peeled for each overlook, hoping for a familiar wave. 

The tranquility would soon be tested as we encountered 5 miles of flatwater. So much for current assisted paddling! With the time of the expected storms now approaching hitting us halfway through the river section, there wasn’t much time available to dilly or dally, so we paddled on. As our arms ached, the sky brightened, the rain fully stopped, and we were greeted with stunningly perfect weather and absolutely no headwind, so our winning, despite a bit of suffering, was still happening. Score!

Just when the Type II fun was about to seemingly turn towards that nasty Type III fun, we spotted the flags marking our river exit point. Instantly, a return to Type I fun. We deflated the rafts and repacked/assembled the bikes and headed off for the off-road stretch of the day. We’d enjoyed pavement, paddling, some double-track/green lanes, singletrack, and gravel along our loop. If only we’d had a horse and an airplane we’d had hit most modern methods of travel (hot air balloons and zeppelins not withstanding) in a 6 hour jaunt.

It was such a grand day out in nature. The Mehteh’s handled the tasks at hand with aplomb and proved the well rounded capability of a ATB (All Terrain Bike). Huge thank you out to Kenny for handling the driving duties and making this dream trip happen despite all the hurdles. Enjoy the gallery of memories and moments from the trip. Also, check out the coal line along the Angel Falls trail. First one I’ve seen out there.

After the torrential rain and flooding of the previous weekend, the weather stayed bluebird and perfect. Spring in TN is almost as amazing as Fall in TN. Crisp sunny days, not a lot of bugs, and great water. Having traveled the last weekend, it was going to be nice to have a quiet weekend at home. The shop has been flooded (literally and figuratively) and an epic adventure would be the perfect ticket to refresh mind, body, and soul. Luckily my wanderlust has found a apt partner in Kenny. We’d been talking of doing a bike to paddle ride for quite some time, but life just hadn’t allowed the stars to align. That is until last Sunday.

Kenny swung by the shop early Saturday morning just before the storm of Saturday customers hit and we roughly crafted a route to the river. He later tweaked it and sent me an updated version Saturday night that I loaded up on my Wahoo Sunday morning just as he was pulling into the driveway. The plan was to head out of town, ride some quiet lanes to gravel, put in on Spring Creek and paddle to the boils on the Roaring River, pack up and ride some gravel and country roads home. About a 35ish mile ride with a 5-6 mile paddle in the middle. No shuttle required. 

We wove our way from my place on roads I never even knew existed. Previously anything Northeast of my house has been pretty much off limits to cycling due to insane amounts of traffic, narrow twisty roads, no shoulder, rumble strips, and poor visibility. Yet Kenny had mapped out some of the hilliest, quietest, prettiest roads I’ve yet ridden so close to home. In less than 3 miles we were winding our way on quiet country lanes and taking in views of the ridge. The paved lanes wound round and eventually turned to gravel.

The gravel road eventually parallels the river and we stopped at the first put in. The river was flowing solid with some ripples, rapids, and strainers to contend with, but beautifully clear turquoise water. We quickly set about unpacking and inflating the boats and assembling our paddles. Bikes and gear strapped down, we began the next phase of the days’ adventure. One of the “pro’s” for moving back to TN was the proximity and access to so many rivers. I’d been unable to procure my packraft until I was living in Colorado, which I used it frequently, but the ability to ride and paddle multiple rivers was harder to coordinate without requiring much more planning and driving. The packraft is at home in TN and there are myriad trips dreamt up already, especially now that Kenny also has one he snagged from the Outdoor Experience. 

The river provided us with fresh perspectives of roads ridden. Cabins and homes hidden from the road were in full view from the river. Recent flood victims of toys, trailers, tents, sheds, clothing, and other debris littered the banks and gave an oft eerie vibe. Parts of the river were moving fast and others full of wide slow eddies and wind hampering forward progress. Midway we ran into a downed tree causing a river wide strainer. I got stuck on the rocks and in the branches leaving poor Kenny the bad line and washing him directly into the strainer. Boat capsized, him trying to climb up, boat and bike stuck in the tree it was a harrowing few minutes but we were able to get Kenny and gear back to safety. A reminder of how even what seems the most mundane tasks can quickly take a turn for the worse. We’d just been discussing needing to acquire a throw bag shortly before too. 

Shortly before we reached the boils along the Roaring river, we stopped at a rocky beach with access to a gravel road to get us back to Blackburn Fork for our route home. We deflated our boats, broke down the paddles, and strapped everything back up to the bikes. A feat which I never do exactly the same but somehow always end up with a tighter and better pack that previous attempts. My whole setup is under 5lbs and so easy to carry either by bike, backpack, or car. I’ve hiked it up to glacial mountain lakes, stopped on cross country car trips to get a paddle in, and ridden with it stuffed into a messenger bag on bike paths along rivers for a shuttle-less happy hour river run. I can inflate it in under a minute and a half, and have it broken down in under 5 minutes. Pretty cool gear and a hobby inspired in 2008 by friend and fellow bike adventurer Eric Parsons of Revelate Designs fame. 

Arriving home I was cooked. It’d been an amazing day on the bike and on the river. We lucked out on with amazing weather, a perfect route, and an experience to fuel us throughout the workweek until we can get out and play again. The upper Cumberland is a pretty unique area. It hosts beautiful waterfalls, myriad rivers, and incredible riding opportunities. A bit of imagination, some decent gear, and a buddy to adventure with is all one needs to reap the riches that await.