Cycling in Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Cades Cove

Every Wednesday morning Cades Cove Loop Road is closed to car traffic to allow cyclists free reign through this scenic valley. Daniel is never going to pass up an opportunity to pedal, so we hired single-speed bikes and sped off into the morning fog. Except we slowed down pretty quick. Turns out there isn't much juice left in one's legs the day after climbing a mountain. And the bikes were as stiff as our knee joints.

Magic

This hill was bigger than it looks, ok?

The loop isn't overly steep but there are more than a few rolling hills. In particular, there are two which you're supposed to walk your bike down. Naturally we ignored this sage advice. There would have been no dramas had Daniel not decided to lay down a skid of epic proportions (his words) halfway down. He managed to keep control for a few seconds before drifting sideways down the wet road, finishing upright but facing the wrong way and in the bushes. The GoPro was filming from my head, so he was pretty chuffed. Come to think of it, that was probably the reason he attempted this display of prowess (his words) or idiocy (my words) in the first place...

Challenge accepted...

The loop weaves through forests and meadows, and passes by a number of historic buildings which reflect pioneer life in 19th-century Appalachia. Interestingly though, they don't reflect the area when the park was chartered in 1934. The residents of Cades Cove were strongly resistant to the park's creation, and their properties were eventually seized by eminent domain. By this time, most of the locals were living in modern frame residences rather than the log cabins which have been preserved.

Old Homestead

On the Tennessee side of the Smokies (the park straddles Tennessee and North Carolina) there are two main gateway towns: Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. These have to be two of the most bizarre places we've visited. The main street of Gatlinburg looks like this: candy store, novelty t-shirt store, gaming arcade, ice-cream store, Ripley's attraction, and then just repeat. Four or five times. It's the strangest adjunct to an area of outstanding natural beauty. It seemed to be just as much of a tourist attraction as the park itself, although who knows for what reasons. We did play mini golf though. I won, just in case you didn't assume.