Wednesday, October 16, 1996
Departure time: 9:30 AM; temperature 65° (f).
This was one of the most picturesque days of the trip from Michigan south and by far the toughest day. The mountain climbs were as bad today as some of the Canadian Rockies. I started writing this page at 1:30 AM (10/17) when I awakened in the night. I was too exhausted to write earlier and fell asleep early.
US-25 merged today with I-75, so we were forced to seek alternate routes through the mountains. The scenery was distinctly better than I-75, but some of the roads were quite poor. We had a couple of miles of gravel overall. I recommend our route to anybody riding through this part of the country. It is pure Appalachia.
Jellico is nestled in the mountains. In this south-facing picture,
I-75 goes north/south and US-25W goes east/west. We headed west from the
motel to breakfast, then west through Jellico, where we turned south on
Tennessee highway 297. Several people told us not to ride on 25W at this
point because traffic was heavy and there were no shoulders.
This is most definitely an election year. 
As we rode
down 297, we saw quite a collection of political posters in yards along
the road. We'd been seeing them all the way from Williamston, Michigan (I
had a Betty Stabenow for Congress poster in my yard). I thought I should
include a photo of some for those of you who are watching this website from
other parts of the world. This is America's democracy in action. I don't
know how much influence such posters have, but I do believe that people
watch to see how their friends and neighbors are voting. If you think highly
of the landowner, you're likely to think highly of their choice as candidate.
On the other hand, if you think the neighbor is an idiod, you might downgrade
the candidate's image too. I think it feels good too to take a stand on
the candidates. As a politician myself, I guess I have to believe that.
Yesterday and today, we saw some incredible growths of kudzu.
As I understand it, the kudzu vine was brought into the US by a Japanese
man. The vine is incredibly hearty and overwhelms all other vegetation.
The vines in this photo are covering (more like "smothering")
the trees in the area. I saw some that had grown so much that they broke
the limbs of the trees they were smothering. I'm sure the kudzu vines pull
down power lines and crush fences and unused buildings. I'd hate to buy
land covered with kudzu; you wouldn't know what was under there. There could
be fences, power lines, buildings, dead bodies, animals, etc. I wonder how
well kudzu would grow where vegetation is needed, like Madagascar or Ethiopia?
Could this vine be used to re-vegetate a desert? Or, could it be used as
a substitute for trees in making long-fiber paper, like hemp is? It is sure
plentiful.
TN 297 is a pleasant road to ride on. The traffic was light and the scenery beautiful. We did have some steep climbs; but what else would we expect in the mountains?
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I was surprised to see that the fall colors were more evident
here than they were when we left Michigan, further north. The hardwood canopy
above us was quite beautiful in its fall colors. As I stood there taking
this picture, acorns and leaves were falling on me from the trees above.
As we approach the deep south, we are occasionally reminded of
the region's 
dark side. I hope this is just one "kook"
wasting paint on highway sign graffiti and that he doesn't represent any
significant part of the society in the area.
The KKK and bullet hole were disturbing.
This is Appalachia. This pig smiled at me as I rode past--note
the mud on her nose. The house next door showed the usual collection of
odds and ends in the yard. 
At about 50% of the houses
we passed today, there was somebody sitting on the front porch. I was too
timid to take their pictures. It is all somewhat reminiscent of the movie
Deliverance, but I wasn't afraid as I rode my bike along. The people often
waived and yelled encouragement as they saw my sign.
I was amazed at the number of junk collectors in the area. When I lived in Fairbanks there was a guy up the street whose yard was filled completely with junk. He had old cars, trucks, 50 gallon drums, heavy equipment, piles of wire, steel beams and even an entire bridge. He'd go to auctions (at the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company or at Ft. Wainwright Army Base) and get incredible bargains on surplus equipment. It didn't seem to matter that he had no use for it (a bridge on a hill?), if it was a deal, he bought it. There is a similar junk yard a few miles south of my home in Williamston, Michigan too. There seemed to be more than the usual number of such places in the hills of Tennessee. The mobile home yard above is just one of many such places.
We passed some truly beautiful scenes that would best be photographed with a 5" x 7" or 8" x 10" view camera, but I tried with my trusty Casio. I hope this conveys some of the beauty to you.
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At Pioneer, Tennessee, I mailed a postcard home at a US Post Office in the middle of nowhere. There were no other buildings in sight. We then jumped onto Tennessee 63 for a mile or so, where we turned off onto "the old road." There was no sign at the intersection and the map doesn't give the "old road" between Pioneer and Caryville a name or number.
Incidentally, the maps (especially the regional state maps, like "Eastern Tennessee") furnished to me by Universal Map, have been wonderful. When I showed the Eastern Tennessee map that we used today, to local folks they marveled at how good a map we had.
The "old road" was once paved, but there are some significant
gravel gaps and what pavement there is was quite broken up. This road is
a "must see" for anybody riding their bicycles through the area.
You feel as though you are seeing Tennessee just as the pioneers saw it.
Though our progress was slow, we saw some truly great mountain scenes.
This old railroad track with ties piled up along its edge looked like
something from an old cowboy movie.
The vegetation was at its best in these woods. We were told that the fall colors here will peak-out in about a week.
I saw another snake in the road. This one was right on the edge
of the pavement and I didn't 
notice it until my right foot was about
a foot away. It startled me, but luckily, it was dead.
I can't overemphasize how gorgeous the scenery was today or how
great the ride. In a couple of hours on "the old road" we saw
only a handful of cars. We climbed some really serious mountains. Though
there were no grade percentage markings, we estimated that some of the climbs
were in excess of 10%. I was down in the lowest gear on my granny chain
ring and 
stopping occasionally to wipe the perspiration
out of my eyes (it was about 80°). Some of the climbs were made worse
by road conditions (gravel, heaves, cracks, etc).
From the "old road" at Caryville, we had intended to ride on US-25W, but realized that 25W merged onto I-75 (where bicycles are prohibited), so we were forced over to Tennessee 116 along the eastern edge of I-75 to Lake City. The traffic was heavier and this segment was not as enjoyable.
At Lake City, we got on 25W to Clinton. This was semi-urban riding.
The 
road was 4-lane at times and traffic was very
heavy. At Clinton, we headed west along the Clinch River on Tennessee 61
(a busy 4-lane), where we saw a Coast Guard dredge in the river. We then
headed down the Oak Ridge Parkway (Tennessee 95) into Oak Ridge. This was
one of the scariest parts of the trip. It was 4-lane with no shoulders and
very intense traffic coming real close to us.
We were worn out by the time we got to Oak Ridge. We stayed at a Days Inn and walked across to a more luxurious hotel for refreshments. A beer really hit the spot.
Total miles today: 60 (hard miles).
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© Ed Noonan 1996, 1997