Why this ride
Open upland riding with long sight lines and varied gradients. It also links naturally to Cumberland Gap National Historical Park.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Great Smoky Mountains to Cumberland Gap
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 337 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 22
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Access context
Check seasonal gates, park access and state 511 notices before publication. Specific flag: weather.
Seasonal context
Mar-Nov
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Oneida
During the Civil War, Scott County, Tennessee, voted overwhelmingly to remain in the Union and, according to local tradition, declared itself the Free and Independent State of Scott, seceding from Tennessee after Tennessee seceded from the United States. Whether the declaration was a formal act or a defiant joke, the story is part of local pride, and Oneida, the largest town in the county, still carries a hint of that independent mountain streak. It is a working town of a few thousand people on the Cumberland Plateau, with stores, fuel and restaurants spread along US 27.
Read the complete Oneida write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Oneida sits at 0 km, early in the day. Next is Harrogate.
2. Harrogate
Three states meet on the ridge just above Harrogate, and for a century and a half before the railways, the notch in that ridge was the main door to the American West. Cumberland Gap, a natural pass through the long wall of Cumberland Mountain, carried buffalo, then Native American hunters and war parties, and from 1775 the Wilderness Road that Daniel Boone and his axemen blazed into Kentucky. Hundreds of thousands of settlers walked or rode through it. Harrogate, a town of a few thousand on the Tennessee side, sits right at its southern foot.
Read the complete Harrogate write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Harrogate comes up 76 km in. Next is Cumberland.
3. Cumberland
The highest ground in Kentucky rises right behind Cumberland. Black Mountain, at about 1,260 metres, lies just to the southeast on the Virginia line, and the town itself sits in the deep, narrow valley of Poor Fork of the Cumberland River beneath the long ridge of Pine Mountain. This is Harlan County, a name that carries heavy weight in American labour history, and the surrounding hollows were once among the most productive coal fields in the country.
Read the complete Cumberland write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
153 km in you reach Cumberland. Next is Tazewell.
4. Tazewell
Riders tend to roll through Tazewell on the way to somewhere more famous, Cumberland Gap to the north or the Smokies to the south, and that is a pity, because the country around this small Tennessee county seat is quietly excellent. Tazewell and its larger twin, New Tazewell, sit on a low ridge in Claiborne County between two long mountain walls, Powell Mountain and Clinch Mountain, with the Powell and Clinch rivers running in parallel valleys and Norris Lake spreading its many arms through the hills to the south.
Read the complete Tazewell write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Tazewell, late in the day.