Run Racoon Mountain right outside downtown Chattanooga

Blackberry has plenty of resources to put you on a ride (with a local guide - guys that can hang with the Pro Am) if you're already up there.

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My Blog - http://leegoocrap.blogspot.com

Ugh, I was afraid someone was going to say that about Clingman's Dome. I thought it would be cool to meet my wife at the top and walk up to the tower, will re-think it.

Nice tip on the hike, will check it out, thanks.

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

I am from NC just on the other side of the mountains and was in Tennessee in late October. I rode from Pigeon Forge to the top of Clingman's Dome; the Strava link is below. It was pretty amazing. I had my wife meet me at the top because I knew I'd be too wet and cold to descend. I started from the Airbnb where I was staying in Pigeon Forge, took a wide loop of about 20 miles to avoid Pigeon Forge and Gatlinberg and then entered the Parkway from the Sugarlands Visitor Center. You can always start from the Visitors Center as it sits right at the entrance to the Parkway. I had good cell service there, which is not always the case on the Parkway and is something you have to consider if you're being picked up. Whatever you do, avoid Gatlinberg and Pigeon Forge- you don't want to ride on the main road through those towns (441/321/ 71). I did really enjoy the segment of Little River Gorge/ Fighting Creek Gap Road that I took coming into the Sugarlands. I plan to explore that in future visits. That's part of the route between the Sugarlands and Cades Cove and I believe a ride between those two destinations would be quite nice, but I haven't done it and am not 100 percent sure.

When I do it again, I will probably start well before dawn because was a constant line of cars/ leaf lookers. I entered the Parkway around 8:30 a.m. and the cars were already plentiful. They weren't in a hurry or rude, but the road is narrow and there are a lot of large pick-up trucks and RVs. Also, I'm thinking of starting from the Sugarlands, riding up to Clingman's or maybe just NewFound Gap, then down the other side to Smokemont (close to Cherokee, NC), and then back. If my legs hold up, it would be a lot of fun.

https://www.strava.com/activities/4272917831

I'd run this trail instead of running the road loop in Cades Cove. I ran it on Christmas Eve one year. I'll never forget it.

I’ve done (run) both. Enjoyed the LeConte run because of the challenge but the Cades Cove run was cool because of all the bears I was able to see.

Just a general reply to the OP regarding Cades Cove operating hours...from the website...

The Cades Cove Loop Road is open daily from sunrise until sunset, weather permitting, with the following exceptions: The road is closed to vehicle traffic every Wednesday and Saturday until 10 a.m. from May 10 to September 27, 2017.

So Wednesday and Saturday mornings are a good time to bike or run the loop.

I forgot about that. Good reminder, thanks!

I had seen that, thank you. Will definitely be a Wednesday AM run if I do it. I had in my mind it was closer to the resort though, just mapped it as ~1hr each way . . . that's a tough nut for a 75min or 90min run. Maybe more realistic to try and ride there Wed morning, though it looks like the route is mostly on 321, which I think has already been discussed as an 'avoid'. Oh well, not going to be able to do everything that would be enjoyable.

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

Well, if I was going to Blackberry Farm, I would book some fly fishing time...but that’s just me. : )
I’ll be camping at Cades Cove the week after Chatt 70.3 and fly fishing the whole week...my recovery.

Would the ride from Sugarland to Clingman's dome be ok to do if you started at 6:00am? Would there be any other issues with an early morning ride to avoid the traffic? I am heading down in a few weeks and had this on my to do list. Not even sure if Sugarland would be open that early to park a car.

You may be ok during the weekdays. I used to start in downtown Gatlinburg and ride my bike to Cades Cove and back. Would start really early (around 6AM) just so I could get out before too many cars hit the road. On the way back to town, I also felt “safe” because all of the traffic was then heading towards Cades Cove, and I was heading toward town. It may be similar with Clingman’s. And I do believe Sugarlnds will be open

One thing I haven't asked yet . . . this is obviously a very hilly area, but what kind of grade are we looking at on these climbs in general? Strava says Clingman's dome is only 4.6% and the top Strava times are in the range of 15mph. I'd be a lot happier on my road bike, no doubt, but I *should* be riding my tri bike. Trying to get a sense for how miserable I'll be on the tri bike.

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

I don't know anyone that has done that climb on a tt bike (including the local pros)
It'd be a hell of a story, but I wouldn't want to do it

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My Blog - http://leegoocrap.blogspot.com

I don't see a lot of downside to riding your road bike. The descents will be more fun on your road bike too!

I think the start time depends a lot depends on your comfort level with both cars and darkness. When I do it again, I will aim to start ~15-20 minutes before morning twilight, which this time of year I think would be about 6 a.m. I'd be about an hour into the ride before it would be truly light. It's about 13 miles to Newfound Gap and then another 8 miles to Clingman's Dome. Because the road to Newfound Gap (NFG) is the main route between Gatlinberg and Cherokee, it gets more traffic. The section to Clingman's Dome is a turn-off from NFG and only gets traffic for people going to Clingman's. When I did it last year, the 8 miles to Clingman's was much more quiet. My guess is that an early morning ride would be relatively quiet, but it all depends on what you're accustomed to and comfortable with.

One thing I would mention is that, if you're doing a pre-dawn start, make sure you have a good light. Country dark is a whole different level of darkness. Even though I'm from there, I still forget and every time I go back it takes me a while to adjust to driving in areas where there are no street lights and the night can be can't-see-your-hand-in-front-of-your-face dark.

As for parking, I cannot remember if there are gates for the parking lot that would prevent you from parking before the visitors center opens. I went back through some pictures I took, but they did not show anything.

That’s a fairly long grind from Sugarland’s up to the spur that takes you over to Clingman’s dome. I wouldn’t want to do that on my tri bike. Bear in mind a couple of things...1) the temperature drops a bit towards the top and 2) there’s not much of a shoulder in some places...that’s less of a concern for the spur since it doesn’t get as much traffic but more of a concern for the main road.

I would not take my tribike, especially if I were planning on doing the descents. The ascent is not killer steep and I was never close to running out of gears, but there's not much of a break either. It's one long, steady climb.

According to Garmin, at the Sugarlands I was sitting at 1,538 feet of elevation and I had 21.1 miles and 5,200 feet of climbing to get to Clingman's. The average grade was 4.7 percent. My memory is that the most of the steep climbing came in the first half to Newfound Gap when there were some sections of 8-10 percent. After you get to Newfound Gap, the road to Clingman's is about 7.25 miles with 1,300 feet of climbing, which is about 3.4 percent. There is even some downhill in that section. Looking at the Strava segments from the ride, the five steepest are:

0.37@ 20.7% (very close to Clingman's summit)
0.58 miles@10.1%
1.39 miles@ 8.7%
0.87miles @ 6.9%
0.87@ 6.0%

FWIW, I weigh 140 pounds and I did the segment from the base to Newfound Gap (12.9 miles) at 9.6 mph with an average power of 225 watts. It took one hour and twenty-one minutes. I covered the segment from Newfound Gap to Clingman's (7.25 miles) at 11.2 mph in 39 minutes with an average power of 207 watts.

Good luck with the ride. If you do it, it would be great if you report back your experience. As I mentioned earlier, I hope to do it again soon and I think I could learn from your experience.

Wait a minute. Explain please. Running + bears = don't they want to catch and eat you?

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

you will see some true Darwin Award candidates in Cades Cove if a bear is spotted. Multiple times riding through I've seen 10+ tourists underneath a tree taking pictures of a bear...often the cub... up in the limbs. Fortunately they generally ignore idiots seemingly.

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My Blog - http://leegoocrap.blogspot.com

I did Clingmans on an old red Cervelo P2k in 2001 or 2002. Also did Foothills probably 30x on that damn bike, including more than a couple times with @milesthedog. Bought my first road bike in 2004 and never used the P2k to go uphill like that again. This was pre power (or any sort of intelligence) so I don’t have comparative data, but I wouldn’t bring the TT bike if I was OP and just have fun on the roadie.

This is one of the reasons I was glad to be running by myself. I cannot stand watching people's behavior when they see a bear in Cades Cove. It is sad really, for the poor bear just trying to live. From my experience, with multiple bear encounters running on the trails, they don't really want anything to do with us. Don't approach them. And, if you see baby bears, get the hell out of there. When I have ran Cades Cove, and saw a momma bear with cubs up ahead, I would stop dead in my tracks and wait for her to get well out of the picture before I moved forward again.