Happy Creek Loop

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Knoxville, TN, US

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Route Overview

Rollin' Appalachia

Exploring Southern Appalachia on two wheels

46 mi.

2,971 ft.

A fun route that leaves from the heart of Knoxville's Urban Wilderness. This loop has numerous short climbs and rollers, and takes you on Happy Creek Road...a tight and twisting road that could be described as singletrack, but for road bikes.

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Route Details

This route starts only a couple miles from downtown Knoxville. The ride leaves from Ijams Nature Center located at 2915 Island Home Ave, one of the most popular trailheads of Knoxville's Urban Wilderness. You have two choices of where to park: either you can park at @poi[the nature center](1752797) itself, a paved lot with a indoor @poi[bathroom](1752796) and water available, or you can go a little further down the road and park at @poi[Meads Quarry](1752798). The quarry current facilities are port-o-lets, but they plan on building real bathrooms in 2016. The Quarry is also one of the favorite trailheads for mountain bikers, and on Tuesday evenings during the summer, there will usually be food trucks and beer venders for all to enjoy post ride.  It's a really good scene.

This road riding route consists of rolling terrain, with a few short climbs and in turn, some nice downhills. The highlight of this route is @slice[Happy Creek Rd](d,32981.58,40465.9). Happy Creek is best described as singletrack for road cyclists.  It is paved, but is narrow, extremely @photo[twisty](1453827) and has many ups and downs.  It is a real gem of a road.

# Route

* The route starts off pretty level on @slice[Island Home Pike](d,73.86,2651.96)...a good warm-up,  and then quickly throws in a few short climbs on @slice[Sevierville Pike](d,2651.96,8830.61). 
* @slice[Bays Mountain Road](d,15593.61,20869.3), from mile 9.8-13 is a good workout.  Up and down, up and down...roller after roller after roller.
* @slice[Happy Creek Road](d,32981.58,40465.9), from mile 19-27. Narrow, twisty and rolling.   Ducking in & out of and around hollers, it doesn't get much better than this.  
* Be ready for a couple of punchy climbs on @slice[Rays Gap Road](d,48225.69,50103.25), but then you're rewarded with a nice downhill on @slice[Kimberland Heights Rd](d,55102.87,56088.3).
* @slice[Burnett Creek Road](d,69218.48,72184.61) - You'll have couple more short steep hills to get over on this road before bringing you back into the Urban Wilderness.
* There are twos short sections of busy roadway you need to be aware of...both on Boyds Creek Hwy.  The first is at @slice[mile 17](d,27200.3,27734.72), and the second is just before @slice[mile 27](d,43256.88,43600.93). You're only on Boyds Creek for a very short distance each time.

# Notes

* You can do this ride any time of the year, but I may look for a different ride if you have wet roads.  With all the @photo[twists and turns](1453825) on Happy Creek you want to have good cornering traction of dry roads for maximum fun!
* Keep an eye out for dogs on @slice[Shiloh Church Rd and Happy Creek Rd](d,31216.19,40504.74)...sometime they sneak up on ya.
* You could easily shorten this route where it overlaps itself near @point[mile 13](d,21665.2)
* There are plenty of @poi[food and drink](1752793) options on or slightly @poi[off](1752795) route. There is one @poi[spring](1752794) on route to get a water re-fill. You'll want to treat this water before drinking to be safe.
* For more road cycling routes in the Knoxville area, please check out this   [bicycling route book](http://backroadcycling.net/?page_id=25) that I helped develop.

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Happy Creek Loop

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Route Details

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