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Buffalo Mountain Mountain Bike Trail
Elizabethton, Tennessee
MTB TRAIL STATS
Avg Rating:   |
2 trail reviews |
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Status: |
Difficulty:  Beginner |
| Length: 8 miles | Global Rank: 1468 |
| Tread: Singletrack | Configuration: Loop |
| Ridden: 11 | Wishlist: 8 |
| Avg. Speed: 4.8 mph | Avg. Time: 1hr 40min |
Directions:
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Description: For the Mud Hollow (Pronounced "Holler" in these parts) From the back of the parking lot, take a small foot path down and right to a logging road. The logging road in question stays fairly flat for a while and then starts a 25-30 minute climb to the top. From the parking lot to the top is about 3.5 miles. At this point, you'll come out into a clearing that is actually a gas pipeline where you'll want to go right up a short hill (about 50 yards). At the top of the hill, when the pipeline starts back downhill, turn left into the woods and follow this singletrack until you come to a trail a little wider than singletrack and and more narrow than a logging road. This is the blue trail. From here you can continue left to go up to a fire tower and then return. Or go right for a fun (but sometimes rocky) descent back to the parking lot. For the Blue Trail, blue blazes mark this trail, thus its name. The trail is intended for motercycle and ATV use and is maintained by these groups. There is no friction between the motorized folks and mountian bikers, though they often give a shake of the head, letting us know we're a little off for supplying our own power. The Blue Trail heads up the path to the right of the motorcycle loading platform, and continues up for what seems forever. This climb is steep, rocky, and, depending on the time of year, muddy. It is, however, easy to follow--just follow the blue blazes up to the fire tower. You will continue up the trail, crossing a few logging roads, until you come to an exit from the trail with no obvious path on the opposite side. Go right up this logging road and ignore the blue blazes that go off to the left just below an orange gate on the trail unless you want to commit to a three or more hour out-and-back ride. Past the orange gate, you'll finally reach the fire tower just past a 100 yard, and really steep climb. Turn around and follow the blue blazes back, or you can follow the logging road down. If you do this, go left at the first fork and right at the second. Once you reach the road, turn right and the parking lot is about a two mile climb.
Description: For the Mud Hollow (Pronounced "Holler" in these parts) From the back of the parking lot, take a small foot path down and right to a logging road. The logging road in question stays fairly flat for a while and then starts a 25-30 minute climb to the top. From the parking lot to the top is about 3.5 miles. At this point, you'll come out into a clearing that is actually a gas pipeline where you'll want to go right up a short hill (about 50 yards). At the top of the hill, when the pipeline starts back downhill, turn left into the woods and follow this singletrack until you come to a trail a little wider than singletrack and and more narrow than a logging road. This is the blue trail. From here you can continue left to go up to a fire tower and then return. Or go right for a fun (but sometimes rocky) descent back to the parking lot. For the Blue Trail, blue blazes mark this trail, thus its name. The trail is intended for motercycle and ATV use and is maintained by these groups. There is no friction between the motorized folks and mountian bikers, though they often give a shake of the head, letting us know we're a little off for supplying our own power. The Blue Trail heads up the path to the right of the motorcycle loading platform, and continues up for what seems forever. This climb is steep, rocky, and, depending on the time of year, muddy. It is, however, easy to follow--just follow the blue blazes up to the fire tower. You will continue up the trail, crossing a few logging roads, until you come to an exit from the trail with no obvious path on the opposite side. Go right up this logging road and ignore the blue blazes that go off to the left just below an orange gate on the trail unless you want to commit to a three or more hour out-and-back ride. Past the orange gate, you'll finally reach the fire tower just past a 100 yard, and really steep climb. Turn around and follow the blue blazes back, or you can follow the logging road down. If you do this, go left at the first fork and right at the second. Once you reach the road, turn right and the parking lot is about a two mile climb.
added in 2003 by 
TRAIL REVIEWS review this trail
reviewed by zxfool on July 12, 2009
First and foremost, this trail is NOT in Elizabethton. It is in Johnson City,Tn bordering Unicoi. The written directions are right on but loking on a map for it you will have to look at the south east corner of JC. I have ridden this trail numerous times on dirtbikes and the start of the trail is very steep. It doesn't take long to level off and get to the pedal sections and seeing as how you can fly through here being motorized, pedal biking is going to offer much more trail width. There are some really great high speed berms that you can get way high on if you have the speed. Go around mud holes as the motorized guys really dig these things out and you will get mired up. There are lots of side trails that come back into the main trail so you can bounce off to the side and get good views off of the ridge. It is a pretty long network and if you go real far out you could get confused about directions.
* Review edited 7/12/2009
Similar Trail: Iron Mountain Trail in Damascus, Virginia
reviewed by mikerider on October 3, 2004
This is a challenging trail. If your looking for a nice mountain to climb on a bike, this is it. The first half of the trail up the mountain has its assortment of ups, downs, roots, rocks and water. The second half up is some pretty challenging uphill riding. The pipeline which begins the descent is actually at the third clearing. The trip down is very fast and at times dangerous. After the recent rains, the Blue Trail on the way down was at times, tough to negotiate. I encountered a lot of smooth rock surface and loose rock on the trails were trenched out from the rain. Overall, the mountain bikers and ATV riders keep these trails pretty clear. Anybody who does this loop will have a great workout.
Similar Trail: Holston Mountain Fire Roads
Additional Tennessee Mountain Bike Info
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