I will be visiting Knoxville in early October and have a couple of days free over a weekend, I am staying in Central Knoxville.
There are a couple of summits close by. I don’t drive so will either hire a bicycle or get a taxi (although the latter might get expensive, so prefer cycle!)
There are a couple of unactivated summits within cycling range - eg .W4T/RV-028 and W4T/RV-027. Is there any way to tell if these are on private land - I don’t want to get shot!
Not familiar with the Knoxville area so no help there, but both of those peaks are indeed on private land. Gaia GPS has “Private Land” and “Public Land” layers which are useful for figuring that out.
Maybe it’s different in other areas, but in California I find that the unactivated peaks are almost always private land. If not, they’re unactivated because they are highly remote or technical. Perhaps SOTA is more popular in CA than TN but I would imagine the same thing is true for peaks near any urban center.
I haven’t pursued SOTA in the region that Knoxville is located in (have been to Knoxville multiple times though), but in general any unactivated summit in the Appalachian region is either on private property or difficult to reach (no trails, seasonal road openings, etc).
Also, leaving from Knoxville you may find many routes to not be bike friendly. Certainly not anything labeled as “interstate”.
W4T/RV-035 appears to be reasonably accessible and not too far from Knoxville, though could still be a substantial taxi trip (if you can find a taxi willing to take you out there).
Or, maybe consider an overnight trip to Gatlinburg and see if there’s a safe route to some of the summits in the Smoky Mtns National Park. I bet a shuttle to Clingman’s Dome (W4C/WM-001) could be found there.
So, Signal Peak W4T/RV-028 is on Private land, however according to some write ups I found a while back that land owner is amenable to folks walking up. Just check in to ask/line up permission etc. House Mountain W4T/RV-035 which is nearby is a fun doable hike and that time of the year will have good fall colors, and views to the North (from the Eastern bluff viewpoint) and to the Smokies to the SE. Uber/Lyft would be worth looking in to. My dad lives near House Mountain and last time I took an Uber from that part of Knox County to the airport (about a 30-40 minute drive) it was in the range of 50.00, but that was in 2022.
I am actually in your neck of the woods as we speak @M0MZB, been walking the coast to coast “backwards”, but have taken a break the past few days to show the wife around the Lakes. If you are still around for the LD weekend I can chat with you about the E Tn region as I grew up there
Thanks for the replies. The interstate road looked like a really convenient direct route to cycle, but I’m guessing its not allowed.
correct, no cycling on the interstate, similar to the M roads here
Keep in mind that Google Street View works wonders to find out if a road is bike friendly!