The Dirty South

It was great to see the Knoxville biking community rally around the trail building efforts in South Knoxville. Thanks to all who who are a part of the AMBC.

Meades Quarry

AMBC Fall Fest

The AMBC held the first Fall-Festival last weekend, celebrating the hard work that has gone into making Knoxville a top-notch bicycling city. Its great to be a part of an organization that is impacting the future of our city in such a positive way. I stand behind a quote that heard from a wise man "better communities create better trails and better trails create better communities."
I have seen the stock in south-Knoxville rise as land acquisitions for parks create miles of trails in hundreds of acres of wooded forest land.

Link to complete photo collection: AMBC Fall Fest - Photo Album

riding dirty

South Knox trail ride

South Knox

South-Knox

Forks of the River

Me and Eric headed out for a late afternoon ride on Sunday. Starting from Ijams, we headed for the ridges of the Forks of the River. Brian Hann's 100 acre farm borders the 600 acres of the Forks of the River. Plenty of other trails are hidden in the woods in adjacent parks and properties. But we didn't get further than Brian Hann's trails, where we wandered into the property making turns through the spider web of trails.
With more than an hour before complete darkness, we tried to find our way out, but the maze of trails had us lost to the point we were making circles. There was a bit of panic as we became further lost, and a short window of time to get out of the woods before dark. It started raining hard.
Eventually we saw a house through the woods, so we bushwhacked our way to the driveway and hauled ass to the road. We came out onto Sevierville Pike and rode back in the cold dark rain.
It was a thrill being lost, with darkness and rain closing in. The consequences were scary but not severe. It was a possiblity that we might not have made it out before dark, but it would have taken alot to have had to sleep in the woods.

Forks of the River

Rode from the house, out the greenway and along the waterfront. Tail-gaters were set up all along the way, as Drew and I worked our way to the south the Knox trails. While most of Knoxville is watching college football and getting pumped up about some orange colored football team, we put down an epic ride in our own backyard.
I enjoy football season as much as the next guy, but a game is just much more enjoyable after a long ride. And todays ride was about four hours of ride time, and we were gone for about 5 hours.
Bearden->Lyon's View->Cherokee Boulevard->Third Creek->Waterfront->Cross the river at John Sevier->Ijams greenway->Meade's Quarry->Forks of the River->The Hann's Property->Forks of the River-> Ijams->Island Homes->Downtown->Fort Sanders->Third creek->Sutherland->Harpers->Home.

Elements of a ride

To journey on a bike is reminiscent of being a child, wandering through south Nashville suburbs. As an adolescent peddler, we found trails, rivers, forest and urban-blocks with video games and soda's.
Not much has changed today, except that; at times I have to drive to get to my pre-determined destination, where I will then get out and change my clothes and hop on the bike. Suffice to say, I prefer to pedal from the house, with no real destination in mind. And, its even better when I can hit some trails along the way.
The last few nights, I've done just that. With somewhere around 600-forested-acres south of the river, there's a few trails etched out across the rocky terrain. Last night we rode from Bearden, through downtown and back onto the greenway at Island Homes neighborhood. From there, we pedaled through Ijams Nature Preserve and into Meade's Quarry, where we climbed to the top of the ridge. The views were inspiring and the descent was "Pisgah-esque."
The Forks of the River/ Eastern States was the next portion of the loop, made-up of big-ridge singletrack, logging-roads and greenway, its a pedaling paradise.
As the sun disappeared from view, the sky darkened as we rolled under the city-lights of downtown, and onto the porch of the busy Downtown Grill and Brewery. Pizza and beer was exactly the fuel I needed to make the final push through Third Creek greenway and back to Bearden.