Legacy Parks opened five new trails and a new bicycle and pedestrian bridge in South Knoxville’s Urban Wilderness Wednesday, and three more—including a much-touted “double black diamond” downhill trail—are set to open June 17, all on a 100-acre tract donated by the Wood Family just a hop away from downtown.
Grants and donations allowed Legacy Parks and its partners to build the trails on land dubbed the Baker Creek Preserve in less than a year. A bridge over Redbud Road connects the property with the rest of the South Loop, more than 40-miles of multi-use trails in Knoxville’s urban wilderness. The bridge (funded mostly by REI) is so high that a big spiral called “the whirligig” had to be built for bike riders to descend from it, says Brian Hann, a member of the Appalachian Mountain Bike Club and a planner for the project. The club has helped Legacy Parks raise money for the trails and build them.
The newly-opened trails include two downhill mountain biking trails (one easy) and a 1.5-mile beginner bike loop, as well as several multi-use trails. Hann says the beginner loop, a flowing trail through a grove of large sycamore trees and the first true beginner trail in the Urban Wilderness, is already a hot item with local kids. The adjacent “pump track,” with hills to allow practice tricks and jumps, is also popular. Teens can reach the trails easily from South Doyle Middle School thanks to a connecting trail built in March by the Professional TrailBuilders Association when they held their national conference in Knoxville.
Eventually, the trails will vary all the way from beginner to pro. In a few more weeks, a 7-mile gravity trail named “The Devil’s Racetrack” will open. Knoxville competed with other cities across the country through online voting to win (by a landslide) a $100,000 grant from Bell Helmets to build the track, which is expected to draw regional and national-level biking competitions.
But the two downhill tracks that just opened allow average mountain bikers to work on their skills, too. And when the Devil’s Racetrack opens, so will two more trails that together forming a loop to take bikers and hikers up to Pappy’s Point, a hilltop with a long view—and back down without having to take The Devil’s Racetrack.
“It’s just a really good progression and variety of riding,” says Hann, 40, who has been an avid mountain biker all his life. “I’m working on being able to do more parts of one of the downhill trails now. It really offers you a chance to keep getting better.”
The Devil’s Racetrack has the most fun name, but some of the others are also reminiscent of the sort you might hear for Dollywood Rides. The Barn Burner Downhill trail zooms down to the a place where an old barn was. Legacy Parks describes the Cruze Valley Run as descending into the valley at the heart of the property in the wide-open meadow between two ridges.
The entire development of the Baker Creek Preserve will benefit the public without using city or county funds; the costs were covered by donations and grants funneled through the bike club and Legacy Parks.
Hann says another celebration (“a big party”) is planned when the other three trails open June 17, with representatives from Bell Helmets, local bike shops, and other big donors and dignitaries.
Photo courtesy Legacy Parks.
S. Heather Duncan has won numerous awards for her feature writing and coverage of the environment, government, education, business and local history during her 15-year reporting career. Originally from Western North Carolina, Heather has worked for Radio Free Europe, the Institute for War and Peace Reporting in London, and several daily newspapers. Heather spent almost a dozen years at The Telegraph in Macon, Ga., where she spent most of her time covering the environment or writing project-investigations that provoked changes such as new laws related to day care and the protection of environmentally-sensitive lands. You can reach Heather at heather@knoxmercury.com
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