Raccoon Mountain
Trail System Celebrates Grand Opening
Chattanooga, TN - The
Chattanooga chapter of the Southern Off-Road Bicycle Association
(SORBA), the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Outdoor Chattanooga
and the National Park Service Rivers Trails and Conservation
Assistance (RTCA) office will celebrate the grand opening of the
first phase of the Raccoon Mountain Trail System, located at
TVA’s Raccoon Mountain Pumped Storage Facility with an
official ribbon-cutting on Friday, September 29, at 1:00
PM.
Through a unique
agreement with TVA, SORBA- Chattanooga has been granted permission
to build this multi-use singletrack at the Raccoon Mountain Pumped
Storage Facility. With technical assistance from RTCA and
Outdoor Chattanooga, this network of trails is seen as a benchmark
for the development of accessible trail on public land.
Recognizing the potential for this project, the national Bikes
Belong Coalition provided financial support with a $9,850 grant and
volunteers from around the area have provided the labor needed to
build this sustainable trail.
This celebration is
being held in conjunction with National Public Lands Day. National
Public Lands Day is the nation’s largest hands-on volunteer
effort to improve and enhance the public lands American’s
enjoy. In 2005, nearly 90,000 volunteers built trails and bridges,
planted trees and plants, and removed trash and invasive plants.
Join the celebration on Saturday, September 30, 2006 for the 13th
annual National Public Lands Day at Raccoon Mountain as these new
trails are presented to the public with rides and
refreshments. Get dirty on Sunday, October 1, as a
trailbuilding work day is scheduled to extend the trails at the
facility.
With the completion of
Phase I, hikers and mountain bikers may now enjoy over 4 miles of
singletrack trail from the East Overlook to the main Visitor
Center. The East Rim Trail, which begins near the East
Overlook parking area, connects to the Switchyard Overlook, where
the new Grindstone Ridge Trail continues to the Visitor
Center.
Designed for off-road
bicycling, as well as hiking and running, the trail system will be
generally appropriate for intermediate-level riders, with some
sections for beginner and others for advanced riders. Using the
road around the reservoir and other built features, the trail
system has a “stacked loop” configuration that allows
for many routes of varying difficultly levels. The advanced
sections, particularly, are loops off of the main trail. Trey
Commander, president of SORBA-Chattanooga, said that
“it’s got something for everybody. The amount and
quality of trail will be unmatched in Chattanooga.” The
completed trail system on top of the mountain will include as many
as 20 miles of singletrack.
In 2004, SORBA
announced the Singletrack Mind initiative, an ambitious plan to
develop 100 new miles of singletrack within 10 miles of Chattanooga
by 2010. According to Greg Laudeman, Advocacy Coordinator for
SORBA- Chattanooga, “many Chattanoogans are active mountain
bikers, and many more would be if there were adequate opportunities
to ride.” Laudeman continued that “the
development of new trails in a city that already has an outdoor
disposition will have an immediate impact on the local cycling
industry and tourism in general. Fortunately, we have an
unprecedented opportunity to build a high- quality trail system
just 5 miles from downtown Chattanooga.”
Schedule of
Events - Raccoon Mountain Pumped Storage Facility
All
Events Begin at Main Visitor Center
Friday, September
29, 1:00 PM: Official Ribbon-Cutting.
Join public officials and dignitaries as the trail is officially
opened.
Saturday, September
30, 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM: Celebrate National Public Lands Day as
you explore the newly opened trails. Picnic Lunch and
Refreshments provided.
Sunday, October 1,
9:00 AM to 12:00 PM: Trailbuilding Workday. Become a Volunteer
and build something that future generations will enjoy!
Rides afterward.
Raccoon Mountain
Trail Sections
|
Trail Section
|
Length
|
Description
|
|
East Rim
|
1.25 miles
|
Beginner level trail
running along the east rim of the mountain between the East
Overlook and the gravel road to the microwave
tower.
|
|
Switchyard
Connector
|
.75 mile
|
Beginner level trail
from the gravel road to the loop road adjacent to the
Switchyard.
|
|
Grindstone Ridge I
|
1.75 miles
|
Intermediate level
trail from the Switchyard to the Visitor
Center.
|
|
Little Chunky
|
1+ miles
|
Advanced level trail
from the base of Grindstone Ridge, around the Switchyard, to the
gravel road. Under construction.
|
Contact
About Outdoor
Chattanooga
Over the past decade, the Chattanooga region has
gained a considerable reputation for its many outdoor activities
and amenities, and for its environmental and conservation efforts.
In May 2003, then Mayor of Chattanooga, Bob Corker, initiated a
citizen-based process that established a Strategic Plan for Outdoor
Recreation in the Chattanooga Region. This comprehensive initiative
was shaped during a region-wide planning effort (October 2003 -
January 2004), in which well over 1,000 citizens participated,
sharing their ideas and concerns in a series of public meetings and
work sessions. Outdoor Chattanooga was formed as a direct
response to this initiative. It was established as a regional
mechanism with facilities dedicated to the recreational use,
education, and stewardship of the region's natural
areas. For more information visit
www.outdoorchattanooga.comor contact Philip
Grymes, Executive Director at (423) 643-6888 or
philip@outdoorchattanooga.com.
About Rivers, Trails and Conservation
Assistance
The technical assistance arm of the National Park
Service, RTCA brings the expertise and insights of our National
Park System to bear on local, close-to-home conservation and
nature-based recreation efforts. At the request of
SORBA-Chattanooga, the National Park Service has taken an active
role in assisting the group in planning and implementing its
Singletrack Minds Initiative since 2004. More information on
RTCA can be found at www.nps.gov/rtcaor by contacting Dr.
Jeff Duncan, ecologist and recreation planner with the
National Park Service, at (423)266-1150 or
jeff_duncan@nps.gov.
About Southern Off-Road Bicycle
Association
The Southern Off-Road Bicycle Association is a
non-profit, charitable organization who works with land managers in
Tennessee to create trails for mountain bikers and other user
groups to enjoy. Through advocacy, education, and recreation
SORBA-Chattanooga carries out its mission to promote land access,
trail preservation, and new trail development to enhance mountain
bike touring, racing, fun, and fellowship for all mountain
bicyclists in the southeast. SORBA has over 2,000 members
who help steward many miles of great trails in
Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
The best riding in the southeast is found on trails maintained
by our volunteers. For more information go
to www.sorbachattanooga.org
About Tennessee Valley Authority
Millions of people enjoy recreational activities on TVA
reservoirs each year. The reservoirs and the 290,000 acres of land
surrounding them offer nearly limitless opportunities for
fun-filled activities, including water skiing, canoeing, sailing,
windsurfing, fishing, swimming, hiking, nature photography,
picnicking, birdwatching, and camping. TVA helps our region thrive
and enables residents to enjoy a higher quality of life by managing
the Tennessee River and adjoining lands to provide a better
environment for our children and grandchildren. Through its
river system operations, TVA reduces flooding, provides for river
transportation and power production, maintains water quality,
supports recreation, and promotes wise land use. With nearly
$8 billion in total revenues in 2005, TVA is the nation’s
largest public power provider and is completely self-financed. For
more than seven decades, the Tennessee Valley Authority has
improved the quality of life in the Tennessee Valley, making our
region a better place to live, work, and raise a
family.
Construction at Raccoon Mountain began in 1970 and
was completed in 1978. The reservoir constructed at the top
of the mountain has 528 acres of water surface. The dam
at Raccoon Mountain’s upper reservoir is 230 feet high and
8,500 feet long and is the largest rockfill dam ever built by
TVA. Once the upper reservoir is full, the
pumped-storage plant can provide 22 hours of continuous power
generation and the generating capacity of Raccoon Mountain is about
1,600 megawatts of electricity. More information about the
site is at www.tva.gov/sites/raccoonmt.htmor contact Sabrina
Kuykendall at slkuyken@tva.gov.
