Subaru/IMBA Trail Care Crews Heads to Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, TN

Park Staff and volunteers flash their smiles for the camera before heading onto the trail for an afternoon of trailbuilding.
Energetic volunteers from the Big South Fork Bicycle Club have the tools and know how to use them to build sustainable singletrack. BSF Bike Club was an IMBA/REI Tool Grant Recipient
Just completed flowing bench-cut trail offers a fun alternative to the eroded fall-line section that used to connect here.
Riders enjoy the trail and impressive rock outcroppings typical at Big South Fork.
The Crew and Park staff Chris Stubbs and Bryan Wender take a break to enjoy the scenery.

Towering sandstone arches and valleys of lush rhododendrons greeted the Subaru/IMBA Trail Care Crew as they made their way to Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area (NRRA) in Northeast Tennessee February 17-20, 2005.

With only limited access to trails within our National Parks, the relationship that mountain bicyclists have with the staff and other trail users at Big South Fork is a success story of which the Crew was excited to be a part. The local Big South Fork Bike Club has, over the past several years, been very active in building and maintaining multi-use trails. Their dedication and volunteer hours have earned them a place as a respected user group in an area that currently sees significant hiker and equestrian use.

To further strengthen the positive role that mountain bicyclists play in building and maintaining multi-use trails on our public lands, the Crew's visit focused on minimizing the environmental impact of trails through proper design and construction. The park staff was extremely receptive and supportive of the Crew's efforts to improve the trails currently open to bicyclists. Park staff involved in the weekend activities included the planner, botanist, trail maintenance manager, and other maintenance staff and law enforcement rangers. In addition to the local bike club members, a half-dozen local equestrians attended the Trailbuilding School, to learn more about maintaining the hundreds of miles of trails open to horses in the park.

The weekend's trailbuilding activities focused on re-routing a section of fall-line trail, and replacing it with fun, flowing bench-cut singletrack. On Saturday, mountain bikers, National Park Service employees, and horse riders worked side-by-side to construct nearly 600 feet of new trail. While on Sunday, a few hardy souls trudged through temperatures in the mid-30s, complimented by a steady rain, to close and reclaim 500 feet of steep, eroded fall-line trail. By installing check dams, scarifying compacted soil, and covering the tread with leaf litter, the reclamation efforts should keep users off and help the old trail to recover more quickly. Everyone agreed that the new section had better flow and was much more enjoyable than the old portion of trail.

While Big South Fork currently does not have enough miles of singletrack trail open to be a regional draw for riders, that is soon to change. Thanks to the efforts of local bike advocate Joe Cross and the Park's Planner Chris Stubbs, the new General Management Plan specifies that additional trails will soon be opened to mountain bikes on an experimental basis. Not only will this add mileage, but it will allow mountain bikers to better see the Park's impressive scenery, as the trails wind next to beautiful sandstone outcroppings and provide stunning river views.