BRAT course
The Bicycle Ride Across Tennessee will begin at Crossville’s Cumberland Mountain State Park at 7 a.m. this morning with a commemoration of the 15-year anniversary of 9/11.Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation Deputy Commissioner Brock Hill will offer opening remarks before the Crossville Color Guard presents the flag. A moment of silence and the national anthem will follow before the ride begins. Community members are invited to attend and wear red, white and blue.Riders will travel northwest to Standing Stone State Park during the first day’s ride before making their way to Harrison Bay State Park on Thursday.
If you go
› What: Bicycle Ride Across Tennessee (BRAT)› When: Sunday-Saturday› Where: The event begins and ends at Cumberland Mountain State Park in Crossville. Riders will make stops at five parks in the Cumberland Plateau region during the 400-plus mile event.› Registration: Those interested in participating in the BRAT can still sign up. Potential riders can drive to Cumberland Mountain State Park on Tuesday evening or anytime Wednesday, leave their vehicle there and finish the last days of the ride. Riders can also register at Harrison Bay State Park on Thursday morning and complete the last two days of the event. Contact ride director Morgan Gilman at Morgan.Gilman@tn.gov for more information on late registrations.
Jacob Ingram's work boots still bore lime-green residue last week as he stood outside the welcome center at Harrison Bay State Park, getting ready to make one last drive through the Hamilton County portion of a unique cycling event that begins today.
Just a few days before, Ingram and a team of other Tennessee State Parks rangers went through about 30 cans of spray paint, placing arrows on the pavement at intersections across nearly 450 miles of the state's rural roads in preparation for the Bicycle Ride Across Tennessee.
Putting on this annual ride is a labor of love for the rangers, as well as a chance to showcase the state's scenery to hundreds of cyclists from around the country and support a pair of state park initiatives.
"This course is designed to highlight areas near the Cumberland Trail, areas along the Cumberland Plateau, Waldens Ridge, the Cumberland Mountains region," said Ingram, a ranger with the Cumberland Trail State Park and co-director of the ride. "It showcases a different area of the state each year."
In 2015, the BRAT was in upper east Tennessee. Before that, it was based near the Tennessee River in West Tennessee.
But this year, for the second time in five years, the BRAT is dipping into Hamilton County. Riders will camp at Harrison Bay State Park on Thursday night before beginning the sixth leg of the ride, which takes them 73.7 miles to Southwest Point Park in Kingston.
Close to 175 riders are registered for the BRAT. It benefits the Tennessee Park Rangers Association and the development of the Cumberland Trail, which spans 11 counties and will eventually run uninterrupted from the Kentucky border to Signal Point.
"We're still building the Cumberland Trail," Ingram said. "We've got 200 miles built, and there's still another 100 miles to go to connect from Cumberland Gap to Signal Point. A lot of the money goes to build trail, to pay for bridges, anything to do with the Cumberland Trail."
Rather than sticking to the shoulders of busy, four-lane highways, the ride bounces between back roads and cuts through rural communities, where small businesses benefit from the mass of passing tourists.
"What we have to offer are the beautiful landscapes of Tennessee," ride co-director Morgan Gilman said. "There's no better way to see it than from a bicycle seat, where you really get to experience it."
Added Ingram: "When you ride through those little towns and just see bikes everywhere, it's pretty cool."
Contact staff writer David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249.