Eleven rugged men equipped with pick axes, shovels and a chainsaw made an arduous descent down the extraordinarily steep slopes at the Trials Training Center property in Sequatchie, Tenn., on Saturday morning to carve new passageways to connect to an old trail.
The group plans to host a downhill mountain bike race March 31 on the grounds. The race is part of the Downhill Southeast series, but there was still work that needed to be done to get the trail ready for race day.
"This is going to be one of the tracks for the races, so we have to get this done. We have to have a trail to race on," said Scott "Gunny" Bailey, a trail builder at Windrock Bike Park in Knoxville who had traveled down to help with the process.
A downhill trail was built on the property nearly a decade ago. The access point at the top of the mountain was behind private property, and riders had to cut through to access the course. The property was vacant, and the owner allowed riders to use the land. However, the owner eventually put the land up for sale, and when it was under contract, asked the riders to not use it, trail builder David Snyder said.
It was a day they had feared but planned for. The course closed last spring, but the group had a plan to reopen nearby.
Troy Roberts, a friend of Snyder's, played an instrumental role in opening the trail last decade. When it came time for him and his family to move several years ago, they knew they wanted to be in the area. They found a home they liked on the same ridge as the course, which would allow for another access point once they could no longer use the existing trailhead.
When that day came last spring, the men were ready. They worked to design and carve out a new section of the trail. The new entry point is steeper and more technical than what the old property allowed. For the group, that meant more fun.
"It was good timing. This all happened when we started looking at houses," Roberts said. "[We bought the house] to save the trails here, but it's where we wanted to be."
By Saturday, much of the new trail had been marked, leaves had been blown to clear a passageway and dirt and rocks had been moved, forging the groundwork of the trail. However, the most technical section needed finishing, and Snyder still wanted to update a few sections of the trail.
"This is a feat. We're still working on tying up the loose ends," Snyder said.
The crew planned to finish by Monday, which would leave plenty of time for riders to descend the Cumberland Plateau's Sequatchie Mountain before March's Downhill Southeast series race. Part of building a trail is riding the trail - which allows bikes to carve out the path and create lines for riders to take come March.
The trail won't be for the faint of heart. It drops more than 1,000 vertical feet in a little more than a mile. Snyder describes the course as "gnarly," and Roberts estimates it has the greatest vertical descent per foot traveled when compared to any other trail in the region.
The downhill course is part of the Trials Training Center Gravity Park, which features 650 acres of land encompassing seven additional trails. The land is shared with a national and world trials dirt bike course. The downhill mountain bike course overlaps some existing trail as currently constructed, but Snyder eventually plans to make the downhill course independent of the dirt bike facility, he said.
The trail is open to the public. Those wanting to ride must call the gravity park in advance to schedule a trip at 423-942-8688. Visitors are required to sign a waiver and pay $15 to use the property. That money goes toward gas to shuttle riders to the top, trail maintenance and waiver fees, Snyder said.
Contact staff writer Mark Pace at mpace@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6361. Follow him on Twitter @themarkpace and on Facebook @Chattanooga Outdoors.