Bobby Davenport, left, and Noel Durant, right, speak to Jim Huff, center, as he takes a break from clearing a trail along phase 3 of the Lula Lake Land Trust’s Cloudland Connector Trail, which will link Ascalon Road to Cloudland Canyon State Park.LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN, Ga. — Jim Huff was in the woods Friday morning near Cloudland Canyon State Park with his dog for company, Alison Krauss’ bluegrass cranked up on the stereo and a giant shovel at his fingertips.
Huff was using a mini-excavator to carve a section of a Lula Lake Land Trust trail that will lead from a trailhead at Nick-A-Jack Road all the way to Cloudland Canyon when construction is finished this fall.
“I’m just an old farmboy,” said Huff, a retired elementary school teacher who grew up using heavy equipment on his family’s farm near Jonesboro, Ga. His interest in mountain biking led him to found Jim’s Outdoors, a trail construction company.
Huff kept a close eye on an indicator that showed the grade of the trail he was digging through the duff, stumps and rocks on the forest floor.
The trail is built to be “sustainable.” It will slope gently outward at a 5 to 8 percent grade, have no more than a 15 percent uphill grade and will undulate gently in sections so rainwater sheets off it instead of eroding gullies in the dirt.