Members of the Friends of White Oak Mountain are celebrating the completion of nearly 11 miles of new trails in Collegedale that are now accessible for walkers, trail runners and mountain bikers.
Armand Devoir, left, and Jim “JJ” Johnson oversee the creation of close to 11 miles of new trails for hiking, running and biking in Collegedale.“The initial plan was to build 3 miles of new trails and rehabilitate 4 miles of the existing trails,” said Jim “JJ” Johnson, founder of Friends of WOM.
Originally, Southern Adventist University had eight to 10 miles of trails that were open for use by biology classes and the public. Johnson felt many of them were too steep, created too much mud when it rained and suffered from erosion problems.
“Some of those trails we will rehab by planting trees to stop the erosion, but some of the trails can’t be fixed,” he said.
Johnson was inspired to build new trails by a similar project he completed with his mountain biking association in Kentucky. When he moved to Collegedale this summer, he met mountain bike enthusiasts who were excited by the idea of creating a new trail system. They worked with permission from SAU to create a plan. Johnson said he wanted to build trails by hand to save money, but at the first organizational meeting a club member suggested hiring a professional trail contractor instead.