IF YOU GO• What: South Chickamauga Creek Greenway segment grand opening• When: 2:30 p.m. Sunday• Where: Sterchi Farm City Park off Harrison Pike• Events: Speakers, information tables, greenway walk/ride. Free canoes and bikes for paddling or riding will be available.• How to get there: From Chattanooga, take Amnicola Highway east. Just before the state Route 153 intersection, turn right on Access Road. Take the first right on Harrison Pike and drive about 2 miles to the park entrance on the left.IF YOU RIDEThe Chattanooga Bicycle Club plans a 10-mile round-trip ride to the grand opening. Cyclists assemble at the Amnicola Marsh parking lot on the Tennessee Riverwalk at 1 p.m. Sunday. For information, call ride leader Andy Jones at 423-987-3862.BY THE NUMBERSMoney for the new section of greenway came from:• $1.6 million: City share of federal transportation enhancement grant• $650,000: Lyndhurst Foundation• $500,000: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act• $200,000: Benwood FoundationSource: Trust for Public Land
The new section of the South Chickamauga Creek Greenway that officially opens Sunday is both a physical and a symbolic link.
The 2.6-mile trail is a key piece in Chattanooga’s grand plan to link Camp Jordan in East Ridge and the Tennessee Riverpark. Along the way, the winding, wooded trail passes sites of hidden history — Indian habitation, anti-secessionist rebellion and Civil War clashes.
“There’s going to be places on this trail that people in Chattanooga have never witnessed because you couldn’t get to it,” city Parks and Recreation Director Larry Zehnder said Thursday while showing off the new segment.
The city is throwing a party Sunday to celebrate the grand opening. Participants will be invited to walk or paddle from Sterchi Farm City Park off Harrison Pike to the concrete path’s terminus at Faith Road and put their signatures on a memorial wall for future display, Zehnder said.