Sunday I was given permission from La Jefa to road trip it to Raccoon Mountain. I could not get anyone else to take interest in traveling short 1.25 hrs north and east to ride these flowing ribbons of dirt and stone that make even hardcore tattooed mountain bikers all giddy like little school girls. So I traveled solo and the company was as good as the riding and the views. Look at the view from the east overlook parking area.
And another view of the City of Chattanooga.
SORBA Chattanooga has really done a great job partnering with TVA to build these trails and provide a really great trail system. Read more about the Raccoon Mountain Pumped-Storage Plant here. And if you go, definitely go the the visitor center, it has a model of how the whole system works just so you know whats going on where you play.
If you are the sort that likes full face helmets, pads, heavy metal and big squishy bikes with brake rotors the size of man hole covers (political correction: person hole covers) Raccoon Mountain now has something for you. Clicky makes biggie.
That's almost as scary as the WARNING at the beginning to Slick rock trail in Moab.
Notice my "Devil may care" attitude on World Famous Slick Rock Trail below.
(pic circa 2004)
Sorry to veer off topic, back to Sunday's ride. The weather was absolutely perfect, sunny, dry, low humidity, no wind and 68 to 70 degrees. Who do we have to vote for to get some more of this weather in the Southeast? Speak up candidates, promise me some good weather and you have my vote. Seriously, all you have to do is promise, no one really expects any elected official to really do what they say especially me the small business owner. Alright, now I am really going back to cycling discussion. I rode all of the single track for normal people and and even some of the "Free Ride" area, and had a blast. I could have had more fun at the free riding if I were not riding a singlespeed hardtail with not quite 80mm on the front. But that set up is perfect for 98.735% of the trail at Raccoon Mountain. Another view from the mountain looking West off a trail named Small Intestine.
I guess they named it Small Intestine because if you go down it the right way everything is nice, flowy and smooth, but if you go about it the other way it a lot less fun. Or it could get it's name from the fact that they packed about a gazillion linear miles of trail into roughly two square feet of forest. I don't know. Maybe TVA knows, they know lots about power, generation power and selling and charging for power. This whole recreation thing is kinda new to them, really it is, they want us to think otherwise but they have not always been the best stewards of our land.
The rest of the trail system gives you the impression of actually going somewhere, like circumnavigating the top of a mountain, which is actually what you do if you ride the whole trail. There is a little something for everyone in this trail network, you can ride the road around the lake to get to the easier or more difficult sections of the trail or your favorite sections of trail, or do like I do ride the whole thing and then go back over the parts you want to ride again. Oh deer, what is that?
I gotta start carrying a gun, that wild animal could have attacked at any time.
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