Hall’s Top Trail Concepts

On 1/28/2022 the following concepts were presented for initial comments.  Below are the 3 Concept plans and the trail/route profiles. For the entire package please see the link at the bottom of the page. ALL comments can be emailed to AMBC at Kellogg@ambcknox.org and they will be forwarded to the project team.

Open House Boards FINAL 2022_01_28_compressed

William Hastie Celebration!

JOIN US THIS FRIDAY TO CELEBRATE THE EXPANSION OF WILLIAM HASTIE NATURAL AREA!

At 3pm on Friday, December 10th club City leaders, Appalachian Mountain Bike Club trail-building enthusiasts and Urban Wilderness advocates will gather at the William Hastie Natural Area to celebrate a 27-acre expansion of this section of the Urban Wilderness – as well as the start of construction on 2 miles of new trails in the park.

*** NOTE: Parking at the site is extremely limited, please Hike or Bike into the Trailhead at 1302 Margaret Road. Parking and Shuttle is available at the Anderson School Trailhead, 4808 Prospect Road. Shuttle service will begin at 2:15. 

“We’re excited about the diversity of experiences made possible by this most recent park addition,” said AMBC Executive Director Matthew Kellogg. “The William Hastie new trail plan will increase beginner trail opportunities within the park, add an additional intermediate loop from the trailhead, and provide two-directional mountain bike trails to the rockier south side of the new property.”

Last spring, AMBC put the 27 acres under contract, with the intent of adding it to the City’s William Hastie Natural Area park. More than 300 proud land donors contributed to make the purchase a reality, with the City of Knoxville funding $100,000, roughly half the purchase investment. Vee Hollow in Townsend matched donations for the land purchase, and Harper Auto Square has pledged a $20,000 matching donation toward construction. (Interested donors, visit www.ambcknox.org/donate.)

Click here for a copy of the Media Advisory

September 2020 Meeting Recap

TRIPS

Looks like a group hit North Dakota (Maah Daah Hey Trail) and Duluth, MN. Some of you will remember that we competed against Duluth in the Bell Built Grant. The trails were super impressive and close in to the city. Would absolutely recommend a visit.

WEATHER

Dave Stanley, looking like a mountain man and reporting in: We have an additional 3” of recent rain and things are WET. In comparison last September has almost zero precipitation. We are now looking at a solid #2 spot for the wettest year recorded!

Dave has recently been to Bentonville, Arkansas and said it’s exactly as you’ve heard – “Disneyland for bikes” with a surprisingly good art scene.

Kellogg says it’s halfway to Colorado and worth the trip!

BIG CHECK

Unfortunately, the annual TVB checkpoint race was cancelled due to Covid BUT in a surprising turn of events, many of the entrants opted to donate their entry fee to the club! Thanks to Tennessee Valley Bicycles and those generous non-racers, we’ll be getting a big check for over $700!

SMALL PROJECTS

We’ve had lots of people working in the woods!
  • SO many – 8 snags in concord alone.
  • Treadwork at Lippincott – yay Vinnie!!!
  • Dave Williams has been working on Barn Burner, Cruze Valley Run, Floyd Fox and we’ve had quite a few small groups out working on various things at Baker Creek.
  • Let us know if you want to take on a specific project and keep the trail reports coming! trails@ambcknox.orgwith (Location and photo please!)

EVENTS

  • The Baker Creek Bike Park grand opening was a hit! We had good turn out and super shredder, Mayor Kincannon, had some good riding and life wisdom for the crowd. BIG THANKS to the City and County for all of the hard work!
  • Saturday October 3rd is Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day! There aren’t any organized events this year but that shouldn’t stop you from getting out there!
  • Knoxville Adventure Collective has a fun event coming up – Maskerade Adventure Race October 1-8th
  • Log your miles for the Norris Dam 84 Mile Challenge – on horse! on foot! on your bike!
  • Everyone’s favorite 12 hour race has been postponed . Check in withCVTA for updates on the Hill of Truth.
  • Speaking of CVTA – The Dirt Lab grand opening is October 9th!
  • The No Business 100 is October 16th Big South Fork / Picket State Park and they could us some volunteers!
  • VOTE! October 5th is the registration deadline and early voting begins on October 14th in Knox county.

OTHER RANDOM THINGS

  • The Knoxville Regional TPO is working to create a long-term vision for the transportation system in our region and they could use your input.
  • Memberships continue to roll in! Thanks to you all who’ve checked your status and re-upped. We are 50% above last year!
  • Jeremy Walker’s eagle scout project was growing pumpkins and he harkened back to those fun days to create the first AMBC Pumpkin Sale! Thanks to Sokno Taco for letting us use their yard. We sold out and raised some money for trails! Look for us next year with MORE BIGGER PUMPKINS!

FALL FEST

It’s going to be different but let’s make the best of it! We do know we have FOUR awesome things happening and details on all will be available soon:
  1. SUPER RAD bike raffle with Harper’s Bike Shop!
  2. FRESH merchandise at an in-store booth at REI! Want to VOLUNTEER??? Sign up here!
  3. EPIC silent auction (send items to info@ambcknox.org)!
  4. FUN checkpoint ride organized by Dirty Bird Events!

AND THE BIGGEST NEWS OF ALL!

Matthew and Ellen Kellogg have a tiny mountain biker brewing! The wee future shredder is due in November! BIG CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Thanks for tuning in, folks! We’ll be back again next month to do it all again!

CHEERS!