Outdoors+Recreation Making it awesome — Cherokee unveils 10-mile mountain biking system
When Ed Sutton first came to Cherokee in November to break ground on a new trail system, his directive was clear. “We told him his marching orders were just make it great. Make it awesome,” said Jeremy Hyatt, natural resources and construction director for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. “You couldn’t give me a better mission statement than that,” said Sutton, a trail builder for Brevard-based Trail Dynamics. Opened just this past May, the 154-acre property boasts 10 to 12 miles of trail with various segments catering to ability levels from beginner to advanced, all available via a trailhead at the Oconaluftee Indian Village, less than a mile from downtown Cherokee. With more than 1,000 feet of elevation gain from the top of Mount Noble to the parking lot, the maze of trails weaving up and down the mountainside will offer plenty of challenge for more advanced riders, Sutton said, while tamer loops will give beginners the chance to give mountain biking a try without venturing far from home. Runners and hikers will also be welcome to explore the trails. “I think we have a good entry-level beginner trail,” he said. “I think we have what I would call a very rhythmic intermediate trail, and then we have a slope-style one-directional trail which will be mostly downhill and it will have jumps, big berms, lots of rollers. Cherokee-based Aniwaya Design & Planning with trail specialist Valerie Naylor was hired to design the trails, and Trail Dynamics was engaged to build them.
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Local mountain biker Zach Goings tests out a piece of completed trail. Holly Kays photo
Zach Goings, 31, hasn’t let the previous lack of mountain biking facilities deter him from pursuing the sport of his choice, but in the past he’d pack up and drive two hours to DuPont State Forest if he wanted to spend a whole day on the trails. However, he’s ridden
to add onto it in the future.” When completed, Cherokee’s trail system will certainly not be the only mountain biking system in Western North Carolina. The nationally celebrated Tsali Recreation Area lies 23 miles to the west, and Western Carolina University’s trail system is 21 miles to “We want to encourage families the southeast. Drive a little further, and there’s the Bent Creek Recreation Area in to come in and do stuff Asheville, trails in the Pisgah National Forest together, and visitors to have near Mills River, and DuPont State Forest. another option when they come Sylva has been discussing someday into visit Cherokee.” stalling mountain bike trails on its Pinnacle — Tinker Jenks Park property. Cherokee is in good company. The diversity of existing mountain bike ofaround the mountain where the new trail ferings in Western North Carolina wasn’t a system was built for the past 12 years, and deterrent in planning Cherokee’s system, the road up to the fire tower was one of the however. It was actually an encouragement. first trails he ever rode. Sutton referred to the Tsali and WCU sys“It’s a little bittersweet because the first time I came up here and saw it, the first bot- tems as “complimentary” systems — with the tom section was totally different, but I am re- three mountain biking areas existing in such close proximity, they’ll essentially combine ally excited that this is available locally,” forces to create a more powerful draw for outGoings said. of-town bikers than any one of them could do “I think it’s going to be good for Cherokee,” he added, “and hopefully we’ll be able alone. Each trail system has its own strengths
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