I only got to see it in pictures unfortunately. Geographically speaking, it probably shouldn’t have ever been wheeling territory.
Tennessee Headed to the Nashville area
- Thread starter Big-Al
- Start date
I think just the opposite - it should never have been shut down as wheeling territory. It ultimately came down to Trout Unlimited, with a crazy amount of funding behind them, putting pressure on the forest service to shut down access because of supposed silt injection into the rivers and streams resulting from wheelin. Now, it's more complicated than that as there was also a huge component of the forest service not performing required planned maintenance for silt control on the trails, but the underlying theme is correct.
Now, the Tellico River does contain some of the best trout fishing anywhere, so I fully get the need to protect it, but in truth wheelin there just did not create that much damage. It was the power of money, pure and simple.
The real irony is that after Tellico was shut down to wheeling, the forest service granted permits to log huge sections of the area. I've seen pictures of the results, and it was devastating. Now which do we think caused more damage?
Yeah you make valid points there actually. I was a little too young to understand all the logistics, I just always heard it was damaging the watershed. Logging isn’t even really “logging” in the south… it’s pretty much clear cutting, which is way worse.
Reminds me of the Sierra Club( Cali based hiking/lobbyist group) who always seems to have it out for us mountain bikers, but when it comes down to it, mountain bikers do way more for trail building and maintenance than most hikers ever thought about.
Supposedly Tackett Creek is the closest thing that resembles the tellico vibe. I’d love to go check it out one day.
Yeah, Tellico was special. In a time now of just about everything on the east coast and in the south being relatively small, private parks, Tellico's 75,000 or so acres was awesome. School Bus, Helicopter Pad, Lower 2, Guard Rail - some of the best hard core wheelin' on the east coast. I think the closest thing to it may be Winrock. Same kind of challenge, scale and vibe I think.
https://www.sandersferrypizzapub.com/
They have I think 2 other locations but they name each place depending on the location.
https://www.longhollowpizza.com/https://www.fairvuepizza.com/
We normally go to fairvue because it's closer but they are all owned by the same people. Their Nashville hot chicken pizza is my favorite and it isn't spicy.
Tried Sanders Ferry today. It was really good. Went with the Nashville hot chicken pizza. Loved it. Thanks again.
Ugh...don't get me started on the lobbiest and closing access to MTB bike trails. The IMBA and MMBA have been working REALLY hard on building a world class destination in and around Copper Harbor, Michigan. Its amazing...I've been, and its lots of fun. Now, some group, acting through an insurance agent, is telling the organizations that run the trails that they need something like 5,000,000 in liability coverage in case someone gets hurt on the flyovers or jumps. That is more insurance than any other trail system in the US is required to pay. What's really going on is there is some money around the area that doesn't like the fact that there are so many "tourist" in town for the summer. The lawsuit forced the closure of a bunch of the trails. In an area that really doesn't have any other economic viability other than tourism, some assclowns are trying to fuck that up. It just pisses me off.
https://www.singletracks.com/mtb-trails/copper-harbor-trails-shut-down-liability/
Really? That’s fucked. I remember watching a biking video about those copper harbor trails. They looked cool as hell. NIMBY’d I guess…
Good to hear. Keep an eye for the coupon books because they usually have some.
A few months ago my in laws went up there and the toppings were skimpy at the Fairview location. They mentioned it to the owners the next time they saw them at sanders ferry and the owner had to talk to the manager.
I guess they were trying to save them some money but he told them he wanted the toppings a certain way to keep the customers happy.
The veggie Maximus has a ton of toppings on it.
Yeah, Michigan is a tourism driven state...its weird. Most of the people accept it and welcome visitors (and their money!) with open arms. There are some (Traverse City comes to mind) that really look down on the tourism industries. People in TC call tourist Fudgies and give them a hard time. There is a component of the Yoopers that are like that too. Kinda like the mountain men in appalachia..."stay off my lawn!" I think they are selfish and trying to keep the areas to themselves? The article mentioned one land owner who revoked his easement because people were "changing clothes" on his property? Really? Get a life.
My buddy owns the Kilwin’s in TC. I love the mitten, it’s a beautiful state. When I was in Bend Oregon, it was very tourism driven. A lot of locals turned their nose up at it yet opened their pocketbooks to it at the same time. Weird dynamic.