On a glorious spring day, the Jackrabbit Mountain Bike and Hiking Trails opened officially on April 30. Coincidently, 2011 is also the year of the rabbit on the Chinese zodiac, and the trails’ logo is a rabbit. The trails are the result of a partnership of the Tusquitee Ranger District of the US Forest Service, the Southern Appalachian Bicycle Association (SABA), and the Clay County Communities Revitalization Association.
Speakers at the event included Marisue Hilliard, supervisor of national forests in NC; Steve Lohr, outgoing district ranger for the Tusquitee Ranger District; Joanna Atkisson, president of SABA; and Ron Guggisberg. Lohr reported that the trails attracted 15,000 visitors last year. He expects 40,000 more this year.
The speeches were followed by a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the existing 14.5-mile system and for the new 500-foot bike practice trail. Afterward, SABA led group mountain bike rides; members of the Young Harris College cross country team led group trail runs; and the Mountain High Hikers led group hikes.
The Jackrabbit Mountain Bike and Hiking Trails were created on thickly forested land over the past eight years. They did not exist previously. This article tells the story of how they came into existence. It is the story of the activities of two groups of people: local lovers of mountain biking who wanted a convenient place to ride, and local lovers of this area who saw nature-based tourism as a route for economic development compatible with the area’s great natural beauty. The first group, led by Joanna Atkisson, enlisted the Forest Service’s cooperation, found experts in trail building, boosted local interest in mountain biking, and did much of the work in trail construction. The second group, led by Ron Guggisberg, secured the financing that made the project possible. Both Joanna and Ron were volunteers, as were most of the people who helped them. The following account comes from Joanna’s and Ron’s speeches at the Jackrabbit grand opening.
In the summer of 2001, the Clay County School System added mountain biking to its Pathways After School and Summer Program. Members from the local bicycle club volunteered to teach the students about bicycle safety, skills and etiquette in an effort to promote this sport as a lifelong activity while simultaneously fostering health and fitness. Joanna Atkisson, the nurse at Hayesville High School, led the way. She discovered that most nearby trails were too steep, too technical, or too long for beginner riders. She and her students had to drive two hours out of state to find entry-level trails. Because the students had to take their bicycles, this situation limited the number who could participate.
Joanna began wondering why there were no local biking trails, given the fact that Hayesville sits in the middle of National Forest lands. She began talking with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which operates the Lake Chatuge dam, and with the Tusquitee Ranger District of the US Forest Service. She learned about the Jackrabbit peninsula off Lake Chatuge. The district ranger at the time was Charles Miller, who told her about the steps involved in establishing a project on National Forest lands.
Joanna’s bicycle club, the Southern Appalachian Bicycle Association (SABA) was just getting off the ground. To apply for grants, it needed a well-established partner that had experience in applying for grants and administering them. Joanna approached Rob Tiger with the Clay County Communities Revitalization Association, which had such experience. In 2003, SABA, Clay County Communities Revitalization Association and the Tusquitee Ranger District began collaborating.
The group began holding monthly meetings to determine goals and conduct the required environmental impact studies, a 2-year process. Because the group had the opportunity to create trails from scratch, it wanted did not want to rush through the planning process. It had other wishes as well:
§ To make trails accessible to novice mountain bikers as well as advanced ones and to hikers and runners, as well as mountain bikers. The trail would be multi-use and highlight Jackrabbit’s forested, lakeside terrain.
§ To have trailhead amenities found elsewhere.
§ To maximize mileage without having trains running over each other.
§ To attract visitors to the area and have a positive economic effect while providing green tourism.
Dwayne Stutzeman of the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources evaluated the proposed site and approved its use for a trail stem.
The planning group began getting to know the land and the terrain and to flag some proposed routes without disturbing the ground until the environmental impact studies had been completed. It then obtained the help of Mike Riter, the owner of Trail Design Specialists. He examined the proposed routes and pointed out limitations and possible improvements. The planning group realized it needed more education. Joanna and Fred Lewis attended a trail school conducted by the International Mountain Biking Association (IMBA) at the Jaw Ridge Trails near Oak Ridge, Tennessee. There, they learned about “sustainable” trails. They then asked IMBA to conduct a trail school at the Jackrabbit site, which it did in November 2005. That date marked the actual beginning of ground construction of the Jackrabbit Trails. Mike Riter returned to help the group with trail construction.
Various people spent hundreds of hours laying out sustainable trails in heat and cold and during rain. Joanna cannot remember how many snakes she has stepped over and how many trees she crawled over or under while flagging the trail. To hold costs down, volunteers cleared paths and did all finish work. They pulled off countless ticks and suffered untold chigger bites, heat rashes, and briar thickets. The work was not easy or pleasant.
Once the group had constructed a few miles of trails, the community’s support for the project increased. Students at both Hayesville and Murphy high schools conducted senior exit projects on trail building and mountain biking. Bill and Johanne Kittle of Mountain High Hikers and Master Gardeners helped identify plants of interest and place signs next to them for the benefit of hikers.
Recently, the Clay County Schools and Clay County Health Department bought more bicycles for the after school and summer programs and built the bike practice trail designed to improve the students’ bike handling skills.
For the past few years, the schools have been able to bring all students from the summer program to Jackrabbit several times each summer. Most students do mountain biking, but some elect to hike instead. Many kids have enjoyed their experience so much that they have purchased bicycles and have gotten their families involved in biking or hiking.
The trails have received favorable reviews on bicycle forums. Last year, Jackrabbit was selected as a site for an endurance race series called Chain Buster Productions. In the first year, it brought more than 250 cyclists to Jackrabbit.
The success of this project depended on grants from a wide variety of sources. Ron Guggisberg, the trails and greenways chairman for Clay County Communities Revitalization Association led the effort to secure funding and to enlist local businesses in providing in-kind support.
Ron’s group obtained its first grant in 2004, a $15,000 grant from Advantage West NC to fund the necessary studies to allow this type of project on public lands. Eric Brinke of BRMEMC Economic Development helped Guggisberg learn the ins and outs of grant writing and became an advocate for the project.
In 2005, the project received a $50,000 matching grant from the NC Dept. of Environment & Natural Resources, Parks & Recreation. This grant allowed large-scale trail construction to begin. DeWayne Stutzeman played an important role in choosing land suitable for trail building and in advocating for the project.
In 2007, the project received an economic development grant of $120,000 from the Golden LEAF Foundation. The organization’s vice president, Patricia (Pat) Cabe, whose roots are in Clay County, convinced its board to fund this project because it promotes recreational tourism, which can boost Clay County’s economy.
Much of the success of the effort to obtain grantor funding was due to the fact that the project could demonstrate such strong local community support. Handmade in America is and has been a longstanding partner to Clay County Communities Revitalization Association. It helped Clay County Communities Revitalization Association with funds to begin the process of soliciting matching funds. David Quinn, Judy Jetson, and others were strong supporters of the program. From there, others committed to the project in order to provide the critical local support necessary to obtain the larger grants. Among these organizations were the Clay County Travel &Tourism Board, the Towns County Tourism Association, the SW NC Rural Development, and Walmart. SABA itself conducted many fundraisers and raffles, auctioned donated items, and worked at any event at which it could raise funds.
Over the past seven years, a long list of individuals and businesses donated funds to the project they saw as benefiting the community. They were critical to keeping the project going. A local developer, Scotty Fain, and his construction company built the parking lot at the trailhead. They provided the labor, machines, and expertise as an in-kind donation. Others helped the project stretch its limited funds by providing goods and services at a reduced cost. These businesses include Signs Fast for providing the many necessary signs; Ron Salzer for building a bridge on the trail; Jackson Home Repair for covering that bridge; and Steve Hindsman for providing and servicing the very necessary portable restroom at the site for years at no cost.
Here is a summary of key funding the project received:
Grants $265,000
Fund raising $29,000
Private donations $16,000;
Organization and business donations $5,700
Total cash: $316,000.
There were outright in kind donations documented at $42,000, not counting any of the reduced cost goods and services.
What cannot be measured, but is the greatest of all, is the volunteering of thousands of hours by SABA and Clay County Communities Revitalization Association members, and the thousands of miles driven by them in support of this project. This project demonstrates what good things can happen when people work together. It is one of the reasons this area is a special place to live. It offers a valuable example to others who want to build major local projects from the ground up.
