Upper Cumberland Organization Working On Off-Road Bike Trails At Putnam Parks

Work progressing on mountain bike trails at Cookeville’s Cane Creek Park and Monterey’s Meadow Creek Park.

Steven Myers is the Chapter President for Upper Cumberland Southern Off-Road Biking Association, an organization dedicated to creating and maintaining trails for off-road bicycles. He said so far, they’ve created about 3.5 miles of trails at Cane Creek with the hope of adding another mile and a half.

“So what that entails is basically a lot of times is cleaning out the undergrowth, cutting out any dead trees, and just scraping down of that top layer and getting down into the harder packed dirt,” Myers said. “It’s a lot of manual labor.”

Myers said they are still in the layout phase for work at Cane Creek Park. He said right now, plans run on the boat dock side of the lake by the dam.

Myers said 1 mile of trail requires about 150 hours of manual labor. He said while it may be hard work, the ultimate goal is to bring more trails to the Upper Cumberland that will attract more people to the sport.

“It’s an opportunity to be outside in nature, it’s an opportunity to be a kid again, and it really is just a lot of fun,” Myers said. “There’s great camaraderie in the mountain biking world. Some of the best friends that I’ve met in my life were through mountain biking. The way I always equate it, is that it is the most fun fitness that I have ever done.”

Myers said volunteers are always welcome if anyone has the desire to help with the group’s goal. There are currently four dates set up to work through the month of October. For more information, contact the group on its Facebook page.