History of our trails....

[seenvic]

Any of you remember the first time you went out to the "old school" trails? These would be Modoc (Stevens Creek), Horn Creek (Lick Fork), Wine Creek and Turkey Creek. What the hell, lets throw Keg Creek in there as well.

I am curious when anyone first rode them. I've always heard late eighties....I found them when I moved here in 1991. I'd love to hear from some of the old schoolers that found those trails back in the day. What do you remember about them? How did you get permission to ride them? Or did you even worry w/ permission?

Did anyone of you help build the Canal singletrack? When was that? Who was with you?

I can fill in the history of the "new school trails"....Baker Creek, Hickory Knob, FATS, Bartram Trail. I'll do that in another post.

Here is what I know about the 4 old school USFS trails. Alot of this is from memory of conversations w/ Wes Prince who moved away 10 years ago and Bruce Norris who passed away earlier this year.

1965...LBJ told the USFS to build trails all over the country. I've seen the original memo from the local USFS. I think I was 18 days old when it was typed.
1972...The local district plans 3 trails. One is called Stevens Creek and it is to be one linear trail from Hwy 23 to Hwy 283. It is to cross Stevens Creek & Turkey Creek w/ a set of bridges. One is called Horn Creek and it is at Lick Fork. And the third one is called Forks and it was to be at what is now in the area of FATS.

The first and second trails above were built, and the third (Forks) never was. The first one didn't turn out as planned. The bridges across the creeks were never built and thus we ended up w/ what we now see as three seperate trails...Modoc, Turkey Creek and Wine Creek. The Stevens/Turkey/Wine Trails were designed by a young forest service employee named Randall Phillips....and Randall is still employed on this district (he's getting up there in age and is a great guy.) They were handbuilt by a group of youngsters in a program called the Youth Conservation Corp. Next time you ride Modoc, you can see where the YCC got off Randall's line and started building the trail steeper. It's about 2-3 miles in from Hwy 23 - all contour trail til then. Then the lines get much steeper. Randall told me that the YCC got tired of cutting all that contour bench and tooks shortcuts closer to the fall line.

On Wine Creek, all those bridges were built w/ materials hauled in on the backs of mules.

Horn Creek at Lick Fork was started, but not finshed by Randall. For those that remember the way HC used to be, it was alot steeper in places than the Stevens Creek trio of trails. I asked Randall one day about this as it obvious to me that HC wasn't nearly as sustainable as the other trails. And Randall told me he got assigned to do it, started it, then got called to another task and someone else completed Horn Creek.

As far as bikes go, Joel Gardiner (District Ranger in late 80's and early 90's), simply opened these trails to bikes. The only trail Joel didn't open to bikes was the short Lick Fork Trail (hiking only trail around the lake).

Back during this time, what is now the Long Cane Ranger District was two seperate districts. All the above trails were in Joel's district (Edgefield District) and the Parsons Mtn area was in the Long Cane District. The Long Cane was run by a guy named John Cathie. John Cathie opened the Long Cane Horse Trail and the two motorcycle trails to bikes, but not the Parsons Mtn Hiking Trail that goes around the lake up there. Sometime in the early 90's the two districts merged and Joel Gardiner was put in charge.

The next thing of significance on these trails was around 1996. The top dog in the state for the USFS (Supervising Officer) made Stevens, Turkey, Wine and Horn Creek off limits to horses. We got really lucky there. I don't think this was something that anyone pushed. it just happened. Probably because of all the bridges and the USFS didn't want the horses going around all of them. But that is pure speculation.

That's a smattering of what I can recall and have time to type.

You got anything to add?

Jimmy Culpeper...step up to the mic, please.

[ted]

Who and when the first to ride the trails will probably never be known. Local legend and former Breakaway owner Richard “Dickie” Thompson claims to have ridden Stevens and Turkey creek “cyclocross style” back in the 70’s when only hikers used the trails. Those who know Dickie can tell you of the yarn he can spin, but I believe every word.

My first local trail experiences were in late ’93 on Lick Fork, Stevens Creek, and Turkey Creek on three consecutive weekends.

I was first influenced while looking at Mountain Bike Action magazines while working for a cleaning company at Bill Victor’s office. Amongst all the financial documents that could be found all over the floor were 3 MTB magazines. I asked to borrow one from Bill the next week and the fever grew. With the lack of a girlfriend and an excess of funds, I purchased my first mountain bike (but far from my first bike).

The first was Lick Fork starting out going counterclockwise. It was all I could do to complete one lap. Stevens and Turkey followed.
I assumed I had permission because Bill told me to ride them. Keg creek before recent maintenance, Mistletoe, and Plumb Branch are other trails I got to ride that year.

The Canal Trail
Before the days of SORBA CSRA, there was a club called the Augusta Freewheelers which consisted of both road and mountain bikers. It only exists by its name today and a website that takes you nowhere. No members, no meetings, and no events.
Around mid to late ’94 or early ’95, Clay Chastain, Wes Prince I think, myself, and a few other members, approached the Augusta Canal Authority with a proposal to build a trail around the ponds between the canal, railroad tracks, and river. The main idea behind the project was to use the land for a trail and possibly events in the future. Oh, and also to help stop the sprouting Hobo camp’s that were in that area.
Once permission was granted, the construction began. With everything from an axe to a machete and lots of rakes the Helter Skelter process proceeded with no layout in place. Cut, cut, rake, rake. “Let’s go down there, let’s go up this hill, let’s go back and forth to increase the mileage.”
That’s pretty much it. The canal trail was born. Next time you ride it, look around at the thick brush that needed to be cleared. It was a tremendous amount of work.

I’m not one of the “Old Schoolers”, but I’m no newbie. It would be interesting to hear from someone who was there before if we can find them.
Anybody know where Buddy Smith is?

[JIMMYC]

Rode Modoc first time 1984/'85 on a group ride. Before then we rode below the dam on some jeeps trails.
I moved to Nashville, Tn 1987 and met some guys that were really into it, that's when I really started obsessing.
Moved back 1989 bought a new Raliegh and met Bruce Norris and started riding all the trails Modoc, turkey, Wine and Parson's mt. every Sunday morning. That lasted 'til about '95 my back couldn't take anymore.
Toward the end Bruce and I road Plumb Branch, Keg creek and the power lines near the old fire tower.
Don't know if you can use any of this info, but we had a blast doing it.


oh yeah.. ask Shrean, Andy, Phil or Dickie they were there.

[wooglin]

jimmyc said:

oh yeah.. ask Shrean, Andy, Phil or Dickie they were there.

Phil (from Chain Reaction, right?) told me the story of his first times on Modoc/Turkey/Wine when I ran into him on Turkey a couple of months ago. He had a then newly "invented" mtb and was working at the shop when some hunters came in looking at bikes as a way to get back into the woods and off Bambi. They told him about Turkey etc. because that was their planned route, and the next weekend Phil and a buddy were out there checking it out. From what I remember this was the same time period jimmyc is talking about.

[jthompson]

The first time I rode a mtn bike trail was I think in 1984 on New Year's Day. There was an organized ride at Lick Fork with food. It was very cold and my dad put me on a bmx bike ( I think I was like 8 or something). If you have never ridden a bmx bike on all of the Lick Fork trails in the freezing cold as an 8 year old girl with no food then you really haven't lived. It wasn't until I started crying that my Dad realized that I was bonking and offered the snack bar that he had been carrying in his pocket for the entire ride. And I remember riding on the trail around the lake at Lick Fork for most of my adolescence. I don't remember it being closed off to bikes until 95 or 96. Of course since I was with Dan most of the time maybe we were just breaking the rules.....

And I don't know if my dad really rode those Modoc and Turkey Creek during the 70s or not. I know that he has ridden out at Bussey Point on a road bike, so I guess those other trails aren't such a stretch. And he is pretty crazy......