Trail Review : Enterprise South

The Enterprise South Nature Park in Chattanooga, Tennessee were some of the first trails I went to when I began mountain biking. It features approximately 10 miles of looped trails. There's no doubt that these are appropriately labeled as beginner trails, but don't let that be a deterrent for your visit. What these trails lack in gnarly factor, they make up for in fun.

Enterprise South is divided into three directional loops. I've done both directions and I highly recommend the Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, although there are still tons of fast downhills the Tuesday Thursday Sunday direction, too. Each of the loops are about the same difficulty, even though technically they're considered beginner, intermediate, and advanced. As I said, they were my favorite trails when I started mountain biking and I never came across anything that I couldn't handle....except for the occasional rock garden but that's a personal hurdle I'll overcome eventually.
Each loop has its own defining features.

The loop we started on is known as Black Forest. It's a quick singletrack with a handful of punchy climbs, roots, and loose ground. (There's also the most fun downhill run into a parking lot if you're doing the M, W, F, S direction). From there, you go into TNT, my personal favorite. There is a tiny bit more climbing on this loop, but the pay off is wonderful. This loop has a lot of roller sections which is a heck of a good time regardless of how much speed you're comfortable with maintaining. The Log Rhythm loop is the last one we came to. For advanced riders, this area can be used as your playground. It has an elevated bridge, pump track, and log obstacles. For those not comfortable with the advanced features, they're easily bypassed without taking anything away from the all around experience.

I definitely won't be making any trips to Chattanooga that I don't make time to visit this trail at least once. It's a good way to get in a couple of really solid miles on your bike. For those riders looking to amp up their mountain biking skills, it's a really great place to work on getting comfortable with maintaining speed. For those just looking for a good place to ride, this is a decently easy trail that doesn't feel like a snooze fest.

Impromtu Chattanooga

Yesterday was our usual day for group mountain biking trip. For whatever reason, the idea of riding didn't sound the slightest bit appealing to me. I was going to suck it up and go anyway, but thankfully, Patrick was there to save the day by suggesting we go on a day trip to Chattanooga.

By the time we decided to go, it was already past noon. The trip up there would take us about 2 hours, closer to three when you take into consideration traffic and a food stop. We compromised by agreeing to pack up the mountain bikes to get in a quick ride at Enterprise South (which are some of my favorite trails ever!) and then get in some good exploring after.

Around 3:30, we got to Chattanooga, unloaded the car, and hopped on the trails. Unfortunately, we only got about 7 miles in when the skies opened up. I can't say it was the biggest downpour I've ever gotten stuck in, but it definitely ranked in the top 3. Our only option was to head to the car one way or another. Bummed that we drove 2 hours for about 30 minutes of riding, we figured that we'd be able to take the few miles of trails back. Nope!
After only a couple of minutes of rain, the previously flowy trails turned into actual rivers. So we turned around and took to the road.

Once we packed back up, we called up my brother who lives in Chattanooga. Luckily, it only seemed to be raining over the trails, which are about 20 minutes outside of the city. We drove out of the storm and into perfect weather!

My brother has a friend whose family owns a ridiculous amount of land up on Lookout Mountain so he took us up there, where we got in a whole lot of sightseeing over Cloudland Canyon and some canoeing on a private pond.

We originally had plans to go out to dinner together before leaving, but it being Sunday and us having no concept of time, when we realized how late it had gotten, all  our food options had closed. (which is a major bummer because I've been dreaming about how good Urban Stack burgers are for a good six months now!)

All in all, it was the perfect almost-full-day-off-a-bike day. I am thankful to have had a moment outside of the routine of the city. Now, back to my regularly scheduled training rides.