The Tennessee River Gorge Trust (TRGT) manages over 17,000 acres of land in and around the Chattanooga, Tennessee area. TRGT’s most recent adventure, Aetna Mountain, has them adding more singletrack to Chattanooga.
Phase one added four miles of new trail, and phase two will add another four miles, for a total of eight. However, due to the unique character of each trail, TRGT tells us it is really more like 16 miles.
From Nature Conservancy offshoot to trail-building powerhouse
“We started in the early ‘80s under the umbrella of the Nature Conservancy,” TRGT Executive Director Eliot Berz told us. “Then, in ‘86, we became an independent 501 (c) (3).”
Like other land trust organizations, TRGT focuses on land conservation and management. While Berz explained that land conservation will always be their “bread and butter,” growth in the organization over the last decade has enabled them to devote more attention to public access to their properties.
“My portion of [TRGT’s] work is managing all of our public access sites — our trails, campgrounds, caving sites, and climbing sites,” Robert Windham, TRGT Land and Public Access Manager, said. “So we’re out on the trails all year long, weed eating, leaf blowing, and making sure trees that are down get cleared.”
In recent years, TRGT has been involved with adding dozens of miles at Raccoon Mountain, Stringer’s Ridge, and Prentice Cooper. And now they are building Aetna Mountain, just a handful of miles west of downtown Chattanooga.
How a land donation and IMBA grant aligned to create a new trail system
TRGT had a roughly 300-acre parcel of land on Aetna Mountain donated to the trust. Coincidentally, at roughly the same time in 2021, TRGT also purchased a chunk of property on Aetna Mountain.
As stars and moons continued to line up, TRGT also received a trail planning grant from IMBA. The grant allowed the organization to have IMBA conduct a feasibility study for the two properties on Aetna Mountain.
“What would the trail look like; could it be done; what’s the extent; what are our options?” Berz explained. “And the result was a pretty impressive trail system.”
While the trail system would be multi-use, Berz said that the planning with IMBA would make the Aetna Mountain trails mountain bike-centric. TRGT prioritized getting community partners, such as Outdoor Chattanooga and the Chattanooga chapter of SORBA, involved in the process.
They also wanted to hear from community members — local riders and other trail users accessing Chattanooga’s trail systems. What did those trail users want? What were they looking for in the newly proposed singletrack? What is missing in the river gorge and the greater Chattanooga area?
“And the feedback was that the community wanted more beginner-to-intermediate-friendly progressive mountain biking trails,” Berz said. “So that’s what we focused on for Aetna Mountain trails.”
The decision to keep Aetna Mountain more beginner-friendly coincided nicely with the construction of other trails in the Chattanooga area. While not a TRGT trail system, Berz and Windham spoke about the recently built trails at Walden’s Ridge. This system has several intermediate and advanced descents, with some double-black offerings in the works.
These and other advanced trails help balance mountain biking in the greater Chattanooga area.
Two phases, four loops, and a reversible trail experience
TRGT broke construction into two phases at Aetna Mountain for a couple of key reasons. First, fundraising was more attainable if broken up into smaller bites. Second, they wanted to get the community using the first phase of trails and hear their feedback before moving forward with the second and final phase.
Phase one brought two new trails, a 2.5-mile intermediate loop and a 1.5-mile beginner loop. The blue loop climbs and descends about 435 feet, while the green loop has about 150 feet of elevation change.
Phase two will double the mileage at Aetna Mountain, from four miles to eight. However, Berz and Windham told us that when all is said and done, Aetna Mountain will really feel like it has 16 miles. Each loop can be ridden in either direction, as many mountain bikers do with the current green and blue loops. And the trails are distinct enough that riding them in the opposite direction provides an entirely new experience.
The team told us that during the trail-planning phases with IMBA, they identified a unique area of steep limestone outcroppings. Then, further along, the terrain was better suited to a flowier trail style. Riding one direction would mean descending the flow and climbing the tech. Turn around, and a technical descent awaits, followed by a flowier climb at the end.
Both of these areas are being incorporated into the new loops of phase two, which will mirror phase one — a shorter beginner loop and a longer intermediate loop. As in phase one, the green loop will be built within the blue loop.
But phase two will have roughly 100 more feet of elevation than phase one.
“The trails themselves are similar to much of the land across the Tennessee River Gorge,” Windham explained. “The trails sit in an area where it’s kind of a mixture of mature mixed deciduous forests. There are tons of huge rocks and boulders for riders to ride over and experience.”
Windham also shared that TRGT aims to make the entire Aetna Mountain trail system accessible to adaptive riders. Currently, much of phase one is passable on adaptive bikes, and TRGT is working with Catalyst Sports on the areas that aren’t.
Catalyst will continue to consult with TRGT on phase two, so all eight — sorry, 16 — miles of the trail system will be adaptive-friendly.
The day we spoke with Berz and Windham, they shared that the county commissioners had just approved the funding for phase two. “We’ve been doing a fundraising effort. We have corporate sponsors, grants, private donations, and now the county funding,” Berz said.
So, now the group is on the hunt for trail builders. IMBA Trail Solutions did the construction for phase one. And while TRGT was pleased with the work they did, the organization hopes to hire a local trail building outfit for phase two.
TRGT will break ground on phase two in 2026. If all goes according to plan, they hope to have the Aetna Mountain trails completed by the end of next year.
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