Mountain bikers are scrappy, persistent, and usually successful in what they put their minds to. Trail organizations across the continent have proven this by raising capital from every source imaginable: federal grants, state grants, private philanthropic foundations, and local companies. Sometimes it’s even passionate citizens who band together and — $20, $50, or $100 at a time — pool their funds to make new trails a reality.
Project after project, we see the numbers: $80,000 for a trail here, $300,000 for a trail there. Make no mistake: every fully-funded project is a massive win for the local community of riders.
But in Georgia, the game has totally changed in the last few years. Now, we’re seeing grants of $1 million, $1.26 million, and $8 million. Imagine what you could do with this kind of money flooding into just one state’s mountain bike scene. MTB Atlanta is using that money wisely, and now, a trail building renaissance is underway in this Southeastern MTB hotspot.
The most successful bootstrapped company exit in history minted new Georgia billionaires
The latest grant, $1.26 million to MTB Atlanta, will fund the construction of 25 miles of new bike-optimized singletrack across four different projects in far-flung corners of the state. And it’s all thanks to the Chestnut Family Foundation, the philanthropic organization providing these grants. So who’s behind the Chestnut Family Foundation (CFF)?
The CFF was founded in 2017 by Teresa and Ben Chestnut. “Teresa is a former pediatric nurse at Hughes Spalding Hospital, [and] Ben is the co-founder and former CEO of MailChimp, a global software company,” according to the CFF website.
You’ve likely heard of Mailchimp — it’s one of the largest email newsletter and marketing platforms in the world. Ben co-founded Mailchimp with Dan Kurzius as a side project in 2001, and together they bootstrapped the company with zero outside investment. Twenty years later, in 2021, they sold Mailchimp to Intuit for $12 billion, making it the biggest bootstrapped company exit ever. To put that return in perspective, “only Facebook, Groupon, and Atlassian founders derived more value from their IPOs than the founding team of Mailchimp,” according to an analysis on TinySeed.com. The 2021 sale catapulted both Chestnut and Kurzius onto the Forbes billionaires list.
While the Chestnuts had already established their foundation prior to the successful Mailchimp exit, after the exit, they redoubled their efforts. According to Form 990 tax filings, the CFF’s net assets increased from $7.4M in 2020 to $285M in 2021, an increase of $277.2M. In subsequent years, the foundation has continued to receive additional contributions and to earn millions of dollars in dividends each year.
However, the foundation’s giving ramped up as well. In 2020, total giving from the CFF was $2M, but by 2023 (the last year I was able to secure data for), total giving had increased to $16.5M. The CFF’s total assets have declined slightly since 2021, due to these extensive philanthropic donations.
Mountain biking comes into focus
The CFF’s focus has always been to improve the lives of children. Specifically, “We look for organizations in Georgia that have demonstrated compassion and creativity in their efforts to improve the lives of children. We’re drawn to small and medium sized organizations with deep community knowledge, dynamic leadership, and an entrepreneurial spirit with a bias toward access,” according to the foundation’s website.
Brett Davidson, Executive Director of MTB Atlanta, was connected with Ben Chestnut, an avid mountain biker.
After their initial Zoom meeting, Ben challenged Davidson to come up with a big idea for cyclig in Atlanta. “Why can’t one of my employees jump on a mountain bike, hop on the Beltline, and go to one of the green spaces in Atlanta that we have, and go for a mountain bike ride?'” Davidson recalled.
From that first meeting came the ambitious idea for the $15 million urban Bike Park at Shirley Clarke Franklin Park, which the CFF has committed $8 million to fund. The groundbreaking for the new bike park will take place on January 22, 2026. Prior to the bike park grant, MTB Atlanta received a direct grant for over $1 million, which they used to build 22 miles of singletrack across eight different sites in North Georgia and Metro Atlanta. And now, MTB Atlanta is putting shovels in the dirt for their second direct grant.
The CFF is also giving to many organizations at the unique intersection of youth development and mountain biking. They’ve donated $725,000 to the Trail Rangers Kickstart Program with the Georgia Cycling Association, $300,000 to Bearings Bike Works, $700,000 to fund the Kids Bike League in Middle Georgia and build trails for them, $300,000 to build an asphalt pump track in Sandersville, and they’ve also helped fund the Georgia High Low Trail.
25 miles of singletrack across 4 different trail systems
This latest $1.26M grant to MTB Atlanta has been allocated to build 25 miles of singletrack across four different trail systems. Even though MTB Atlanta’s in-house crews are doing the build-outs, these projects are spread all across the state. The builds range from the mountains of North Georgia near Ellijay down to West Point Lake in the western part of the state, with Chattahoochee Bend State Park anchoring projects closer to Metro Atlanta.
Phase one: Pyne Road Park, Troup County
These 25 miles will be constructed in three different phases, which Davidson estimates will take about a year and a half to complete. The first phase is planned for Pyne Road Park on West Point Lake, near the town of LaGrange. MTB Atlanta had previously rebuilt the Menawa Loop trail in the same trail system, and now, they’re planning to completely rework the Red Cloud Loop.
While the county approved this trail work some time ago, MTB Atlanta has had trouble funding the project via a state RTP grant. “We’ve written one RTP grant for it, but oftentimes, you don’t get the first cycle of funding when you submit in Georgia. So we didn’t get it. So I added this to the ask, because it was shovel-ready,” said Davidson.
This revamp will provide three miles of fast, flowy cross country mountain biking, which Davidson calls “flow country” riding. “Think almost like a mini Tsali or something. It’s just like all contour running along the lake. [It’ll] be a fast, wide-open loop.”
Phase two: Carter’s Lake and the Cartecay Tract near Ellijay
Ellijay has long been renowned as one of the best MTB destinations in Georgia, but in recent years, very few modern trails have been built in the area. Phase two will bring over 12 miles of modern singletrack to the region. “This would be the most significant trail build in the last 10 years, for sure, up there,” said Davidson, who also serves as the President of the North Georgia Mountain Bike Association (NGMBA). MTB Atlanta has signed an MOU with the NGMBA to share resources and help keep their board alive.
In the Carter’s Lake Woodring Branch trail system, MTB Atlanta will build a new 2.3-mile intermediate flow country trail connected to the existing Amadahy Trail. They’re also planning an all-new eight-mile backcountry loop down the Woodring Peninsula, which spurs off of the existing Amadahy Trail.
Finally, the Cartecay Tract is home to some of the oldest mountain bike trails in Georgia, often referred to as the “Red and White Loop“. Those trails are showing their age, and Davidson plans to completely rework the trail system and optimize it for loop-style riding.
Phase three: Chattahoochee Bend State Park
In arguably the most exciting of the three projects, almost 10 miles of new singletrack will be built across two new trails in the burgeoning trail system at Chattahoochee Bend State Park. Chattahoochee Bend currently offers about 6.5 miles of trail, so these additions will turn the network into a destination where you can actually enjoy a reasonable-length mountain bike ride. In fact, MTB Atlanta eventually hopes to build some 40 miles of singletrack in the park. Currently, about 20 miles of trail have been approved, but Davidson shared that they’re in discussions about approvals for another 20 miles.
The new Copperhead trail will offer a backcountry riding experience through “one of the prettiest parts of the park,” and the Rattler loop “will be the first purpose-built, bike-optimized trail on State Park land” in Georgia, according to Davidson.
Chattahoochee Bend already offers superb campgrounds, and with the construction of these new trails, Davidson thinks the state park could become a regional weekend destination. While people already go to the park to camp all the time, “there’s just not a ton for them to do,” said Davidson. “There’s a legacy volunteer-built hiking trail system, and of course, there’s about six miles of river that people can float. So we think that when we get these other two loops built, and we got close to 16 to 20 miles of trail, we’re definitely going to kind of break the bank on visitation out there from the gate, and the park’s excited to see that.”
Billionaires building trails is the best thing for biking
Wealthy individuals and philanthropic organizations leveraging their resources to get mountain bike trails built is a trend that arguably began with the Walton family in Arkansas, but it has since expanded across the continent. In 2025, we reported on a plethora of trail systems that wouldn’t have been built without this new source of funding — especially in light of recent federal budget cuts.
With the Chestnut Family Foundation committed to funding mountain bike trail building and youth cycling organizations across the state, the future of trail development in Georgia is incredibly bright. Over the next 18 months, we’ll be tracking the progress of these game-changing trail projects right here in Singletracks’ home state.
Know about a new trail project we should cover? Whether you’re breaking ground on the next must-ride destination or putting the finishing touches on a neighborhood flow trail, we want to hear about it. Drop us a line at [email protected] with high-quality photos of your build, plus details like trail mileage, location, difficulty, and what makes it special. We’re always on the hunt for the next great trail story, and there’s a good chance your project could be featured in an upcoming article.
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