Doe Mountain OHV Park, Mtn. City, TN

[GlennR]

Mountain City, TN is opening a public OHV park on Doe Mountain. Tennessee purchased 8600 acres from the Cherokee NF to develope for off road vehicle riding. The town is also planning to allow OHV's to ride in town. Doe Mountain stretches between Mtn. City and Watauga Lake, to the south. It lies between Hwy 167 & Hwy 67. Over 100 miles of trails are planned, and many are already cleared. The Kettle Foot fire tower is a great place to get a 360 degree view of the region.

The trails are being cleared by the Mountain Trail Riders Associtaion (MTRA), who has 600 +/- memebrs. They will be having a fundraiser there on Sept 22nd, with tours of the mountain & free hotdogs. The tours will be given on side by side ATVs from the local Artic Cat dealer. The trails will not be open for general riding.

The entrance is off of Hwy 67 on Harbin Hill Road.


Come see and support a great to new place to ride!

[GlennR]

Here's the Mountain Trail Riders Association website with more info.

http://www.mtntrailridersassoc.org/

[ihatefalling]

Thanks for sharing GlennR ! ! !

This is GREAT news ! !! !

[Rider_WV]

Will this be a full service OHV like Black Mountain in Harlan KY? Full service meaning dirtbikes, atv, side by side, jeep, mountain bike, horses, etc...??? Or will it be like Hatfield McCoy, no jeeps.

[GlennR]

Like Hatfield McCoy, no jeeps. The town is also planning to open certain streets to OHV's like Hatfield McCoy too.

I don't know where the horses will ride, but I don't think they'll be on the OHV trails. The Cherokee Forest already has horse trails across the Lake on a different mtn.

[_anatic]

Hey Glenn ,
You comin' to Black Bear Saturday?

[GlennR]

Hey _anatic,

No, but wish I could. Heading dow to Raleigh this afternoon to watch my daughter run cross country. It's not much of a spectator sport....,but you've got'a support family. I wish that I could run 3 miles, and live to tell about it.

I'll be thinking of you guys. (with envy)

Have fun & be safe.


~Glenn

ps I will be riding Sunday. Meeting at 10am at Bulldog Rd & Hwy421, but I'm sure that's earlier than any of you will feel like making.

[GlennR]

Update:

Doe Mountain will open April 6th. (they're calling it a "soft opening", meaning there will still be miles of new trails to create in the months to follow.) You're welcome to make all the "soft opening" jokes you want!! (keeps the thread alive!)

MTRA also has a "New & Improved" website: http://mountaintrailriders.org/ It just opened a few days ago, so doesn't have a lot of info yet.

I'm a member and will be helping with the mapping & clearing of trails, etc.

[aplscrambles]

Originally Posted by GlennR

Update:

Doe Mountain will open April 6th. (they're calling it a "soft opening", meaning there will still be miles of new trails to create in the months to follow.) You're welcome to make all the "soft opening" jokes you want!! (keeps the thread alive!)

MTRA also has a "New & Improved" website: http://mountaintrailriders.org/ It just opened a few days ago, so doesn't have a lot of info yet.

I'm a member and will be helping with the mapping & clearing of trails, etc.

Sweet! I have been itching to ride there since you first told me about the new park! How've you been by the way? been doing any riding?

[GlennR]

Originally Posted by aplscrambles

Sweet! I have been itching to ride there since you first told me about the new park! How've you been by the way? been doing any riding?

I've rode pretty often while the weather was nice. Strangely I started hauling the ATV over to the Locust Gap end of Stone, to clear trails & explore. I'd had the Rancher a couple of years, but never thought about hauling it anywhere since the bike's are street legal & fast. The nice thing about ATVs is they don't get stuck at the bottom of "hills that I shouldn't have gone down"... My dogs enjoy tagging along too.

I'm still trying to find a connecting route between the southern & the northern end of Stone Mtn. I just bought a GPS, but need to figure out how to load the topo maps on it.

Give me a shout whenever you're thinking about coming up again.

[BarberPole]

Originally Posted by GlennR

Mountain City, TN is opening a public OHV park on Doe Mountain. Tennessee purchased 8600 acres from the Cherokee NF to develope for off road vehicle riding. The town is also planning to allow OHV's to ride in town. Doe Mountain stretches between Mtn. City and Watauga Lake, to the south. It lies between Hwy 167 & Hwy 67. Over 100 miles of trails are planned, and many are already cleared. The Kettle Foot fire tower is a great place to get a 360 degree view of the region.

The trails are being cleared by the Mountain Trail Riders Associtaion (MTRA), who has 600 +/- memebrs. They will be having a fundraiser there on Sept 22nd, with tours of the mountain & free hotdogs. The tours will be given on side by side ATVs from the local Artic Cat dealer. The trails will not be open for general riding.

The entrance is off of Hwy 67 on Harbin Hill Road.


Come see and support a great to new place to ride!

Great news........I hope I haven't double posted this.

Any fee schedules established?

[GlennR]

It's $18 per day or $60 per year. (don't know why the day rate is so high???)

The opening date has been pushed back a bit because of the weather. Probably will be sometime in May.

In the meantime I've been riding on Stone a lot. There are dozens of trails stretching from Locust gap all the way to Hwy 421, but it's really tricky finding the connecting passage between Arnoldtown Rd & Laurel Rd......but there IS one. You can spend weeks exploring it every day and still keep discovering new trails.....and lots of dead ends!

[BarberPole]

Originally Posted by GlennR

It's $18 per day or $60 per year. (don't know why the day rate is so high???)

The opening date has been pushed back a bit because of the weather. Probably will be sometime in May.

In the meantime I've been riding on Stone a lot. There are dozens of trails stretching from Locust gap all the way to Hwy 421, but it's really tricky finding the connecting passage between Arnoldtown Rd & Laurel Rd......but there IS one. You can spend weeks exploring it every day and still keep discovering new trails.....and lots of dead ends!

$18 a day is a lot more than 5 bucks for Brown Mtn and a little pricey for those who travel a long ways to only ride it once or twice , but that high daily rate seems to be the trend among non Federal ORVs like the Hatfield and Mcoys types where they want riders to basically pay an Annual fee....
if they can get it. Simple revenue generation. I think H&M was $37 bucks for a day, at least.

I'm not sure one can buy an Annual at Brushy........$20 a day and only on busy weekends

However, for us local dudes who can ride just about every day, $60 dollars
Annual for a 100 miles of trail is a true bargain.
I am hoping the virgin type trails have a modicum of topsoil also.
Brown Mtn is flat worn out and rock ledges and slab for eva.

So, I'm looking forward to hopefully a great riding area on Doe.

Now....... tell me about off road accesses in the Stone area.

I have taken the Bethel Rd, Mountaindale, Locust Gap backroads many times on my way to Mountain City Suzuki but I am not aware of the trail system off those rds.

Pray tell.

I acquired a Husky TE610 in December and I'm loving it.

See you "there"

[BarberPole]

Originally Posted by GlennR

It's $18 per day or $60 per year. (don't know why the day rate is so high???)

The opening date has been pushed back a bit because of the weather. Probably will be sometime in May.

In the meantime I've been riding on Stone a lot. There are dozens of trails stretching from Locust gap all the way to Hwy 421, but it's really tricky finding the connecting passage between Arnoldtown Rd & Laurel Rd......but there IS one. You can spend weeks exploring it every day and still keep discovering new trails.....and lots of dead ends!

Not to hijack the thread but I sold my beloved 04 XT225 last year to a missionary pilot for Samaritans Purse in Africa. Replaced it with a DR650.......too heavy........I couldn't ride it like the XT.

Man, I loved that bike for 5 yrs........but it was just a little weak on the highways.

[aplscrambles]

$18/day is kind of disappointing, but still itching to ride the trails and see how they stack up compared to brushy and brown which are cheaper and closer for me.