The best "way" or direction to ride Chilhowee

[Booksy]

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[kindacreeky]

When I rode it, started at the bottom and rode up to top, crossed some creeks, then took some trail off to the left and climbed some more. wound up carrying through a burnt out section (about 300 ft) and then made our way back down thru the main middle section to the waterfall where the bear got that baby. That was erie, as was only a month after it happened. And then rode on down thru the middle and back down mountain the way we rode up. Looking down the valley, the trail on the left side gets into a lot of water, and you have to avoid if it has rained much. It is supposed to have a real scary section that is scary even if you are pushing. Big time exposure. Our loop was maybe 10 miles.

[captainchefdave]

Chilhowee is where I learned to ride and still ride when I am back at the folks house. I always start at the top of the mountain. From there you have 2 options to start on. Option 1 takes you down the main Benton Falls trail and option 2 takes you to Azalea(Spelling?) trail. Benton Falls is wide open almost triple track width with lots of speed breakers. It is really tempting to just open up and fly down this trail, but there are A LOT of hikers with small children on this trail going down to the falls. From this trail, you can get on to Slick Rock at 3 different intersections. The first one climbs up the mountain and you come to a field where you can go straight across or right for more climbing. They both lead to downhills, but one is obviously longer. This is a trail that you can ride about 6 different loops on. Azalea is a short trail that leads either to Benton Falls or to Clear Creek. Clear Creek is scary exposed. I started to ride it last time I was over there and turned around. Again this is coming from someone who learned to ride on this system. Azalea is fun all single track not too technical but has its moments. Definitely worth the ride and again it takes you to benton falls trail where you can access the Slick Rock loops which to me are the highlight of the trail system.

I hope this helps.