Touring - Bike Trails In Knoxville, Seymour, Sevierville Tennessee?

I'm getting ready to move to Seymour, TN (just outside of Knoxville, Sevierville, & Maryville). Does anyone know if there are any good trails down there? Or if there is a good website to check for bike trails? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

http://www.ci.knoxville.tn.us/greenways/

http://www.cs.utk.edu/~dunigan/greenways/gway1.htm#maps

also google: rail trails , Knoxville TN

I like in Knoxville and there are several greenways as you can see from the above website. The problem is that they are scattered all over the city and not connected. The Third Creek trail is the longest continuous one and they are building an extension to it along Sutherland Avenue. There is a good trail in Maryville/Alcoa that is several miles in length. Since I live just a mile from its beginning I ride the Jean Teague greenway in West Hills park and along Walker Springs Road, a five mile out and back, but it is a pain. It is full of wide-loads walking three abreast and dog walkers with their dogs on 40 foot leashes. You can call "on your left" but half of them don't know what to do and the other half have headphones on and don't hear you. If I want to do any length I do it on roads. Seymour is still a pretty rural area, use this program: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/ to map a good road ride on back country roads. I belong to the local Knoxville based bike club. They have several group rides per month and cue sheets for DIY rides. Link http://www.smwbike.org/ There is also a Maryville based mult-interest club that includes cycling. Link http://www.foothillstriders.org/

Al

I like in Knoxville and there are several greenways as you can see from the above website. The problem is that they are scattered all over the city and not connected. The Third Creek trail is the longest continuous one and they are building an extension to it along Sutherland Avenue. There is a good trail in Maryville/Alcoa that is several miles in length. Since I live just a mile from its beginning I ride the Jean Teague greenway in West Hills park and along Walker Springs Road, a five mile out and back, but it is a pain. It is full of wide-loads walking three abreast and dog walkers with their dogs on 40 foot leashes. You can call "on your left" but half of them don't know what to do and the other half have headphones on and don't hear you. If I want to do any length I do it on roads. Seymour is still a pretty rural area, use this program: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/ to map a good road ride on back country roads. I belong to the local Knoxville based bike club. They have several group rides per month and cue sheets for DIY rides. Link http://www.smwbike.org/ There is also a Maryville based mult-interest club that includes cycling. Link http://www.foothillstriders.org/

Al

OK, you're cracking me up here! I know exactly what you're talking about when you say wide-loads waling three abreast & dog walkers! That's fantastic. You could get a megaphone and they still wouldn't understand! I hate that so much. Just stay over to the right so we can pass! That's all we're saying! Well I'm moving to Seymour, TN (to the apartment complex Smoky Crossing). In all actuality, I prefer to ride on back country roads as opposed to trails (for the aforementioned reasons). So I shouldn't have a hard time finding pretty back roads to go for long distances on? I just hate stop/start/wait/start/stop/wait/wait... and on and on. The kind of stuff you get on trails. I normally go for about 40+ miles at a time, so I want to make sure that I have options. I really don't want to get on a three mile trail and repeat it ad nausea. And I don't want to drive 40 minutes to get to a trail either. So you think I'll be alright in the Seymour/Alcoa/Maryville area in terms of backroads? Any suggested roads that you might have been on that are particularly beautiful or interesting? Thanks again for the help!

Cool. Thanks for the links!

Not a trail; however, a lightly traveled mountain ridge paved ride..... Freedom Parkway - s/e of Knoxville running s/w < > n/e, of course, with the mountains.
It reminds me alot of the Blue Ridge Parkway/Skyline Drive, in case you have done any riding along those roadways.

No I haven't tried Blue Ridge Parkway/Skyline Drive but I'll definitely have to check out Freedom Parkway. I prefer roadways to bike trails anyway. Thanks for the help!

No I haven't tried Blue Ridge Parkway/Skyline Drive but I'll definitely have to check out Freedom Parkway. I prefer roadways to bike trails anyway. Thanks for the help!

My guess is that he really meant to say "Foothills Parkway", not "Freedom Parkway". The Foothills Parkway runs along the crest of Chilhowee Mountain which is a range of hills just to the west of the main ridgeline that make up the Smoky Mountains. The parkway was never finished but there are two sections of it open to the public. Both sections are remarkably similar in construction to the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The northern end of the southern section ends around the community of Walland. This is not far from the Cades Cove area in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Cades Cove is to biking in the smokies as the Strand is to biking in Venice Beach California.

Denis K

My guess is that he really meant to say "Foothills Parkway", not "Freedom Parkway". The Foothills Parkway runs along the crest of Chilhowee Mountain which is a range of hills just to the west of the main ridgeline that make up the Smoky Mountains. The parkway was never finished but there are two sections of it open to the public. Both sections are remarkably similar in construction to the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The northern end of the southern section ends around the community of Walland. This is not far from the Cades Cove area in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Cades Cove is to biking in the smokies as the Strand is to biking in Venice Beach California.

Denis K

Duly noted! Thanks for the clarification! I'll be sure to check out all those locations!

Periph - Denis is correct. Foothills Parkway. Apologize. Thanks Denis.