Rock/Creek’s very own Jeff Bartlett has published an event profile for the Lula Lake Land Trust Five Points 50 mountain bike race over at RootsRated, and it’s definitely worth a read. Check it out here: http://rootsrated.com/stories/five-points-50
Using some of the same trails employed in Rock/Creek’s Lookout Mountain 50-miler, the Five Points 50 is an illustration of how SORBA-Chattanooga, Lula Lake Land Trust, Wild Trails, Cloudland Canyon State Park and Friends of Cloudland Canyon were able to work together to connect several previously-isolated trails into a long, off-road race course. This October 11 marks the second annual race.
From the RootsRated article:
[The] final 15 miles of the race combine several miles of trail on private property, linking the CCCT and Five Points to the trails at Lula Lake. It is through the grace of these private landowners, including the Long Branch Homeowners Association, that the race is possible.
It’s these three private-property sections of the race which are closed the other 364 days of each calendar year, making pre-rides of the race course impossible and prompting race organizers to withhold a course map entirely.
“Due to the significant amount of trails on private property, we initially thought this would hamper registration numbers,” Long explains. “As it turns out, it was quite the opposite. The mystique of riding never-seen-before trails was too much for some people to resist.”
Read the full Five Points 50 article here.
Complete race details: http://teamsorbachattanooga.squarespace.com/5-points-50/
Registration link: https://www.bikereg.com/5-points-50