Mountain bike club builds trails and relationships
By Susan Alexander | Photograph by Alisha Bube
Appeared in Cityview Magazine, Vol. 42, Issue 1 (Jan/Feb 2026)
I
s the Appalachian Mountain Bike Club really about mountain biking? Well, that’s debatable.
It is about mountain biking because most of its members love riding their bikes along the trails up and down our east Tennessee hills, through parks and neighborhoods and woods. But also it’s not, because the mission is about the trails themselves and encouraging outdoor recreation whether it’s on a bike or not.
“We revised our mission two years ago to develop, build, and maintain trails. We took mountain biking out of our mission,” says Executive Director Matthew Kellogg. “We want to get more people outside.”
When it was organized in the late 1980s the emphasis was indeed on promoting the sport and organizing races for its members. But in 2007 the club reorganized under the umbrella of SORBA (Southern Off-Road Bicycle Association), a nonprofit with 47 chapters in seven states. “SORBA connects chapters to exchange ideas, and it provides insurance for the landowners who allow us to build trails on their property,” Kellogg says. “So the focus became building trails and encouraging the community to enjoy them.”
Kellogg became the organization’s first paid executive director in January of 2020. Trained as an architect, Kellogg got involved with AMBC while he was at UT. It became his passion project, and now he uses his professional skills to manage projects and build relationships throughout the community.
AMBC builds sustainable trails and maintains more than 100 miles of them in and around Knoxville, including the Knoxville Urban Wilderness trail network and I.C. King Park in south Knoxville; Concord Park in west Knoxville; Sharps Ridge Park in north Knoxville; and Loyston Point in Anderson County. (Of those trails, only five percent are for mountain bikers only; the rest are used by hikers and dog walkers and runners and walking or cycling commuters.) They partnered with the Legacy Parks Foundation to connect trails along the Urban Wilderness by convincing landowners to give access to their property. They created a jump track at Baker Creek Preserve to allow bikers to work on their skills. And they contract with Knoxville and Knox County Parks and Recreation to do regular trail maintenance.
Which isn’t as easy as it sounds. In East Tennessee, trail maintenance doesn’t just mean cutting up the occasional tree that falls. It’s also removing leaves and treating kudzu and yanking up privet and other invasive plants. Rain erodes trails, so they add gravel to some trails to harden them and make them more sustainable to heavy use. AND they educate their users by publishing every day on their website, ambcknox.org, a status report for each trail announcing whether it’s open or too muddy to ride. Riding on mud wrecks the trails, the website explains. It leaves ruts and contributes to erosion and wastes money repairing it. If you leave a visible rut, it’s too muddy to ride. The website encourages users to report maintenance issues to AMBC via email.
In addition to Kellogg the organization employs four full-time trail maintenance staffers (two are funded by Americorps) and a membership and programming director. And they get some of their 700 members involved in workdays the first Saturday of most months to clear brush and do other chores while building community and having some fun.
The club’s income comes from foundation grants, Kellogg says, as well as the city and county’s maintenance contracts. The club sponsors a big Fall Fest fundraiser every year, which brings thousands to the Baker Creek Preserve at the end of James White Parkway for music and vendors and rides and daredevil demos and auctions and merch and other fun stuff. Another chunk of the budget comes from donations and membership dues. In all, it totals around $600,000 a year, he says.
Joy Ride
Mountain biking is a male-dominated sport; various studies find that women make up anywhere from 15 percent to 28 percent of participants. AMBC hosts monthly Joy Rides to get more women involved.
Madison Taylor Lane moved to Knoxville in 2022 and joined AMBC the following year. She got involved with trail work and volunteering for Fall Fest and eventually became chair of the Joy Ride committee. She’s also membership director for SORBA.
Joy Rides are free opportunities for women to ride and get more comfortable on mountain bikes. “Our focus is on creating a welcoming, non-intimidating experience for riders at all skill levels, though we concentrate most on beginning and intermediate bikers,” Lane says. Most of the Joy Rides are held on Sundays and the length of the rides vary, though most last an hour or two. Participants are asked to register on the website in advance so planners can match a route to their skill level.
Generally the Joy Rides attract 10 to 30 participants, though the one held in conjunction with the Fall Fest is the largest of the year, and the annual Galentine’s ride in February was attended last year by 52 women, Lane says.
“Mountain biking is a male dominated sport,” Lane says. “It’s a different experience learning from other women. We make sure everyone is comfortable with the pace and the trail. It’s an encouraging environment.”
Trail Blazers
The club launched this fall a program to get young riders involved in mountain biking. Trail Blazers brought third- through fifth-graders to Baker Creek Preserve each Tuesday evening for eight weeks. Organized by Kellogg, the main goal of the program was to get kids playing — on and off bikes.
“I don’t know who had more fun, the Blazers or the volunteers who helped,” Kellogg says. “It was so much fun to get to know them over eight weeks and see how they progress.”
Hope Parks was one of the volunteers who helped with Trail Blazers. She says Kellogg’s leadership allowed her and other volunteers to just show up and be present with the kids. “It was great getting to seem them unfold. They didn’t know each other beforehand, and it was neat seeing natural friendships develop. They learned to take care of each other on the trails.”
Parks is a personal trainer, but says Trail Blazers wasn’t about learning or coaching. “It was really sweet to see the kids get on a bike, not in learning mode but just sensing, feeling, and being in their bodies. I love coaching, but this was not that.
“The other thing that’s celebrated in biking is you’re participating at your own confidence level. They were empowered to say no as much as yes.”
About 20 kids participated in the first Trail Blazers program. Kellogg is planning three sessions for 2026, two fee-based and one aimed to get kids on bikes who don’t usually get to ride.
Improving the city
RJ Justice is the chief of urban design and development for the City of Knoxville. She says her focus is on establishing partnerships in the community to achieve something great for Knoxville.
“Our relationship with AMBC is amazing,” she says. “AMBC doesn’t just do one thing; it is multi-faceted. They build and maintain trails. They establish an advocacy team to promote preserving the outdoors. They create a vibe that’s really fun and that helps the organization and the city move forward.
“The Urban Wilderness is their iconic project. How they partnered to bring that trail system to life has really shaped what South Knoxville and the city can be as a recreation destination and economic driver.”
Kellogg aims to establish AMBC as one of the pillars of the community. “What we are building should last through our lifetimes,” he says. “We’ve helped change Knoxville for the better. We have incredible trails in our own backyard. We can walk or run or ride as far as we want.”
Brian Hann, who was president of the AMBC board for five years, reflects on what the club has accomplished. It built trails. Established relationships that allowed those trails to be connected in South Knoxville. Showed the community an attractive alternative to more roads and development.
“But at the end of the day we all just love bikes and getting out in the woods,” he says.
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