Members and friends of the Appalachian Mountain Bike Club have fun while tackling soil build-up under a fallen log that has prevented proper drainage on the Lost Chromosome Trail. From left are Shaggy (Rich Kidd), Jeff Schmerler (obscured), Daymien Ide, Brian Hann and Cory Kopela. Photo by Betsy Pickle.
The 2017 Comcast Cares Day made SoKno’s showcase play area even more attractive than it is normally.
Volunteers from the Appalachian Mountain Bike Club, Legacy Parks Foundation, Comcast and more turned out on a wet Saturday morning to make a difference, and they did. Teams spent more than three hours working on 12 different projects at Baker Creek Preserve and throughout the Urban Wilderness.
“We had a great turnout today despite the weather,” said AMBC president Wes Soward. “We got a lot of awesome work done around the Urban Wilderness.”
He estimated that about 30 AMBC members participated, along with Legacy Parks supporters, HGTV employees, SoKno neighborhood residents, City Council member Nick Pavlis and County Commissioner Carson Dailey. There were around 75 volunteers in all.
Some volunteers cut back invasive plants along Baker Creek and cleaned out the foundation of an old springhouse. Others worked at the planned “Play Forest” adjacent to South-Doyle Middle School, building benches in a project sponsored by HGTV.
AMBC’s veteran trail crews went into the more isolated areas of the Urban Wilderness to repair trail and remove plants and debris causing water to stand on parts of trail.
This was the second year in a row that Comcast Cares Day took on Baker Creek Preserve and the third in a row for a SoKno site. South Knoxville Elementary School was selected as a work site in 2015.
Baker Creek was one of 17 area sites chosen for the annual initiative.
