In 2006 I participated in my first annual Trail of Tears ride which has been held the third Saturday in September for the past 17 years. This ride is touted to be one of the largest organized rides in the world with numbers reaching toward 150,000 motorcycles in the past. The first year I went solo, and subsequent years my wife has ridden with me.
It is a wonderful event that not only raises awareness for that dark period of American history, but also raises money for student scholarships and educational purposes. Anyone who has not participated in the event, or seen the seemingly endless number of motorcycles parade through downtown Chattanooga should mark this event on your calendar for upcoming years.
The last two times I have ridden the ride has taken a departure from that very first route on which I traveled. There are now two rides, hosted by two different organizations; the one that leaves in Chattanooga has in recent years changed the route of the ride. Now there are some major political battles that have taken place that led this change, but that is for someone more knowledgeable to comment on.
My issue is with the current route and the lack of safety measures and or concerns that seem to be missing from the old route. The old route followed Highway 72 right into Florence, Ala. The new route departs from the original in Jasper heading up into the mountains of Tennessee, eventually dropping down into Alabama and then continuing to Florence. While this makes for a beautiful ride with a few of your good friends, it is less than ideal for a few thousand of them all together. The turns are not always clearly marked and the nature of the roads is not conducive to a ride this large.
I realize the event organizers have taken great care in preserving the spirit of the ride by choosing routes that follow the removal; however safety must be considered in this event above all else. My wife and I came upon no less than three accidents on the route, two of them warranting EMS to be dispatched to the scene. There has been no mention of the condition of any of these riders at the time of this writing even though an interest has been expressed on the official ride social media page.
Chattanooga is certainly a great place for the motorcycle community with the many ‘biker friendly,’ events that we have, but an event this large has a responsibility to keep things as safe as possible.
Oddly enough I did not see any media coverage of the event whatsoever. I have my speculations as to why that is, but this is an event that brings literally thousands of people from out of town that frequent our hotels, restaurants, and entertainment venues. Not only does it deserve media coverage, but more importantly it deserves to be organized in the safest way possible to keep the very people who make it what it is safe.
I will be choosing to ride with the other group that leaves from Bridgeport in 2012, all politics aside; I want to be on the safe side.
Brad Johnson
Red Bank
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Mr. Johnson,
I agree about the politics, and I will not even touch on those issues.
I started going on the TOT ride in 2005. I didn't go all the way to Waterloo, but instead I turned around in Florence and came back home. The next year I believe it was in 2006 they changed the final official destination (rumor was that Waterloo officials refused to stop the sale of counterfeit/non-official TOT merchandise) from Waterloo to Florence. It was either three or four years back that the route changed from the original as you mentioned to the Tennessee route over Monteagle Mountain.
The first time I went on this ride I was with some friends for part of the ride and then solo after they turned back. I did not see any accidents anywhere along the route. But the area over Monteagle was very annoying, as the ride was not marked and the little group I was in was far enough behind the bikes in front of us as to not to be able to see them, and the bikes behind us were the same. We missed one turn off and ended up going the wrong way, and when we finally turned around, there were other bikes taking the same wrong turn we took.
I know the idea is for everyone to stay bunched up and therefore no need for the route to be marked, but there are a lot of gaps that develop in the ride and marking of the ride (especially when it is a new route) seems to me to be something needed.
This year, I did a little searching on the non public reasons as for the route change and in my search, I did find that the original route was being used by the original organization. Just not from Chattanooga. And this route goes all the way to Waterloo as it originally did before all the politics were brought into in.
I opted for the original ride this year. I left the house at 8 a.m. eastern and made it to Bridgeport in plenty of time for the ride. And just as I remembered from rides past, the Alabama State Patrol pretty much escorted us the entire way; closing off intersections and such to help keep the riders together and cutting down on the interference of automobile traffic and possible accidents as a result of automobiles mingling with the motorcycles.
Unless things have changed this year with the Tennessee ride, I don't recall any escorts except when we entered into certain towns that wanted to control the flow of motorcycles. Once you get to the foot of Lookout Mountain from leaving downtown, there wasn't any type of escort.
From both the rides, I am like you, I liked, enjoyed and relaxed on the Alabama ride much better than the Tennessee ride.
Would hate for Chattanooga to lose the money and whatnot, but I hope more people learn that the original route is in use and that more people opt to go on it in the coming years.
Mike Vaughan
Red Bank
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I would like to correct Mr. Vaughn on one thing. The "original ride" was started in Chattanooga and still leaves from here. It is the only ride that ultimately goes all the way to the tribal lands in Oklahoma. It was started by Bill Cason of Jasper and he has led the ride every year for the past 18 years.
The current issue of Chattanooga's KickStand Up! Magazine details the entire history of the TOT Ride and tells the entire story, politics and all. Until now, the entire story had not been told. I interviewed Bill Cason for four and a half hours to get the information covered in our current issue. If you can't find a hard copy of our Trail of Tears Remembrance Ride Collector's Edition you can download a copy online.
Ronnie "Rock" Land
Editor - KickStand Up! Magazine
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Mr. Johnson and Mr. Vaughn,
My wife and I are proud to have ridden in eight Trail of Tears rides from Chattanooga. Some have been together on one bike, some each on our own bikes. No matter how safety conscious the organizers are, there will be accidents. Knowing the organizers personally, I can assure you all safety precautions have been considered and taken.
Over those years we saw accidents, they were all ahead of the ride, not part of it. People who weren’t following the stated safety rules. People must be responsible for themselves and their own actions.
We met brand new riders, this was their first group ride. Of course, this is not the place for your first group ride. We met people who actually rented motorcycles to ride this event. They didn’t have enough experience either. Riders who wait on the side of the road to “break into” the ride cause accidents because they are too irresponsible to care what damage they cause to others already in progress. Riders who watch the scenery instead of the progress in front of them cause accidents. Once one rider goes down, that causes others to take evasive action which can cause others to go down.
As for turns being marked, that is the responsibility of the highway department, not the Trail of Tears organization. No matter where you ride, you are responsible for riding with caution on your own, but even more so on a group ride. It doesn’t matter if it is a small group or a very large group like this ride.
As for the two different rides, the original is the Chattanooga ride. It was organized to remember the forced removal of the Cherokee people. The money raised pays for scholarships for students in Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina and Oklahoma and markers for the roadsides of the routes. Along the way, human greed intervened. The group that split off wanted to please more political interests.
As you said, the original ride followed Highway 72 straight to Florence, Ala. and then on to Waterloo, Ala.. Once we arrived in Waterloo, over the years a large festival had become normal there. The two lane road to Waterloo was often the scene of accidents, some very serious, the road was just too small to handle the volume of riders. The organizers chose to drop that part of the route for safety. The ride would end at McFarland Park in Florence, which was previously the next to last stop. This left Waterloo out of the ride officially. Suddenly, it seemed, fees for everything from vendor space to permits to ride through town grew astronomically. Compromises were discussed and unfortunately, none were reachable. That resulted in the Alabama ride with Alabama political connections. As you said, politics are the reason for the split. Please don’t choose your ride without knowing more. Find out what happens to the funds raised by each group. One still pays for scholarships, one doesn’t.
Harry Stone