Villagers have the opportunity take in a slice of nature along a recently created pathway, Raccoon Ridge Trail, next to the Wellness Center.

The half-mile-long trek cuts off the paved walkway onto a mulch surface, passes by the garden and into a wooded area before ultimately opening up to a field.

Simon Bradbury, Tellico Village Property Owners Association director of recreation, hopes to eventually establish a series of trails that can be constructed on the 84-acre Wellness Center property.


“One of the things was, looking at it, what’s the expense in this?” Bradbury said. “We have a big bunch of woods that’s been sitting there for years that no one’s ever used. It was on our plans to at some point put a trail there (and I thought) let’s just make a primitive trail. ... We didn’t want to put something in there that’s going to be a maintenance nightmare. We’re trying to showcase trails because people want to walk on it, and ever since it’s opened people have been walking and going, ‘Oh, this is nice. I can bring my dogs out here in the fields’.”

Construction took about two or three weeks. When the weather was nice, POA Public Works Director Jeff Gagley’s crew would come out and form a pathway, using brush from the woods as mulch, Bradbury said.

Villager Gary Mulliner, who has helped build trails in Kahite, along with others, constructed a 12-foot bridge along the path.

The project was fully complete Feb. 27. The trail is named Raccoon Ridge because of a “friendly” raccoon that lives on the property, Bradbury said.

“For (the) community, it’s — at the Wellness Center it’s a wonderful place to have hiking trails,” Mulliner said. “... Our roads are so narrow and everybody walks their dog and goes for their morning exercise and they’re walking the roads. For me it’s kind of a safety factor to get people off the roads and walking on the trails.”

Making primitive nature trails allows the POA to remove them should the property need to be used for future building projects, Bradbury said. Hopes are to eventually expand around the property leading to the water tower to the left of Dohi Drive heading to the Wellness Center.

“The next step from here on those trails is to get a volunteer group together,” Bradbury said. “I’m going to start a volunteer trails program throughout the Village and we’ll meet and start blazing some trails here. I mean there’s potential to do miles and miles of trails right here.”

About 200 people have expressed interest, Bradbury said, based off a study by an internal trails committee. Hopes are for those people to get on board with the volunteer trails program and lend a helping hand.

“This is for folks who would like to get out on trails and do some light work and some maintenance and adopt trails,” Bradbury said. “We’re not going to be sitting in committee and having meetings and stuff. We’re going to be meeting on the trail and building stuff. So those kind of folks that want to get out and do that, let’s go. ... We’d like to name different trails. I want people to take ownership in them. The Wellness (Center) trails I want to connect it into eventually into Toqua.”

The POA will also look to repair a trail in the Toqua neighborhood, Bradbury said. This month the trail is going through maintenance to get it to a “good base” before April when the pathway will be resurfaced.

“So you’re going to basically have a brand new trail again in Toqua,” Bradbury said. “... What I’m trying to do with this, and it’s working well so far, is showcase what trails are about. Anybody can come up all the time and walk and exercise. Anybody can come up and access it. ... If I’m talking long range of what we’re going to do, that’s neat stuff to talk about but unless you actually see it, it doesn’t excite you.”