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Bike the Incline
 Ride
with Bike up Lookout Mountain
Via the Incline
 What better
way to see Chattanooga then from your bike. And what better way to see Lookout
Mountain then from your bike. The
Incline
up Lookout Mountain now has a bike rack so that you can
take your bike up the mountain the easy way, do a short or long ride on top of
the mountain and either take the Incline back down or take one of the several
different routes down the mountain.
 You can take a short ride around
the top, just within the towns of Lookout Mountain, Georgia and Tennessee. Visit
the tourist attractions and feel the history around
Point Park, walk down
to
Sunset Rock, ride past the beautiful homes, have lunch at the
Mountain
Cafe, ride over to
Rock City
and around the Lookout Mountain golf course,
enjoy the views, and just feel the mountain. One little piece of advice – the
roads from Scenic Hwy toward the Incline and Point Park are pretty hilly toward
the east side of the mountain. I would recommend taking West Brow Rd back to the
north rather than East Brow – unless you just want the workout. (See Detail Map
above.)
 Or you can take a
longer ride
out into the countryside on top of Lookout Mountain. Basically there are two
main highways running north and south, one on each side of the mountain, with
several cross roads between them. This enables you to ride whatever distance you
wish. Along the way are many scenic overlooks, the
Lookout Mountain hang
glider flight park and
Covenant College. If you
want to go the distance,
Cloudland Canyon State Park
is approximately 20
miles from the Incline and is well worth the effort. Do remember, tops of
mountains are generally not flat. This ride would be described as rolling but
not gently.
 Then you can always take the
Incline back down the mountain or enjoy a cyclist’s dream of being carried up
the mountain and riding back down. Again there are several options. If you have
a bicycle suitable for dirt and gravel roads and don’t want to share the descent with traffic, the
Guild Trail
is an old railroad bed that has been improved as
an informal rail-trail. It has a very gentle downhill grade that passes under
the Incline twice, goes by the
Cravens House, over two bridges and
passes through the parking lot of Ruby Falls. It ends on Ochs Hwy (Hwy
58, 157) very close to the bottom of the mountain near the Incline parking lot.
To get to the Guild Trail from the top of the Incline, simply go left on East
Brow Rd. Stay to the left at the fork and turn left onto Scenic Hwy down the
mountain. Go slow and look to the left for a gate and dirt road alongside of the
paved road. This is the Guild Trail.
 Not
far from the Incline there are two roads down
the mountain back towards town. If you are looking for the thrill of a true
mountain descent, one of these will do the job. Scenic Hwy (Hwy 148) takes you by
Ruby Falls and comes out on Cummings Hwy
(Hwy 41) at the bottom. A short ride around the foot of the mountain will get
you back to the Incline. Ochs Hwy (Hwy 58,157)
 is just over the line in Georgia,
starts near Rock City and comes out into St Elmo almost at the Incline
parking lot. This is the route down the mountain followed by the
3-State
3-Mountain Challenge.
The incline is open daily except for Thanksgiving
and Christmas days. The hours are:
- Memorial Day through Labor Day: 8:30 am - 9:20 pm
- April, May, September and October: 9:00 am - 5:40
pm
- Winter: November through March: 10:00 am - 5:40
pm
When you are riding the Incline with your bike, here
are a few hints:
- Please be courteous.
- It takes a little effort from the Incline staff
to handle your bike at the top. The end of the car with the bike extends out
away from the boarding platform so the bike must be handed to someone on the
ground below.
- If there is a boarding line, please wait your
turn. You
get no special privileges by having a bike.
- It is possible that your bike will go ahead of
you. Just make sure that the staff is aware and they will take care of it
for you.
- There is only a single bike mount on the Incline.
However a second bike will fit comfortably BUT IT MUST BE SECURED SAFELY TO
THE BIKE IN THE RACK. Please have some type of cord to tie the bikes
together securely.
- Please thank everyone involved, especially
CARTA,
for giving us this wonderful opportunity of taking our bikes on the Incline.
The Chattanooga Bicycle Club offers discount tickets
to its members. Another of the many benefits of being a member of the CBC. These
tickets are to be used only by CBC members and only when riding with your bike.
To purchase the discount tickets at $3 for a one way ride, please contact Daisy
Blanton at DaisyBRider@cs.com or
706/820-1157.
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