Deliverance!

The 50 mile route covers familiar territory until we turn left off Snow Creek and cross Duck River on Craig Bridge Road. This area was once central to TN's phosphate industry and you can see the impact on the landscape with many "tailing" ponds created to separate minerals as part of the mining and extraction process.

If you'll indulge me, here's a bit of history...  Mining started in the late 1890s when high grade brown phosphate rock was discovered around Columbia and various chemical businesses moved in. Ferrophosphate steel was manufactured in the area and used for armor plating battleships in WW1.  Monsanto had a fertilizer plant here until the 1980s and some of the land still has usage restrictions due to contamination. The area is sparsely populated even by rural Maury County standards.

You might not hear actual banjos, but you'll certainly hear the Maury County Gun Club as we pass close by. After crossing back over Duck River we take Roberts Bend up to Hwy 7 and back into our normal west side patch.

The shorter 38 mile route uses Leipers Creek, Sulphur Springs and Snow Creek to get to Santa Fe, then comes back via Fly and the Old Trace. All routes rest stop at Santa Fe

Come and join Durk on Saturday for a dose of Deliverance!

Club members: interested in leading a ride? Learn more here and reach out to the club’s Ride Chair!