Business

Ecusta Trail a business success? Looks like it

By Bill Moss, Published: July 16, 2025

Before my inaugural ride on the Ecusta Trail on Sunday from the trailhead at the Visitors Center to U.S. 64 at Horse Shoe, I had not seen first-hand the walkers, runners, rollers and bicyclists using the greenway.

For those who wondered whether the trail was worth the hype, for those who questioned whether it would deliver the economic surge and tourism boom that many predicted, the answer is plain to see: It already is.
From the Dry Falls, Trailside and Guidon breweries, the Barn at Packa’s Place and Root & Bone — all of which were built after it was known the trail was coming — to the BT (before trail) businesses and attractions —Southern Streams Coffee House, Elijah Mountain Gem Mine, Horse Shoe Gap Village and others — the trail is about to deliver a business owner’s dream: people on foot and on wheels primed to tip a pint, sip a cuppa joe or purchase an ET T-shirt — all without using a parking space!
The town toasts the Ecusta Trail in an hours-long celebration starting at 2 p.m. Friday at the Visitors Center — newly double-purposed as the official eastern terminus — and ending whenever the last trail users stroll, roll or pedal home.
The dream of Ken Shelton, Mike Oliphant, Chris Burns, Hunter Marks, Chuck McGrady, Chuck Edwards, Tina Kinsey, Jeff Meadows, Nancy DePippo, the late Mike Domonkos and others — who began meeting at Etowah Methodist Church in April 2010 — has come true. They were more than dreamers; they were true believers, stubborn in their faith that the railroad company would sell the rail corridor, that the money would somehow materialize to build the trail and that the community would rejoice along with them at the idea of a 19-mile linear park.
I called Christopher Todd, the good-natured assistant county manager who has been the county’s tip of the spear for the trail, to fact-check final details as the first six-mile stretch opens. Here’s my questions and Chris’s answers.
When will amenities like benches, kiosks, bike repair stands and rest rooms arrive?
“They’re in the design process right now,” he said. “We did not have funding for amenities in the first phase. Our intent is to get them as quickly as possible.”
Will we see an announcement of major trail naming based on a big donation?
Not right away. The county has already given the Friends of Ecusta Trail permission to erect a plaque at the Visitors Center honoring major donors although Todd said that won’t be part of the ceremony on Friday. “It is BYOP — Bring Your Own Plaque,” he said.

On my ride I was impressed with how much safety had been designed into every aspect — not just at intersections but the way sturdy steel fencing protects trail users wherever there is a potential hazard along the trail like a steep dropoff, a slope with rip-rap or a parallel roadway.
“It is important to remember that this is designed using best practices and traffic engineers who have a design standard for every single intersection and who determined for every foot what was needed for safety and what was not needed. That’s why you see different categories of safety at different intersections” based on traffic counts, sightlines and other factors. Those include trail traffic yielding to cars at lightly traveled, more rural roads, four-way stops in the cities, pedestrian-bicyclist crossing buttons, flashing light intersections and two fully signalized traffic lights (at Kanuga Road and U.S. 64 in Horse Shoe).
What about the segment between Whitted and South Main that remains unpaved? When Commissioner Rebecca McCall asked about that in the June 18 county commission meeting, you responded that the contractor was moving aggressively to finish on time. Then County Manager John Mitchell said this: “They will either complete the trail as they committed to us or they’ll never work for the county again.” They’ve still got several hundred yards to go.
“They’ve got a lot of work to do in the next few days.”
Sure enough, Tar Heel Paving shifted into get 'er done gear. Monday and Tuesday the Kanuga Road to South Main leg was nearly finished and workers on the scene said the entire trail would be black-topped in time for the grand opening.

I asked Todd how he was feeling now that the trail was about to open.

“A lotta people have made this happen over the last 20 years,” he said. “Already what you’re seeing today, even though they’re not supposed to, is people biking and walking on the trail and they’re out spending money and they’re out getting healthier. People are out biking and walking the trail that probably have not done so in a long time.

“I’m thrilled that the trail is open,” he added, “and I’m going to be even more thrilled three years from now (when the 19-mile greenway is finished) when we’ll have something that is truly impactful to our community and will be for generations.”