Free Copperhead Trail motorcycle ride set for Saturday morning

If you are a motorcycle rider, who likes to go on group rides with lots of turns, then you are in luck.

This map depicts the 60-mile Copperhead Trail route that features over 300 turns. It is geared towards motorcycle riders, who county officials hope will visit Whitley and McCreary counties.

The Third Annual Copperhead Trail Ride will take place Saturday morning. Best of all, there is no charge to participate unless you want to each lunch.

“It’s a free ride. Come out and have a good time. According to the weather report, it looks like we are going to have decent weather,” noted Whitley County Treasurer Jeff Gray, one of the organizers for the ride.

Every rider and every passenger will receive two free gifts.

Registration will begin at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, and the 60-mile ride will start from the parking lot of the Kentucky Splash Waterpark, which is off Ky. 92W, at 10 a.m. Riders will then wind their way through more than 300 turns in parts of Whitley and McCreary counties and by scenic Cumberland Falls before returning to Williamsburg.

The ride will be stopping for a lunch break at the McCreary County Park, which is located near Highway 700 and Highway 27.

Lunch will cost $5.50 per person and include either a hamburger or bologna sandwich, chips and a drink.

In 2017 during the first year for the ride, over 110 motorcycles took part in the event, and last year over 115 motorcycles took part.

“Hopefully it will grow this year and we will pick up more riders,” Gray noted.

Gray said that he and Whitley County Projects Director Amber Owens will be driving the route Wednesday or Thursday and making notes about washed off and run off debris in the roadway that they will then relay to Kentucky Transportation Cabinet officials so that the debris can be cleaned up before the ride.

Officials with the Whitley County Judge-Executive’s Office came up with the idea for the motorcycle ride as a way to draw motorcycle-riding tourists to the area.

It was inspired by motorcycle riding trails in Tennessee and North Carolina.

The law naming the route went into effect on June 29, 2017.

For more information about Copperhead Trail, call (606) 549-6010.