Jim has been actively involved in advocating for and working on trails, greenways and active transportation in and around Chattanooga for more than 15 years. He was active in the creation of Stringer's Ridge as a trail system and a park, for which American Trails named him Tennessee Trail Worker of the Year. He has been an member of the OWAA and the Adventure Travel Trade Association.
Committed to sustainable local tourism, Jim started and ran BikeTours.com, which represented small European bicycle tour companies and offered their tours to the North American market. During the pandemic, with Europe cut off from American tourists, he started Bike the South with tours in the three-state region around Chattanooga.
Working with the Adventure Cycling Association, he initiated and coordinated work on three routes of the US Bike Route System: Atlanta to Chattanooga, Nashville to Chattanooga, and Knoxville to Chattanooga.
He has been a travel writer for nearly a half-century with bylined articles in newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times and Boston Globe. He currently writes a Substack (jimstravels.substack.com) and is working on an anecdotal book recalling a half-century of travel (working title: “Surfing Cows Pay No Taxes.”
He returned earlier this week from four months in Croatia, Turkey and the Republic of Georgia.
