The Plateau Chapter of the Tennessee Trails Association in Crossville is one of 12 chapters throughout Tennessee.
From its humble beginnings, it’s grown to be the second largest chapter in the Tennessee Trails Association in terms of active members.
Chapter members lead weekly and bimonthly hikes on various hiking trails throughout the Cumberland Plateau with an open invitation for all interested hikers to join them.
The news received at the start of 2023 about the passing of Bill Eldridge, one of the founding members of the Plateau Chapter, prompts members to reflect back at the chapter’s beginning and how it all began.
The year was 1996. In January of that year, five friends — Bill and Sue Eldridge, Mary Kelly, Diane Parvin and Leigh Jones — decided to form a chapter of the Tennessee Trails Association in Cumberland County.
These five were motivated by the desire to have an outdoor activity exploring the beauty that the Cumberland Plateau has to offer and a shared activity together, with the added bonus of staying fit.
The group advertised the first hike in the Crossville Chronicle. Thirty-three individuals joined the hike and became the beginning members of the Plateau Chapter.
They subsequently called themselves the “Wednesday Hikers.”
The first president of the chapter was Mary Kelly; Bill and Sue jointly were the first treasurers.
Bill and Sue, lifelong partners, were active members of the chapter for many of the 25-plus years of the chapter’s existence. Both dutifully attended chapter meetings and supported events.
Although Sue did not hike as much as Bill, she contributed in many other ways, including decorating the venue for the state’s annual meetings hosted by the Plateau Chapter.
Bill was also a volunteer helping to build the Cumberland Trail. He liked to remind members, doing this numerous times, that he’d built the steps going down to Stinging Falls on the trail.
Both Bill and Sue were admired by incoming new members for their dedication to the chapter, with Bill acting as an inspiration to new hikers for his dedication to hiking and the trails throughout Tennessee.
Both Bill and Sue were active all those years in the chapter until their health made it evident that they couldn’t participate anymore. A fate that all hikers eventually reach.