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Head and trails above the rest By
Anne Causey Blue Ridge Mountain Sports teams up with the Rivanna Trails Foundation to host the local National Trails Day. Last year, about 220 volunteers came out to help work on the section of the trail near U.S. 250 to Stribling Avenue. The University of Virginia, the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County also joined in to help. The goal is to build a trail that completely encircles the city, Holden said. Participants have completed 18 of the 20 miles. He expects they will finish in the next year and a half. Trail markers are seen all over town, especially where the tail crosses roads. University students, Boy Scout troops, senior citizens, families, all participate on National Trails Day, Holden said. Volunteers help build bridges, clip vines and shrubs, perform side hill cutting (leveling off a trail that goes down the side of a hill) and build steps up steep slopes. "Charlottesville has an amazing National Trails Day," Holden said. "There's a lot of local people who live in Charlottesville and appreciate the town and what it offers recreationally. They see a lot of potential." Holden, who describes himself as an avid hiker and someone who is "very wilderness oriented," goes out to work on the trail himself every week. Other employees of Blue Ridge Mountain Sports also do things, such as saw down trees and help in trail maintenance. The company pays the employees to do such work, Holden said. On National Trails Day, Blue Ridge Mountain Sports provides volunteers with quality four-color graphic T-shirts, as well as a nice catered lunch. This year, the store will also provide free socks to the women volunteers, as part of a promotion by a sock company. Holden, who is also a member of the board of Rivanna Trails Foundation, said $1,000 of the prize money from the DuPont award will be administered jointly by the store and the foundation and be given as grants to local neighborhoods that want to put in trails. The store and the RTF will supply the wood, tools and other materials, and the expertise. Neighborhoods to be considered will include those in surrounding counties as well as Charlottesville. The other $1,000 will be provided to encourage youths in the area to walk or work on the trail system in Charlottesville. Holden said National Trails Day started six years ago as a small national event. He had returned from a national show where he had heard about the project, and went to the RTF with the idea. Now, every state has several thousand National Trails Day events. At Charlottesville's first National Trails Day, about a dozen people came out to help work on a small section of the trail. The Rivanna Trails Foundation is not without its own recognition. Last year, the foundation won a regional award from the American Hiking Society for having the best National Trails Day east of the Mississippi River. This year's National Trails Day will be June 1, from 9 a.m. to 1p.m., and anyone interested in helping is welcome to come out. They've had senior citizens as well as 8-year-olds. "Certainly, we want to get some work done, but RTF views the day as a community day, [a time to] get to know your neighbors," Holden said. "It's a lot of fun." Two years ago, a group of seniors, ages 60 to 80, worked on the hardest part of the trail, Holden said, cutting through vines on a humid 80-degree day. "They did it perfectly, with nothing but enthusiasm," Holden said. The true outdoors person that he is, Holden said that he now appreciates the Rivanna Trail equally to a trail through the mountains. Blue Ridge Mountain Sports has an exhibit with photos from the trail and people are always amazed that the pictures come from the trail around the city. Holden explains that the wilderness look in many places is due to the fact that the Rivanna is a large watershed that can't be developed - leaving a lot of land untouched. While some of the trail passes along Interstate 64, other parts pass by beautiful old trees and provide the opportunity to see beavers, birds and other wildlife. "It's a legitimate nature experience close to the city," Holden said. Holden said he looks forward to the day when the trail goes out to Ivy Creek Natural Area and even down along the river. The city trail is important in several ways, Holden said. The number of neighborhoods that it goes through increases the opportunity - particularly for the less affluent - for a pretty walk in the woods, without having to drive. It also brings people together. "I've met so many fine, fine people here. That makes Charlottesville what it is," he said. Blue Ridge Mountain sports has been in business for 25 years. Locally owned and operated, it now has 13 locations in the mid-Atlantic Region, six in Virginia. For information about National Trails Day, call the store at 977-4400 (or contact the Rivanna Trails Foundation at 434-923-9022 or e-mail info@rivannatrails.org ) |
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