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Ring around the city ... volunteers blaze 17-mile trail ... and they plan
more
By
David A. Maurer
© Copyright
Charlottesville Daily Progress
May 30,
2002
From the parking lot of the Holiday Inn South,
the whine and rattle of afternoon traffic on Fifth Street Extended created
a near constant dim.
John Conover, president of the Rivanna Trails Foundation, walked across
the lot as he headed north into a jungle-like thicket. Just inside the
greenery, two things became apparent.
First, although the busy thoroughfare was just yards away, the thick vegetation
muffled the sound of traffic to a faint drone. Second, beneath Conover's
feet, nearly covered by weeds ad thatch, was an abandoned asphalt roadway.
"We don't know anything about this road," Conover said as he
looked ahead to where the path disappeared in the undergrowth. "Apparently,
this was a main road in and out of town before Fifth Street Extended went
in."
"Right up ahead, there's a wooden bridge where it crosses Moor's
Creek. Since getting involved with the foundation, I've discovred a lot
about Charlottesville that you can't see fom the road."
"For example, Charlottesville
is practically surrounded by water. There's Moore's Creek to the south,
Meadow Creek to the north and they both flow into the Rivanna River, which
borders the east side of town."
Many people are only vaguely aware of Moore's Creek's existence and think
Meadow Creek is a name for a proposed parkway. In fact, these two meandering
waterways are directly responsible for the establishment of 17 miles of
trails that now encircle most of the city.
On Saturday, in conjunction with the 10th anniversary of National Trails
Day, volunteers will work to extend the trail network by nearly a mile.
At day's end, it's hoped that people will be able to easily walk along
the same route that Conover had to pick his way through just a week before.
"The goal is to make this a continuous footpath, so we have a 20 mile
loop going around the city," said Diana Foster, vice president of the
Rivanna Trails Foundation.
"On Saturday we will have volunteers working at about 20 different sites
along the trails. We're going to be improving the rock crossing at Azalea
Park and building two small footbridges in another area near Fifth Street.
"We will also be clearing three fourths of a mile of new trail and planting
trees. I encourage people of all ages to come out, because we have jobs
that are suitable for every age, ability and desire."
Last year the foundation won the DuPont Cordura Award for its effort on
National Trails Day. They received the honor for bringing together 200
volunteers who created a mile of new trail.
Those wishing to participate in the event on Saturday should meet in the
Holiday Inn South parking lot on Fifth Street Extended at 9 a.m. People
should call 923-9022 to let organizers know how many are coming, especially
if it's a group.
Although tools will be provided, people are encouraged to bring their
own basic yard tools, such as rakes, loppers and weed cutters. Work clothes
and gloves are suggested attire.
"We build to Appalachian Trail standards," Foster said. "This means it's
just a simple footpath with certain size requirements.
"When creating trails the first thing we have to do is get the permission
from the landowners. Then we go in and scout the best route for the trail.
"Sometimes this is pretty nasty work, what with burrowing through briers
and things. Then we get our volunteer groups together and we start attacking
the brush and clearing trail."
Since the RTF was founded in 1992, countless volunteers have toiled and
sweated to create these walkways. Their labors have not gone unnoticed,
either locally or nationally.
Last month at the invitation of the American Hiking Society, Foster made
a presentation at the Southeast Appalachian Regional Foot Trail Conference
in Georgia.
"I talked about the urban wilderness nature of our trails," Foster said.
"Most people can get excited about building long trails out in the mountains,
but they sort of get stuck and don't know what to do when they hit a city.
"We have a real good example of a wilderness experience that's right around
a small city. What is really important is that it's accessible to everybody."
On Saturday, Foster will proudly announce to the volunteers that the Department
of Interior has designated the system of pathways around Charlottesville
a national recreation trail.
The trail system also has been nominated to be a Virginia Birding and
Wildlife Trail, because of the profusion of birds and animals to be found
there. The trail came to be because of the birds.
Francis Fife and the late Bob Barbee are considered the founding fathers
of RTF As avid birders they would walk along the creeks and river each
year conducting bird counts.
"About 10 years ago Bob Barbee and Francis Fife realized these creeks
and the Rivanna created natural buffets around Charlottesville," Foster
said. "They saw the need to save these buffers and make them accessible
to everybody.
"They dreamt up this idea of putting simple footpaths through the buffers,
To this end, the foundation was created and we now have about 400 members.
"The trails have been completely made by volunteers. We have a monthly
workday on the second Saturday of each month, and every National Trails
Day brings out a couple hundred people."
Foster said it's hoped the trail network will be completed within a year.
A few obstacles still have to be overcome.
"We have one crossing at the mouth of Moore's Creek that you have to be
willing to wade to get across," Foster said. "We just got permission to
build a foot crossing through there, and that's one of our summer goals
to do.
"Another obstacle is a set of railroad tracks. We're hoping the city and
county will get into negotiations with the railroad with us so we can
figure out the safest way to get walkers across the tracks.
"I think the simplest thing would be to have some kind of arm that comes
down or warning light. I don't think it's going to be a big thing. We
just need to talk about the liability and safety issues."
Foster said there's a couple places where they haven't gotten permission
from landowners yet. She doesn't see this as a major problem, either.
"In some cases, we're working with the developers, and they're in their
own discussions with the city and county as to how the properties are
going to be developed," Foster said.
"Until they get that settled, they're hesitant to let people be walking
on the properties. In general, people have been incredibly generous."
As the trail system nears completion, its long-term maintenance has been
addressed. During the last year, an adopt-a-trail program was instituted.
At least 20 trail adopters are in place around the city with the responsibility
of watching over their assigned portions of the trail. Each month they
walk their route and take care of basic maintenance.
If something major happens, such as a tree falls across the trail or an
erosion problem is found, the trail boss is notified. In these cases,
people with specialized skills are called in or volunteers are mustered
to take care of the problem.
When the circle around the city is complete, trail building will continue
for the foreseeable future. It's hoped that eventually hikers will be
able to walk all the way out to Sugar Hollow and elsewhere.
"One of the areas we're probably going to concentrate on before Sugar
Hollow is the Biscuit Run trail that goes out to the Uva polo field,"
Foster said.
"We're looking at building a trail going down the east side of the Rivanna
River, too. We are also trying to work on a trail along the river that
will go out to Ivy Creek [Natural Area].
"There are tremendous trail efforts going on all through the county, and
we're working very closely with them. We're really proud of what we've
accomplished so far, and it's wonderful that people living throughout
the city are now only a few minutes from a trail."
As Conover made his way deeper into the foliage next to Moore's Creek,
he pointed out where the trail-making effort on Saturday will occur. Like
most of the trail system, the new footpath will generally follow the creek.
Concentrating a lot of people on one section of the trail makes a tough
job possible. Once the trail is established, a steady movement of hikers
will keep it open.
"Eight Girl Scouts can do better than an adult with all the trail experience
in the world," Conover said as he trooped through vines and head?high
weeds.
"There's eight of them with sixteen arms. They put their little heads
down and their little hearts down and they just go at it and don't take
a break until somebody says, 'You can take a break.'
"I've been at this almost from the start of the foundation. What we've
accomplished shows what volunteers can do.
"I've literally seen Diana crawling along on her stomach while scouting
out a new trail. That's the kind of dedication that has gone into this."
For more information about the Rivanna Trails Foundation, visit www.rivannatrails.org
or call 923-9022.
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