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Trails day leads every which way By
Bryan McKenzie Steel beams moored to aging concrete bases a
few dozen feet of wood planking away from being a bridge span the gurgling
waters of Moores Creek. It's here that 150 volunteers wielding hoes and
rakes will meet Saturday morning to complete the first steel-beam bridge
on the Rivanna Trail system, a system that is slowly encircling our fair
city. "The
system is 80 percent complete," boasted John Holden of
Blue Ridge Mountain Sports, which is helping sponsor Saturday's National
Trails Day effort on the banks of Moores Creek. "We've had nothing
but great cooperation from landowners since we started in 1991,"
he said. "And the city of Charlottesville and Albemarle County have
been great." Cooperating
since 1991: That's a heck of a motto and a larger accomplishment. In the
nine years the foundation has been scouting, mapping, building and maintaining
trails it has extended the nature walker's city limits by several miles. Hard day's work Saturday,
June 10th, at 9 a.m. members of the Rivanna Trail Foundation and friends
of the trails will gather at Quarry Park on the bank of Moores Creek to
expand some more. They will lay the deck for the new bridge. They will
clear and widen portions of the trail near the stockyards and sewage treatment
plant. They will build a bench at the top of a bluff with a commanding
view of the Moores Creek valley. Then they will eat a lunch of fried chicken
and cole slaw served with a thirst-quenching lemonade followed by live
entertainment in the form of a foundation public meeting. "You'd
think with the old stockyards nearby and the sewage plant that this would
be a less than attractive segment, but it's quite beautiful," Mr.
Holden said. "It winds along the creek on a high bluff and there's
a lot of wildlife in the area." A hiker's Dream With
the new segment from Avon Street Extended to the historic Woolen Mills
and dam, the foundation's dream of wrapping the city in a narrow, one-lane,
dirt-path hiking trail is nearing completion. Beginning at McIntire Park,
the trail skirts the CSX railroad track and East Rio Road, curving around
Greenbrier Park, passing by the Senior Center on Pepsi Place and connecting
to Kmart. The trail also runs from the Barracks Road 7-Eleven convenience
store, behind University of Virginia buildings and points toward McCormick
Observatory. All
that remains is a segment from Observatory Hill to Moores Creek and connection
between the Kmart terminus and the Barracks Road 7-Eleven trail head.
"Years ago it seemed impossible, but every year people find ways
to make it happen," Mr. Holden said. "The trail provides every
area of the city with a recreational resource. I think it's just a matter
of time before the trail is completed." Rumor
has it that there is a shadowy master plan, a destiny manifesto that calls
for expanding the city's countryside into the Ivy Creek Natural Area,
Ragged Mountain Reservoir, "Don't be surprised,"
said Mr. Holden with restrained excitement. |
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