The lone forested section of Dogwood Dell will soon have two sets of trails crisscrossing it, a 1-mile loop for hikers only and a 1.75-mile loop designed for mountain bikers but open to hikers as well. Last weekend the work began on clearing the routes for the “Sweco,” the traildozer that is being brought in next week to do the actual trail cutting. More volunteers are needed this Saturday to finish the preparations. The below is from the Richmond MORE website:

This week we still have some work to do. We’ll focus our efforts on clearing the hiking trails. Last weekend we were able to clear about half of the hiking trail. The remaining half needs to be cleared, then the new trails will need to be bench cut. Having hiking only trails in Dogwood Dell will help to reduce user conflict on the mountain bike trails as well as provide a great outdoors experience for the local community. A large portion of the hiking trail will reuse existing trails so those portions shouldn’t require much work.

 

 

The Sweco operator will be walking the trails on the 23rd and starting work on the 24th. He’ll be finished by the following weekend (January 28th). This is when we’ll need the most help. The trails will need hand tuning and bridges before they are opened. So mark your calendars for January 28th and February 4th.