Why do we ride? This is a question many of us have most likely asked ourselves somewhere along the trail. The complexities of this question will vary depending on the individual rider and their past experiences on two wheels. Before we get into trying to answer this question, let’s go back to a day that I would suspect 90 percent of us remember. The first day we learned to ride a bike! Learning to ride a bike has always been a rite of passage in our culture, and the joy it brings is hard to match. I remember vividly the first time I realized that dad was not holding on to the seat anymore and I was cruising unassisted down the street.  There was an anxious feeling of fear that was quickly replaced by a sense of freedom I never felt before.  Once I got a taste of this freedom, I never looked back again.

Some of us are content riding the neighborhoods with friends and family on the weekends.  Others are driven to find new adventures off road that lead to the discovery of single-track mountain biking. Some exalt in pedaling for miles and miles on their road bikes. Still, most are content to leave this childhood ‘hobby’ behind once the driver’s license hits their wallet.

That was never an option for me. No sir, I was bitten by the bug and was hooked for life.  For me, riding became an extension of who I am. It became a way for me to escape the routines and feel calm even if it did mean careening down a mountainside at breakneck speed. Some argue that riding bikes, especially of the mountain variety, can be dangerous and poses a risk to your personal safety. On the surface this statement is true, but the answer to why we ride goes much deeper than that.

So then, why do we ride? The answer takes me back to the first day dad let go of the seat.  We ride because it brings us joy! I am happy when my feet are planted firmly on the pedals, my hands gripping the bars, and the noise of the wind rushes by my ears. We ride to reconnect with nature! My preferred type of riding is mountain biking because of the shared experience with the natural world. I value my two-wheeled experience in nature and know how important it is to my physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. Your senses become attune to your surroundings as you rip through dense forest on a ribbon of lush single-track. It’s quiet. You’ve forgotten about your breathing as you unwind all of life’s problems into the repetition of each pedal stroke.

We ride for the challenge of it! Challenges come in many forms along the trail, and we have all experienced our own set of triumphs throughout our riding history. I have encountered many challenges in my long history of riding. I can remember the first log I popped over successfully without falling. I remember the first time I shot off the lip of a makeshift ramp, launching me over the creek in our backyard. Bittersweet memories of climbs that made me feel like my lungs were going to explode, casing my first gap jump only to get pitched over the bars, and struggling to clean epic rock gardens, just to name a few. Time after time we come across these challenges and for some reason the passion to get up and try again remains strong. 

We ride to commune with friends!  Along with riding to experience the natural world, we ride to spend time with friends. Whether it is with an always-reliable riding partner or an unfamiliar group you join spontaneously mid-ride, there is a shared love of circles turning circles that exists.  Getting out for a solo ride also holds a special place in any biking enthusiast’s heart.  Most will tell you that these solo rides are where you find that true sense of how your body, bike, and trail are all interconnected. There are personal limits to riding a bike, but age doesn’t seem to be one of them. So get out outside with friends, get involved with the biking community, and ride!

At this point in the column many of you are probably asking what does this have to do with Richmond. Well, Richmond has had a recent surge in its riding population and this community has ‘stretched its legs’ to promote all types of riding and positivity on the trail.  Richmond Mid-Atlantic Off-Road Enthusiasts and the James River Park are leading the way to get more people involved, both young and old.

My riding has taken me places I never imagined, and each experience on my bike is different from the next. I am happy to call Richmond home and do 80 percent of my riding in and around the River City. I have also been fortunate to have the opportunity to develop a youth mountain biking program through Virginia Outside, and my passion for this program grows every day. It brings me immense joy to share the passion of mountain biking with a new generation. Furthermore, it is important to me not only to teach these youth the skills needed to be successful on a bike, but also how to pay it forward, teaching young people how to sustain the beautiful trails we ride. 

Sometimes answering a ‘why’ question is not easy.  Some answers are drawn from naiveté, some from previous knowledge, and others are in the eye of the beholder. My answer is based on past experiences and my love for all things two wheeled. All this writing has given me a restless feeling in my legs. I am going out to ride!!! Hope to see you out there on the trails.

Okay, so just because my first two Richmond Outside columns, and now the third, are about hiking at Civil War battle sites, I don’t want you to think that I’m an avid researcher and historian of the conflict (although it is certainly hard to escape it living here in the Richmond area). It’s just that it seemed logical, after writing about Cold Harbor,  to now direct you to Petersburg, as it was the next stage after Cold Harbor in the fall of Richmond.

First Maine Heavy Artillery Monument

After Grant met such fierce resistance at Cold Harbor in early June 1864, he abandoned his idea of capturing Richmond by direct assault. Reasoning that if he could “capture [Lee’s] army, Richmond would necessarily follow,” he moved south of the James River, where his forces began a siege of Petersburg. Minor skirmishes occurred throughout the summer and fall months, with Grant capturing rail lines and diminishing the confederate army’s supplies.

Lee took the offensive in March 1865; initially successful, the tide of the battle turned several days later. The 10-month struggle for the city, the longest siege in American warfare, came to an end with Lee’s retreat on April 2. His surrender at Appomattox Court House was just a week away.

Established in 1926 as a national military park, the 2,700-acre property, with several distinct parcels, was declared a national battlefield in 1962. Unlike many designated national battlefields that have been preserved predominantly as open fields, the Eastern Front segment with more than 11 miles of trails (some closed seasonally) has grown into maturing forests—and this is what continues to draw me to historic sites. Not only can I visit places that shaped our nation, but my hikes are often through a landscape where I can also observe natural world wonders.

A prime example is that, immediately starting the hike, you enter a forest of pine with a profusion of cedar trees. Squirrels often make use of the soft bark of the cedar to line their nests. All of us know that squirrels cache nuts for the winter, burying their food supply in scattered locations. Although they cannot remember the specific sites, their acute sense of smell enables them to locate enough of the nuts to survive. Studies have shown they can find a nut through more than a foot of snow. Within a few steps is a short section of railroad tracks, all that remains of the US Military Railroad that carried supplies to union soldiers during the siege.

The creek you cross farther on in the hike is where confederate forces fell back to during a fight in June 1864, and so many federal troops were driven into the Fort Haskell earthworks that they became tightly packed and only those in the very front were able to fire weapons. Interspersed among these sites are some amazingly large tulip poplars that may have been alive when this was farmland. The tree’s common name comes from the tulip-shaped flowers growing on upper limbs in early June. As summer progresses, they fall off the trees, with dozens of them decorating the trail. Yet, these trees are members of the magnolia family and not the willow family that poplars are members of.

If you want more hiking, the other segments of the national battlefield are short drives away.

 Getting there: Take the Wythe Street exit and follow it 2.5 miles to the park entrance. Take a few moments to look over the exhibits in the visitor center. You may also pick up a trail map and pay the entrance fee. Continue east on Washington Street and make the first right to obtain a free car pass at the Fort Lee entrance station. Make another right only .2 mile later onto Adams Avenue and another right onto Mahone Avenue in an additional .9 mile. The parking area is on the right.

Over the last several years I have heard the term Nature Deficit Disorder finding its way into more conversations. First coined in Richard Louv’s popular book Last Child in the Woods, this idea has become the drum and beat to which many organizations, laws, and businesses have come to march, mine included. The obvious premise being that today’s children are not spending enough time outside and that this has far greater consequences than perhaps any of us realize. Having read extensively on the subject, I am not sure how then my wife and I ended up buying my son and daughter several new Wii games and a 3DS for Christmas this year.

 I do understand actually. I am concerned with the amount of screen time today’s kids are exposed to, mine especially, but at the same time I have a hard time depriving them of the toys they see other kids playing with and am not so sure it’s a good idea either. Certainly there is a balance between technology and nature. And it’s not like I didn’t saddle up to some Pitfall, Centipede, and Ms. Pacman when I was growing up. Plus, there is some validity to the argument that today’s kids will need to develop skills with technology at an earlier age. My son’s teacher suggested the Wii helps with fine motor skills in younger kids, and I’ll be darned if it hasn’t taught my son how to throw a Frisbee. I do make a conscious effort, however, to get my kids outside as much as I possibly can. Fortunately for Richmonders, we have at our disposal one of the best urban parks in the United States, the James River Park.

More often than not my wife and I visit the James River Park with our two children, ages six and five. It’s our Sunday morning “go to” when the inevitable “what are we going to do today?” arises as the morning caffeine fix begins to wane. One of our favorite spots in the winter is the Wetlands. Located just downstream of the Pony Pasture parking lot and boasting a series of trails through the woods and along the river, it’s the perfect spot to let the kids lead the way- explore for themselves.

We stop along the river and skip rocks, build boats and forts from driftwood, but more often than not we try to let the kids direct the action and more often than not they find something to entertain themselves we wouldn’t have even thought about. It’s good for their confidence and their imagination. Last week my son crawled into a hollow log to where just his feet were sticking out. My daughter and I banged on the outside and could hear his muffled laughter from deep within.

 The Wetlands is a perfect place to take kids to ride their bikes in the winter as well. There are plenty of single track trails that are great for young mountain bikers, and a wide loop around the section of park is just fine for BMX bikes and even cruisers too.

 I sometimes take a pair of binoculars. The kids love looking at the buffleheads, which stack up in the riffles downstream of Pony Pasture Rapids by the dozens in December, January and February. These small, fish eating ducks seldom sit still for long and are usually buzzing up and down the river like swarms of bees.

 It’s not just kids suffering from Nature Deficit Disorder either. Adults need their time in the woods too. Leave your phones in the car. It isn’t easy, but I always feel rewarded in the end, and I have never missed a call, email, or text that was of any great importance.

 Sometimes I realize that these are about the only moments during the week when I can let my mind wander from its usual mundane routine, allow it to run out ahead of us, climb some vines, spot a pair of black ducks tucked in behind a rock in the middle of the river, stop to admire the raccoon footprints in the mud along the bank, before settling back into the all too familiar routines of the work week.

 I have the James River Park to thank for that outlet.

Read on, and you’ll soon find out that RichmondOutside.com’s newest feature contributors are free spirits. Bryan and Camille Smith own Black Dog Paddle, offering stand up paddleboarding (SUP) lessons, tours, exercise classes and much more. Black Dog Paddle is the only business of its kind in Central Virginia. They’ll be writing once a month on all things stand up paddleboarding — how to get started,where to go, tricks of the trade, etc. With the winter being the slow season for their chosen profession, Bryan and Camille decided to start us off with a fun intro to the joys of SUPing. With apologies to Dr. Seuss, of course…

Congratulations! Today is your day. You’re off to Great Places! You’re off and away!
You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes You can steer yourself
any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

You are off to great places, but just where should you go? To Daytona Beach, to Maui or Gulf of Mexico. Why not stay here, stay local I mean, why not the James River and see seldom seen.

You can take Buttermilk and cruise it by bike, but you’ll hardly have time to see all the sites. You can run down the street and avoid all the cars, texting while driving, after leaving the bars. You can walk in Byrd Park, take your dog for a stroll, climb at Manchester wall just avoid that loose hold.

Another prospective which might blow you away, is to take a short break, paddle the river this day.

You can paddle the James from Robious Park, if the winds are too strong just play it smart. Paddle 2 miles toward the 288 bridge, that’s going west towards the mountains a smidge. Rocketts is fine, avoid boat traffic galore, just remember the return trip’s surely a chore.

If you seek warmer waters and a lagoon for you two, Dutch Gap is the coolest thing you will do! Not the public boat launch you’re thinking about, this one’s a secret, just ask a trout.

If it is the rapids you crave, Hollywood surely answers, from flips, and spins, and unruly rock campers, just keep in mind this is class III-IV for you rafters, a swim hear could mean disasters.

Well, what is the best way to see all these sights, you can choose from a number of fantastic device. Choose me, choose me you hear from all of your gear, most often it’s that most unused which brings a tear. Deep in the shed or garage it may be, yearning to come out and see what we see!

Today is too cold, I don’t have the right wear, the water is 3 degrees above freezing from what I do hear. Get some good gloves, neoprene would be nice, a dry suit is great, a wetsuit suffice. And hit the flat water at Huguenot Woods, paddle up stream and avoid all your minds’ shoulds. Let your brain go blank and see what I see, Eagles and Herons, and catfish there be.

Grab your touring for flat water or Standup we choose, go shoot the rapids just don’t abuse. Paddle that SUP in either direction, towards 288 or east towards the Hampton, paddle it wise and paddle it strong, take a good lesson so you don’t do it wrong.

The view is superb; you can see shore to shore, your heart’s true yearning so you can endure.

You can paddle by kayak, you can paddle by canoe; the James is there for me and you.

We prefer Standup, because that’s just what we do!

Because we’re still in winter’s reduced daylight hours, and since it is the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, I’m going to direct you to another short, easy hike at a battle site from the War Between the States.Read More

We here at Richmondoutside.com are excited to welcome Leonard “The Habitual Hiker” Adkins into the fold as a regular contributor. We think Richmonders are lucky to have scores of places in which to get out, stretch their legs, and enjoy what our area has to offer.Read More