Hiking Archives - Page 8 of 8 - Riverside Outfitters

Terrain360: Cool new site for outdoors enthusiasts

If you’re a local trail lover, you need — and I really do mean need — to check out Terrain360.com, the subject of my column in today’s T-D. The site was just launched on May 1st by three Richmonders — Ryan Abrahamsen, Ryan Emmons and Ross Milby. It’s unlike anything else out there for exploring trails (and soon waterways, too) on a computer. If you’ve used Google Street View, Terrain360.com will have a familiar feel — only the pictures are clearer.

The T360 team is an ambitious lot. Their goal is to have every major Virginia trail mapped by the end of the summer, so keep checking back for more updates. This first pic is a screenshot from the site. It and the others offer a sense of what the trail tours look like.

Entering Belle Isle from the south

Buttermilk Trail

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“Project Remote” features Virginia locale

Credit: The Nature Conservancy

If you’ve ever picked up a copy of the free magazine Blue Ridge Outdoors, you know the Charlottesville-based outfit does a great job covering outdoors-related stories and featuring interesting outdoorsmen and women throughout the Southeast. The April 2012 edition includes the story of a couple whose adventures I thought worth sharing, mostly because they’ve embarked on a mission that’s long rattled around in the back of my brain — at least the Virginia portion of it.

Ryan and Rebecca Means are currently searching for the most remote places in each of the 50 states. Project Remote, as they call it, involves hiking to the spot farthest from a road. It’s a seems like a simple definition of remote, but it turns out to be a good one — and not always an easy one to accomplish. Take Virginia: Our remote spot, actually one of the most remote, by their standard, in the continental U.S., is 8.3 miles from the nearest road on a barrier island in The Nature Conservancy’s Virginia Coast Reserve. To get there the Means family (their three-year-old daughter Skyla accompanies them on every trip) had to take an 18-mile boat ride before hiking four miles to the spot. Their Virginia adventure features tons of pictures and an insightful blog. It’s worth checking out.

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Come celebrate the Dogwood Dell Trails

It’s all over but the riding, running, hiking, bird watching and dog walking. The city trails crew and weekend armies of volunteers have finished two new loops — each about a mile long, one for foot traffic only, the other for fat tires and feet — in the woods behind the Carillon in Dogwood Dell. The best way to access the new trail heads is on Pump House Drive just above the toll for the Nickel Bridge.Read More

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Exploring the Channels’ mountaintop slot canyons

To follow up on Tuesday’s post, check out the link to my column in today’s Times-Dispatch on the Channels State Forest and Natural Area Preserve. And if you’re a hiker, outdoors lover or just general explorer of Virginia rarities, put this place on your list of must-dos.

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Channels Preserve a stunning, rare Virginia locale

The subject of this post isn’t exactly local — it’s five hours away, in fact — but I had to share because the place is just too amazing not to.

In December I wrote a column for The Times-Dispatch introducing a new monthly series for 2012. The goal is to travel the state highlighting rare or unique plants, animals, ecosystems, geologic formations, etc. — places and species that most Virginians don’t know exist or are only vaguely aware of. Yesterday, I traveled to Channels State Forest and Natural Area Preserve (the NAP is surrounded by the SF) in southwestern Virginia for the January entry.

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More trail work at Dogwood Dell

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:

Read More

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First call for Dogwood Dell trail work

There’s nothing like the excitement of riding, running and hiking new trail. But new trail doesn’t just materialize on the forest floor. With that in mind, Richmond MORE is inviting trail enthusiasts to come out Saturday, January 14th for the first work day on what will be the Dogwood Dell trails. The heavy machinery comes in later this month, but there’s plenty to do to get the area ready. The result, by spring, will be two new trail loops and almost 3 total miles of new trail.

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Ring in 2012 with a hike at Pocahontas State Park

A group called America’s State Parks announced recently that all 50 state park systems will sponsor free, guided “First Day Hike” Programs on New Year’s Day 2012. As their press release said: “America’s State Parks First Day Hikes offer individuals and families an opportunity to begin the New Year rejuvenating and connecting with the outdoors by taking a healthy hike on January 1, 2012 at a state park. First Day Hikes offer a great way to get outside, exercise, enjoy nature and welcome the New Year with friends and family.”

Here in Central Virginia we’re lucky enough to have Virginia’s largest state park. Pocahontas SP in Chesterfield County is nearly 8,000 acres of woods, trails, ponds, lakes and campsites. Click here to learn more about the guided hike at Pocahontas on New Years Day. Click here to see what all of Virginia’s state parks are offering that day.

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Go see a WMA, but bring your wallet

I’ve always thought that Virginia’s Wildlife Management Areas flew under the radar for those outdoor-loving, but non-hunting and angling, Virginians. WMAs are packed during hunting season, and fishermen know the opportunities they provide. But I’m not sure other outdoor enthusiasts — trail runners, hikers, bikers and bird watchers — realize how much the WMA’s have to offer — the amount of trail, the natural beauty. Well, in a few days, those non-hunters and anglers are going to have to pay — though not much — for the pleasure.

Beginning January 1, visitors to Wildlife Management Areas and public fishing lakes owned by the DGIF who are age 17 and older will need to have an Access Permit unless they possess a valid Virginia hunting, freshwater fishing, or trapping license, or a current Virginia boat registration. Daily and Annual Access Permits for WMAs and department-owned public fishing lakes will be available January 1 for purchase at www.dgif.virginia.gov, by calling 1-866-721-6911 during business hours. Cost for the Daily Access Permit is $4 and the cost for the Annual Access Permit is $23. The Access Permit, whether Daily or Annual, can be used to access any WMA and DGIF-owned public fishing lake statewide.

The Department of Game and Inland Fisheries owns more than 201,000 acres of land on 39 Wildlife Management Areas located across the Commonwealth. The DGIF also owns 35 public fishing lakes statewide. Most of the land and the lakes were purchased using primarily revenue from the sale of hunting licenses, freshwater fishing licenses, and trapping licenses. Revenue from these sales has also paid for upkeep of the DGIF-maintained roads, parking areas, kiosks, and wildlife and fish habitat and management work done on these properties. Over the years, hunters and anglers who shouldered the cost to acquire and to maintain these sites, have shared the property with bird watchers, wildflower enthusiasts, horseback riders, and others who have had the benefit of accessing these locations at no cost. But that is going to change on January 1.

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Big news on Dogwood Dell

Finally, the news Richmond-area mountain bikers have been waiting for for over a year: A timeline has been set for the installation of a new trail loop in Dogwood Dell. Actually, it’s not just one loop, it’s two, and local hikers should just as excited about the news. Nathan Burrell, city trails manager for the parks, said that by mid-January the infamous “SWECO Trail Dozer” will be in the Dell rough-cutting a 1.75-mile, MTB-specific loop. A separate 1.5-mile hikers-only loop will be built mostly by hand at the same time.

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