The Texas Beach bog now has a gleaming boardwalk spanning it. Credit: Dennis Bussey

Two weekends ago, Lynchburg native, carpenter and batteau builder Andrew Shaw (and crew) delivered a heap of lumber to the Texas Beach section of the James River Park via multiple batteau trips. The lumber was to be used to construct a long boardwalk over the perma-muddy section of trail leading from the base of the Texas Beach stairwell toward the river. The batteau delivery was A) just downright cool and B) an ingenious way of solving the problem of getting a huge quantity of heavy, unwieldy building materials to a rather remote site.

Dennis Bussey wrote a story for RichmondOutside.com about the day and how it came together. Once the materials were delivered, the boardwalk was expected to take three weekends of work by volunteers from Bussey’s Meetup group — James River Hikers — to complete. Well, as these pics show, those volunteers (along with Mike Burton and his James River Park System trail-building crew) work very fast. What was supposed to take three Saturdays was finished in one. Now hikers can navigate this formerly treacherous stretch of trail without need for muck boots even after a heavy rain.

Amy George has been part of RideRichmond since its inception in 2010. The non-profit, she said, was founded to help advocate for bicycle-related issues in the area. But since that time, a number of other organizations have formed with similar missions.

Encouraging more of this is the idea behind the first Richmond Women’s Cycling Summit.

“(They) started doing on a full time basis what we were just doing on a volunteer basis, groups like BikeWalkRVA and Ram Bikes. We we kind of stepped back in the spring or summer and thought, ‘You know, what is it that is not being addressed? Women’s cycling is definitely a hot button issue nationally. That was something that wasn’t being addressed in Richmond, so we decided to take it and run with it.”

Thus was born the first-ever Richmond Women’s Cycling Summit, which will take place tomorrow night at the Virginia War Memorial at 7 p.m.

George cited surveys showing that while 82 percent of women hold favorable views of cycling, 76 percent of bike trips (of any kind) were taken by men in the most recent survey year. The question is, “What’s causing that gap? What are the issues locally that can be addressed?

“Then we want to start providing information on how to get involved in different types of cycling. Where should you go to get the information to be confident on a bike?”

George said the summit, for which 120 women have already registered, isn’t focused on any one type of cycling. “We want to talk about what the barriers are to getting on a bike and riding it more. We’re trying to reach your average community resident, a very broad section of society. We want to normalize cycling, to have it be something where it’s not an unusual part of your daily life.”

The summit activities actually start at 5 p.m. with a casual ride from Lamplighter Coffee to the War Memorial. From 6 to 7 there will be a social hour with refreshments provided by Lamplighter, and at 7 p.m. a panel of seven women, including George, will dive into the issues, hear from the crowd and come up with ways to get more Richmond-area women on bikes.

The event is free, George said, but registration is encouraged so organizers know how many chairs to set up and how much food and drink to make available.

Joey Parent hits the trail in Forest Hill Park. Credit: Hunter Davis

Few Richmonders know and love the Falls of the James River, and the parks and trails that surround it, like Hunter Davis and Joey Parent.

The two met 10 years ago at VCU, helped start a kayaking club there, and have been friends ever since. While their journeys took them to places like Durango, Colo. and Asheville, N.C. for work and play, they both eventually found their way back to their hometown and they river they love. Parent is the leader of VCU’s Outdoor Adventure Program, and Davis works for the ACAC Fitness Center in Short Pump, is a outdoors-focused filmmaker, and the proprietor of Home on the James.

For years the two had batted around the idea for a kind of triathlon uniquely suited to Richmond.

“(It’s) something (that’s been) floating around,” Davis said. “Living in Richmond just lends it self to making that decision whether you want to go kayaking or trail running or mountain biking. Being in Richmond, you can do it all in one day. And everything is centered in one place. It’s just easy.”

“We’ve been talking about it for so long we realized that if we didn’t just do it, it wasn’t going to happen,” Parent said.

Thus, on the morning of November 8th, will be born the first-ever King of the James — a trail run/mountain bike/whitewater kayak race that is more about celebrating the fact that it can be done right here in the middle of a city than it is about the time or the winners. The race is free, and, importantly, it can be done individually or as a three-person relay team.

“I think that’s actually going to be a pretty big category,” Parent said, of the relay, noting that the number of people willing to run downtown rapids like Hollywood and Pipeline is limited.

But if you’re a mountain biker or trail runner and you know someone who can paddle Richmond’s famous whitewater, you’ve got yourself 2/3 of a team.

The race starts at the grassy area by the Reedy Creek boaters’ put-in. From there runners will go through the tunnels under Riverside Drive and do a lap in the Forest Hill Park singletrack. Mountain bikers will then take over and do what I like to call the Butterbank Loop: the Buttermilk and North Bank Trails with the Nickel Bridge and Belle Isle connecting them on either end. Paddlers will then put in at Reedy and run down to the 14th Street takeout, where they’ll be shuttled back to Reedy.

“I don’t enjoy kayaking more than mountain biking. And I don’t enjoy mountain biking more than trail running,” Davis said. “You can do them all right out your front door, if you live in the city. It just shows that the James River is a destination where you can come do all three sports.”

Parent added that T-shirts will be for sale for about $10 and there’ll be an after party at a yet-to-be-determined destination.

Sounds like a pretty sweet event to me, one that’s quintessential Richmond, not to mention a chance to bond with like-minded outdoors people. And considering it’s free…well, let’s just say we here at RichmondOutside.com will definitely be fielding a team.

The boys from RideKore are back at it. Last year David Kern and Ryan Thompson’s River City Rip video, shot in Forest Hill Park, got a ton of views on Pinkbike.com. Now they’ve released a video featuring the trails at Pocahontas State Park, with the hope of raising awareness of (and money for) the Richmond Regional Ride Center trail building project.

As the text from the Pinkbike.com post points out: This video celebrates the forward movement of mountain bike culture here in Richmond, VA and aims to continue casting a positive light on the new trails being built in and around the city. Watch as two local riders take a quick rip through one of the existing trail loops at Pocahontas State Park; one of the trail systems that makes up the larger Richmond Regional Ride Center and the future home of 40 miles of new IMBA certified trails.

Credits: Editing: MNDL.com; Cinematography: Matthew Irving; Creative Direction: Eric Eisele and Matthew McDonald; Riders: Ryan Thompson and David Kern.

The beaver dam in Powhite Park.

A week or so ago I hopped on my mountain bike and headed over to Powhite Park. It’s not far from my house, but like a lot of Richmond MTBers, it doesn’t often occur to me to choose Powhite over better known parks and trails, like Buttermilk, North Bank and Forest Hill Park. Every time I go there I’m reminded of why it keeps drawing me back: the solitude, the likelihood of an animal encounter, and the spiderweb of singletrack options that keep me pedaling until I’m sure I’ve ridden them all.

On the park’s west side, at its lowest point, Powhite Creek runs along Chippenham Parkway and forms a large wetland. It’s usually pondlike, with grasses and water-loving plants and trees ringing it, but on this day the marsh was as dry as I’ve seen. I’m not exactly sure why, but where the trail came near the creek, I gave in to impulse, hopped off my bike and bushwhacked in to find the creek.

I’d explored this area before. It’s one of my favorite places in any Richmond city park. The creek trickles through the woods, meandering toward the James, cutting the soft sand that forms its banks here. There were deer tracks everywhere in the sand and trails leading down from the forest. It was obvious this was a favorite watering hole for whitetails, a place where they are rarely disturbed.

Deer tracks along the baks of Powhite Creek.

Then I rounded a bend and came upon something I’ve never seen in the city before: a perfectly-built, fully functional beaver dam. If you spend time in Richmond’s parks, you’ll see evidence of beavers all over the place — gnawed sticks, downed saplings, etc. But this was the first true beaver dam I’d come across. Above it a deep pool snaked back toward the wetland. Below it a tiny rivulet — Powhite Creek — escaped through the mesh of sticks and leaf matter.

I sat there taking pictures, listening to the cars rush by on Chippenham and the Powhite parkways, and I couldn’t help but smile. How many places like this exist under the noses of 1 million Central Virginians, I wondered? A lot, probably. We just have to be in the frame of mind to find them.

Preparation can help lessen the chances of this result when taking a kid mountain biking.

Richmonders can consider themselves lucky to be surrounded by some of the best mountain biking trails in Virginia. As cycling in RVA continues to grow in popularity, it’s the perfect time to round up the family, pull out the bikes, and start exploring the network of amazing trails in our regional backyard. The local parks offer opportunities for even the youngest cyclists to begin honing their single track skills. Mountain biking provides riders with many opportunities to improve their technical ability. Skills such as balancing, braking, shifting, climbing, descending, choosing the best line and getting over or through obstacles will all come into play on the trails. Not only will your young riding partners have a blast learning this adventurous sport, they will emerge from the trail with improved bike handling skills for any type of riding.

GETTING STARTED: To get started on trails with the kids, be sure they are on a geared mountain bike that suits their size and they are wearing a properly fitted helmet. Cyclists fresh off their training wheels will need to gain leg strength for trail riding.

WHERE TO GO: Trails such as the Flats section of Poor Farm Park in Hanover County provide a great area for building strength. As its unofficial name implies, this section is flat but rooty and offers the young novice great opportunities to practice sighting ahead, riding off seat with pedals parallel, and navigating curvy single track, all while building strength and endurance.

Deep Run Park in Henrico also offers a great area for beginners. Inn the front area of the park, you’ll find single-track descents, which, in the opposite direction, offer a nice challenge for climbing and the opportunity to master shifting. The park also boasts a set of V-ditches ranging from the most modest pitch to a steeper, more adventurous V-ditch. These offer an opportunity to practice the hips-back descending position and quick, back-to-front weight transfers needed to successfully navigate this type of terrain.  The V-ditches are a guaranteed kid pleaser! Other areas in the park offer opportunities for practicing creek crossings, log obstacles, rock gardens and tougher hill climbs.

Who knows, your kid might have the talent to do this. Credit: Va. Interscholastic Cycling Association

Belle Isle, in the heart of downtown Richmond, offers a fantastic skills park where young and old alike can practice a variety of techniques needed for tackling the downtown trail system. Here, you’ll find rock gardens; short, steep ascents and descents; log obstacles; rock obstacles; and the two pump tracks, which every kid (and kid at heart) will love. Outside of the skills park, along the eastern side of Belle Isle, you will find the Lost trail. This flat trail provides skill-building opportunities and off-road adventure for young riders. For more experienced kids, the top of Belle Isle provides a fun challenge and an opportunity to use the skills they’ve acquired down at the skills park. An ascent up the fire road in the middle of Belle Isle will definitely provide practice in the areas of shifting and climbing. Turning left at the top leads to single track that will include short, steep ascents, descents, root beds, and log obstacles. This short loop finishes with a long descent of twists and turns over cobblestones where descending and braking competence are crucial. A challenging exit requires braking, turning and balancing skills as you make a hard left turn and find yourself back down at the skills park. Once a young rider feels comfortable on this trail, they will be ready for the main attraction…the adventures that Buttermilk, Forest Hill and North Bank trails have to offer.

The skills park on Belle Isle is a great place for kids to learn basic MTB skills. Credit: Greg Rollins

Pocohontas State Park in Chesterfield County is a mountain biking treasure you should place on your “MTB to do” list. Offering miles and miles of trails, Pocohontas Park was recently awarded a grant to help it become part of the official Richmond Regional Ride Center, approved by the International Mountain Biking Association (IMBA). Currently there are only eleven IMBA Ride Centers in the world. The grant will improve existing trails and help build many more miles of trails with the goal being to provide something for riders of all skill levels. The mountain bike trails at Pocohontas currently are rated Green, Blue and Red. The Green trail is the easiest and is great for building strength and endurance for the young kiddos. The Blue Trail requires moderate technical skills, as riders will encounter climbs, drops, log crossings or rocky areas. Red trails are designated for experienced riders, offering obstacles such as skinnies, jumps, and other technical riding. The miles of double track fire roads at Pocohontas are great for enjoying ride time together and building strength and endurance for all skill levels.

Mountain biking is an exciting sport that can bond a family through mud and adventure! By starting with the proper equipment and the appropriate trail level, young riders will gain experience and confidence that will allow them to enjoy the multitude of trails that help make RVA the great cycling town we love!

Maymont’s paved paths and rolling hills will be the site of this weekend’s X-Country Festival.

If you like to run, bike or paddle, this is your kind of weekend here in the RVA.

It starts on Friday for the runners with the Sports Backers’ Maymont X-Country Festival. The Open 5K goes off at 6 p.m. and is a really cool opportunity to race in a place where you’d normally stroll and sightsee. As the Sports Backers’ website describes it: Maymont is a cross country runner’s dream. From the lavish 1893 Maymont House to the scenic wildlife areas that house bison, bald eagles, deer, bears and other animals, the estate is the perfect backdrop for a fall race.

The same is true for Saturday morning’s James River Loop 8-miler. This race is also open to the public, and while it starts and ends at Maymont, the course is really a showcase of Richmond’s downtown trails (click here for the map). Trail lovers will navigate Buttermilk and North Bank trails, as well as the singletrack on Belle Isle before they arrive back at the finish line.

Paddlers have two great options on Saturday, but they’ll have to pick one. At 9 a.m. the Friends of the Lower Appomattox River will host their annual 10-mile “Battle or Paddle” event — your opportunity for a fun paddle or a competitive race in your canoe, kayak, or SUP. The event begins at Petersburg’s Pocahontas Island and the full 10-mile length ends at the Hopewell City Marina near the convergence with the James River. There are also several take-out points along the river for those who do not want to paddle the entire route. At the finish a shuttle will return you and your boat to Petersburg. The entire course is flat water in the tidal section of the river. 

River lovers also have the option of paddling the falls of the James on Saturday as part of the Tour de Fall Line. This first-time event is half paddle, half bike (take your pick) and all celebration of the amazing natural resource we have in the middle of our city. For canoeists, kayakers, and SUPers, events begin at 10 a.m. (or earlier, if you prefer) at Mayo Island, where a shuttle provided by the VCU Outdoor Adventure Program will take everyone up to Huguenot Flatwater. At 10:30 a.m. paddlers can choose to run to Reedy Creek or keep going through the downtown rapids back to Mayo Island where beer, food and music await.

Buttermilk Trail will be part of the course for the 50-miler of Saturday’s Tour de Fall Line. Credit: Phil Riggan

James River Outdoor Coalition president Patrick Griffin said he wants paddlers of all abilities to come out and have a good time together, and, he added, “the river is very, very low so we will have sweep people to make sure everyone gets down safely.”

Mountain bikers have three options as part of the Tour de Fall Line: a 50-, 28- and 14-mile ride. All feature the world famous downtown Richmond singletrack, as well as some of the less well known Pirate Trails and, for the 50-milers, Powhite and Larus parks.  The $40 entry fee gets you a supported ride, a pint glass, one Sierra Nevada beer, Lee’s Fried Chicken and a concert on Mayo Island when you get back (the same is true for boaters and their $30 entry fee).

“It’s a hellacious deal,” said city trails manager Mike Burton. And he’s especially right when you consider that any profit goes to JROC and local mountain bike/trail building club Richmond MORE.

So, there you have it folks. Lace ’em up; break out the paddle; pump up the tires. You have options this weekend no matter your outdoors pleasure.

Progress on the Va. Capital Trail on New Market Road in Varina. Credit: Va. Capital Trail Foundation

The other day, returning from Osborne Landing with the Terrain360.com mapping vessel, my eyes beheld something they’ve been longing to see for years: actual progress on the Virginia Capital Trail in the Richmond region.

Sure, there’s a half-mile section completed from the floodwall across from Bottoms Up Pizza to Great Shiplock Park. But, outside of that, almost all of the work on the 55-mile, Jamestown-to-Richmond paved path has been toward the eastern end.

What I saw the other day got me all giddy, and I realized I hadn’t posted a Cap Trail update in months. So, just yesterday I gave Virginia Capital Trail Foundation Executive Director Beth Weisbrod a call to check in on things. She was just as excited by the trail progress as I was.

“We’re chugging along,” she said. “We’re still on track to have everything done by next summer, by (the UCI World Cycling Championships in) 2015.”

Weisbrod said that Virginia first lady Dorothy McAuliffe will be the keynote speaker on October 15 for the ribbon cutting of the 13-mile Sherwood Forest phase of the trail.

“(Sherwood Forest) essentially connects the completed section in James City County with the Charles City Courthouse section,” Weisbrod said. “So we’ll have roughly 29 miles of one long continuous strip of asphalt.”

Weisbrod and the VDOT project manager will ride the Sherwood Forest section tomorrow to inspect it, she said. And while some landscaping and other light work remains, it is open and rideable right now.

Pushing rock on the soon-to-be Virginia Capital Trail. Credit: Va. Capital Trail Foundation

With Sherwood Forest complete, that makes the intersection of Kimages Road and Route 5 the current western terminus of the trail. But work has begun on all the remaining sections. Next up, coming east, is the 10-mile New Market Heights phase, which Weisbrod expects to be completed last, then the 11-mile Varina phase, which reaches the Richmond border at Rocketts Landing.

Weisbrod said that CSX still has to pull up and remove the old traintracks that run from Rocketts Landing almost all the way to Great Shiplock Park. That could happen any day, and when it does, work will begin in earnest in Richmond.

“The downtown portion should be done by spring,” Weisbrod said. “I’m pretty optimistic that that is going to happen.”

At a small ceremony last weekend at Pocahontas State Park, park officials and members of Richmond MORE recognized the start of construction on the newest trail there. This trail will be a little different though, with a new type of trail user in mind: the disabled.

Wayne Goodman (from left), Greg Rollins, John Watts, Jim Beamer and Preston Curry are on hand for the groundbreaking ceremony of the Gateway Trail, a new path in Pocahontas State Park that will be designed with disabled cyclists in mind. Credit: Charles Poteat

According to RVA-MORE president Greg Rollins, the trail is being called the Gateway Trail, and it will be optimized not only for mountain bikes, but also three-wheeled handcycles used by the disabled, commonly referred to as “trikes.”

“What we’ve found is that they want to be treated like everyone else,” Rollins said. And that’s exactly where this new trail comes in. The basic concept is to give disabled cyclists the same off-road experience as able-bodied mountain bikers.

Rollins also clarified that the Bell Built grant, $33,000 which the Richmond Region Ride Center was awarded this summer, is not being used on this trail. This project is aimed at being a long-standing legacy project paying tribute to the Richmond 2015 UCI World Cycling Championship races being held in the region next September. Rollins said the Bell Built grant will fund an entirely different set of trails, with that project starting to take shape in November.

The idea for off-road riding for the disabled came from Wayne Goodman, who suffered a spinal injury in an accident while riding his mountain bike through Forest Hill Park in 2010. While the accident robbed Goodman of the full use of his hands and arms, he still has enough strength in his legs to power a custom-built trike that is similar to a handcycle. And he still wants to ride it off-road.

“Not long after I was injured, I began to reflect on how my accident was going to affect my mountain biking.” Goodman said. “Being realistic, I knew that there was little chance that I would ever ride a mountain bike again. I was losing a huge part of my life and the thought of that weighed heavily on my mind.”

It didn’t take Goodman long to realize that the concept of handcycling could be adapted to his needs even though his accident affected more of his upper body than his lower. He quickly took to this new form of riding, and before he knew it he was taking laps on the fire roads of Pocahontas State Park.

Goodman knew that the idea could be taken a step further, a step deeper into the woods and onto narrower trails. Goodman is no stranger to creating new trails. As a former president of RVA-MORE, Goodman was instrumental in the construction of the North Bank Trail before his accident. But trails like North Bank or those in Pocahontas aren’t quite right for handcycles, due to their wider wheelbase. “Unfortunately, most of those trails cannot accommodate a handcycle,” he said. “They are too tight and twisty and in some cases, too steep.”

A rider navigates the singletrack in Pocahontas State Park. New trails now under construction there will soon make the Richmond region an IMBA-designated “Ride Center.” Credit: Va. State Parks

So Goodman approached Rollins about the idea, and they teamed up to pitch it to park officials, Rollins said. This was before the the Richmond 2015 announcement, and when that event was made public in 2012, the idea of these trails as a legacy project really took off.

According to Rollins, the new trail will be purpose-built for mountain bikes and handcycles, allowing the two groups to ride together. Rollins anticipates that park officials will declare the trail open to all users, but points out that they will likely be more enjoyable on wheels.

Access to the Gateway Trail will be out of a new parking area being built in the north end of the park on Courthouse Road. The first trail will be between two and four miles long and will be designed for introducing both handcyclists and regular mountain bikers to off-road riding. More trails will follow with similar designs in mind, with each new set of trails providing increasing difficulty. This will allow cyclists to progress in skill over time.

As far as Goodman knows, the project is the first of it’s kind throughout the entire country. At the same time, he hopes to see the concept replicated elsewhere. “In Virginia, there are plenty of other places suitable also.” he said. “The potential is enormous. At a national level, there is considerable interest in what we’re doing here in Richmond. My understanding is that we are the first. Hopefully, others will follow.”

Once the entire project is finished, Rollins says there will be 22 miles of handcycling optimized trails. When combined with the singletrack loops and the Lakeview trails that are already in place, this will bring the overall total of trails in the park for off-road cycling to 42 miles. “We are looking sometime in October for the trail to be open,” he said.

Don’t be put off by last week’s heat wave, folks, fall is on its way. And I don’t know about you, but fall is absolutely my favorite time of year. Even after a mild summer like this one, I’m ready for autumn and everything it calls to mind: leaf peepage, apple cider, cool days, cold nights by the outdoor fireplace, football. Call me crazy, but I even kind of enjoy raking leaves.

Volunteers during last year’s ‘Tire-less James’ fill up their batteau with tires. Credit: JRA

Fall is also a busy time of year for outdoor activities in the Richmond area. It seems like as soon as kids head back to school, the calendar explodes with stuff to do. The Events Calendar on our homepage has a comprehensive listing, but starting today, and continuing every Wednesday this fall, we’ll be highlighting the coming weekend’s can’t-miss events for outdoor lovers. (If you’re an event director and your ride, run, triathlon, festival, litter pickup, etc. is on the horizon, let us know so we can feature it.)

Last week, we gave you a heads up the James River Association’s Tire-less James event. Groups of volunteers will comb the river this Saturday in search of old tires and then Bridgestone will haul them away and recycle them (there’s still time to sign up). Ryan and I were up on the James below Iron Gate on Monday taking pictures for our river mapping project and we saw at least four tires between Iron Gate and Gala. So, if you happen to be on that section of the river, keep your eyes peeled.

The Tire-less James is running concurrently with the James River Advisory Council‘s huge James River Cleanup on Saturday. Pre-registration is closed, but you can still join the fun by just showing up to one of the official cleanup sites with close-toed shoes, water and gloves. They’ll provide the bags and take care of the the removal.

If you’re looking to get the heart rate up a little more, drive up to Ashland at 3 p.m. on Saturday for Center of the Universe Brewing Company’s Das Bier Run. There’ll be beer (natch), German food, a 13-piece authentic German band and a team relay fun run. And speaking of beer, yesterday we featured another beer-centric event taking place Saturday — the Spoke and Hop Fest. Head to Hardywood at noon on Saturday and you’ll find 25 Virginia craft breweries pouring two beers each and well as handmade bicycle fabricators from up and down the East Coast (including four from Richmond) showing off their craft bikes. Food trucks and live bands will also be blazing

That’s a busy Saturday folks, but there’s a natural progression in there: Start by cleaning up and giving back, go for a run and a beer then go check out some sweet handmade bikes and imbibe a little more while taking in some live music. Good times.