Volunteers work the east bank of Reedy Creek in Forest Hill Park where the bridge once stood. Credit: Richard Chittick

You’ve gotta love the resourcefulness of the guys who build trails for the city of Richmond. A few weeks back, we reported on the bridge over Reedy Creek that was washed away during a crazy thunderstorm. The bridge saw lots of traffic from mountain bikers, hikers, dog walkers and Forest Hill Park lovers in general, and its loss meant a rather lengthy detour down the creek, across the Harvey Bridge and back up the asphalt path

I spoke with Mike Burton, city trails manager, shortly after the washout and he told me about all the solutions they were debating. Among them was a new, washout-proof bridge, which he estimated would cost well over $60,000. Another was re-routing the trail across the creek bed and back up the steep embankment on the east side of Reedy. But he wasn’t sure that was possible.

Well, as I found out on a recent ride, Burton and his trail building crew, with a lot of help from volunteers, made the much cheaper, cross-creek option a reality. As the pictures show, it started with tree and brush clearing, moved on to rock hefting and bench cutting, and, voila!, you’ve got yourself a creek crossing nearly at the same place as the old one that was expensive in sweat but not cash. It’s a tough ride for beginners due to the steepness of the west bank, but it is cool to cross Reedy at stream level, and it’s a significant upgrade from the detour.

Burton said it’s not quite finished yet. The climb up the west bank will require some rock armoring, for instance. But he said he hopes to have the crossing complete in time for the Tour de Fall Line later this month.

If you’re in Forest Hill Park, go check out the crossing for yourself.. It’s just downstream of where Reedy Creek crosses under Forest Hill Avenue).

Well-placed rocks now lead riders and walkers across Reedy Creek. This view looks west.

In this view, trail users have crossed the rocks pictured above and hike up and out of the creek toward Patrick Henry Elementary School.

There’s a lot going on in the fall for RVA outdoors lovers, and tomorrow we’ll be unveiling a new weekly feature: a preview of the coming weekend in outdoor recreation. But I wanted to highlight an upcoming event today because it marries two of my favorite things — bikes and beer. This Saturday (Sept. 13), from noon to 9 p.m., Hardywood will host the first annual Spoke and Hop Fest.

Handmade bicycles, like this one by Stijl, will be featured at the first Spoke and Hop Fest this Saturday. Credit: Stijl Cycles

“The overarching idea of this event is craft bikes and craft beer,” said Hinmaton Hisler, the event’s creator and a local handmade bike builder. “Cyclists and beer drinkers tend to many times be the same person.”

Hisler, owner of Stijl Cycles, said he originally imagined the event as a way to capitalize on the 2015 UCI World Cycling Championships that’ll be here in Richmond a year from now.

“The cycling community…needs to get ready for it and figure out how to embrace it and how to capitalize on it,” he remembers thinking around this time last year. “It all of a sudden dawned on me that I am that person. I think what I’m going to do is have a handmade bike show.

“It makes sense to figure out the kinks,” he added, “and then have the second annual event (be before the bike races) next year.”

The handmade bike show idea soon morphed into bikes and beer, and earlier this year Hardywood came on board as the host location. With their involvement in the Virginia Craft Brewers Guild, Hisler said, they were able to attract 25 different Virginia craft brewers.

“It will be the first of its kind in Richmond…having so many different breweries at one event,” Hisler said.

This is a common scene at Hardywood Park Craft Brewery. Credit: Hardywood

Each brewer will pour two different beers, and some will bring something different, “something from the archive,” as Hisler described it, as well. There will be food trucks, live bands, seven different handmade bike builders — locals Stijl, CED, EndPoint, Bing and out-of-staters Sarif, Bilenky and Vicious — and a number of different local bike advocacy groups.

$35 in advance and $40 at the door will get festival goers a sample glass and as much beer as they can drink. The proceeds will be split between the Virginia Craft Brewers Guild and the Richmond Regional Ride Center.

Next year, Hisler said, they hope the Spoke and Hop Fest, then over two days at an even larger location, will take place on the Saturday before the world championship races begin.

“We want to provide an opportunity for people from out of town, out of country to sample what the city has to offer,” Hisler said.

Back in late May, I reported on the installation of counters — vehicle and infrared — at seven different units of the James River Park. The counters were made possible by a $2,000 gift from the Friends of the James River Park and the James River Outdoor Coalition. The idea with the counters was, for the first time, to acquire actual usage numbers for the 20-parcel, 550-acre park that runs through the heart of Richmond. Up until then, usage surveys were conducted and visitation estimates were extrapolated from there.

Infrared counters are used to count people at a couple of park locations.

With the heavy summer park-use season now over, I spoke with Nathan Burrell, JRPS superintendent, to see how much mounting those counters did. The results were pretty astounding.

“Up through July we were at 500,000+ visitors,” he said. “That’s May through July. And we only have counters at seven locations right now.”

Burrell said he’ll be getting the August numbers by the end of the week, and he expects them to be somewhere north of 100,000 visitors but probably less than July’s 160,000 tally. June had 141,000.

Burrell explained that they use a conservative coefficient to account for the fact that many of the cars that arrive at the park have multiple people in them and some people use the park more than one time a day.

“We’re missing some people there, but we thought it was a safe number. We wanted to be conservative. The last thing I wanted is to be wildly high and then people just disregard them.”

To put these numbers in perspective, in February the Times-Dispatch reported that Maymont was the “most-visited place in the Richmond area,” with 527,153 visitors in 2013. The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts was second in the region with 479,907 visitors. Rounding out the top five were the Children’s Museum of Richmond with 393,529 visitors; Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden with 339,139 visitors; and Three Lakes Nature Center and Aquarium with 304,621 visitors.

The James River Park has always been a popular place. We now know how popular. Credit: Richmond.com

The Washington Redskins training camp brought in 164,789 visitors this year.

Burrell said that in 2012, the park system conducted a survey of usage from which they extrapolated a year-long visitation number: that number was between 500,000 and 1.5 million. “We’re going to be close to that million mark (when 2014 is over),” Burrell said.

Here’s some more perspective that city council and the mayor should take note of for future budgets. The JRPS with it’s 1 million or more visitors a year is maintained by four full-time employees (including Burrell), two seasonal employees and one part-timer. That’s something to keep in mind when proposals for $250,000 Carytown signs and redundant, million-dollar bridges over the Haxall Canal come up for debate.

I first saw this on bikeablerichmond.com and thought it was worth passing along. The artistic among you take note: The local organization i.e.*, the City of Richmond and the Greater Richmond Chamber is sponsoring the Go Bike! Design Contest, which is open to the public. According to the i.e.* website:

Win $2,500 for the design of an iconic artistic symbol to grace the tops of 30 bike racks to be installed throughout the City of Richmond before the 2015 UCI World Cycling Championships. 

We will cast 30 replicas of the winning design in metal, to be bolted atop the city’s bike racks. The metal design will be distributed to 30 artisans throughout RVA who work in a wide variety of media to embellish the symbol into original works of art, creating a customized finish for a uniquely RVA bike rack and art piece.  The locations of the bike racks have been determined based on the City’s Master Bike Plan.

The winner will be recognized at all GoBike! sponsored events, will be credited with the creation of the original design in official documentation, and will be announced  in local newspapers, the i.e.* website, and in all communications related to the project.

The symbols can be submitted by individuals or teams of no more than three, and the deadline for submission is Sunday, September 28 at 11 p.m. You can find out all of the submission details by clicking here.

$2,500 and eternal regional glory seems like a pretty sweet deal to me.

When Max Hepp-Buchanan was the director of the Cascade Bicycle Club in Seattle he said he learned a valuable lesson from running and losing a political campaign to make the city more bike and pedestrian friendly.

Jake Helmboldt, Richmond’s bike, pedestrian and trails coordinator, talks to supporters of the proposed Floyd Ave. Bike Boulevard. Credit: Sports Backers

“We didn’t win, but what we came away with is that there are a lot of people who really care about walking and biking infrastructure, and they want their city to be a better place to walk and bike, but there wasn’t a good leadership structure in which for them to organize.”

When Hepp-Buchanan became the Sports Backers‘ first Bike Walk RVA coordinator a couple of years ago, he found the same thing to be true in Richmond. Thus was born the idea for Bike Walk RVA Academy, which launches this fall.

“The idea was to start creating teams of neighborhood advocates who can help increase our capacity and give them the tools to help advocate for projects in their communities,” Hepp-Buchanan said.

There are 20 slots in the ‘Academy,’ a series of eight weekly workshops from October 1st through December 3, and interested folks must submit an application by September 4. Hepp-Buchanan said a few spots are still available.

By training community leaders, the goal of the Bike Walk RVA Academy is to “leverage the momentum built from the upcoming UCI Road Cycling World Championships, Bike Walk RVA’s ongoing Connect RVA campaign, the development of the city’s first Bicycle Master Plan and the additional $4.5 million allocated for bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure in Richmond’s 2014/2015 capital budget.

The Bike Walk RVA Academy aims to train and equip community leaders. Credit: Sports Backers

“Now that we have a bike master plan that’s almost done and we have money to start implementing that plan,” Hepp-Buchanan said, “it’s really important that we have people on the ground across the city making sure that when projects are built, they’re built for people of all ages and abilities, that they’re built in a timely manner, etc.”

The longer-term plan, he added, is to roll out similar academies in Henrico and Chesterfield hopefully next year.

Good results in the water, on the bike and the road require the right preparation. Credit: Endorphin Fitness

Part of the appeal of outdoor recreation is the presence of risk. Whether you’re dropping onto single track or hucking over a ledge, you may be embracing the presence of nature, but you are also tickling the edge of danger. (Ok, some of you give it a full-on noogie.)  However, even at your most dangerous level, perhaps exactly because of the elevated risk, you take extra steps to ensure that you still come home at the end of the day. Helmets, ropes, and scouting all keep you in the green. Just as you approach your sport with a pleasant rush of adrenaline sidled up to a healthy dose of caution, consider offering your body the same respect. While you cannot guarantee that you will never experience an injury, you can certainly do everything in your power to reduce your risk.

Scout ahead

Before you head into your next big adventure, get to know your body. Stepping back and surveying can save you time, pain, and money (unless you have killer insurance; in that case, go ape). Qualified professionals use objective assessments such as the Functional Movement Screen (disclosure: this is one of my preferred methods), the Overhead Squat Assessment, muscle testing, and various forms of postural assessments. These tests examine how you move through a given range of motion in order to determine where you are weak, tight, unstable, and strong. If you haven’t been through a movement assessment, I highly recommend the experience, especially if you are prone to overuse injuries.

In the meantime, at home you can do a quick survey. Standing on two feet, can you bend forward and touch your toes (mobility and hip mechanics)? Can you hold a good plank for 15 seconds (core, shoulder stability)? Can you stand on one foot, with control, for 10 seconds (stability)? Anywhere that you display significant dysfunction or asymmetry opens you up to an increased risk for damage, whether it is on a training run or while mulching your flowers. Over time, particularly any time you increase intensity, the vicious cycle of compensation, damage, pain, compensation winds tighter and tighter until you are shut down. Scout ahead and make a plan. Avoid the rocks.

Check your gear

Bikes and shoes will either give you freedom or extreme discomfort. Finding the right fit is the key factor. I frequently meet with athletes who have met with various doctors, only to learn that their shoes posed the major problem. Bike fit is no less crucial. If you have never been fitted, allow me to address a few things: 1) The saddle doesn’t have to hurt.  2) Low back pain is not normal. 3) Hand numbness is not acceptable. A little bit of time and money on the front end will pay dividends in the long run. Once we have ruled out gear as the compounding factor, looking into other problem sources (see #1) becomes more reliable.

Do the maintenance

You wax your surfboard, pump your tires, and lay out your rope. These chores are tedious, yet hardly time consuming and always worth the increased performance that results. Of course, as your equipment gets older you have to increase the amount of maintenance work, but I think you get the metaphor now.

Cycling is a popular cross training choice for runners.

You should maintain yourself the way you do your bike.

Finding balance between mobility and stability contributes to keeping your body in its best condition. Strength comes into play, but without the foundation of optimal joint movement (a product of stability and mobility), strength results may become compromised. Based on your self-testing (or, ahem, visit to a qualified professional), you would be well served by dedicating five minutes each day to focused drills. To improve hip mobility, squeeze your glute while you stretch your hip flexor and quad. To work on balance, stand on one foot while playing catch with your kid. To improve your plank, start with kneeling planks performed in short sets of 10 seconds on, five seconds off (view our perfect plank video). Continue to progress until you can hold a plank on your toes. I like to work on short sets that force you to find good form multiple times rather than trying to force one long hold where all you practice is suffering. Whatever it is, make it a consistent part of your day. Rather than it being a further demand on your time, think of it as a way of extending the life of, well, YOU.

Can you spit?

Many years ago, in my whitewater days, I was given a sage piece of advice: “When you scout a rapid that scares you, spit. If you can’t spit, don’t run the rapid.”  The day came that I looked at Hollywood Rapid, raging at some unearthly flood stage and, barely able to get around my parched lips, I muttered “See ya.”  In truth, I’m pretty sure I could have run the rapid; but the cost of failure was decidedly final. I didn’t trust myself to be able to do what I needed to do, so I walked away. Being pushed to expand your capabilities is the glory of being active, but with that should come respect for your limits.

Beyond picking appropriate levels at which to participate (if you are 5k ready, you probably shouldn’t come out for the marathon); you should be cognizant of what level you are at from day to day and week to week. Race on race day, train on training day, rest on rest day. Never vice versa. (A co-worker and pro triathlete has it tattooed on his wrists: “Hard Days Hard.” “Easy Days Easy”.) Guaranteed, the most common explanation that I hear for “My calf hurts” is something within the general theme of “I did something I don’t normally do at a speed/intensity/gradient that I’m not used to.”  It’s ok, we all do it.  Sometimes a little push can do wonders for our fitness and motivation; however, when it comes to laying your body on the line, know when it is okay to walk away. Then go train until you CAN meet the challenge.

There are 23 other hours in the day

A standing desk is a good idea, but good posture is key whether you sit or stand.

The time that you spend active usually represents such a small percentage of your daily living that discussing injury prevention solely on that sport is like talking about the tree instead of the forest. We all know of the dangers of sitting at desks all day so I will spare you. Set an alarm for every 50 minutes to remind you to stand up and walk around. If you have a standing desk, you are not off of the hook. The most important thing that I have ever learned with regard to effective physical therapy is that, without good posture, nothing else will hold. Ears aligned over shoulders, shoulders aligned over hips, hips over knees, knees over ankles. Feet evenly balanced on the ground. Avoid sucking in just as much as slouching. Ideally, as you stand, you are at relative ease without having to brace or squeeze anything. With a small degree of attention throughout the day, you will enter your adventure already better prepared, thus set up for reducing your risk for injury.

To make it through an entire season without an issue is a gift, but it is a gift that often takes a little prep work and a touch of luck.  The luck will run its own course, but the work, the work will have to come from you.

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”- Benjamin Franklin

Richmond’s trails are not for the faint of heart. Credit: Trey Garman

I’m riding along Buttermilk Trail, a stone’s throw from a beer-brown James River, inhaling air thick with the aroma of slow moving water. The sun, prevented all morning by the thick summer foliage from acquiring a clear shot, has finally found its perch directly above me. My brain, so far, has had the day off, as every decision has come from instinct alone; acquiring coffee, driving to Reedy Creek, picking which lines to ride amidst the roots, ruts, and bumps, attacking the zany topography of Forest Hill Park with both energy and strategy, and leaning into every curve of the trail with such commitment I could reach down and cut a second tire track through the dirt with my finger. I feel as indigenous to these parks as a squirrel to a tree.

Up ahead is a section that is infamously rider-hostile; full of abrupt, steep climbs, dark, inconveniently placed creek water, and rock gardens so jarring they make you feel like you’re reentering earth’s atmosphere. I’ve seen American Ninja Warrior courses more welcoming. Usually I skip it by cutting up to Riverside Drive, or by throwing my bike on my shoulder and taking the foot-detour, treading carefully up the hills and around the obstacles as if fearful of awakening some sleeping giant, but this morning has been one of those rare rides that creates more energy than it burns. I’m in no mood for detours today.

Reaching a small clearing, I rotate my pedals to a sturdy 9 and 3, stand, and turn a few quick circles to reset myself. I know I can’t ride it. Unlike the trail behind me, the one ahead can’t be conquered with mere focus or grit. It requires more than the ability to get yourself psyched up. It requires experience, more skill, more talent, a higher level of overall physical fitness than I currently have – and possibly some sort of jet pack. It’s a strip of earth traversable only by the serious full-timers – those riders for whom you happily get out of their way, whose bodies are as skeletal and strong as the bikes beneath them. I’d have a better chance of playing left tackle for the Washington Redskins (and possibly safer) than remaining above the saddle throughout this section of trail.

Buttermilk Trail: You might not find a more technical MTB challenge in any American city. Credit: Phil Riggan

But I am getting psyched up. I am beginning to focus. Isn’t riding in places you didn’t think you could ride the whole point of mountain biking? I chew some water out of my Camelback’s mouthpiece. Each handle grip feels like the hilt of a sword, and with that thought… I charge.

A few short minutes later, much dirtier and smelling of creek water, I’m heading back the way I came, back to Reedy Creek and the comfort of my truck. The sound of my tires spinning across the ruler-flat single track is a soothing white noise, like a radio that’s lost its signal. I didn’t make it, but I’m happy I tried. My soul is wide awake, and so is the giant.

A new outdoor festival is coming to Mayo Island and the James River on September 27, and mountain bikers and paddlers should take notice. The Tour de Fall Line is a coordinated effort between Richmond-MORE and the James River Outdoor Coalition to show off everything they fight for as advocates for mountain biking and paddling in Richmond, while at the same time serving as a fundraiser for both organizations.

The Tour de Fall Line will highlight Richmond’s epic trails — like Buttermilk (pictured). Credit: Trey Garman

The day will consist of two separate events, both meant to be casual experiences open to all. For mountain bikers, there is a 50-mile loop that runs over virtually every trail along the James River — Buttermilk, Northbank, Forest Hill Park, etc. Meanwhile, whitewater enthusiasts will drop in at the Huguenot Flatwater boat landing and run the James River all the way to Mayo Island. That’s where paddlers and mountain bikers will meet at the end for an outdoor party, complete with a band and beverages. 

The bike and boat festival was the brainchild of Greg Rollins, president of Richmond-MORE, who was visiting Mayo Island one afternoon and realized that the 14th Street boat launch could be used to do a single event for both groups. “I thought, this would be a great place to combine these two events.”

The Tour de Fall Line takes its name from the rocky, hilly geologic feature along the East Coast — the Fall Line — that separates the flat, coastal Tidewater from the hillier Piedmont.

Rollins emphasized that this is not meant to be a competitive event, adding that it would be a great way for someone who is not familiar with Richmond’s trail systems to learn their way around. “It’s all about advocacy and altruism,” he said. “It’s a ride, not a race. Maybe you haven’t ridden the trails – we’ll show you where they are, and you’ll have the aid stations that will help you out.”

Rollins said he is working with a core group of Richmond mountain bikers, including Richmond trails manager Mike Burton and VDOT Statewide Bicycle and Pedestrian Planner John Bolecek, to set courses, which will also include a 25-mile and a 10-mile option. The shorter options feature reduced pricing. 

In the Tour de Fall Line, Paddlers will run the James through Richmond while MTBers pedal the trails around it.

Max Posner, Co-Vice President for JROC, echoed the sentiment that the Tour de Fall Line is meant to be a community event and not a competitive one. “We’re going to try and complement the mountain biking portion of the event,” he said. “We want to showcase the outdoor community here – the trails and rapids – and show everyone what they have to play with.”

Posner said JROC is working to make sure that paddlers have a shuttle in place to get everyone to Huguenot Flatwater Park. Posner also said that he and JROC president Patrick Griffin are working on a shorter option for paddlers who aren’t interested in running the whitewater at Belle Isle. Posner said he hopes to have course and pricing details ready later this week. 

According to a press release posted on the Richmond-MORE website, all participants will receive a souvenir pint glass, a well-crafted color map to use during the event and to keep, and an after party complete with vendors, a band, and food by Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken. The 50-mile bike ride will cost $40, while the full-length paddle will cost $30.

Back when I was a neophyte mountain biker, 24-hour mountain bike races were all the rage. There was one series called Granny Gear that put on races all over the country — Vermont, Missouri, Arkansas. I know Richmonders who would drive out to Utah for the 24 Hours of Moab event.

The race begins on a gravel road but quickly enters singletrack. Credit: Design Physics Racing

I wasn’t a great mountain biker at the time, and I rode a truly horrendous, $300 piece of dung. But two years in a row, a few friends and I went out to race in Granny Gear’s 24 Hours of Big Bear in the panhandle of West Virginia. It was a five-hour drive from Richmond and we mostly sucked, but it was a blast. There were four of us racing, and while one guy was riding the 14-mile loop, the other three and a large group of friends sat around the camp shooting the bull, drinking cold Yuenglings (it was 2006) and taking in the spectacle of 1,000 mountain bikers and their friends decamped in an old grass airfield in the middle of nowhere.

I’m not exactly sure why, but since then the 24-hour mountain bike race format has taken a nosedive. There are very few events nationwide. But as with many things mountain biking, Central Virginians are lucky when it comes to MTB endurance racing.

Next month (September 20-21) riders will descend on the boy scout camp in Maidens (Goochland County) for the 18-Hours Scouts Honor, a festival of endurance mountain biking put on by the Richmond-based Adventure Sports and Racing. Sure, it’s not technically a 24-hour race, but doing 8.5-mile loops for 18 hours is no picnic.

You didn’t believe me when I said there was a unicycle division, did you? Credit: Design Physics Racing

In fact, believe it or not, it can be a lot of fun. There are numerous divisions: You can do it as a group of four or two or by yourself. You can do it on a singlespeed or geared bike Heck, there’s even a unicycle division (seriously). There are men’s and women’s categories and mixed ones, too. And events like these are about more than just the races. There are campsites and showers with warm water at the scout camp, and every participant gets a free all you can eat breakfast. There are kids movies shown outdoors during the night to help entice families to come out and cheer their mom/dad/spouse on. There’s a band, too.

“It’s one of those races where you really cross your fingers and hope the weather holds out because when it does, the trails are dry and awesome, camping, warm showers, big breakfast,” said Ethan Seltzer, a long time racer and, as the owner of GroundForce IT, an event sponsor. “It’s a lot of fun.”

Bill Swann, the course director for the race, said they generally have about 140 riders every year, a number that has resisted his group’s stubborn attempts to enlarge its footprint.

“We’ve tried any number of ways to grow the race and let people know that we’re out out there,” he said. “It’s a fun way to get people together, go camping, ride your bike all weekend and eat a big breakfast.”

Swann said that this year they’ve added a 6-hour race that will go off at 4 p.m.just like the 18-hour race. “It’s a gateway drug,” he said. “We’re introducing (endurance racing) to a crowd that might be intimidated by riding at night or riding for a really long time.”

So if you like to ride your bike, this is your chance to take it to the next level on some cool singletrack that’s closed to the public most of the year.

Kayakers navigate Taskinas Creek in York River State Park. Credit: Virginia State Parks

Last time our Summer Roadtrip Series took us to The Falls of the Nottoway River, a sweet natural rock slide and swimming hole destination about an hour southwest of Richmond. This Saturday we’ll be taking a roadtrip to York River State Park for their annual Estuaries Day.

If you’ve never been to the 2,500-acre York River SP, you’re missing out. It sits in a beautiful spot at the confluence of Taskinas Creek and the York River. It has well-built beginner/intermediate mountain biking trails; a fun fishing pond for kids; a nature center and a couple of great put-ins for flatwater kayaking. And, like the Falls of the Nottoway, it’s less than an hour from Richmond — an easy drive down I-64 toward Williamsburg. You don’t even need directions; you’ll see the signs on the interstate.

On Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Estuaries Day will draw attention to the park’s Taskinas Creek area with a day of water-based activities including canoeing, kayaking, fossil hikes, fishing programs and more. There will be special displays and activities from partner organizations, such as the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, the Mattaponi-Pamunkey Rivers Association and Master Naturalists. A 5K run sponsored by the Colonial Road Runners will benefit the Lafayette High School Cross Country Team and Friends of York River State Park.

Horse back riding is also popular on the wide trails at York River State Park. Credit: Virginia State Parks

“(The) event is a fun way to get kids immersed in the outdoors, environmental science and history before the school year begins,” said Jon Tustin, York River State Park Manager.

Estuaries Day is free and parking is $4 per car. There is no charge for the kayak and canoe trips, but registration on the day of the event is first come, first served.