With the General Assembly now in session, I gave Champe Burnley a call to talk about bike-related issues in front of the GA. Not surprisingly, Burnley beat me to the punch: “Check out our website,” the Virginia Bicycling Federation representative said.

At Vabike.org, Burnley has compiled a list of three pieces of legislation his group is pushing. “We’ve had these up before (the GA) before and we haven’t gotten them through,” Burnley said. “But we’re feeling pretty optimistic we can get these through this year.”

Here’s the list:

SB97: Three-Foot Passing

This bill would help educate motor vehicle drivers to pass the drivers of any non-motorized vehicle (including a bicycle) with a wider margin of error, and thereby reduce the number of fatalities and serious injuries to these legal and legitimate road users. In addition, this bill could improve justice for all lawful and prudent drivers of non-motorized vehicles (including bicycles) who are injured by negligent following motorists. Finally, this bill would make it illegal to harass or endanger the driver of any legal vehicle by “buzzing” them. The current code says “pass by (at least) two feet”, but it doesn’t seem to be enough. Click here to read more about SB 97.

HB 82 and HB 811: Following Too Closely

Currently this Code section applies only to motor vehicles following other motor vehicles, trailers, or semi-trailers. The proposed modification would extend the same standard of legal protection to the drivers of all vehicles that are permitted on the roadway, including bicycles, mopeds, and animal-drawn vehicles. The prohibition on following too closely would still only apply to drivers of motor vehicles, so the common (and typically safe) practice of a bicyclist drafting another bicyclist would not be affected.

SB 225: Dooring

As the number of cyclists on roads increase and bike lanes become more prevalent in our urban areas, “dooring” has become a major threat to cyclists.  It’s a threat because there is no way to prevent accidents and serious injuries. Right now, the driver is not at fault.  Drivers are permitted to open the car door at their discretion.  There is no law to find them negligent of causing the injury.

Who can say where the line between avocation and addiction is?

I enjoy many outdoors pursuits — canoeing, fishing, hiking, tracking falcons on cloudy days — but I chose just one of them yesterday, the most frigid day in decades: riding my mountain bike.

On Belle Isle, stopping to retrieve phone.

By now perhaps you’ve heard that yesterday, Jan. 7, 2014, was cold. I won’t belabor the point; you’ve seen the statistics. But it was also Tuesday, as in a day, a day with the same promise as any other. To quote the great George Meyer, “Our existence is but an eyeblink. Why, then, should a man not chase down his passions, wrestle them to the dirt, and ride them like ostriches?”

He should, and I did.

Local speedfreak Dave Salley rolled over to the RichmondOutside.com compound around 11 a.m., and we hit the road. Actually, we specifically avoided the road, wanting to limit our wind exposure. We hit Buttermilk Trail going east from the Nickel Bridge. By the time we reached Forest Hill Park, Salley’s CamelBack tube had frozen solid, and the water in my bottle was on its way.

We pedaled Forest Hill, then headed back to the compound to get Salley a bottle. Having layered ourselves to the bajeezus belt, we were surprisingly warm. That is until we crossed the Nickel Bridge to go grab some Dogwood Dell.

Holy mackerel! The wind whipping down the James was just barely in the realm of human comprehension.

“I can’t go back across there,” Salley said.

Luckily the Dell’s singletrack and then the Northbank Trail got us back pedaling hard and producing some heat. We crossed over Belle Isle then took Buttermilk East back to the Reedy Creek parking lot. That’s when I asked Salley to take a picture for this post and realized my phone was gone.

Not afraid to rock the “doofus” look.

At this point, the sweat we were producing meant that stopping for very long was hazardous. We retraced our steps all the way to Belle Isle where the phone sat in the middle of (appropriately) the Lost Trail under the Lee Bridge. In our two hours of riding we saw a grand total of three other human beings: one photographer, one runner and a ne’er-do-well on Belle Isle.

We parted ways there. Salley rode on; I rode home, thinking about the fun I would have missed had I sat inside instead of wrestling this passion to the dirt.

“Gravel grinders” are a hard-to-define but growing category of bike race in which riders pedal mountain or cyclorcross bikes on fire roads or double track (or some combination of the two) over long distances.

There are many Gravel Grinders around the country. In the Mid-Atlantic, Iron Cross in Pennsylvania and Southern Cross in Georgia have gained a level of cache among hardcore racers, but neither of those, nor any other race in the region, can match the attendance figures of Richmond’s upstart Monster Cross.

Started by local race promoter Mark Junkermann three years ago, registration for this year’s Monster Cross (at Pocahontas State Park on Sunday, February 24) is already well ahead of last year’s. The 2013 event drew about 600 riders from nine different states. Junkermann said, if trends hold, this year he could have 700 sign up for the 50-mile sufferfest. Over the 50 miles, the course gains and loses between 2,500 and 3,000 of elevation. It’s hillier than you might think, but it’s no mountain beast.

“It partly depends on what the weather is like between now and then,” he said, explaining that if it’s a mild winter, people tend to ride more and feel like they’re in race shape by late February.

Credit: Potomac Velo Club

As for the popularity of Monster Cross, Junkermann said, “I don’t know a bigger one anywhere.”

He attributed that to “luck.” Part of it is the calendar. Another part is location. “Northern people are just itching to get on their bikes out of the snow,” he said.

This year for the first time, there’ll be a beer garden, provided by Center of the Universe Brewing, and on the Saturday before Monster Cross, Junkermann has added to trail runs a 5K and a 15K race. Click here for registration info.

And if you’re wondering about that video above, that was from last year’s Monster Cross. You never know who you’ll run into out in the Pocahontas woods.

One of the most exciting aspects of building this website into the premiere outdoor recreation platform for Central Virginians, has been forming partnerships with other groups in Richmond’s outdoors community. Our relationship with RideKore is a good example of what I mean.

Dave Kern in Forest Hill Park.

Dave Kern, who was just featured on the front of the Times-Dispatch for his and his wife’s work at Deep Run High School, and Ryan Thompson started RideKore to offer mountain bike skills instruction to Central Virginians of all ages. They’re great guys and great riders, with a passion for what they do. And starting in January, they’ll be doing a lot more for RichmondOutside.com.

In addition to resuming their monthly MTB-related column here, the RideKore guys will be producing short (15-30 second) video clips highlighting different sections of trail. So, for instance, when you click on the Mountain Biking Activity page, not only will you see where Buttermilk Trail goes, you’ll see 6-10 short videos shot by the RideKore guys of sections of Buttermilk. Same for Northbank, Forest Hill Park, etc. The goal is that when our readers click on a Activity or a Destination, they’re doing more than just learning about it. They’re experiencing it. At the bottom of this post you’ll find a video of them rocking Forest Hill Park.

Kern and Thompson will start with the Dogwood Dell loop in January and go from there. We’re excited to have them on board. Starting in February, local paddlers Hunter Davis and Ben Moore will be creating similar video content for every rapid in the Falls of the James. Pretty sweet, right?

About a month ago, Mike Martz of the Times-Dispatch reported that the developers of the parcel east of Great Shiplock Park and below Libby Hill were proposing a new office project for the site. It was to be smaller than former proposals, which drew the ire of preservationists worried about spoiling the “View that named Richmond” from Libby Hill.

The view from Libby Hill. Credit: Church Hill Peoples’ News

Two weeks later, Leighton Powell, Executive Director of Scenic Virginia, and Robert Mills, a principal for Commonwealth Architects, a Richmond firm that is in charge of the Plan of Development for the proposed development, wrote pieces against and for, respectively, the proposed three-story office building project. I’m not here to give my opinion. What caught my eye was Mills’ mention that the plan called for including right-of-way for the Virginia Capital Trail, which must either go through or around the property after leaving the trailhead at Great Shiplock Park.

I called Virginia Capital Trail Foundation Executive Director Beth Weisbrod yesterday to get her thoughts on the proposal. She said that while her group takes no official position on the larger-development-vs.-preserving-the-view argument, “it sounds like it’s in keeping with the Riverfront Plan, and it’s incorporating the trail in a really great alignment. We support the trail’s alignment through the project, but as far as everything else goes, we can’t wade into that.””

The proposed project has the trail go along the river before joining with the yet-to-be-started section where the Lehigh Cement silos now reside. What’s more, Weisbrod said, is that the developer has “offered what we need for the temporary alignment along Dock Street. There’s an easement that goes pretty much the whole length of their property that allows for a temporary trail to go in while this construction is going on. That also is a very important piece that needed to happen and we’re thrilled about that.”

The upshot is that should this project go through, but not be completed by September of 2015,”we won’t have a hole in the trail when the bike race comes through.”

This is a bit short notice, but if you’re a user of Richmond’s urban trail system and you want to get your hands dirty this weekend, here’s a good opportunity to give back.

This Saturday, October 19th, trail work will continue on the muddy section on Buttermilk Trail between 22nd St. and Reedy Creek.  We will meet at the 22nd St. parking lot at 9am and walk west from there to the work site.

Debris has been cleared out, so now work can start on armoring the section of trail to keep it from staying muddy long after the rest of the trail has dried out.  The city trail-care crew has been staging rock there this week. The armoring should take two weeks to complete, so if you can’t come out this week,  there will likely be a work opportunity on the 26th as well.

When: 9am Saturday, October 19th

Where: 22nd St. Parking Lot off of Riverside Drive. Walk west on Buttermilk from there.

Bring: Water, Snack, Gloves

On October 15 at 2 p.m. the public is invited to the official opening of the new and improved Great Shiplock Park. (If you’re not familiar with what’s been going on at this James River Park System parcel on the north side of the river, click here and here.) In her most recent email newsletter, Beth Weisbrod, executive director of the Virginia Capital Trail Foundation, gives us a thumbnail history of how the park went from overlooked JRPS parcel to ($550,000 later) the Richmond trailhead for the Virginia Capital Trail:

About 18 months ago, as we were preparing for the city approval process of our trailhead design, we were challenged by Meg Turner of Capital Trees to think bigger. She introduced us to Jay Hugo and Jill Nolt of the architecture firm 3North, who showed us in drawings what she meant — how the whole park could call out to trail users to sit, enjoy the views of the Kanawha Canal and James River, and take in the beauty and history. Lucky for us, Richmond has several corporate citizens, private foundations, other nonprofits, and individuals who also like to think big and share a passion to make Richmond a better place. What we’ll be cutting the ribbon on next week is the result of a successful mix of partners, collaborators, and generous supporters, to the huge benefit of anyone passing through downtown Richmond along Dock Street or the Virginia Capital Trail. 

Ramps now take users across the James River and Kanawha Canal from the park to Chapel Island.

Just across the entrance to the park, trailhead amenities like benches, shade structures, and bike racks encourage people to stop. The views, history, and other nearby attractions will encourage them to linger. We built ramps on either side of the Kanawha Canal locks so that wheels can easily cross them and people can enjoy the new trails on Chapel Island. We added light poles to make it safer at night, and bright LED lights along the Trail that run off of solar panels. On the western edge of the park, our friends at Capital Trees designed a biofilter to cleanse rainwater before it goes into the river. They also added landscaping, not just to make the park pretty, but to further manage stormwater in an environmentally friendly way. 

I met up with Weisbrod last week to hear about the project, and she said she’d love to see as many Richmonders as possible flood the park for the October 15th ribbon cutting. The mayor will be there, as will other civic leaders, and they need to know that while this trailhead is now complete, there is much work to do to finish Richmond’s portion of the trail.

Not too long ago, RideKore released a short video showcasing our local trails. My buddy Ryan and I had such a good time making this video we decided to embark on a more ambitious idea…to showcase a local trail with a personalized story through film. We approached Brandon Montijo to help with the camera work and editing process, and we were off to the races.

Dave Kern hammers Forest Hill Park.

We wanted to start out by showcasing one of our personal favorite trails — the Forest Hill Park Loop. The story of two buddies blowing off the end of the day at work to meet up for a ride is a story many of us can relate to. The first day of shooting started early. Ryan and I prepped our gear and got the ‘intro shots’ first thing in the morning. After meeting up with Brandon, we talked about what specific shots we wanted and pieces of trail we wanted to feature. It was HOT and we knew we were in for a long day! The first day ran smoothly with the creative juices flowing and lots of troubleshooting. Shots were coming together, angles looked good, and the riding was fast and fun! Unfortunately, we ran out of time and had to schedule a second day of shooting. Regardless, the first day of footage came out better than we thought, and this kept us amped for the next day of shooting.

Fast forward a few weeks…Day Two started at the end of the trail on Riverside Drive and we worked backwards.  The final shots were critical to tie the movie together and show some cohesion in riding a trail start to finish. As odd as it sounds, working backward was the best way to accomplish this. The team picked up where we left off by banging out shots left and right. A short four hours later and we felt we had everything we needed to put together a proper edit.

After the editing process, the final color correction and sound mix was laid over the footage.  The video was ready for the big screen and it debuted at the Byrd Theater prior to the premiere of Where the Trail Ends. The video has since been showcased on national biking site, Pinkbike.com, where it’s gotten over 22,000 views. We felt like the final edit did a good job showcasing this 2.9 mile loop that is Forest Hill.  That trail embodies a good trail rip and has great flow throughout each twist and turn.  A trail like that continues to put a smile on my face every time I ride it!

Click here to check out the video!

RideKore provides Richmond’s only IMBA certified mountain bike skills instruction to riders of all ages and skill levels. For more information on RideKore’s Fall clinic schedule, please check out our website www.ridekorerva.com

I interviewed Mike Burton, the city’s new trails manager, for my Outdoors column in today’s Times-Dispatch. It was big deal five years ago when the city made a commitment to trails by hiring Nathan Burrell as its first trails manager. And it’s no less a deal now, after Burrell has moved on to become superintendent of the James River Park system, that they’ve filled the position. There were some in the outdoor community — count me among them —  who worried that in these budget-strained times, the position would be eliminated or go unfilled for many months.

Credit: Phil Riggan

Check out what Burton has to say about trail building and maintenance and Richmond’s future as a trail Mecca.

For those of you who know the trails well, one thing I didn’t have the space to add in my column was Burton describing which sections of Forest Hill Park, which has taken a beating from all the summer rain, he hopes to tackle first this fall. The top two priorities, he said, are: 1) The old dirt road that runs from just downstream of the base of the waterfall to up and out of the park at 32nd Street. And 2) The area just below the cobblestone walkway that comes down from 34th Street. “They’re really rutted out, really bad erosion problems right now, and we’re going to reroute both of them.”