Airbnb is one of the world’s fastest-growing companies, and its popularity lies in offering travelers the opportunity to experience towns and cities around the world via unique accommodations that let them feel like a local rather than a tourist.

That same philosophy is behind a new offering in Richmond by leading mountain bike adventure company Sacred Rides. With their Getaways program, the company is equipping passionate mountain bikers around the world with the tools, training and support they need to guide other mountain bikers on 1 and 2-day adventures on their local trails.

RVA mountain bike enthusiast Lorene Davidson was among the first to sign up for the Sacred Rides Getaways program and is eagerly looking forward to the spring 2017 of the Richmond franchise. Her personal Getaways site – richmond.sacredrides.com – is ready, with her first trips designed and ready to host mountain bikers when the spring arrives.

“I’ve been passionate about mountain biking since my very first trail ride 10 years ago,” said Davidson, “I’ve lived in Richmond for the past 30 years. Our area has a diverse variety of incredible trails, and I’m excited to share them with the world.”

Davidson will continue her training with the Getaways staff over the winter; her first trips are scheduled to begin in April, 2017.

“The support from the Sacred Rides team has been phenomenal,” she added, “and I’ve learned so much already from people with decades of experience. With their support, I’m putting together a wide variety of trips for everyone from beginners to expert mountain bikers. Come visit Richmond — or experience it in a totally different way – and ride with me!”

For more information or to book a trip, visit richmond.sacredrides.com to browse Richmond mountain bike trips or email Lorene at Richmond@sacredrides.com

“Shotgun” TTF at Freedom Park.

Looking to get out of Richmond for a day of outstanding trail riding? Williamsburg isn’t far away and Freedom Park is a great place to ride a mountain bike.

Located in the James City County suburbs west of Williamsburg, heavily-wooded Freedom Park covers more than 600 acres. It features more than 20 miles of fantastic mountain bike trails, approximately two miles of multiuse trails, including a one-mile ADA accessible paved trail, and multiple historical sites.

The single track trails are designed, built and maintained by the Eastern Virginia Mountain Bike Association. They are excellent. On my visit, I had time for about 10 miles of trail riding and I was super impressed with the lines, flow, sustainability and varying degrees of difficulty among the five main trails. For an older, more established trail, there were plenty of tree roots and ruts, but very few damp spots as the single-track popped up and down ravines and through the trees. There was an abundance of fallen pine needles covering the trail, but the sight lines were clear and the path was well-worn, so there was little doubt about where the trail up ahead.

Trailhead for Trail C at Freedom Park.

It took me a little while to decipher the trail map, but once I got the hang of it, the park is incredibly well organized and marked (my compliments to EVMBA, great work!). There are five main trails, labeled Trail A (4.5 miles), Trail B (1.7 miles), Trail C (4.5 miles), Trail D (5 miles), and Trail E (3.7 miles). There are also two short beginner trails, Bunny Trail and Living Forest. The multiuse trails help connect several sections of trail — and provide a chance to catch your breath and recuperate before the next big ride.

I spent time on A and B before taking a spin around Trail C, which is the park’s tricked-out amusement park fun ride. While it is an amazingly fun ride, I valued my safety too much to take on the majority of Technical Trail Features (TTFs) on that run. The park’s trail map [.PDF] shows a total of 27 TTFs on Trail C, and from my cautious perspective, only about 10 of those were within my desired risk range. All of the TTFs have bail options, so no need to attack them without scouting by way of the easy route first.

The TTFs begin with two series of gap jumps that were quite intimidating upon first glance. “Shotgun” is a long ramp with a big drop. I would love to watch (from a safe distance) someone attempt that jump. Others like the “Log Ness Monster” (a long, curved skinny) and “Monster Bridge” looked like the opposite of what my conservative skill set allows. Even sets of teeters, drops and smaller skinnys had me repeating “NOPE” over and over to myself.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen riders take on and survive plenty of TTFs. I’m only opposed to them for my own preservation. If TTFs are what you crave, Freedom Park’s Trail C course is amazing.

Though I saw no signage declaring this, the trails are designed to flow one direction. I rode Trail A backwards for a bit on accident and none of the signs pointed in my direction. Riders would miss every feature on Trail C if you rode it in reverse, so stick with following the trailheads and trail direction.

I was happy to see a handful of families riding together. The children riding with their parents looked to be between 10-15 years old — what a perfect time to instill confidence in trail riding and the importance of a lifetime of fitness. There are trails easy enough for beginners at Freedom Park.

I saw several runners, dog walkers, and a handful of hikers that day too, though I’d say the majority of the users were on mountain bikes. The majority of the vehicles in the parking lot had bike racks and mounts, a tell-tale sign that you’re at a prime trail riding destination.

Overall, my experience at Freedom Park was worth the wait. I’ve been craving a trip to ride in Williamsburg for a long time. My family normally visits Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown and Busch Gardens/Water Country USA when we make the trip down east from Richmond. I’m tempted to let them drop me off at Freedom Park next time we plan an amusement park trip so I can get in a couple of hours on the bike — I much prefer the ups and downs of trail riding to rollercoasters.

James City County closes the trails to bikes during inclement weather to prevent trail degradation. Call (757) 259-4022 to check trails status.

Freedom Park is located at 5537 Centerville Road, Williamsburg, VA 23188. The park is about 50 miles from downtown Richmond (55 if you bike on the Virginia Capital Trail, a tougher accomplishment on a mountain bike). Check the James City County website for more information.

While you are there, Freedom Park is home to the GoApe Treetop Adventure Course and Treetop Junior Course. According to the county website, participants can explore the park “from an otherwise unobtainable vantage point while navigating through the treetops using zip lines, obstacles and tarzan swings.” For more information and fees, please visit goape.com or call (800) 971-8271.

Crowd of more than 100 people at the Byrd Park Round House for the Richmond Trail Forum, Feb. 1, 2017

The first Richmond Trail Forum took place Wednesday night at the Byrd Park Round House before an enthusiastic overflow crowd of more than 100 people. Many identified themselves as cyclists, runners, hikers, volunteers, and dog walkers.

The well-received six-member panel included Nathan Burrell, superintendent of the James River Park; Mike Burton, city trails manager; Andrew Alli, city trail technician; Michael George, Richmond Road Runners; Dennis Bussey, James River Hikers; and Greg Rollins, rvaMORE. The forum was moderated by Brantley Tyndall, community outreach coordinator for Sports Backers’ Bike Walk RVA.

“We are an outdoor recreation mecca in Richmond,” Burrell said. “We have a multi-use system that we are all happy to share.” [Read more about the history of the development of Richmond’s trails in our preview of the Richmond Trail Forum.]

See a video from TijoMedia’s Brandon Montijo that rolls through some historic moments in the timeline of Richmond’s trail network.

The trail network includes the James River Park loop, Ancarrow’s Landing (AKA Poop Loop), Forest Hill Park, Dogwood Dell, Powhite Park, Larus Park, and more trail is on the way. The system is maintained by James River Park and city trail crew — a total of about seven staffers — and thousands of volunteer hours.

“We live and die by the volunteers,” Burton said, thanking the many volunteers who were in the building.

Richmond Trail Forum, Feb. 1, 2017

Burrell said the JRPS welcomed more than 1.4 million visitors in 2016, according to the network of counters at almost every parcel of the park system. Park staff is able to tell the difference between cyclists and pedestrians, which helps them determine who to best manage the trails. Bikes are in the minority, with more than 2/3 of the visits coming from pedestrians in most areas of the park.

“We know when people are out riding wet trails. We know,” said Alli, jokingly to big laughs from the crowd. He said the counters show that the numbers of riders and pedestrians are generally lower during and after periods of rain. Users on wet trails can cause damage and require more maintenance, which was a big part of the evening’s discussion, which included several topics.

The panel emphasized that pedestrians have the right of way on the trails, though many runners and walkers tend to give way to bikes.

“Cyclists should yield to other users,” he said. “Downhill does not have the right of way either. I know you want to bomb down the hill, but we need to give way to hikers.”

Bussey said, “it is helpful to [hikers] when bikers give us a head’s up about how many riders are passing through.” Alli mentioned that bells have become more popular, but a good “rider up” will do fine too to warn anyone on a trail when approaching a blind spot.

The most common conflict on the trails comes the potential for bike-on-bike collisions, Burton said. The trail crew has worked harder to minimize blind corners and trims back vegetation where needed to keep trail corridor sight lines clear.

Earbuds are not encouraged — for runners but especially cyclists. “You are oblivious to your surroundings with earbuds,” Alli said. For what it is worth, according to VDOT, an earbud in one ear is allowed.

A question about unleashed dogs in the park brought a strong response from Burrell, who said “your dog is supposed to be on a leash. Not just in the James River Park, but anywhere around the city.”

Dogs are supposed to be leashed in the city, according to city ordinance. He said keeping your dog on a leash is important for wildlife in the park too. “Typically everyone’s dog that is off a leash — that dog is not next to you, but wandering around the park. Your dog interacting with animals creates negative tension” and can cause more problems than dog owners realize.

At the beginning of the year, the city began an experiment at the Poop Loop by running the trails in one only direction on alternating days of the week. The park offers “a diversity of speeds,” Rollins said, and “we figured we’d experiment out there and see what happens.” If it continues to go well, he said that Dogwood Dell and Forest Hill Park trails could become directional trails as well, although the James River Park loop would likely be too difficult to manage because there are so many entry points.

Trail sustainability was a big topic and the panel answered many questions about their guidance on trail maintenance. Factors in management include measuring resource management, economic impacts, and social impacts. Burrell said that decisions are always a balancing act. “We’re not an amusement park. Trail features are not removed because people can’t ride them,” he said.

“For us, it comes down to staffing,” Burton said. Do they have the resources, the time to accomplish maintenance and what would be the benefits for alterations to the trails.

“Typically, when we are accused of removing technical trail features, it is due to erosion,” Burton said. “We can’t ignore that it is eroding…We all ride, we like this stuff too.”

Alli said that typically, many sections are “social trails,” indicating that they have developed over time before the park officially began maintaining trail. Often they follow the straightest line — especially on sloped sections of trail — and staff has tried to redesign them to make them more sustainable. They use features like rocks and bumps to slow riders in any areas of the trail network.

The panel answered a question about the brown trail markers throughout the city’s network. The markers help pinpoint an emergency response and have helped to cut response times from 30 minutes to closer to 5 minutes per call. The signs are documented and maintained in part by help from volunteers from the James River Hikers.

Burton answered a question about the highly popular new T. Tyler Potterfield Bridge, which saw more than 35,000 visitors in its first month, between the opening date of Dec. 2 and Dec. 31. He said the next logical step is to finish the loop on the south bank of the river and connect with Belle Isle by way of making drastic improvements to the Missing Link Trail, which is planned for in the city’s Richmond Riverfront Plan.

“It is very much a needed connection to Belle Isle,” he said. “We cannot ignore the glaring need in the trail system,”

I recently exchanged emails with Shihan Wijeyeratne, the Sports Backers‘ Community Engagement Coordinator. He alerted me to an event coming up that Ashland/greater Hanover residents (and those who think our communities are stronger when people have more bike/pedestrian-friendly connections) should be aware of.

A bike in downtown Ashland.

“We’re hosting two ‘Bike Walk Talks’ in the Town of Ashland/Hanover County next month,” Wijeyeratne wrote. “These are informal, happy hour-style events where we hear what residents have to say about changes they would like to see made to the biking and walking environment in Hanover/Ashland. We’re hoping to use these events to build momentum as Hanover County gears up for an update of their comprehensive plan, and as we get ready to launch our next Bike Walk RVA Academy in Hanover this spring.”

And in a blog post on their website, the SBs write: The Hanover County Board of Supervisors recently created a Bicycle and Pedestrian Citizen Engagement Committee and will be exploring ways to plan for a more bikeable and walkable county in the upcoming Comprehensive Plan update. And we’ll soon be launching a Bike Walk RVA Academy in Hanover to help increase public engagement and advocacy throughout this process.

We want to tell you more about all of these exciting developments! That’s why we’re hosting two informal “Bike Walk Talk” happy hours in Hanover County over the next month. Please join us, have some food and drink, and let’s discuss how we can work together to make Hanover County a better place to walk, bike, and live for everyone.

More info on Bike Walk Talk: Mechanicsville on February 2

More info on Bike Walk Talk: Ashland on February 9 

Virginia High School Mountain Biking event at Forest Hill Park, April 19, 2016.

Richmond offers plenty of recreational choices for anyone who wants to get outdoors. Its network of trails is extremely popular and has helped bring several beneficial economic events to Richmond, including Dominion Riverrock, XTERRA and more.

The oldest, the Buttermilk Trail, has been a part of the James River Park since the early 1980s. But the city did not commit to building trails that could officially accommodate mountain bikers until the late 1990s.

The popularity of those early trails prompted the JRPS to appoint its first trails manager in 2003 (Nathan Burrell). Citizens helped to push for more trails and volunteers did much of the work. But for all the people out riding trails in Richmond, park usage statistics show that mountain bikes are in the minority. According to numbers provided by the city’s parks department, walkers and runners outnumber mountain bikers three to one on the Buttermilk Trail. Only one in four users on North Bank is a biker.

“Everything we do is an effort to manage the growing number of people going out on the trails,” said Mike Burton, the city’s trails manager since 2013. “Even though they are the minority users, mountain bikes are always on our mind as we plan trail work.”

Burton said all of the JRPS and trail crew staffers are trail users and mountain bikers, which helps illustrate their dedication and determination to continue to maintain the popular trails network. He said the majority of the work they do is done to just keep the trails open.

The city maintains more than 42 miles of trail, including single track, connector roads, and trails entering parks. This includes more than 20 miles of trail in the James River Park at North Bank (opened 2005), Belle Isle (1999), Ancarrow’s Landing (Poop Loop trail, 2014), Pony Pasture, The Wetlands, and Huguenot Flatwater. The crew maintains trail in other city parks, including Forest Hill (rebuilt 2009), Byrd (Dogwood Dell, 2011), Powhite (1995-99), Larus (2005), and Bryan.

“We are known for having a challenging network of trails in the center of an urban area,” said Burrell, who is now the James River Park manager. “We offer a wide range of skill sets throughout the trail system.”

Burrell said building a facility like the skills park on Belle Isle (which opened in 2012) was an effort to offer a more beginner-friendly training area for new and young riders. The trail crew has also been working to introduce more trail that caters to different types of riders.

“You could spend your life building technical trails, but we only have a staff of two,” Burton said, referring to Andrew Alli, the other full time trail crew staffer. “Every time we add new trail, we also add more maintenance, and there is so much demand for the trails we have now.”

***

For those interested in learning more and giving their input about the trails network, the city will host a forum Wednesday, Feb. 1, from 7-8:30 p.m. at The Carillon in Byrd Park. Hosted by the City of Richmond and the James River Park trail crew, the event is expected to be an open discussion about the Richmond trails network.

Representatives from the mountain bike, trail runners, and hiking groups are scheduled to be on the panel. The forum will be moderated by Brantley Tyndall, community outreach coordinator for Richmond Sports Backers’ Bike Walk RVA. Topics will include:

• History, ownership, and roles of the city’s trails system
• Diversity of users, their needs, and park visitation volume
• Sustainability, maintenance and trail design

A Q&A session will allow the public to voice their ideas & concerns. In advance of the forum, submit your questions.

***

RVAMORE volunteers work at Poop Loop.

The trails crew is constantly looking for ways to add new trails, but as the network increases, maintenance also increases, which creates the need for more help from volunteer groups, like RVAMORE and the James River Hikers.

In 2016, the trail system received nearly 1,500 documented hours from volunteer groups, a figure that Burton said was very low because the hours for many projects were not tallied. Project managers occasionally forget to share signup sheets or volunteers forget to sign in, missing a chance to document their efforts.

Without volunteers, Burrell said Richmond’s trails network would not exist. For 2016, the parks department used $22 per hour to calculate the value of volunteer time (less than a national figure of $23.56). Often a volunteer project would include a member of the park staff and anywhere from five to 20 volunteers, depending on the work needed to accomplish.

Other projects earned more than 4,900 hours for park maintenance and another 2,850 from long-term volunteers and interns. All totaled, the park counted 9,270 volunteer hours, which equates to about 4.85 permanent employees (considering the average permanent employee works approximately 2,000 hours per year), according to parks department documentation.

“Our job is to be stewards of the land,” Burton said. “Most trail work includes preventing erosion and making it more sustainable.” Once the crew works on a section of trail, the hope is to avoid having to revisit the site to continue to make repairs.

Burrell said the three key factors to trail sustainability include: environmental (immediate and long-term impact to surroundings); economic (cost of the trail work); and social (which involves many factors, including removing poor sight lines, tight trail corridors, dangerous junctions — anywhere trail users could get hurt from collisions).

That often means that can’t justify building technical features and alternate expert trails in the city network because mountain bikes are still the minority users in the park. Where necessary, there are a few sections of trail where hikers and bikers are separated, such as in Buttermilk Heights (including the area near the stone porch switchback), the Netherwood Quarry (east of 42nd Street, includes a ramp for bikes or stairs for hikers), and another on the North Bank Trail.

Burrell said the crew tends to choose permanent materials when they do build new trail features. “We try use the existing materials within the park as much as we can. Rock features play into the natural features of an adventure recreation park. We have a finite amount of land to work with and we have to manage it as best we can.”

DISCLAIMER: Phil Riggan is a member of rvaMORE and other volunteer groups in the city.

Plastic posts separating car from bicycle traffic.

Blogging on the Sports Backers’ website, Bike Walk RVA Director Max Hepp-Buchanan offers a summary of Tuesday’s big bike lane meeting, where city planners presented designs for 25 total miles of new bike lanes in 10 or so different corridors.

Hepp-Buchanan described some those designs as being “in the near-final stages and others in earlier, more conceptual stages.”

It’s been over a year since the City striped a new bike lane on our streets, and people are eager to see more. The excitement was palpable, radiating from the packed room of around 140 attendees…While people were excited about the new mileage, not everyone was as excited about the actual designs. The big takeaway: people want physical protection from traffic. Only one corridor (Franklin Street) provided physical separation in the form of plastic posts, and even that protection was sacrificed for a couple of blocks to make room for on-street parking.

Click here to read more from Hepp-Buchanan and here to check out the designs on the city’s website. Comments on the new designs will be accepted through mid-December.

This past weekend, I finally made it back to western Hanover County’s Poor Farm Park. It had been more than 5 years since my last visit and I’ve been craving a mountain bike ride in those challenging hills and ravines, located less than 5 miles from Ashland.

Poor Farm Park in Hanover County

I loved it. I had a smile on my face for most of the ride — it is that kind of fun. The short sections of trails are all packed so tight among the hardwoods and along the streams at Poor Farm that there are few chances to catch your breath and take a break.

The one known drawback for most people accustomed to Poor Farm is that the trails are not marked — as in not marked at all. I didn’t see a map posted in the park and there doesn’t appear to be maps available online (please correct me if that is wrong).

Poor Farm Park in Hanover County

The time away from the park riding more a more organized trail network — like Pocahontas State Park — perhaps had me a little too regimented in my riding. As soon as I started riding Poor Farm, flashbacks of being lost during previous rides quickly reminded me that I needed to stay alert to where I was and where I was going (especially since there was an abundance of fallen leaves hiding the trail in certain areas).

Once I became somewhat re-accustomed the confusion of the trails, the fun really began. Maybe it is for the best that there are no rules to how to ride the trails. I was lucky that there weren’t many other riders, which allowed me to explore and ride at my own pace, meandering through the woods with my mountain bike.

It wasn’t physically easy. I rode about 12 miles, but it felt more like twice that amount due to all work required to bike this park. The technical aspects of the trails network ensure that riders cannot relax and take their eyes off the trail for long. Climbs, switchbacks, rocks, roots, logs, tight paths between trees, creek crossings, narrow bridges, etc., are lurking everywhere. And I loved it.

Pine forest trail at Poor Farm Park in Hanover County

One part of the trails that I didn’t remember from before was a series of quick turns through a stand of young pine trees in the northeast part of the trail network. That dense stand of thin trees is growing very tight to the trail and the visual through the narrow corridor is quite pleasing.

The only part of the trail system that is flat (besides the trail along Stagg Creek — a personal favorite because I love that creek) is the southernmost portion of the trails, known appropriately as “The Flats.” During this visit, I rode that part of the park more than I have in the past because I needed a break from the challenge of riding up and down the hills. That area is still great for beginners and young riders.

Though I tried, I still didn’t ride every section of the trails at Poor Farm Park. According to the Richmond Outside destination page for Poor Farm Park, there are more than 10 miles of trails in the network. That number might be accurate if you consider that there are trails everywhere — it is up to the user to figure out how to best connect them for an enjoyable visit.

I wanted to pass along this email from BikeWalk RVA because I think it’s hugely important in moving us forward as a city that’s friendly to bicyclists and incentivizes bicycle travel.

The City of Richmond hasn’t striped a new bike lane in over a year, but that’s about to change. On November 22 from 5 to 7 p.m., the city is hosting a big meeting at the Main Library on Franklin Street to publicly vet plans for OVER 20 MILES of new bike lanes. These include 90% plans for a two-way protected bike lane on Franklin St. between Monroe Park and the Capitol at 9th St and 30% plans for seven other bikeway corridors in the city that would combine to make 20 new miles of bike lanes in Richmond!

The consultants and City of Richmond staff need you to be there to provide support and evaluate the bikeway designs! They need to know that you support building bikeways that are safe, comfortable, and intuitive for families, those new to riding, and visitors to Richmond. Bike lanes should be protected with flex posts, planters, parked cars, or other barriers whenever possible. If not, as we have learned from other bike lane projects, people will drive and/or park in them.

The plans being presented will be in different stages of completion, so your feedback is going to be super important in informing what the final products look like.

Here are a couple of questions to consider going into the meeting: 

Click here to let BikeWalk RVA know that you’ll be there in support of more bike lanes in Richmond.

A boardwalk in Henrico’s Cheswick Park.

In the Op/Ed section of Tuesday’s Times-Dispatch, Sports Backers Executive Director Jon Lugbill clues us in to something all Henrico voters should keep an eye out for in the ballot box next Tuesday.

“A bond referendum package for parks projects would include an 87.1 million investment over six years, without an increase in the tax rate,” Lugbill writes.

Among the natural areas in the county that would see improvements: Greenwood Park, Tuckahoe Park, Taylor Park, Cheswick Park, Tuckahoe Creek Park, Dorey Park, Deep Run Park, and Three Lakes Nature Center.

I’ve hiked at Cheswick and Deep Run parks, fished at Three Lakes, mountain biked at Dorey and bird watched at Tuckahoe Creek. The idea of those green spaces getting even more TLC is an exciting one.

“Henrico’s bond referendum elevates its support of active-living infrastructure for its residents and maximizes the benefits of sports tourism,” Lugbill adds.

Give Lugbill’s column a read, Henrico voters, then do yourself a favor and vote for increased resources for Henrico’s nature parks.

More than 140 mountain bikers took to Richmond’s great trails network during rvaMORE’s third annual Tour de Fall Line on Saturday. The event began and ended at Stone Brewing Co.’s headquarters in Fulton Bottom and included distances of 14, 28 and 50 miles.

Ride organizer Garry Whelan was happy the event brought so many riders despite no advertising and spreading the word mainly through social media and through the mountain biking community.

Riders donated $45 each to support the event, which is a fundraiser for rvaMORE, the volunteer trail-building group that helps build and maintain many of the trails in the Richmond area. All proceeds are re-invested into the trails.

The ride passed through roadways and a number of trails in Richmond’s parks, including the James River Park System, Forest Hill, Ancarrow’s Landing, Dogwood Dell, Powhite, Pony Pasture and Larus.