Running the New River gorge.

In September of 1812, 56-year-old John Marshall, the sitting Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and a few other old timey dudes embarked on a batteau journey upstream on the James River from Lynchburg “to discern the feasibility of navigational improvements between Lynchburg and the Great Falls of the Kanawah. A reliable commercial route to the Kanawah would open trade with the Ohio River Valley and ultimately access to the Mississippi.”

Thinking about the undertaking today, it occurs to me how badass it was on so many levels. 1) The guy was the chief justice of the Supreme Court. He didn’t farm this out to an intern. 2) He turned 57 on the trip. In 1812 that must have been close to life expectancy. 3) Once they reached Covington on the Jackson River, they hitched their batteau to some draft horses and guided it over the Alleghenies to the Greenbrier River, where they headed downstream to the New River. That sounds epically brutal to me. 4) They ran the New River gorge in a wooden boat that was approximately 40+ feet long. If you’ve rafted the gorge you know how insane this is.

Anyway, it appears Virginia is still churning out badasses. This past spring a crew of paddlers from Richmond and Lynchburg celebrated the 200th Anniversary of Marshall’s voyage by recreating it. They built a batteau and did what Marshall did. I wrote about it in my column in today’s T-D. And if you want to know more, there’s a documentary on it playing in Lynchburg this coming weekend. Click here for the Facebook page.

If you’ve happened upon this site in the past, you’ve probably seen our features from Bryan and Camille Smith at Black Dog Paddle. They were the first company locally to offer instruction in stand up paddleboarding, including yoga classes on SUPs.

Ben Moore SUPs the James. Credit: Rich Young.

Now East Coast Board Sports has started offering classes, as well. And, as of last week, Riverside Outfitters was in on the action. RO, though, is the only group, at least for now, that offers guided whitewater trips. I hit the water with RO owner Matt Perry and SUP pros Dave Fary and Ben Moore this past week for my first SUP experience. I wrote about our Pony Pasture-to-Reedy Creek paddle in my column in today’s T-D.

I won’t ruin the suspense, but let me just say it was an absolute blast.

Boat landing on the James at Irongate

The guys at Richmond-based Terrain360.com are always on the go. Their newest update is a bit of a deviation from their tried-and-true trail mapping projects…and it’s very cool. Now, users can look up any of the boat landings — both motor and human-powered — on the James River from the headwaters at Irongate to Deep Bottom. Pick a landing  — say, Snowden, for instance — and take the tour. It’s a very helpful resource for boaters of all stripes.

Richmond Multisports is looking for some good hearted, kayaking volunteers over the next three weeks to make Richmond Multisports last open water swim of the 2012 season, safe and fun for everyone.Read More

Have you paddled the Appomattox River below Lake Chesdin? That is a great stretch of river and plenty of variety and scenery. See this release from the Chesterfield County: Read More

Less than two months in, Matt Perry, owner and operator of Riverside Outfitters, says the Brown’s Island experiment is going well — in some ways better than he’d imagined. In early June, Perry and the RO team opened up an outpost at the ticket kiosk on Brown’s Island where bikes, kayaks and standup paddleboards are available for rent.

They’re only open three days a week — Friday-Sunday (10 a.m. to 5 p.m.) — but he said so far, signs are very encouraging. “I’m happy with what I’m seeing. There hasn’t been enough time yet to identify any trends or patterns, but we are seeing that Saturday is the busiest day.”

Perry said they’ve had a number of occasions where all seven paddleboards and all seven kayaks have been out at the same time. That was the case for two hours in the middle of the day yesterday (Sunday, 7/15), for instance.

“It really has been a mix of visitors and locals,” he added. “I would say mostly locals, and of those, most are newer to Richmond — like within the last year. [They’re] still in that getting-out-and-seeing-what-Richmond-has-to-offer mode. They’re looking for something new.”

Biking hasn’t been nearly as popular as the water options, which makes sense in depths of summer. Perry said he expects bike rentals to pick up when the weather cools.

Bikes rent for $10 an hour. Boards and boats are each $15 per hour.

Sure, it’ll be Baghdad hot this weekend, but the show must go on. There’s still plenty to do outdoors today-Sunday in Central Virginia.

You could start tonight by going to see Trampled by Turtles at a special Ralph White-tribute edition of Friday Cheers. A portion of the proceeds from the show will benefit the James River Park System. White will be there. So will City Council president Kathy Graziano and Mayor Dwight Jones, both of whom will speak briefly. 

On Saturday, you could check out Chesterfield County’s newest conservation area — Swift Creek Conservation Area — with the county’s experienced outdoor programmers. Paddle and explore the  the lower Swift Creek, venture into three aquatic environments — river, swamp and tidal marsh. The trip includes transportation, canoe or kayak, life vest, paddle, paddling instructions and guide, and paddling time is approximately three hours. Check the RichmondOutside.com Slate of Events for more info.

Then on Sunday, what better way to beat the heat than by standing on a giant concrete structure that offers absolutely no shade? Seriously, we wouldn’t recommend hanging out there all day in the sun, but why not go spend some time on the old Huguenot Bridge before it’s torn down. It may not get turned into a park, but for a day — 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. — it’ll be open to pedestrians. Bring a picnic and some ice-cold beverages, not necessarily in that order.

This is just the second weekend, it’s been open, so I decided to take a trip down to the new Riverside Outfitters outpost on Brown’s Island to see what the set up looked like and how things were going. When I first wrote about the new venture, RO owner Matt Perry said he thought it the user base would be mostly two groups: business people who work downtown and tourists staying at downtown hotels. Well, according to Dave Fary, who was manning the new shop yesterday, so far it’s been mostly tourists taking advantage of the kayaks, standup paddleboards and mountain bikes for rent.

Farey said one out-of-town mother/son duo last weekend rented standup paddleboards then came back and took a spin on the mountain bikes. Yesterday had been slow so far (this was around 2:30 p.m.), he said, but with if the weather stays as predicted this weekend, the new RO station is likely to be a popular place today and tomorrow.

Pics below…

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Credit: Jesse Peters/Backlight

In today’s T-D I offer my take on what it could mean for Richmond to win Outside Magazine’s “Best Town Ever” contest. This year the focus of the contest is on cities with a strong relationship with the river (or rivers) running through them. Outside teamed up with the non-profit advocacy group American Rivers to whittle a list of 80 or so cities/towns down to the 10 finalists. In addition to Richmond, the other finalists are Nevada City, Calif., Hood River, Ore., Nashville, Tenn., Asheville, N.C., Ithaca, N.Y., Milwaukee, Boise, Idaho, Missoula, Mont., and Durango, Colo.

Voting is being conducted on Facebook through July 10. You can vote once a day, every day. You can also post comments and upload your favorite pictures, which is just as important as voting since “enthusiasm” is a component of the final decision. The winning city will be featured on the front of the October issue of Outside — the magazine’s 35th anniversary issue.

As of this writing, Richmond was way out in the lead in both votes (close to 2,000) and enthusiasm (363 comments, dozens upon dozens of pics). Nevada City, Calif. is currently in second with 450 votes. It would be pretty cool to see the River City get some credit for being the incredible outdoor recreation destination it already is.