A celebration of Richmond’s urban trail system and popular craft brewery culture, Trails and Ales presented by Capital Ale House is set for Saturday, September 16th and will take place in Manchester (W. 10th Street and Semmes Avenue) adjacent to the SunTrust Mortgage offices, at 4:30 p.m.

Registration is now open for the trail run and craft beer festival, which will feature a new partnership with Capital Ale House and new course highlights, including the popular T. Tyler Potterfield Memorial Bridge.

Runners navigate the North Bank Trail during a previous Trails and Ales event. Credit: Sports Backers

“Capital Ale House is proud to partner with Sports Backers for the third annual Trails and Ales trail run and beer festival,” said Amy DuFour, Director of Marketing for Capital Ale House. “Sports Backers provides a valuable service to the Richmond area by promoting an active lifestyle, and we believe in their mission. We are excited for the opportunity to connect directly with our community by supporting Trails and Ales.”

The first block of 250 spots is open now at a special rate of $30 for the Pint Glass course (5k distance) and $40 for the Tall Boy course (8-mile distance). Once the first 250 spots have been claimed, registration will re-open at a later date with a higher fee for both distances. Overall registration will be capped at 1,000 participants.

In conjunction with the trail run will be a craft beer festival, highlighting the exciting culture of craft brewing that continues to rise in the Richmond region. Beers and ciders from local and regional breweries, including Buskey Hard Cider, South Street Brewery, Stone Brewing, and Wild Wolf Brewing Company, will be available at the festival, and race participants will receive a stainless steel finisher cup and one drink ticket to be redeemed at the festival. There will also be food trucks, beverages available for purchase, and music. Friends, family, and spectators are invited to take part in the festival.

Both the Tall Boy and Pint Glass courses will be on the scenic Buttermilk and North Bank trails in the James River Park System. The Tall Boy course pairs medium to high climbs with smooth paths along the river and across the T. Tyler Potterfield Memorial Bridge, while the Pint Glass course has lower mileage, but shares the same earthy aromas, scenic views, and exciting finish.

Participants will have the opportunity to donate to support the RVA MORE Trail Maintenance Fund as part of Trails and Ales. All event donations will help with the cost of bridge materials and equipment for volunteer trail work in the City of Richmond to be used in the ongoing efforts to protect RVA’s urban trail system. Click here for more information and to register for Trails and Ales.

Dominion Riverrock and Flo Sports yesterday announced a partnership to stream the Dominion Riverrock bouldering competition live online at www.FloClimbing.com during the May 19-21 festival. This marks the first time that any Riverrock competition has been made available for livestream and will bring the excitement of the bouldering competition, featuring some of the top climbers in the country, directly to spectators across the U.S. and around the globe.

A slackline over the Kanawha Canal at Dominion Riverrock. Credit: Venture Richmond

“Dominion Riverrock offers a visually unique and exciting climbing competition taking  place at one of the premier outdoor sports and music festivals in the country, and we are thrilled about our new partnership,”  said Jordan Shipman, General Manager of Flo Climbing. “The event will be streamed live for the first time on FloClimbing.com, and we are looking forward to bringing this competition to an even larger audience of climbing fans!”

Men’s and women’s Bouldering qualifying and finals will be held Friday, May 19, and Saturday, May 20, and the Speed Competition follows on Sunday, May 21. All events take place on a custom-built 20-foot cage constructed specifically for Dominion Riverrock that offers a unique test of speed, agility, and physical and mental strength. Top competitors for this year’s event include Kai Lightner, Nathaniel Coleman, Kyra Condie, and Brooke Raboutou, among others.

In other Riverrock news: 

To help kick off the 2017 Riverrock, Red Bull Media House will screen a premier of the film ‘Blood Road’ at the Byrd Theater at 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 18. The film chronicles mountain bike champion Rebecca Rusch’s journey as she rides the 1,200 miles of Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh Trail in search of the spot where her father crashed and died during the Vietnam War. Rusch, a Red Bull athlete known as ‘The Queen of pain with a heart of gold’ for her epic performances and adventures around the world, will be in attendance for the premier and will participate in a Q&A session with the audience following the screening. The session will be moderated by Jeff Lenosky, a world class freeride and mountain bike rider who coordinates the Freestyle Bikes competition during Dominion Riverrock and also competes in the Urban Assault mountain bike race during the festival. The screening is free and open to the public, and Rusch will be available for media interviews following the Q&A session.

Prior to the screening, Lenosky and Rusch will lead a pre-ride of the Urban Assault course at noon on May 18. This will be a great opportunity for riders to preview the course, which takes place on the trails in the James River Park System, and learn a few expert tips and tricks from accomplished athletes like Rusch and Lenosky. The course preview ride is free and will start and finish in the Belle Isle parking lot.

Participants Finalized for ‘RVA Plein Air Paint Off’

The field of local artists for the first-ever RVA Plein Air Paint Off at Dominion Riverrock is set and includes some of the area’s best known artists, muralists, and designers. The 10 artists scheduled to take part are Ed Trask, Hamilton Glass, Nico Cathcart, Matt Lively, Amy Swift, Greig Leach, Linda Hollett-Bazouzi, Vincente Gonzalez, Mickael Broth, and Andras Bality.

During the paint off, set for Saturday, May 20 at noon, the artists will have four hours to create a work of art that will be judged and showcased before being made available for sale on Sunday, May 21. The sale is open to the public and will take place from noon-4 p.m. in the brick courtyard at Historic Tredegar.

While the challenge is taking place, the artists will be scattered all over the festival grounds, creating plenty of viewing opportunities to see the competitors at work as their paintings come to life. A canvas size of 30″x40″ for all competitors will create an additional challenge for the artists during the time window, as most plein air painters work on a much smaller scale. With diverse styles and processes, the paint-off promises to be thrilling, inspirational, and educational all at the same time and will present a unique challenge to participating artists. Dominion Riverrock is partnering with Glave Kocen Gallery for the paint-off event.

A new statewide race series — The Virginia State Parks Adventure Series presented by Appalachian Power — offers competitors a unique way to compete in triathlons in six state parks.

Races will be held at James River State Park on April 22, Smith Mountain Lake on May 6, Hungry Mother on May 13, Claytor Lake State Park on Sept. 9, New River Trail State Park on Sept. 16 and Pocahontas State Park on Oct. 14.

Registration for an individual race automatically enters competitors into the series.

Winners are determined by mileage, not time or finishing place. The races cover a total of 156.7 miles of biking, running, and either canoe, kayak or swim stages.

Prizes will be awarded to the male and female Adventure Series champions who cover the greatest mileage and compete in at least two races. Prizes include an REI half-dome tent including footprint ($240 value), $100, a JetBoil Zip cooking system and a CamelBak Rogue hydration pack.

Prizes will be awarded to individuals or teams who compete in at least two races and cover the most miles in each stage: bike, run and water (canoe, kayak or swim leg). Prizes include a $100 Virginia State Parks gift certificate, an ENO SingleNest hammock and a Petzyl AKTIC 300-lumen headlamp.

Everyone who enters at least three Adventure Series races (solo or team) will receive a Virginia State Parks annual pass ($66 value) and be entered into a drawing for a $250 Virginia State Parks gift certificate for cabins and camping.

“As the vacation and recreation destination of more than 10 million visitors last year, at Virginia State Parks we strive to provide guests with unique and innovative ways to enjoy the outdoors,” said Virginia State Parks Director Craig Seaver. “We’re proud of the new Adventure Series and look forward to many successful races in the years to come. We appreciate our partners, Appalachian Power and REI, who are helping us make our inaugural season a success.”

“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,”

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.

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.

If you’re thinking about taking part in Trails and Ales, the Sports Backers’ trail run/brew fest on September 24th, now’s a good time to make it official. They just opened up the third block of 250 entry spots. In this block, it’s $40 for the 5K and $50 for the 8-miler. Entry fee gets you a chip-timed race, a stainless steel finishers cup and one free beer ticket for the party after the races. There’s only one block left after this one fills (the first block sold out in 11 hours), and if you wait until then you have to pay an extra $5.

Click here to learn more.

To celebrate Richmond’s urban trail system and popular craft brewery culture, Sports Backers announced recently the second annual Trails and Ales trail run and craft beer festival, set for Saturday, September 24. The event will take place in Manchester at W. 10th Street and Semmes Avenue (adjacent to the SunTrust Mortgage offices) at 4:30 p.m.

Registration for Trails and Ales is now open with a block of the first 250 spots open at a special rate of $30 for the Pint Glass course (5k distance) and $40 for the Tall Boy course (8-mile distance). Overall registration will be capped at 1,000 participants.

In conjunction with the trail run, will be the Trails and Ales Craft Beer Festival, highlighting the culture of craft brewing that continues to rise in the Richmond region. Beers and ciders from local breweries, including Stone Brewing, Trapezium Brewing Co., Buskey Hard Cider, South Street Brewery, and Wild Wolf Brewing Company, will be available at the festival and race participants will receive a stainless steel finisher cup and one drink ticket to be redeemed at the festival. There will also be food trucks, beverages available for purchase, and music. Friends, family, and spectators are also invited to take part in the festival.

Both the Tall Boy and Pint Glass courses will be on the scenic Buttermilk and North Bank trails in the James River Park System. The Tall Boy course pairs medium to high climbs with smooth paths along the river and a fun finish, while the Pint Glass course has lower mileage compared to its 8-mile companion, but shares the same earthy aromas, scenic views, and exciting finish.

Participants will have the opportunity to donate to support the RVA MORE Trail Maintenance Fund as part of Trails and Ales. All event donations will help with the cost of bridge materials and equipment for volunteer trail work in the City of Richmond to be used in the ongoing efforts to protect RVA’s urban trail system.

Click here for more information and registration for Trails and Ales. Once the first 250 spots have been claimed, registration will re-open at a later date with a higher fee for both distances.