Where the Greg Hawkins Memorial water fountain will soon be located.

If you’ve been down to the Reedy Creek parking lot and entrance to the James River Park System, you’ve probably noticed the construction area next to the boater’s changing station. The construction is actually the first steps in getting the long-delayed Greg Hawkins Memorial water fountain put in. Greg Hawkins was the former director of the VCU Outdoor Adventure Program who died of cancer almost two years ago.

In the fall of 2013, Hawkins’ friends, many of whom were members of the James River Outdoor Coalition, held the first James River Run to benefit the JRPS in Hawkins’ name. Over 150 runners came out that first year for a 5K on the riverside trails, and over 100 did the same for the second run. Enough money was raised to fund the fountain, which will include spigots for both humans and dogs.

But even though the fountain (there will actually be three scattered throughout the park) is funded, the James River Run continues in Hawkins’ name. The third annual JRR will take place this Sunday morning at 9:15 a.m, and this year organizers have added a 10K trail run to complement the 5K. Both races start and end at Reedy Creek Meadow next to the boat ramp.

Runners at the start of last year’s James River Run.

JROC co-president Patrick Griffin said he’s hopeful they’ll get over 100 participants again this year. He added that 100 percent of the $30 fee will go to fund future projects like the water fountain in the James River Park. Hawkins was an active member for the Richmond outdoor community for over 20 years, Griffin said, as well as director of the VCU OAP for 13 years, and was instrumental in getting countless students involved in outdoor trips as leaders, participants, and volunteers.

So, if trail running is your thing, here’s a great opportunity to hit the trails, have a little competitive fun, and give back in honor of a guy who gave so much.

Greg Rollins, president of mountain bike advocacy and trail building group Richmond MORE, sent me this video yesterday to share with the RichmondOutside.com readership. When I first wrote about the project featured here, it was called the “Hidden Link,” but that name was deemed too similar to the planned “Missing Link” trail that will one day connect the Manchester Climbing Wall area with the southside footbridge to Belle Isle. The new trail in the works — now called “Buttermilk East” — will parallel the future Missing Link. You’ll get a sense for the route it will take, as well as the work required to create it in this clip.

As usual, many thanks to the volunteers at Richmond MORE.

The Sports Backers unveiled a new event yesterday for RVA’s hardcore trail runners — and lovers of Pocahontas State Park. The first annual Pocahontas Tent-to-Trail relay will be held on April 17-18, 2015, at Pocahontas State Park in Chesterfield County.

The dam at Beaver Lake is one of the more scenic spots at Pocahontas State Park.

During the relay, teams of eight will have each team member run three selected trails in the park. Each team member will individually run approximately 17 miles while the entire team will run about 136 miles over 18-30 hours, depending on team speed. True trail warriors also have the option to sign up for a team of four with each member running each of the three trails twice. The selected trails and approximate mileage are Beaver Lake Trail (3.8 miles), Old Mill Bike Trail (5.2 miles), and Findley Station North Trail (7.9 miles).

(Click here to see the surface-level image tours of those trails at Terrain360.com.)

“We are extremely excited to add the Pocahontas Tent-to-Trail relay to our event line-up in 2015,” said Megan Schultz, Event Director for Sports Backers. “The camping element combined with running on the awesome trails at Pocahontas State Park will provide a unique overall event experience and help meet the demand for a team relay event in the Richmond region.”

“Pocahontas State Park is thrilled to partner with Sports Backers to host the inaugural Tent-to-Trail relay event,” said Bryce Wilk, Assistant Park Manager for Pocahontas State Park. “We’re excited to introduce people to the great trail system and beautiful scenery the park has to offer and this event will show a unique perspective of the trails at night. Our hope is after being a part of this great event and experiencing the trails first hand, a whole new audience of park users will be introduced to this wonderful asset.”

In addition to running the trails, participants may take part in a variety of activities while not competing. The park campground will serve as a home base for each team, and team members can enjoy yoga, food vendors, beer, a bonfire, and live music throughout the two days of the Pocahontas Tent-to-Trail relay. Participants can also take advantage of park amenities including camping, fishing, and canoeing.

Click here for the full schedule, event details, and team registration information.

If you’re a James River Park System user, you might already know about the Friends of the James River Park and the regular newsletter they send out. It’s full of valuable information and volunteer opportunities for park lovers. I wanted to highlight the lead item in their most recent newsletter because it offers some updates on a topic I’ve covered before.

Volunteers from the James River Hikers at the new Texas Beach boardwalk in the JRPS. Credit: Dennis Bussey

Back in early September, I wrote about the sky-high usage numbers that park Superintendent Nathan Burrell found when he pulled the data from the newly-installed infrared and electronic counters. “Up through July,” Burrell said at the time, “we were at 500,000+ visitors. That’s May through July. And we only have counters at seven locations right now.”

Well, now the Friends of the JRP newsletter is reporting that the park saw “795,117 visitors from May 2014 until the end of October 2014.” Extrapolating from that now rather large data set suggests that by May 2015 the JRPS will see well over 1 million users and probably closer to 1.5 million.

Here’s some 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 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 Henrico’s Three Lakes Nature Center and Aquarium with 304,621 visitors.

The Washington Redskins training camp brought in 164,789 visitors this year. Needless to say, the Redskins, with their tax breaks and sweetheart deals, don’t offer the city what the JRPS does in one or two summer months.

The James River Park has always been a popular place. We now know how popular.

And keep this in mind too, as I wrote in September, “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.” Note to the mayor and city council: That’s crazy!

And the Friends’ newsletter also reports that the park “provides a huge economic benefit to the City. Using the $16 per day per user estimate for park economic impact numbers from the 2014 edition of the Virginia Outdoors Plan, JRPS right now, provides a $12,721,872 economic impact directly to the City and local businesses.”

A rider navigates the Buttermilk Trail, part of the ride course for the ‘King of the James.’ Credit: Megan Davis

When Hunter Davis and Joey Parent finally decided to put on — after many years of talking about it — a run-bike-paddle triathlon on the James River and the trails around it, they didn’t expect all that much. They figured they’d get friends and friends of friends and maybe a few other assorted river lovers to enter. But now, less than 48 hours from the start of the first King of the James event, Davis said he thinks as many as 100 people, some who’ll do the race solo and others in the relay format, could show up Saturday morning at the start line (Reedy Creek entrance to the James River Park).

“I was expecting much less,” Davis said. “I only bought 75 t-shirts. I’m going to have to get some more. It got really big, really quick.”

For more on the race — including a look at the course map — check out the RichondOutside.com post from a couple of weeks ago. The only thing that’s different from when that piece was written, is that now racers must pay a $5 insurance fee. Click here for more on that.

But the King of the James isn’t the only area celebration of outdoors recreation this weekend. I regularly speak with mountain bikers who have no idea that a short(ish) drive out into Goochland County some sweet trails reside at the Boy Scout Camp Brady Saunders near Maidens. Well, if you’re one of those mountain bikers, this weekend would be a great time to discover those trails. Click here for the Facebok event page and all the details, but here’s the bottom line: Sierra Nevada beer garden opens at at 11:30 a.m.; rides start at noon, including guided rides for women; Intergalactic Taco Truck will be on hand selling tacos and burritos; local bike shops and vendors will have bike demos; and the Virginia Off Road Series (VORS) awards ceremony will take place, as well.

Pretty sweet, right? Heck, if you were feeling frisky, you could do the King of the James in the morning, then head of to the Scout Camp Trail Festival in the afternoon. As usual in the fall, it’s shaping up to be a good weekend for outdoors lovers in the RVA.

The Texas Beach bog now has a gleaming boardwalk spanning it. Credit: Dennis Bussey

Two weekends ago, Lynchburg native, carpenter and batteau builder Andrew Shaw (and crew) delivered a heap of lumber to the Texas Beach section of the James River Park via multiple batteau trips. The lumber was to be used to construct a long boardwalk over the perma-muddy section of trail leading from the base of the Texas Beach stairwell toward the river. The batteau delivery was A) just downright cool and B) an ingenious way of solving the problem of getting a huge quantity of heavy, unwieldy building materials to a rather remote site.

Dennis Bussey wrote a story for RichmondOutside.com about the day and how it came together. Once the materials were delivered, the boardwalk was expected to take three weekends of work by volunteers from Bussey’s Meetup group — James River Hikers — to complete. Well, as these pics show, those volunteers (along with Mike Burton and his James River Park System trail-building crew) work very fast. What was supposed to take three Saturdays was finished in one. Now hikers can navigate this formerly treacherous stretch of trail without need for muck boots even after a heavy rain.

Joey Parent hits the trail in Forest Hill Park. Credit: Hunter Davis

Few Richmonders know and love the Falls of the James River, and the parks and trails that surround it, like Hunter Davis and Joey Parent.

The two met 10 years ago at VCU, helped start a kayaking club there, and have been friends ever since. While their journeys took them to places like Durango, Colo. and Asheville, N.C. for work and play, they both eventually found their way back to their hometown and they river they love. Parent is the leader of VCU’s Outdoor Adventure Program, and Davis works for the ACAC Fitness Center in Short Pump, is a outdoors-focused filmmaker, and the proprietor of Home on the James.

For years the two had batted around the idea for a kind of triathlon uniquely suited to Richmond.

“(It’s) something (that’s been) floating around,” Davis said. “Living in Richmond just lends it self to making that decision whether you want to go kayaking or trail running or mountain biking. Being in Richmond, you can do it all in one day. And everything is centered in one place. It’s just easy.”

“We’ve been talking about it for so long we realized that if we didn’t just do it, it wasn’t going to happen,” Parent said.

Thus, on the morning of November 8th, will be born the first-ever King of the James — a trail run/mountain bike/whitewater kayak race that is more about celebrating the fact that it can be done right here in the middle of a city than it is about the time or the winners. The race is free, and, importantly, it can be done individually or as a three-person relay team.

“I think that’s actually going to be a pretty big category,” Parent said, of the relay, noting that the number of people willing to run downtown rapids like Hollywood and Pipeline is limited.

But if you’re a mountain biker or trail runner and you know someone who can paddle Richmond’s famous whitewater, you’ve got yourself 2/3 of a team.

The race starts at the grassy area by the Reedy Creek boaters’ put-in. From there runners will go through the tunnels under Riverside Drive and do a lap in the Forest Hill Park singletrack. Mountain bikers will then take over and do what I like to call the Butterbank Loop: the Buttermilk and North Bank Trails with the Nickel Bridge and Belle Isle connecting them on either end. Paddlers will then put in at Reedy and run down to the 14th Street takeout, where they’ll be shuttled back to Reedy.

“I don’t enjoy kayaking more than mountain biking. And I don’t enjoy mountain biking more than trail running,” Davis said. “You can do them all right out your front door, if you live in the city. It just shows that the James River is a destination where you can come do all three sports.”

Parent added that T-shirts will be for sale for about $10 and there’ll be an after party at a yet-to-be-determined destination.

Sounds like a pretty sweet event to me, one that’s quintessential Richmond, not to mention a chance to bond with like-minded outdoors people. And considering it’s free…well, let’s just say we here at RichmondOutside.com will definitely be fielding a team.

A runner in the woods at the 2014 Belmead Trailfest. Credit: Charlottesvilleareatrailrunners.blogspot.com

A motley bunch of us milled around the stable waiting calmly for directions to go forth into battle. Tall and fit, short and portly, old and the wise, naïve and undertrained, some were dressed in fabrics from 1972 cotton, while others had state-of-the-art 2014 dri-fit. All were up for a two-footed adventure on hallowed ground. Before we knew it, the cracked neon trash cans were positioned in a makeshift starting line and the nuns bestowed the final blessings. No nerves, no last minutes strides, no care in the world of where we were going or how long it would take to get to the end. At that very moment – I knew this day would be something so much more special than a simple race.

This was the Belmead Trailfest, a first year ultra-running festival traversing the rural, historic, and absolutely stunning acreage of the Belmead on the James property in Powhatan County. Maintained by the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament when it was operational in the 1800s, the property now contains thousands of acres of singletrack trails, ornate old school buildings, and rolling cornfields. It is also the final resting place of so many who were called to live a religious vocation. The property is not usually open to the public, but today was different.

I chose the 50K race, but there was also a 50-miler. Both races were true no-frills affairs, with all sorts of characters, visual oddities, and comforts of home. This was no Rock ‘N’ Roll Marathon. It was like staying in a bed and breakfast in rural Ireland compared to checking in at a Marriott and hitting up IHOP. This race was so personal and inviting and you wanted to stay just a bit longer and fill up on conversation and homemade food.

Finisher’s coasters for the first-ever Belmead Trailfest in Powhatan Co. Credit: Charlottesvilleareatrailrunners.blogspot.com

Each of the ten mile loops was like running through a fairytale. The morning dew never quite burned off, captured in delicate little spider webs on the freshly cut running path. Every now and then, a horse jump would appear, sometimes with bright orange and yellow mums planted inside the posts with care. After the first loop, I still felt the playful urge to self-hurdle over the barriers, but I knew it was not a great idea with the increasing probability of a face plant with each additional mile.

The sun beat down intensely in the middle miles of each loop, but my gaze remained transfixed on the simple little graveyard of white, painted, and unmarked wooden crosses centerpiecing the massive cornfield, as this sight allowed any discomfort, angst, or dread about this long race to melt away. I floated through these middle miles, thinking it would be fine if I moved on to the next life right now and rested under that white cross raised on the grassy knoll. As I ambled around the corners of the field, I snatched bursts of the smoky, spicy smell of charred corn. It was a spiritual sensory overload — a wonderful fusion of all of the life reflection taken from my very best runs, talks with God, and walks in the woods.

The second half of each loop immersed runners in not-too-technical singletrack deep in the woods of the property. Little wooden bridges spanned trickling creeks and hand carved wooden plaques, indicating the crossing of such curious spots as “Sister Foolproof Bridge.”

Mustering a smile is not easy deep into a 50-mile or 50K race. Charlottesvilleareatrailrunners.blogspot.com

Oh, the rest stops! Every three miles, a blue pop-up tent was spotted through the clearing. As fatigue and thirst crept into my body, I questioned whether this was a mirage or the read deal. Water? Blue Gatorade? A swig of pickle juice? Friendly, chatty volunteers were ready to cut up a nutella quesadilla, hand you a fig bar, or shove some turkey sandwich squares in your pocket to-go. This was race hospitality at its finest.

As the last left hand turn came into sight, I could hear the small, but mighty band of spectators and volunteers beckon me to the finish chute. I mustered up my finest form to bound through the finish flags with a big smile on my face. I was immediately handed a hand-carved wooden coaster, so I can proudly display proof of my new longest-race-distance on my coffee table for years to come.

I was excited to try out the 50k (31-mile) distance at a low key, trail event at a location close to home, but the entire experience was more rewarding than I ever imagined. I felt like my race entry was helping to fund the outreach and the deteriorating historic buildings on this beautiful property, while simultaneously feeding my soul doing what I love. I am ready to tackle some other races, but I am not sure they will be as special to me as the Belmead 50k.

This time of year, sometimes I look at the calendar and wonder how much sleep Sports Backers employees get.

The Tour of Richmond returns for the third year this weekend. Credit: Sports Backers

Back in late August, the group helped put on the growing Patrick Henry Half-Marathon in Ashland. Then last Friday and Saturday the Maymont X-Country Festival offered local runners a 5K on the Maymont grounds and an 8-miler on the trails of the James River Park System. This Saturday the 3rd annual Martin’s Tour of Richmond — bike rides of 101, 78, 59 and 29 miles around the Richmond region — rolls into Richmond International Raceway. Online registration is closed, but you can still do walk-up registration at RIR on Saturday morning at RIR if you want to participate.

At the close of online registration yesterday, a total of 1,150 riders were signed up, breaking the previous record of 1,105 riders in 2013. The event kicks off with the pre-ride party on October 3rd at the Richmond Raceway Complex from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., with food and beer for sale, along with live music, vendors, and sponsors. Registered riders also will be able to pick up their participant packets for Saturday’s ride at the party.

But it’s not just a good weekend for bike riders. On Saturday morning, road runners have their pick of two local 5Ks: the 5K Eagle Challenge in Bon Air and the Mustangs 5K in Midlothian. And on Sunday trail runners will head out to Bear Creek Lake State Park 45 minutes west of Chesterfield County for the mostly flat but challenging Cumberland Multi-Use Trail Half-Marathon.

Bass fishing great Mike Iaconelli will meet the public at Green Top on Sunday afternoon.

With the weather starting to slowly turn to fall, area anglers are heading out to our many waterways to catch fish moving into their fall patterns. But for those who won’t be on the water on Sunday afternoon, here’s a great Plan B: Bass angling legend Mike Iaconelli will be at Green Top on Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. signing autographs and chatting with the public. This is a really cool chance to pick the brain of a former Bassmaster Classic champion and B.A.S.S. angler of the year. Very cool stuff.