Belmead is located on the James River in Powhatan County.

This time of year there are lots of volunteer opportunities in the area, but I wanted to highlight this one because it comes from one of our partners and it serves a really magical place.

Through a Virginia Department of Forestry grant, the James River Association is partnering with the Chesapeake Conservancy and the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament to enhance and restore the riverfront along the James River at St. Francis/St. Emma, also known as Belmead, in Powhatan, County.

Belmead was originally built as a plantation home along the banks of the James River. In the late 1800s, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament transformed the property into two private schools for African American and Native American Indian students. Unfortunately, financial setbacks caused the schools to close in the 1970s, and most of the historic buildings to be demolished. In 2011, this historic 2,265-acre property was listed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as one of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.

The James River Association and the Virginia Outdoors Foundation both hold a conservation easement on 1,000 acres of land along the riverbank and throughout the years have worked closely with the Sisters to protect and enhance this historic property’s riverfront. Over the course of two workdays, April 4, 2015 and April 18, 2015, volunteers will plant more than 900 native Virginia trees along a half-mile of James River-front. Planting native trees will enhance the health of the river by reducing river bank erosion, filtering polluted runoff from nearby farmland, and improving wildlife habitat.

A runner in the woods surrounding Belmead.

This project is a part of Envision the James, an initiative led by the Chesapeake Conservancy, the James River Association, and National Geographic Maps. Through this program, the groups work with local partners and communities to conserve important landscapes in the James River basin, improve wildlife habitat, restore river banks, protect important viewsheds, and promote the heritage, history, and use of the river. This planting project not only compliments the goals of Envision the James, but also enhances the organizations’ collective goals of improving the health of the James and ultimately the health of the Chesapeake Bay.

For more information or to find out how you can volunteer, visit www.jamesriverassociation.org or contact Amber Ellis, Watershed Restoration Associate, at (804) 788-8811, ext. 205 or aellis@jrava.org. And learn more about Envision the James and how you can get involved at
www.EnvisiontheJames.org.

Ryan (left) and I on the mapping boat last April. Credit: Kevin Morley/Times-Dispatch

If you followed RichmondOutside.com this past summer, you probably saw posts about our project with the James River Association to create a surface-level image map of the 343-mile James River — the first such map ever created of an entire river. That map is live at our sister site Terrain360.com as well as the JRA’s site TheJamesRiver.org.

It was a challenging undertaking, logistically, technically and in a lot of other ways for myself and Ryan Abrahamsen, the other half of RichmondOutside.com and Terrain360.com. We hope to announce soon a new, even larger-scale water mapping project for this summer. In the meantime, we’ve got some other news that we think is pretty big.

Today TEDxRVA announced its (partial) lineup of speakers for the April 10 event at the Carpenter Theater at CenterStage, and Ryan is one of them. He’ll be using our experience on the James and with Terrain360.com to explore the intersection of technology and the outdoors, how the former, long seen as a barrier to getting people outside, can actually be a gateway to the latter. There’s more to it, of course, all of which will be explored in under 18 minutes on April 10 at TEDxRVA.

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.

For 11 years, Richmond Multisports offered triathlons all over the region. And they were popular, too. In last year’s seven races, 4,000 race spots were sold (some people, of course, did more than one race).

“They probably got more people started in triathlon than anyone else in the Mid-Atlantic,” said Patton Gleason, Richmond Multi-Sports CEO.

The Rocketts Landing Triathlon features a James River Swim. Credit: Rocketts Landing

He speaks about RMS in the past tense because it wasn’t actually his company. Not then. Laurie Householder Mehler started RMS and built “a really really strong community,” according to Gleason. “They helped make Richmond a place where people get out and do active stuff.”

But this past December she sold the company to local entrepreneur and newbie triathlete Avrum Elmakis, owner of Best Bully Sticks, and Gleason came on as CEO soon thereafter.

This Sunday, when the gun goes off for the RMS-produced Love Rox Half-Marathon, 10K and 5K, a new era will dawn for RVA-area triathletes and runners.

Elmakis did a number of RMS tris last year, Gleason explained, and “he had this vision of what RMS was in its current state, and putting all these energy effort and resources into a vision of what it could be.”

Since the purchase, RMS has gone from putting on their own events to keeping those events, adding new events, managing events produced by others and offering timing services for other events.

Last year’s Love Rox races started and finished near Brown’s Island. Credit: rrrc.org

Gleason said RMS’s triathlon lineup will stay the same. And this weekend’s Love Rox road races will continue. In addition, they added the Hardywood Park Craft Brewery Twilight 4-miler, the East Coast Triathlon Festival, the Brewers’ Cup 5K and 1 Mile at the National Beer Expo, the Great Pumpkin Run 5K and Kids’ Mile, and the Central Virginia Turkey Trot 5K and Kids’ Mile.

Generally, Gleason said, the approach was to take what worked and build on it. “Can we enhance the things that were great about those (races). What can we do to make it a more fun, more festive atmosphere? Can we make running a triathlon more accessible and lower those barriers to entry? You can expect much more of a festival atmosphere post-race in everything we do.

“I think there’s room to create events that are profoundly impactful for people in terms of how fun it is, how much it improves the quality of their life. There’s room to do some really great stuff and showcase the best of this city and also work with some really great partners.”

It appears the new RMS is off to a good start. Gleason said the half-marathon that was supposed to take place in Williamsburg this weekend was cancelled due to the weather and many of those runners have signed up for the Love Rox half. A race that had 900 entrants last year, this year has over 1,500.

This looks really cool.

As the top cyclists in the world compete at the 2015 UCI Road World Championships, Virginians and visitors from all over the globe will get their chance to tackle the same climbs and cobblestones that make up the championship course during two unique, public participation events.

Richmond 2015, the organizing committee of the 2015 UCI Road World Championships, and the Sports Backers, announced today that they are partnering to produce “Conquer the Cobbles,” a pair of evening public participation events taking place in conjunction with September’s world championships. The events include a running race and bike ride that will give participants a chance to experience the same Road Circuit Course that will be contested by competitors from more than 70 countries.

Riders climb the famous Libby Hill cobblestones. Credit: Richmond.com

On Thursday, Sept. 24 beginning at 7 p.m., participants can enjoy a 10-mile running race that showcases the history and beauty of Monument Avenue as well as the challenging climbs of Libby Hill and 23^rd Street. The following night, Sept. 25 beginning at 7 p.m., cyclists will get their crack at the championship circuit that awaits the best riders in the world. The riding event is limited to 2,015 entrants. Both events will provide participants with the safety of a completely closed course, live announcers and a festival atmosphere.

The Elite Women and Elite Men will compete for World Championships on the Road Circuit Course on Sept. 26 and 27, respectively.

“Imagine getting the chance to play Augusta the day before The Masters or Centre Court during Wimbledon’s fortnight,” said Tim Miller, chief operating officer of Richmond 2015. “This truly is a unique opportunity for riders and runners to test themselves on the same course that will challenge the world’s best cyclists.”

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.

This Saturday (Nov. 1) at 10 a.m., our good friends at Riverside Outfitters will be holding their second annual “Yard Sale.” Last year most of the stuff they were selling — canoes, a few SUPs, a couple of mountain bikes, related sundries — was pretty well broken in, and thus deeply discounted (I bought a sweet 16-foot canoe for $400). This year, there’s more gear, it’s much newer, and it’s still a great bargain. And owner Matt Perry intends for it to be like this every fall.

“If we can have new gear in the fleet every year, our maintenance budget is kept very small,” he said. “And if we’re left with used gear at the end of the sale, then we just use it again. Because none of it is old. Plus, ideally you have brand new stuff every year. Better customer experience.”

Perry, with help from Whit Brooks of the neighboring Whitworth Cycles, is selling 14 KHS mountain bikes; three Old Town canoes; 17(ish) Bic standup paddleboards; four tandem sit-on-top kayaks and 15 single sit-on-top kayaks, all made by Jackson. Not to mention paddles, rope bags and other such essentials.

The 26-inch wheel bikes ($350 and $310) and 15.8-foot-long canoes ($820) are just two seasons old, and most of kayaks ($300 for singles, $680 for tandems) and SUPs ($530) were bought this past spring. If you’re in the market for one of these items, I’m not sure you’re going to find a better deal. The sale runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. this Saturday, but I’m guessing most of the good stuff will be gone before noon. Check it out, and tell ’em RichmondOutside sent you!

Amy George has been part of RideRichmond since its inception in 2010. The non-profit, she said, was founded to help advocate for bicycle-related issues in the area. But since that time, a number of other organizations have formed with similar missions.

Encouraging more of this is the idea behind the first Richmond Women’s Cycling Summit.

“(They) started doing on a full time basis what we were just doing on a volunteer basis, groups like BikeWalkRVA and Ram Bikes. We we kind of stepped back in the spring or summer and thought, ‘You know, what is it that is not being addressed? Women’s cycling is definitely a hot button issue nationally. That was something that wasn’t being addressed in Richmond, so we decided to take it and run with it.”

Thus was born the first-ever Richmond Women’s Cycling Summit, which will take place tomorrow night at the Virginia War Memorial at 7 p.m.

George cited surveys showing that while 82 percent of women hold favorable views of cycling, 76 percent of bike trips (of any kind) were taken by men in the most recent survey year. The question is, “What’s causing that gap? What are the issues locally that can be addressed?

“Then we want to start providing information on how to get involved in different types of cycling. Where should you go to get the information to be confident on a bike?”

George said the summit, for which 120 women have already registered, isn’t focused on any one type of cycling. “We want to talk about what the barriers are to getting on a bike and riding it more. We’re trying to reach your average community resident, a very broad section of society. We want to normalize cycling, to have it be something where it’s not an unusual part of your daily life.”

The summit activities actually start at 5 p.m. with a casual ride from Lamplighter Coffee to the War Memorial. From 6 to 7 there will be a social hour with refreshments provided by Lamplighter, and at 7 p.m. a panel of seven women, including George, will dive into the issues, hear from the crowd and come up with ways to get more Richmond-area women on bikes.

The event is free, George said, but registration is encouraged so organizers know how many chairs to set up and how much food and drink to make available.

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.

With the Richmond Folk Festival set to go off tomorrow evening, it looks like most area race organizers decided to avoid scheduling events on this weekend.

Don’t forget when you’re at the Richmond Folk Festival that this is out there calling your name. Credit: Phil Riggan

But that’s not entirely true: If you’re itching for a Saturday morning burn, you could head out to Innsbrook Pavilion in Glen Allen where the 8th annual Step Up for Down Syndrome 5K and Family Festival will begin at 8:30 a.m. Chip timing is available, and take note ultra competitive types: The top 3 overall male and female winners will receive $100, $75 & $50 gift cards, respectively, from Road Runner running Store! All age group winners will receive $25 gift cards. Most importantly, all proceeds benefit the Down Syndrome Association of Greater Richmond.

For those seeking family fun, here’s a cool option. Maymont is putting on their first Family Campout: Spooky Spectacular. Parents and kids ages four and up can “meet some spooky creatures as we celebrate “Owl”-oween! Take a lantern-lit hike as the moon rises, make s’mores, and enjoy stories around the campfire. In the morning, enjoy a continental breakfast and another hike.” Online registration has closed, so call Maymont (804-358-7166, ext. 324) to register.

And while we might be missing an outdoors event or two in the RO calendar, it looks to be a light weekend. But that could be a good thing. The weather should be nice. The river will be warm still and the trails dry. Some friends of ours from Colorado are coming back to Richmond for a visit. They lived here for years, and every time they come back they rave about the outdoor options we have. We’ve talked about heading down to Pocahontas SP to bike, or maybe doing a big loop hike around the James via the downtown trails. We’ll probably ride our bikes, almost entirely off road from the Nickel Bridge area to the Folk Fest at least once day. In other words, it’ll be a classic RVA weekend.

Get out there and enjoy!