Chris Scott and company have pioneered a continuous, 480-mile off-road trail along the Allegheny and Blue Ridge mountain ranges, from Strasburg to Damascus. The majority of it is singletrack. Needless to say, this is awesome. Virginia now has a world-class, long-range mountain bike route, on par with the famous routes in Colorado and Arizona.

We’d love to tell you more, but we’d rather send you to Shenadoah Mountain Touring’s Virginia Mountain Bike Trail page.

Read more at Drunk Cyclist, and a thread, with pictures, at mtbr.com

Roanoke River Rails-to-Trails announced  construction of Phases II and III of the Tobacco Heritage Trail  will  begin in late fall/early winter 2011.  Phase II will consist of  approximately 2.6   miles of trail in South Boston, which is located in Halifax County.  Phase III will connect two segments of existing trail, making 17 miles of continuous trail.

The THT will accommodate pedestrians, bicyclists and horse-back riders.

The construction of these phases of the Tobacco Heritage Trail is part of a larger, regional project by Roanoke River Rails-to-Trails Inc.  When complete, the THT will consist of 160 miles of trail, spanning 5 counties in Southside, Virginia.

For more information, visit their website,  http://www.tobaccoheritagetrail.org/  or  contact THT Trail Coordinator, Rachel Wright (434) 447-7101 or rwright@southsidepdc.org

Crossing the New River, to Bike Route 76 & New River Trail. Photo courtesy of Chris Scott & Shenadoah Mountain Touring

From Chris Scott:

“Next and last 2 days to follow are on Highlands Horse Trail and Iron Mountain Trail. What a journey bicycling along, across, over and around the length of Virginia on a backcountry singletrack based route on National Forest trails.”

Follow Shenandoah Mountain Touring’s blog, and check out their website. Follow @ShenMtnTouring and @chrisscottistan on Twitter.

David Brickley Honored by Rails to Trails Conservancy

The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) commemorated its 25th anniversary by recognizing individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to the rail-trail movement during the past quarter century.

Among the honorees of the inaugural Doppelt Family Rail-Trail Champions Award was longtime Virginia trail advocate David Brickley, who as both a legislator and leader in conservation and recreation planning has made an enormous contribution to the trails movement in Virginia and surrounding states.

Brickley is president of the September 11th National Memorial Trail Alliance, which is promoting the development of a 1,130-mile trail and greenway connecting the three memorial sites of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States: the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pa., the Pentagon Memorial and New York City’s National September 11 Memorial.

Under Brickley’s leadership as the director of the Virginia Department of Conservation and Rec­reation from 1998 to 2002, Virginia was awarded the national gold medal award for the “Best Managed State Park System in America.”

Brickley previously was an elected member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1976 through 1998, and the legislative sponsor, co-founder and chairman of the Virginia Railway Express, Virginia’s commuter rail system. He also served as an officer and trustee of the East Coast Greenway Alliance, and as the Virginia State Committee Chair.

“The rail-trail movement has been extremely fortunate to have many senior elected officials and parks staff as strong supporters of our mission,” says RTC President Keith Laughlin. “David Brickley heads that list. His work on behalf of trails and greenways in Virginia during the past 30 years is a tremendous gift to his state and visitors from across the country.”

Additionally, Brickley personally purchased a 16-mile out-of-service railroad corridor in King George County, Va., to protect it from being lost to development. As president of the Dahlgren Rail­road Heritage Trail Alliance, his goal is to work with other volunteers to make this rail-trail project a part of the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail.

Congratulations.  And thanks for all your hard work, David!

Job Losses Plaguing Southwest VA – Trails Can Help

The Richmond Times Dispatch recently featured a series of articles on declining communities across Virginia.  The August, 14 edition featured Southwest Virginia, former home of booming coal and textile industries.  Many of these industries have closed, and locals are desperate to find work.

A number of hiking and cycling trails, including the Appalachian Trail, Virginia Creeper Trail, US Bike Route 76 and New River Trail pass through Southwest Virginia, bringing tourism dollars and desperately needed jobs to these communities. 

Trails like the A.T. and Creeper have become economic engines for small towns like Damascus, where work in traditional industries is hard to come by.  This type of tourism is so vital to  Damascus, it bills itself as “Trail Town, USA”.

In the Times-Dispatch article, one resident, Tony Blair, who returned to Pulaski, summed up the situation and stated the benefits of these types of trails quite well:

Blair, 65, was born and raised in Southwest Virginia before leaving to embark on a career as a geologist. He recently returned to take care of his ailing mother in Pulaski County and can’t find work.

“It’s a beautiful area, but it’s a really tough place. The textile industry has really gone down. It’s that and geography,” he said, adding that having to blast a road through the mountains is less desirable than building them in flatlands. “And maybe the image, too — that we’re all hillbillies.”

Blair added that one thing that Pulaski, and all of the Southwest, has to build on is its natural beauty, pointing to the New River Trail State Park – which meanders 57 miles through four counties along an abandoned railroad right-of-way — as a prime example.

“One of our best assets is the trail, because it’s kind of hard to move a trail to China,” he said.

Mayor Wants Bicycling to Have Impact  in Richmond

In an interview with  NBC12, Richmond mayor  Dwight Jones is calling for major bicycling improvements in the City of Richmond.

“We want to see bicycling in the City of Richmond become a huge impact,” said Mayor Dwight Jones. 

He’s planning to hire a bicycle coordinator this year. The city’s paying for the sharrows with money from the Commonwealth Transportation Board.

The mayor’s hoping this latest wave of improvements also increases the city’s chances of hosting the World Road Cycling Championships in 2015.

The event is expected to bring 500,000 to the capital city and generate approximately $135 million in revenue. Richmond is one of two finalists, along with Oman in southwest Asia.

“When they (the UCI)  see that we’re serious about sharrows and serious about incentivizing businesses to bicycling that’s impressive to them,” said Jones.

Richmond will find out this fall if it host the World Road Cycling Championship. The winning city will be announced from Denmark in September.

Signs and pavement markings will be placed on 80 miles of the city’s roadways over the next two years.

Though it may look like a full-on invasion of Richmond, the 180th Horizontal Construction Company, 276th Engineer Battalion of the Virginia National Guard is in town  on a mission of peace.  Armed with heavy equipment including Humvees, flatbeds and desert camouflaged Bobcats, the  Battalion has teamed with the City of Richmond to begin construction on Richmond’s Cannon Run Greenway.

More than 100 soldiers are working to improve a 1.9-mile area that includes a heavily wooded ravine next to the Richmond Henrico Turnpike between Valley Road and Craigie Avenue.

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The soldiers worked tirelessly during the week while Richmond experienced a heat wave with temperatures exceeding 100 degrees.

Grading the trail

This initial phase of construction, valued at $120,000 is being provided to the City free of charge and is the result of the city’s applying for an, “Innovative Readiness Training Request for Military Assistance two years ago.

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The City of Richmond will be responsible for final surfacing of the trail and landscaping.

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This section, the  first phase of the Cannon Run Greenway,  is scheduled to  open next spring.  Additional sections, which will extend the trail north to Henrico County and South to Shockoe Bottom and the Virginia Capital Trail are planned for the future.

One Guard member on a roll(er)

A big congratulations to the City of Richmond, the Army National Guard and all the volunteers who have worked over the past four years to make this concept a reality.

View Larger Map

Roanoke has a new map for its greenway system, including the Roanoke River Greenway and Lick Run Greenway, which run along the river and and out to the Valley View Mall; also the Mill Mountain Greenway, Tinker Creek Greenway, Wolf Creek Greenway, Murry Run Greenway, and the Hanging Rock Battlefield Trail.

Zoom in and click on any of the blue lines that represent a greenway. A popup will appear, with a link to a PDF map of that greenway — which you can then print to take with you.

This is a really nice map. So nice, that it received an Excellence in Regional Transportation Award from the National Association of Development Organizations (NADO).

According to NADO President Tim Ware, “Such initiatives are central to fostering economic growth in our nation’s communities by promoting effective transportation networks.”

We agree. We’d also like to offer our thanks, and congratulations, to the Roanoke Valley Allegheny Regional Commission, for doing such a great job.

According to Abingdon Recreations and Parks, all sections of the the Va Creeper Trail.  Several sections of the trail, including Trestle 7 were damaged in a late April storm.

The New Alvarado Station. Photo courtesy www.vacreepertrail.org

In addition, the Alvarado Station and Museum (pictured above) will also be officially opened June 23.  The station will provide public restrooms for trail visitors and museum space for railroad and trail artifacts

With over 100,000 bikers and hikers using the trail last year, the Virginia Creeper trail is a popular rail-to-trail and economic engine for the small communities surrounding Damascus, Virginia

Storm Levels Scenic Railroad Trestle

Trestle 7 on the Virginia Creeper

A tornado touched down on the Virginia Creeper Trail on April 27,  destroying the 680′  Trestle #7 located about six miles from the Abingdon trailhead.  That section of the trail has been temporarily closed.

After the Storm Photo Courtesy Kevin Worley

According to Kevin Worley, Director of Parks and Recreation for Abingdon,  debris from the destroyed structure has been removed and provisions are  are being made to route the trail thought the open field.  They hope to have the trail officially open, weather permitting, by June 17.

For more pictures of the destroyed bridge and the latest trail updates, click here or here.