American Hiking Society

National Trails Endowment Profile

By Glenn Scherer 01/05/2000

It's a sign of the times. In the 1960's, urban centers competed for millions in federal highway funds to build concrete beltways that circled cities with a high speed roar. In the 1990s, grassroots citizen groups roll up their sleeves to ring their towns with greenways where people can slow down, walk, and hear a woodthrush sing. One Such town, Charlottesville, Virginia, is getting a garland of green-the 19-mile Rivanna Trail-from an American Hiking Society National Trails Endowment grant recipient, the Rivanna Trails Foundation.

When complete, the Rivanna Trail will circle Charlottesville, with several spokes running inward and outward. A narrow treadway will parallel the river and its two tributaries, which bend their arms around Charlottesville's urban core. Twelve miles of already completed trail pass through dense hardwood stands, twist among tulip poplars and sycamores in the flood plain, and thread among oaks and maples on the slopes above.

"The Rivanna was a working river in the 18th century," explains foundation president John Conover "It was a busy transportation corridor linking us to the James River and Richmond. It's the reason Thomas Jefferson could settle at Monticello. When the railroad came in the 19th century, the mills and bateaux disappeared, and the forest returned, Fortunately, 20th century developers set their eyes on the hilltops, not the stream corridors."

There in the floodplain, two birders -Francis Fife and Bob Barbee - tired of thrashing among riverbank brambles in search of warblers, conceived of the Rivanna Trail back in 1992. Since then Conover and scores of volunteers have built miles of trail and a new spirit of community. "We're smokin' along," he laughs. "We started just six years ago and we're already two-thirds around the city. We're lucky to have the enthusiastic support of local government, land owners and volunteers."

As with any thriving grassroots trail group, the Rivanna Trails Foundation credits its success to partnerships. Their bridge building project at the Charlottesville Senior Center is a fine example. Two years ago, the foundation saw that a recently finished trail section lay just 600 yards from the city's newly opened Senior Center. Unfortunately, the deep Meadow Creek Ravine separated the senior center from the trail.

To span the ravine, the trail builders needed to construct a forty-foot long timber bridge, raised an additional five feet above the 12-foot deep stream channel. Too dedicated to call it impossible, the Rivanna Trails Foundation went to work. The group won a $3,000 grant from American Hiking's National Trails Endowment and started building local support for the project. "When it came time to build the seniors bridge, we tumed to one of our founding members, local landscape architect Mike Van Yahres," Conover said. "He had the know how, ropes and comealongs. We also went to John Holden of Blue Mountain Sports for tee-shirts -after all, you've just got to have tee-shirts!" he joked. Another partner, Virginia Power, donated the stringers, the two poles supporting the weight of the bridge. And on National Trails Day 1998, more than a hundred volunteers, many of them seniors, turned out to build the new span across Meadow Creek Ravine.

"It was like Lake Wobegon in the woods." Conover said. "There was a real sense of community. We were well prepared, and found something for everyone to do. It looked like a giant ant colony out there, with people carrying bits and pieces down the hill to the building site, people clearing trail, or working on small approach bridges."

"The whole event went off like a well-orchestrated Amish barn raising. We had eight experienced volunteers setting the foundations, while the rest, young and old, carried in armloads of planking," added Van Yahres.

The bridge foundation consisted of six posts driven five feet deep into the stream embankment. Block and tackle, hung high in trees, powered by human muscle and a four-wheel drive vehicle, hauled the two stringers across the ravine and into place.

"Each dollar went about 20 times further than it would have in the private sector," Van Yahres said. "If you had to place a contract price on that bridge, I would conservatively put its fair market value at $15,000. Of course, with a contractor, things would have been a little less chaotic -though a lot less fun. By days end we had all those volunteers out on the bridge. Looking back, I think that was a pretty good structural test of its carrying capacity!"

"Every person who helped out, left at the end of the day with a sense of pride, ownership and accomplishment," Conover said. "And hopefully, they'll bring back ten friends each to share this special place." The Rivanna Trails Foundation has not rested in the year since the building of the Senior Center bridge. "On National Trails Day 1999, we're Constructing a 2 mile trail section at the headwaters of two little creeks on rugged University of Virginia land," Conover said. "We're put ting in switchbacks and water bars, and some small bridges. This section is right behind the University Law School, and it has been an easy sell to students. They're as enthusiastic as the seniors were last year.

Part of the job requires the clearing away of brush in front of the ruins of Charlottesville's first poor house. Built in 1806, the stone walls, have been hidden in the woods for over a century. Interpretive signs will help visitors understand the site's historical significance.

Another major trail-building project will link the Rivanna Trail to a path leading to the home of Thomas Jefferson at Monticello. Though one can only guess how the egalitarian Jefferson might look down upon the meandering Rivanna trail from his mountaintop home, it's no stretch to imagine that he would cast a favorable gaze upon this citizen's path and its grass roots volunteers.

American Hiker, June/July 1999

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