I have spent most of my column space this semester complaining about one thing or another, but in the spirit of holiday cheer I have decided to be laudatory rather than critical. Several weeks ago I had the pleasure of taking an entire weekend morning and afternoon off from work to enjoy the solitary pleasure of hiking the entire Rivanna Trail, leaving me with a great deal of gratitude toward the people who made it possible.
This trail had been one of Charlottesville's perplexing mysteries to me ever since I arrived here. Many times I heard that it formed a greenbelt around Charlottesville but, though I like to hike around in the woods on Observatory Hill and elsewhere around town, I never actually saw it.
It turns out I just had to get closer to Route 250. The Rivanna trail is approximately 20 miles long and encircles an area including the Central Grounds of the University, the Downtown Mall and McIntire Park. It is broken up into nearly 20 sections, but many of the sections have little more than a street crossing between them. Water flows next to the trail for nearly its entire length -- either the Rivanna River itself or its tributaries, Meadow Creek and Moore's Creek.
The trail is the handiwork of the Rivanna Trail Foundation, which was incorporated as a non-profit in 1992 and has worked toward the vision of building and maintaining a system of trails that would encircle Charlottesville and connect to a wider network of trails in Charlottesville and Albemarle County. Kudos to those involved in this achievement: The private citizens that worked with landowners to obtain the necessary easements and provided the muscle and energy to actually build the trails. In cynical times, it is heartening to witness so many people work for the creation of a public good like the Rivanna trail system.
The University should be proud of its role in facilitating the trail. First of all, it traverses a good deal of property owned by the University, which has worked very cooperatively with the Rivanna Trails Foundation. Second, according to Foundation president Tom Osimitz, a large group of "up to fifty young, enthusiastic and incredibly helpful students" from Madison House help out at the monthly trail workdays.
It's great that students are involved in the upkeep and maintenance of the trail. On the other hand, there are a lot of people who don't even know that it exists. Hopefully more students will take the opportunity to use the trail as time allows after final exams or next Spring.
Even parts of the trail that are difficult to find and follow end up adding to the fun, such as the one that starts at the Stribling Avenue railroad trestle and the segment between Quarry Park and Woolen Mills. These segments give hikers the opportunity to interact with people -- basically in a desperate plea for directions -- from areas of Charlottesville that are distant from the University in both the geographic and cultural sense.
For those intimidated by the idea of a 20-mile hike, there are two sections of the trail that I would particularly recommend both for their spectacular views and ease of parking. The first starts on Barracks Road just past the shopping center and ends at Old Ivy Road. This two-mile section of trail goes through dense woods and rolling green fields with views of the larger hills to Charlottesville's South and West. Another section, the only paved portion of the trail, starts at Riverview Park east of the Downtown Mall and hugs the Rivanna River for two miles.
Some of the most charming sections of the trail go through drainage pipes beneath major roads like Hydraulic Avenue, or underneath train tracks. On a bright sunny day one enters the cool darkness of a cylindrical tunnel while clambering over pipes. The Norfolk-Southern railroad underpass near Greenbriar Park is the most interesting.
Too often during life at the University it seems students are wedded either to Grounds or to their cars. Charlottesville is more than the University, the Downtown Mall and the shopping centers along the 29 corridor. Thanks to the Rivanna Trails Foundation we have a beautiful way to experience it.
Andrew Winerman's column appears Thursdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at awinerman@cavalierdaily.com.
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