Maybe, like me, you missed the news last week from Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s office about the $12.5 million in grants awarded to protect almost 4,000 historically significant acres in Virginia.

The money comes from the Virginia Land Conservation Foundation and will fund nine projects. In addition to the almost 4,000 acres protected, the grants also fund new interpretive tools at multiple sites. Funding was provided by Dominion Energy as part of an $89.5 million agreement to mitigate the adverse impact to historic resources of the Surry-Skiffes Creek Transmission Line.

“Virginia is home to a wealth of historical treasures, and these grants from the Virginia Land Conservation Foundation will improve visitor experiences and enhance educational opportunities at some of our country’s most significant sites,” said Governor Terry McAuliffe, in a press release “I am especially pleased that a significant grant from this funding will go towards land preservation that will finally provide the Chickahominy Indian Tribe with permanent access to the river.”

A grant to the Chickahominy will support the acquisition of tribal lands along the James River, known to them as the Powhatan. This land, to be permanently protected under a conservation easement, will be the first held by the Chickahominy on one of its home rivers in centuries. It will provide a site for the Chickahominy to preserve its heritage and traditions.

VLCF will also provide a grant to support the future acquisition of Belmead on the James, a historic plantation constructed around 1845. The plantation was converted into a school which educated more than 15,000 African American and Native American students before closing in the 1970s.

In addition to these projects, grants will fund the land acquisition of five significant battlefield sites associated with both the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, including expanded protections for Yorktown Civil War Battlefield, funding to support the acquisition of Malvern Hill Farm by the Capital Region Land Conservancy, and the purchase of multiple parcels by the Civil War Trust. Two additional grants will be used to develop a new exhibit at Endview Plantation and create a digital model of Fort Crafford, which is part of Fort Eustis in Newport News.

Sure it’ll be cold — the high is 38 degrees — but our friends at the James River Association are offering a very cool event at Great Shiplock Park tomorrow. And like my Swedish friend says: “There is no bad weather, only bad clothing.” So, throw on a warm coat!

From the JRA Facebook event page:

Tree hugging is not on the agenda but is not discouraged.

The James River Association is prescribing you a dose of nature. Research has shown that time in nature is good for our physical, mental, and emotional health. It’s time to slow down, notice what’s around you, and simply breathe in the fresh air. Participants should expect a brief meditation, mindful walking, creation of their own nature mandala, and sharing this experience with others in the group. It will be chilly, but we’ll have hot tea for participants!

Bring a water bottle, wear comfortable, sturdy shoes, and if desired, a towel or mat to sit on. It’ll be chilly outside so dress warmly and we’ll have hot tea to keep you warm and toasty! We will be walking a short distance along dirt trails on Chapel Island, which is part of the James River Park System. The session lasts from 12-1 pm.

The Va. Capital Trail cuts through Great Shiplock Park in Richmond.

Parking is available at Great Shiplock Park or on Pear Street. The Virginia Capital Trail also connects to the park so you can walk or ride your bike. We will meet under the large mulberry tree at Great Shiplock Park, just on the other side of the metal footbridge on the left.

Please use this link to register so that we know how many to expect https://form.jotform.com/73095465887978

As the weather turns colder, our friends at Keep Virginia Beautiful are reminding us that it’s time to start thinking about signing up for their winter festival — Shiver in the River — the centerpiece of which is an icy plunge into the James River.

KVB Executive Director Mike Baum said that they moved this year’s festival, which also includes a 5K and a riverside litter cleanup, from January to late-February (Feb. 24 to be exact) to get away from the holidays. Check below for the schedule, and click here to learn more and to sign up.

Runners pound Tredegar Street during last year’s 5K. Credit: KVB

Shiver in the River 2018

10 a.m. — Community Cleanup 
Shiver in the River will start with a cleanup along the banks of the James River and in a number of RVA communities. Picking up litter and recyclables is at the very heart of Keep Virginia Beautiful. The cleanup is free, and you can earn incentives by creating a fundraising page.

Noon — 5K Walk/Run
The 5K Walk/Run is a fun event for the whole family that will start and end at Historic Tredegar, and take in the beauty of the James River. Online registration ends on Thursday, February 22nd, but walk up registration will be available at packet pickup on Friday, February 23rd, and on the day of the event. When you create a fundraising page, your registration fee counts toward your incentive awards. Short sleeve T-shirts are included in the 5K registration.  Please note, race registration fees are not refundable.

2 p.m. — The James River Jump
The highlight of Shiver in the River is the James River Jump!  This fundraising plunge will take place along the chilly banks of the James near Historic Tredegar. A minimum of $75 must be raised to participate in the Jump and to receive a commemorative long sleeve T-shirt. Online registration ends on Thursday, February 22nd, but walk up registration will be available at packet pickup on Friday, February 23rd, and on the day of the event.

11 a.m. – 4 p.m. Winter Festival!
There will be music, beverages, food, and more!  This is the Coolest Winter Festival in Richmond, and shows our love for Virginia!

Winter is trail-building season for work crews in the Richmond region. There are always projects going with volunteer needs, including the below two courtesy of RVA MORE. If you use the James River Park System or Pocahontas State Park trails, consider donating some time to one of these work events (or a future one: follow them on FB here).

Pocahontas State Park:
Progress is fast and furious out at Pocahontas these days. New trails ‘Corkscrew’ and Trail 15 (name TBD) opened Thanksgiving weekend and are already getting a lot of traffic and putting smiles on riders’ faces.  Next on the docket is Trail 11.  This is another downhill trail that will eventually make it all the way to the lake and tie in to Trail 15.  In the short term the goal is to get this trail to ~80% complete status so it can be opened to riders ASAP, this point is fast approaching, but we can use your help to get there!

We will be meeting at the parking off of Courthouse Road (7298 Courthouse Rd, Chesterfield, VA) at 9 am on Saturday.

James River Park System:
Work will continue on a trail armoring project on Buttermilk Trail that was started a few weeks ago.  Meet at 9 a.m. at the Reedy Creek parking lot at the intersection of Hillcrest Road and Riverside Drive (4111 Hillcrest Road, Richmond, VA).

Any cancellations will be announced by Friday night via email and the rvaMORE Facebook page.

Yesterday, Richmond’s Planning Commission inched the city closer to adding 18 acres to Larus Park, 106 acres of city greenspace wedged between Huguenot Road and Chippenham Parkway. (If you haven’t followed the controversy over the city’s efforts to take an acre of the park to build a water pumping station for Chesterfield county, click here.)

The commission’s members voted unanimously to support an agreement the city made with a private landowner to purchase 18 acres adjacent to the park for $420,000. City Council must still sign off on the deal, but that looks much more likely now.

As Rosemary Green, Department of Public Utilities deputy director, told the Times-Dispatch’s Mark Robinson, “the biggest concern was the trees, and now with the addition of this property that can be added to Larus Park, it seems that most of the opposition has subsided.”

City Councilperson Kristen Larson, who represents the district Larus lies in, is expected at the council’s Dec. 11 meeting to introduce a measure placing the existing parkland and this new acreage into a conservation easement.

(Click here to read a great piece about the true value of Larus Park.)

RichmondOutside.com is excited to partner once again this holiday season with local photographer and social media giant Chris Johnson, a.k.a. @vintage_RVA, to offer a definitive sample of Richmond-centric photographs from the past 12 months. These mostly landscape shots capture Richmond, the James River and its environs at their most beautiful.

Follow us to our online store by CLICKING HERE. Then look for vintage_RVA in the left side navigation. Every print is offered in three size options (two of them are panoramic shots and the sizes are different). Between now and the end of Cyber Monday, use the code 4THEJAMES when checking out for 10% off your order. And remember, a portion of every purchase benefits the Friends of the James River Park!

Prime leaf peeping season is here in Central Virginia and a bicycle is one of the best ways
to take it all in. Here are some of my favorite places to experience the beauty of autumn along the Virginia Capital Trail.

Richmond National Battlefield Park – Fort Harrison

A side trip off the Virginia Capital Trail is a quiet place for a fall ride.  Your four-mile detour down Battlefield Park Road is filled with Civil War history.  You can peep at the leaves and also explore the well-preserved Civil War earthworks, cannons, and interpretive signs in the Fort Harrison Battlefield Park. You will find Battlefield Park Road between mile markers 45 and 46 on the Virginia Capital Trail, close to Ronnie’s BBQ.  Treat yourself to Ronnie’s famous smoked pork, chicken or brisket sandwiches and homemade French fries. Ronnie and his crew love cyclists!

Richmond National Battlefield Park – Malvern Hill

Malvern Hill Battlefield Park is especially scenic in the fall when the heads of the sorghum plants turn burnt orange. What is sorghum, you ask? Well, this funny looking corn is actually sugarcane, the South’s

The burnt orange tops of sorghum plants in the fall.

original sweetener. You can also take time to explore the walking paths within the park. According to the National Park Service, “Malvern Hill is the best preserved Civil War battlefield in central or southern Virginia.”  Ride to the Virginia Capital Trail mile marker 36 at the intersection of Route 5 and State Route 156/Willis Church Road.  Cross Route 5 at The Fork on 5 Restaurant and continue on Route 156 for 1.2 miles to reach the Battlefield Park.

Deep Bottom Park and Boat Landing

You’ll have a panoramic view of the James River at Deep Bottom Park because of its oxbow shape. Enjoy the wide array of color along the river banks from the sycamore, oak and pine trees. This historic Civil War river crossing is a two mile ride from the Virginia Capital Trail. Ride east 1.3 miles from the Four Mile Creek Trailhead on the Virginia Capital Trail. Cross Route 5 at Kingsland Road between mile markers 38 and 39. Ride 0.7 miles and then turn left on Deep Bottom Road. The Park is 1.2 miles at the end of the road.

Va. Capital Trail bridge over Parrish Creek.

Cotton Fields along Shirley Plantation Road

I saw my first cotton field along Shirley Plantation Road in the fall of 2015 when the Virginia Capital Trail was first completed. Cotton is harvested in the fall and has the longest growing season of any annual crop – a whopping five to six months.  These cotton bales are over five feet tall! Ride the Virginia Capital Trail to Shirley Plantation Road between mile markers 30 and 31. Continue riding on Shirley Plantation Road to reach the cotton fields. You can extend your ride by visiting Upper Shirley Vineyards and Shirley Plantation.

Sherwood Forest section of the Virginia Capital Trail

The Sherwood Forest section of the Virginia Capital Trail is beautiful any time of the year because of its dense forests of pine and hardwood trees. In the fall it is especially glorious when the leaves have turned shades of rust and yellow.  You can also visit Sherwood Forest Plantation, the former home of President

Sunset at Chickahominy Riverfront Park.

John Tyler, located between mile markers 16 and 17 on the Virginia Capital Trail. This section of the trail is 12.5 miles long and is located between Charles City Courthouse at mile marker 20 and the Chickahominy River at mile marker 7.

Chickahominy Riverfront Park

Enjoy the fall foliage and the scenic Chickahominy River from the lofty Dresser Memorial Bridge along the Virginia Capital Trail.  You may encounter long-distance bicycle tourers following Bicycle Route 76 on this part of the Virginia Capital Trail. You’ll find Chickahominy Riverfront Park between mile markers 6 and 7 on the Virginia Capital Trail.

Cycling Adventures Along the Virginia Capital Trail: For more adventures, check out my guide book here!

The Sports Backers are getting into the merch market, launching a new online store for event merchandise, training gear, and a selection of other RVA-themed active living apparel. It’s all available at https://www.sportsbackers.org/shop/. The online shop went live on November 15 and is currently accepting orders for all items in stock.

Items include the 2017 Anthem Richmond Marathon and Markel Richmond Half Marathon finisher jackets, along with a variety of other Richmond Marathon-related items. The SBS say you should order by November 30th to allow plenty of time to receive the jacket before the holidays.

“We are excited to launch this new online store and make our merchandise and apparel available to a wider audience,” said Sports Backers Retail Manager, Alison Hale. “It’s a great way to celebrate an active lifestyle and will help support our non-profit mission to create and support active living opportunities throughout the Richmond region.”

The T. Tyler Potterfield Memorial Bridge might end 2017 as the James River Park’s most visited unit.

A recent bike ride across the T. Tyler Potterfield Memorial Bridge (a.k.a. the T Pot) got me wondering where the newest unit of the James River Park System ranks compared to its neighbors — places like Belle Isle, Pony Pasture Rapids, Huguenot Flatwater, Texas Beach, etc. — in terms of visitation. The pedestrian bridge that connects Brown’s Island to Manchester opened in early December 2016, and was a hit immediately, drawing 35,000 visitors that month, even more than perennial favorite Belle Isle.

So, I shot JRPS Superintendent Nathan Burrell an email last week asking about T Pot visitation as well as numbers for the entire system. It turns out the metal span just upstream of our very own RVA Osprey Cam has continued to be a major draw all year.

Through the end of October the park system’s infrared counters tallied 399,441 visits, and that doesn’t include a number of days in June and July when the counter malfunctioned. Considering that, and the fact that November and December are yet to be counted, it’s likely the T Pot will see close to 500,000 visits in 2017.

A view from Manchester during construction of the south end of the T Pot circa 2016.

If that number sounds huge, it is. Burrell said that the park’s 14 units will see somewhere close to 2 million visits in 2017, up from about 1.4 million last year. And the T Pot now rivals perennial RVA favorite Belle Isle in visits. In fact, with two months of counting still to happen, which unit will come out on top is still too close to call. (If you’re scoring at home, Pony Pasture is likely the third most popular unit.)

So, if you’re reading this and you haven’t been to the T Pot yet, check out the map below and go take it in. You can park on the north side by Brown’s Island and walk south or park on the south side by the Sun Trust building and walk north. Either way, you’ll get a river a experience that huge numbers of Central Virginians are clambering for.

Our friends at Keep Virginia Beautiful just released the date for their signature event — Shiver in the River — a polar plunge into the James River on what promises to be an icy February 24th. This year KVB is promising a bigger and more impactful event, with an even larger Community Cleanup, 5K Run/Walk, and the James River Jump (the name for the polar plunge part of the festivities). Individuals, families and corporate groups can participate in one or all three events, and of course enjoy RVA’s coolest winter festival going on all around you.

What do you do next? Sign yourself up and start a team. And, if you sign up by November 30th you’ll be entered to win a cool prize that includes a Hilton Richmond Downtown package and discounted registration rates. It’s a great event that benefits a very cool organization.