BATTEAU FEST
River runners
Batteau—long, flat-bottomed river craft that transported tobacco hogsheads up and down the James River during the hey-day of the plantation economy—are the focus of a quirky subculture organized around the James River Batteau Festival, which has taken place every June for the past 26 years. The festival is really a living history procession of handmade boats that leaves Percival Island in Lynchburg bound for Richmond a week later. Batteau were also used to carry whiskey casks, and if you want to be absolutely historically accurate, you might enjoy a dram in your inner tube as you watch the boats float through Scottsville.
BIRDING
Bird’s the word
The tree-lined streets of Charlottesville, the meadows and streams of the Piedmont, and the forested slopes of the Blue Ridge are beautiful in their own right. But for one segment of the population—those of us who look forward to getting up before dawn to crash through buggy thickets in search of cerulean warblers—they also make this a wonderful place to go birding. From backyards to the backwoods, there are opportunities everywhere.
You don’t have to go far to find great diversity. The mixed hardwoods surrounding O Hill’s walking paths are a forested haven for migrating songbirds early in the year. McIntire Park’s broad green expanse, dotted with nest boxes, attracts eastern bluebird parents as spring becomes summer. The Rivanna Trail winds through a ribbon of walkable urban wilderness that hugs the city’s boundary waterways and leads explorers to secluded spots teeming with bird life at all times of the year—herons, thrushes, even the occasional bald eagle cruising the river.
And a range of prime avian habitat abounds just beyond the city limits. Stand on the Scottsville bridge over the James and watch double-crested cormorants from above. Wander the Ivy Creek Natural Area and keep an eye out for shy wood ducks. Make your way west to the top of Afton Mountain in September, where the topography creates updrafts on which more than a dozen migrating raptor species glide, from sharp-shinned hawks to falcons.
And everywhere you go, keep an eye out for fellow binocular-wielding central Virginia birdwatchers. We’re lucky to live in a place where they’re a common species.
MOTORCYCLING
Easy rider
Anyone who watched Matteus Frankovich jump his hot rod through towering flames at his motorcycle rally in June knows that C’ville has more in common with Bakersfield than people think. Whether you’re a hardcore biker who wants to ride or die, or a retired couple on a Goldwing, you’re only spitting distance from some of the best motorcycle riding in the region.
The symmetrical undulating curves of the Blue Ridge Parkway will take you all the way to Cherokee in a trance if you’re not careful (and you’ve got a comfy seat), riding along the James on the county roads makes for great scenery, and Garth Road, barely out of town, has some fun rollers. A favorite half-day loop is to head south on Route 29, west on Plank Road to Batesville Road ’til you pick up Nelson County’s picturesque Route 151, the Rockfish Valley Highway. Stop at Devils Backbone Brewery (’cause bikers, like Jerry, are friends of the devil) and drink a Vienna Lager to get your courage straight for the windy climb up Route 56 beside the beautiful Tye River to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Hang a right and glide the BRP all the way back to Afton, then cruise 250 home, stopping for a slice at Crozet Pizza or a margarita at La Cocina del Sol. (If you ride the same loop backwards, you can stop at Dr. Ho’s Humble Pie.) Epic scenery for just a half-day ride.
URBAN HIKING
Hike the city
One day in the not too distant future, you’ll be able to hop on the Rivanna Trail at Darden Towe Park, head south, and never cross a road ’til you’re standing on the top of Carter Mountain. Albemarle County has plans to hook up its existing trail system to the Monticello Heritage Trails through a bridge that will pass under Interstate 64. Until then, the best urban hike in town starts at the Thomas Jefferson Parkway overflow parking lot just across Route 20 South from Piedmont Virginia Community College. From there you can walk under Route 53 (through a tunnel) and into the Monticello Trail system. Many power walkers, mothers, and joggers take the brisk trip up the fancy-schmancy $6.4 million Saunders-Monticello Trail, which follows a raised wooden causeway two miles to the Monticello ticket office. But dogs are not allowed there, so take the first right after the tunnel, up the hill, through a poplar glade, and into the wide meadow of the secluded farm trail loop. Dogs have to be on a leash, but there’s so much space and natural beauty they won’t mind. The grassy pathways make Figure 8 loops, so you can stay on the flat as long as you want or proceed to the John and Clara Smart trail and from there up Carter Mountain. It’ll get the heart rate pumping, because it’s a steep 1,000′ climb, but once you get to the top, you’ll command a breathtaking panoramic view as you strike your best Rocky pose.
RUNNING WITH DOGS
See Spot run
We’re mere servants to our four-legged hiking hounds. It’s mostly a happy servitude, though, because running with a dog is one of life’s great joys.
A treasured spot in town is Riverview Park, but if you’re farther afield, there’s
a nice parking area (with one of those skinny poop trash cans) where there are usually even a few spots in the shade. The real draw is the Rivanna River, which makes the mission tolerable on a hot, sunny day, and, if you have a water-loving dog, a popular destination any other day of the year. Dogs are allowed off-leash Tuesday-Thursday in the loop area, which makes for a lively environment. You may have to take dog-owner etiquette courses to cope with all of the potentialities, and there’s a learning curve to steering clear of discarded chicken bones and the very occasional copperhead. But whether you just hit the swimming hole, tour the one-mile loop trail, or turn the full 2.3 miles of paved trail into a five-mile out and back, there’re big and small dogventures to be had five minutes out of Court Square. Can’t beat that with a stick.
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