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Hassan Kaisoum (right), owner of Aromas Café, jumped at the chance to sponsor the local amateur adult soccer team managed by David Deaton (left). Kaisoum says soccer “saved” him as a child, and he hopes Charlottesville will begin to embrace the sport on a broader level. Photo by Ryan Jones
It may not be the FIFA World Cup, but an amateur adult soccer team in Charlottesville is gearing up for a major competition on a national level. Aromas Café FC, a team comprised of players who hail from all over the globe, hopes to bring soccer to the forefront in Charlottesville through its participation in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.
The Lamar Hunt Cup is the oldest ongoing national soccer competition in the United States, which pits professional, semi-professional and amateur soccer teams against each other, with only 14 slots for amateur teams. Aromas Café FC qualified about a month ago, the first Virginia team to do so in more than two decades, and will be playing its first cup game May 11.
Aromas manager David Deaton hopes to show through his team’s qualification the potential that Charlottesville has as a soccer town, and he cites the large international community as one of its benefits.
“What’s unique about Charlottesville is that we’re one of the few places that’s actually a university town as well as a refugee center,” Deaton says. “So, driven by the university, we have this huge international community, but then thanks to the refugee center we have even more.”
Aromas Café FC is evidence of this diversity, with players from countries such as Colombia, Kenya, Iran and the United States. Aromas’ owner Hassan Kaisoum was orphaned in Morocco at age of 11. He says soccer “saved” him as a child, and he wants to pass on the power of the sport.
“I took out all of my frustration in soccer,” Kaisoum says. “In my country, when it came to 5 o’clock, there was no difference between rich or poor. We’d have people playing from every background. The only thing I used to look at was the shoes.”
Kaisoum played soccer professionally in France and Canada, and when Deaton approached him to be the team’s sponsor, his answer was easy.
“They needed my help, so I did it,” Kaisoum says.
“We told Hassan that we needed a sponsor and he just said, ‘What do you need?’” Deaton adds. He says Kaisoum is a constant reminder of the community spirit that soccer builds.
In addition to the wide range of nationalities on the team, Aromas Café FC also is made up of players who have highly diverse soccer careers. While the majority of the team played soccer at the collegiate level, three are retired professional soccer players.
Despite a local concentration of elite soccer players, Deaton laments that the infrastructure in Charlottesville is not up to par.
“It really needs a very serious look from our community leaders,” he says. “The state average for youth participation in soccer leagues is 10 percent, and we have 20 percent in Charlottesville [according to Soccer Organization Charlottesville Area]. Yet there’s not a single lit, publicly accessible field to play soccer on. There are over eight publicly funded tennis courts here. There’s not a single soccer facility in the community that does that.”
Although the team struggles with field space (games and practices are held at Charlottesville High School), Kaisoum stresses the ability that soccer has to unify the Charlottesville community. When he’s not at Barracks Road Shopping Center running Aromas Café, which he opened 19 years ago, he’s attending the soccer team’s games and practices.
“Soccer is always a way to bring people together, and it’s amazing to have that integration and have people from every background or religion and every ethnicity playing,” Kaisoum says. “When they go to the field, they all become unified and it’s fantastic to see that.”
Deaton adds that although the team is looking forward to the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, where it could play against a Major League Soccer team such as D.C. United, the team’s sights remain focused on spreading community spirit in Charlottesville.
“We’re trying to impart a passion of camaraderie—that’s what’s driving this, all of this,” Deaton says. “We’re trying to demonstrate, even to ourselves as much as anyone else, that we can do a lot as a team. But in the end it’s actually the camaraderie of the sport that pushes us toward that level of excellence.”
Virginia’s coywolves, a hybrid between western coyotes and eastern timber wolves, are often black in color. Also called eastern coyotes, they are 66 percent coyote, 24 percent wolf and 10 percent dog. Photo: Jon Way
A lone, gray pickup truck with its headlights off rolls along the gravel road in the pale light of a full moon. The truck stops along a tree line in front of a long, broad field and two camouflaged men get out. They close the doors slowly so as to not make any noise. The men sling their rifles over their shoulders and whisper about where to begin. Down past the woods? Over at the neighboring farm?
A long, chilling howl erupts from the woods across the freshly cut hay field in front of them, followed by a chorus of yips and more howling. Mike Hummell watches and listens. He zips up his jacket against the cold. “You want to hunt that?” he asks his hunting partner, Marshall Koontz.
Hummell and Koontz are specialist hunters who respond to calls from concerned residents about predators preying on their flocks of sheep, herds of cows, etc. Working pro bono last week, they had received a call from a farmer concerned about a top-level predator that has recently arrived in Virginia—the coywolf. Also called the eastern coyote, the coywolf is a hybrid of western coyotes and eastern timber wolves, and it may represent an entirely new species.
For most of human history, wolves have been feared and hated. They ate livestock and occasionally attacked humans. Virginia’s first government bounty on wolves was enacted at Jamestown in 1632. As settlers moved west, the slaughter accompanied them across the continent and bounties continued to be paid in some states into the early 20th century. The removal of wolves enabled the expansion of the coyote.
For thousands of years, coyotes were restricted to the American West in part because of competition with wolves. The larger predators attack coyotes to protect their territories from another canid, which competes somewhat for prey. With the wolves gone, coyotes began to expand their range. As young, lone coyotes went in search of new territories they sometimes encountered remnant populations of eastern timber wolves. In small dating pools, love blossomed between two species that would normally fight.
The hybrids are larger than western coyotes and smaller than eastern timber wolves. A pure-blooded male western coyote tops out at under 30 pounds. A male timber wolf averages around 67 pounds. Male coywolves typically weigh in at around 35 pounds, especially if they manage to live for more than two years. None of these animals is large enough to threaten a healthy adult human.
Janis Jaquith, a long-time resident of Free Union, had her first encounter with what she believes was a coywolf in summer 2004. She watched her flock of eight guinea fowl walking toward her house at dusk with a coyote following them.
“That animal didn’t care that I was there at all,” she says. “It was just kind of sauntering maybe six feet behind the last guinea fowl. So I went over to it and I clapped my hands together and said, ‘Get out of here you bastard, get out of here!’ This thing didn’t care at all. A dog would have been spooked and gone away. …It looked over at me out of the corner of its eye like a teenager and then kind of raised its chin and slowly sauntered off to the side into the woods.”
Within a year, nocturnal predators had wiped out most of the flock.
Scientific research into Virginia’s coywolf population began in 2011. Dr. Marcella Kelly, professor of wildlife studies at Virginia Tech, has been contracted by Virginia’s Department of Game and Inland Fisheries to study the diets of coywolves. Complaints from deer hunters of dwindling prey in Bath and Rockingham counties prompted the agency to look into whether coywolves are responsible.
“We have the breakdown of their diet,” Dr. Kelly says. “It’s 45 percent deer. Deer is the primary thing in their diet; voles is the second-largest component. Believe it or not, the next two are mast (edible parts of woody plants, such as acorns and rose hips) and insects. Vegetation, blueberries, stuff like that. We’ve got squirrels, rabbits, and the last one is birds. …I think you do have to worry about pets. They’re a predator like any other predator. They’ll take a pet if it’s there and they are hungry. With sheep, there is an issue. There are problem animals. It’s not that the population as a whole does this, but some individuals specialize in it.”
The coyote hunters have their own opinions about the eating habits of coyotes, owing to years of observation of their behavior and picking apart their scat.
Specialist hunter Marshall Koontz responds to calls fron concerned residents about predators, such as coywolves, preying on their livestock. He said he’s seen an uptick in the local coyote population in the last 10 years. Photo: Amy Jackson
“Oddly enough, they eat more cow pies than cows,” says Hummell as he sets up a shoulder-high tripod during his moonlight hunt. “Everybody thinks that coyotes eat nothing but meat. They actually are more of a fruit-eater than anything. One of their favorite foods is persimmons, oddly enough…granted you are gonna see them eat rabbits, they eat small game, they love fox. It’s one of their favorite food groups, the red fox. They don’t mess with gray fox too much because they can’t catch them. Gray fox can climb a tree.”
To the top of the tripod Hummell fastens his rifle, a suppressed AR-15 with a night vision scope. Koontz sets up a bolt action Remington Model 700 on his own tripod and flips on a thermal imaging system. Blowing a tubular caller dangling from a string around his neck, Hummell begins producing a series of long howls. Koontz follows with a series of yips from his own caller. The pair adds up to a convincing facsimile of a rival pack of coyotes. Within seconds, the real coyotes begin to respond. Closer, this time. They are on the move.
“Typically, people get a misconception,” Koontz says. “They say, ‘I heard 10!’ But when they’re out moving back and forth, two can sound like a dozen. …Their core area is usually gonna be in a thick, dense spot, abundant in small game to where they don’t have to fight for food. That’s why when you hear them barking at each other, two different packs, it’s this pack here is trying to intimidate that pack.”
Hummell and Koontz continue to challenge the pack that is audibly moving toward the tripods and rifles. A light switches on in a house about 300 yards away. Shouting is heard from inside.
People worry about coyotes: farmers with livestock, families with pets and children. But Kelly says attacks on humans are rare.
“As for humans, there have been very few attacks, but they’ve happened,” she says. “I don’t know that anyone has ever been killed by a coyote. In those attack situations, there’s usually extenuating circumstances. (There is) very little risk in terms of human attacks.”
The distinct sound of a screen door slaps shut from the nearby house. A yelping chorus of beagles erupts. Hummell and Koontz watch and wait to see if the dogs will deter the coywolves from coming within range. Even as he peers through his night vision scope with his finger hovering on the outside of the trigger guard, Hummel advises a certain amount of tolerance for coywolves.
“If you come into an area where it’s really quiet and you know there’s coyote activity that usually means that you have a very big one there, the alpha,” he says. “The alpha is something that keeps other coyotes in check. …Let’s say you have goats over here and one goat is being eaten every month, month and a half. (If you) shoot that alpha, he’s what’s keeping these coyotes in check because they’re not gonna mess with him. You shoot him and these other packs no longer have a sense of intimidation. They’re gonna come in; they’re gonna clear your goats out. They’re gonna eat every one. It’s one of these things where you need to pick and choose your battles. …This pack over here isn’t allowed to come in here. That’s why you still have goats.”
Science is bearing out some of what Hummel has observed in the field. Kelly’s research shows that poorly planned hunting can make a coyote problem worse.
“When you take out coyotes, it leaves this big space and more coyotes come in,” Kelly says. “Then they have a really big litter the next year. It does not make a big difference when you take out a lot of animals. You can try, and people are trying with bounties. The coyotes in Bath County have about a 50 percent chance of living for six months [due to hunting by humans], but their reproduction is really fast. When Chicago did a big cull a few years ago, they had litter sizes of 14 pups the next year.” The average litter size is six.
Most eastern coyotes are genetically about 66 percent coyote, 24 percent wolf and about 10 percent of DNA originating from domestic dogs. The genetic contribution from dogs is relatively low because dogs may go into heat and become pregnant at any time, while wolves and coyotes have a reproductive cycle closely timed to the annual calendar. (Pups born in the late summer or fall will probably not survive in the wild through winter.) A 2009 study showed that all black wolves and coyotes in North America owe that gene to hybridization with European dogs. Virginia’s coywolves are often black, demonstrating their ancestry.
The coywolf diet mainly consists of deer (45 percent), along with voles, vegetation, squirrels, rabbits and birds. The Department of Game and Inland Fisheries commissioned a study in Rockingham and Bath counties to determine if coywolves there were responsible for a declining deer population. Photo: Jon Way
In the course of her research, Kelly noticed a slight advantage to being a black coywolf. “We had one black coyote who lasted for years [without being killed by hunters], we think because he looked like a dog and had a [tracking]collar on.”
Hummell and Koontz listen as their unseen prey changes direction. Previously on a trajectory headed for their guns, the coyotes turn away as the pack of beagles does its job. As the hunters know all too well, coywolves are not shy about approaching human settlements.
“I hear coyotes every night, their yips quickly escalating into an unnerving crescendo and then falling silent,” writes Albemarle County resident Lilia Fuquen in an e-mail. “Sometimes I think they must be less than a quarter mile away; they sound like they’re closing in on the house.” She lives nine miles outside of Charlottesville’s city limits.
“During the summer of 2014, our flock of hens began to dwindle, quickly,” writes Fuquen. “They were free-range hens that had survived several years, but over the course of a week, half the flock was taken. Foxes and coyotes had discovered them. One afternoon, I was gardening out front when I heard one of the surviving hens squawking at the back of the house. I tore around the house at a full sprint and saw a tall, lanky, mangy-looking coyote lurking on the back porch, less than four feet from the back door of the house. It stopped, looked at me and just stood there. After a split-second, I began screaming wildly and flailing my arms about, running toward it. It turned slowly, glanced back at me over its shoulder, and in no hurry, sauntered down off the porch and away into the fields beyond the house.”
“I know farmers and friends and they’ve complained about them a little bit,” whispers Koontz as his quarry disappears into the night. “Most of them around here you don’t hear about them attacking the cows because they put more bulls in every lot, which seems to keep the attacks down. …Typically coyotes don’t fool with the cows a lot unless they’re sick or getting ready to calve.”
With their diets incorporating so much whitetail deer, it may seem like the coywolves may be filling the ecological niche left when wolves were exterminated from Virginia in the 1800s. But Kelly doesn’t think it’s that simple. Unlike wolves, “coyotes are sort of nature’s garbage collectors,” she says. “They will eat a lot of different things. We’ve lost so many predators. They’re not necessarily filling the wolf niche. Wolves hunted in a fundamentally different way from coyotes and can take much larger prey.”
While coyotes are omnivores that dabble in a lot of small game, wolves specialize in hunting animals of more than 100 pounds. In Virginia, they likely ate a lot of elk and bison. The last Virginia bison was killed in 1801 by Daniel Boone’s youngest son, Nathan, and elk have only just been reintroduced to deep southwest Virginia. The ecological context for pure-blooded wolves, a natural predator of the coyote, to exist in the Commonwealth of Virginia has disappeared.
And it isn’t clear that coywolves are killing all of the deer that they are eating. Kelly’s method for studying their diet involves picking apart scat to see what types of hair and bone fragments are in it. Virginia’s steady supply of road kill could be providing some amount of that deer hair and bone found in the samples being studied. One of the most surprising results of Kelly’s study has been finding that Virginia bobcat populations had been significantly underestimated. Many samples of scat that had been visually identified as coming from coyotes or foxes turned out to be from bobcats. Some of the hypothesized new predation on deer may have come from bobcats or other predators.
“Bears have increased dramatically in the last 10 years,” Kelly says. “The predator community here is pretty amazing. We took scat samples and analyzed them and 50 percent were bobcats. The number of bobcats is pretty large. It’s a pretty interesting system with this increase of bears, introduction of coyotes and we have a lot more bobcats than anyone realized. “
There is no official estimate of the total population of coyotes in Albemarle County. The mixture of habitats and available food is different from the steep wooded mountains in the region Kelly is studying. But the consensus among local coyote hunters is that roughly there is a pack of coywolves ranging from a lone alpha male to up to a dozen individual coyotes for every five square miles in Albemarle County (726 square miles). If that is true, that would be about 145 groups of coyotes in the county, with a total population somewhere between 500 and 1,000. Albemarle’s mixture of woods and cultivated fields offers an ideal mix of habitat for coywolves.
The pair of coyote hunters quietly pack up their tripods, night vision gear and rifles—time to move on. They combat sub- freezing temperatures in two more locations known to harbor problem coyotes before giving up for the night. Repeatedly, packs of domestic hunting dogs ran off the coywolves as the hunters were calling them in.
“Probably about 10 years ago we started seeing [coyotes] a lot and it’s just exploded,” says Koontz. “I have seen, deer hunting, when I’ve retrieved a deer I’ve seen the coyotes on it instantly. They go after the weak. They don’t go after the strong, per se—unless they’re really hungry. Each coyote is different. Some are aggressive, some aren’t.”
At the groundbreaking ceremony of the Brooks Family YMCA, 10 people responsible for bringing this project to life dug the first shovels into soon-YMCA soil.
The long-awaited Brooks Family YMCA will offer local families a fitness floor, elevated track, basketball gym and multiple pools—all coming to McIntire Park in the summer of 2017 at a cost of $18,744,384. Exactly half of that has been raised so far.
“You may have your door knocked upon soon,” Suzanne Jessup Brooks, vice president of Pepsi Cola Bottling and lead donor, said at the November 5 groundbreaking event at which 10 people, including herself, donned blue construction hard hats and ceremoniously dug shovels into future-YMCA soil. She and the rest of those working to bring a YMCA—one of 2,700 in the nation—to Charlottesville are hoping to raise nearly $6 million more.
The planning for this site began in 2006, when Charlottesville agreed to lease public park land to the Y for 40 years at $1 a year, and Brooks is happy that things are finally taking off.
“I don’t normally get weepy,” she said, “but I’m going to get weepy this time.”
After the ceremony, Katie Krueger, the daughter of YMCA Board Chair Kurt Krueger, shared similar sentiments.
“It’s been a long time coming,” she said. “He’s been working on it almost the span of my lifetime.” Krueger said the board has overcome many obstacles. “It’s great to see it finally materialize,” she added.
Amid murmurs from attendees about the YMCA being for families that can’t afford a membership to ACAC, which sued to stop the project, charts advertised available financial assistance for memberships. The proposed family rate at the Brooks Family YMCA is $77 per month, with an adult rate of $52, a senior rate of $46, a student rate of $38 and a youth rate of $24.
Acknowledging all the hard work that has gone into this project to which city and county have both contributed funding, Albemarle Board of Supervisors Chair Jane Dittmar said, ‘We know that the city and county, even together, could not have done this [alone].”
The public is invited to a community-wide celebration at McIntire Park from 5-7pm November 11 for free food, music and family fun including obstacle courses and hot-air balloon rides.
Sam Lindblom, president of the
Charlottesville Area Mountain Bike Club, believes everyone should be given access
to Ragged Mountain. Rammelkamp Foto
“It embarrasses me that some outdoors people feel that there are others who are not ‘pure enough,’” wrote avid trail hiker of 50 years, John Pfaltz, in a letter to C-VILLE the day after Charlottesville City Council voted 3-2 to table the decision on whether a prohibition on cyclists, runners and dogs would be lifted at Ragged Mountain Natural Area.
Pfaltz has made an annual hiking trip to Douthat State Park, where mountain biking and training is encouraged, for the last eight years, and says the cyclists have been invariably courteous and friendly.
“I’m sure a few are not, but I have not met them,” he adds.
Acknowledging that biking may damage a trail, Pfaltz says, “I can understand people wanting to [preserve] nature,” but, he adds “it keeps people out.” He also acknowledges hiking could damage a trail.
Sam Lindblom, president of the Charlottesville Area Mountain Bike Club, also believes everyone should be given the chance to experience nature, and he says the “epidemic” of people not getting outside contributes to poor health.
“We also know that if we want people to care about natural places, then they have to go there. They have to visit and experience them,” Lindblom says. “People tend to care about places they frequent.”
To make Ragged Mountain more accessible, Lindblom, who is also a longtime member of the Nature Conservancy, says his biking club supports the development of sustainable, shared-use trails, which could be made environmentally responsible with proper planning and by avoiding sensitive areas.
But, for some, any human activity at the natural area is too much.
“It is broadly accepted that there is a tier of disturbance to naturally sensitive areas,” City Councilor Dede Smith says.
Smith, who voted to table the decision, is opposed to lifting the ban on recreational use and believes it should be enforced further.
“It’s not a new principle to say that walking paths have the least impact [on the environment],” she says, “but yes, some areas should be off-limits, period. And that is where we need to focus our attention now.”
Preserving drinking water at Ragged Mountain is one of the main reasons Smith is apprehensive about allowing recreational activity at that location—the area has a two-square-mile watershed due to its “bowl-like” topography, she says.
“Anything bad that happens on that land, including a lot of dog poop and erosion, will end up in our drinking water,” Smith says.
For 14 years, Smith ran the Ivy Creek Foundation, which managed the Ragged Mountain Natural Area until September, when the land was transferred to the city after the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority built the new dam.
Out of 13 parks in the county, where Ragged Mountain Natural Area is located, six allow mountain biking. If it were to be allowed at Ragged Mountain, only one other park, Charlotte Yancey Humphris Park, would be reserved for passive recreation. Other parks allow a slew of activities including hiking, swimming, fishing and horseback riding, with access to grills, picnic shelters and playgrounds. Both Ragged Mountain and Charlotte Yancey Humphris are shared city-county parks.
Charlottesville Parks and Recreation Manager Doug Ehman says it’s going to be awhile before a decision is made, but he’s aiming for next summer. The city’s trails planner, Chris Gensic, plans to inform the City Planning Commission of the results of an environmental study by June. After the commission’s recommendation, the ordinance will go back to City Council for the official vote.
A drone used in Darren Goodbar’s introduction to drone technology course took this photo of Piedmont Virginia Community College while class members controlled it from the parking lot. Photo courtesy of Darren Goodbar
In March 2013, Charlottesville was the first city in the United States to pass an anti-drone resolution, which declared Charlottesville a No Drone Zone. This moratorium ended July 1 and—you guessed it—the drones are here.
Darren Goodbar, an unmanned aerial vehicle, or drone, pilot in the Air National Guard, served overseas in Afghanistan as an operations manager for several aircraft. On September 14, he began working for Draper Aden Associates, a consulting engineering firm in Charlottesville, as the director of aerial services. His big idea: aerial surveying and mapping by drone technology.
“As surveyors and engineers, we’re just super excited to be able to see our entire site from a planning perspective,” says Kris Caister, the Western region survey manager at Draper Aden, “but also to work toward creating that survey-grade data so that we can do the good work to help out the community and our clients.”
Aside from using aerial technology for surveying, Goodbar says he’s also interested in providing area mapping and imagery after a natural disaster. For instance, if the city is hit by a derecho, and if communications are down and roads are flooded, he says, “I can be up in the air and survey Charlottesville and the county really quickly.” He says he would then be able to feed that data back to an emergency management department instantly, rather than trying to send an employee out in the dangerous environment. Drones must fly within the pilot’s visual line of sight, which is usually about half a mile from the launchpad.
Other local emergency services are considering the implementation of drone technology, including the Charlottesville Fire Department and Albemarle search and rescue teams.
Former Charlottesville Fire Chief Charles Werner, who has a longtime interest in drone technology, says they can be used for pre-fire planning by providing images of buildings and roofs, which could later be used for reference during a fire.
“It also allows a photo capture of unit locations and fire conditions at separate times that can be used for comparison and for later incident critique and training,” he says.
Werner recalls that a drone from Virginia Tech was used in the search for Hannah Graham. Albemarle County Sheriff Chip Harding says his search and rescue teams are interested in the technology, as well.
“We’ve had several searches where even the mapping didn’t indicate small bodies of water that I’d like to have known about sooner than I did,” says Harding. He is concerned with the privacy regulations that come with flying a drone, and the department is working to learn more about the rules of flying unmanned aerial vehicles.
“There’s not much privacy left,” says the Rutherford Institute’s John Whitehead, who was involved with passing Charlottesville’s initial anti-drone resolution. He believes it would be beneficial for emergency services to have access to drone technology, but says it would be unconstitutional for police to use the gadgets, without a search warrant, to gather information that could be used against someone in the court of law.
Werner, a drone hobbyist, uses a DJI Phantom 3, which is capable of taking 1080p high-definition photos and 2K resolution videos.
“It was my research and my personal experience with my own drone which validated to me the extreme value that these devices will add to public safety,” he says.
Goodbar says the reason more people aren’t flying drones in more places is the regulatory environment currently in place by the Federal Aviation Administration. Currently, the FAA requires commercial entities to have a special exemption, a certificate of authorization, a registered aircraft and a licensed private pilot.
“That’s one of the big hurdles right now,” he says. “A lot of companies are waiting until that requirement goes away.” Goodbar believes this may no longer be a requirement in the near future.
According to Goodbar, drone technology is already being successfully implemented in Europe by DHL Express—the international express-mail service is experimenting with delivering medicine by drone and eventually hopes to be able to collect mail such as bills, greeting cards and small packages in a payload and deliver it to a remote island, making the sending and receiving of snail mail more effective and more cost-efficient than sending it by a manned aircraft, he says.
“So if you’re living on an island and you want to send a card to grandma or you need to pay your electric bill,” he says, “you give them that and, just like any other post office, they deliver it [by drone].”
In Wise County, officials are also testing the use of medicine delivery by drone. During a test a few weeks ago, Goodbar says a plane landed at an airport and dropped off a box, then a drone picked up the box and took it to a clinic. The next step would be flying the box from the clinic to a person’s household. Though this method isn’t immediately necessary, Goodbar says they’re planning for a potential snowstorm or natural disaster.
On September 12, Goodbar taught a class about drone technology at Piedmont Virginia Community College, and its attendees included people with commercial and recreational interests and drone advocates, as well. He taught about federal regulations, types of drones, flight safety and lesser-known industries that could benefit, such as agriculture and real estate.
Recreationally, Goodbar says there’s local interest in drone racing, called FPV, or first person view racing, where pilots wear goggles that allow them to see from their drone’s eyes and fly through a predetermined course. Red Bull is significantly invested in creating a national racing program in which drones could race at speeds of 75 miles per hour.
“It’s going to be nuts in the next three years,” Caister says about local drone use in general. “And in five years, it’s almost going to be commonplace.”
There are plenty of youngsters on the USA Cycling Team, which competes for the world championship at the end of the month.
On a rainy day in June, city officials, biking representatives and enthusiasts huddled under the dry nTelos Wireless Pavilion while USA Cycling spokesperson Jim Miller announced that Charlottesville would host the U.S. team’s training camp before the Richmond UCI Road World Championships September 20-27.
Kurt Burkhart, the executive director of the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention & Visitors Bureau promised clear skies for the team’s September visit and today he delivered.
Under the name of Cycle Fest, a crowd of guests and about 20 booths and vendors gathered at the pavilion on September 17 to celebrate the team’s current residence in Charlottesville. The bicycle-themed expo included local bike shops, cycling clubs and classes, free bike inspections and free bike decorating supplies for kids.
“You just can’t beat Southern hospitality,” Miller says about his brief stay in Charlottesville.
USA cycler Chloé Dygert agrees, saying, “I’ve really enjoyed being able to ride with the best girls in the nation and I hope to do that in the road race.” The team has practiced for the last week on Charlottesville and Albemarle roads.
Dygert raced Monday, winning the gold for the junior world championship time trial. Skylar Schneider, showing off red, white and blue sneakers, doesn’t race until Friday.
“Once we found out we were selected for worlds,” Schneider says, “our families were quite excited and wanted to make sure we were outfitted the best we could be to represent our country.”
It doesn’t matter how hot it is on the ground, when you’re up in a plane going close to 100mph at several thousand feet, you’ll cool right down. Then, when you leap from that plane and plummet toward the earth at (more or less) 9.81 m/s, the chill factor only increases. Got the guts to do it? Skydive Orange can help make it happen. It’s pricey, sure—a single tandem jump runs close to $400—but you only live once, right?
Around the world
OK, so you’re down with going up, up, up, but not with the jumping out part? An early morning hot air balloon ride could be your ticket to cool down and soak in some views. Three local companies all boast perfect safety records, according to their websites, and send riders up when the weather cooperates:
Boar’s Head Ballooning Boar’s Head is celebrating 35 years and is offering a special anniversary rate in July and August of $185 per person for certain rides.
Tubing down the James with friends and a full cooler? What more do you need? Photo: Tom Daly
Learn how to swim
Can you swim? Eighty percent of American adults claim they can, but a better question is: Can you swim well enough to save yourself? According to a 2014 report by the Red Cross, 54 percent of Americans can’t perform all five critical water safety skills: stepping or jumping into water that’s over your head; returning to the surface and floating or treading water for one minute; turning around in a full circle and finding an exit; swimming 25 yards to the exit; and exiting from the water without a ladder if you’re in a pool.
So what’s your answer now? If it’s no, it’s time to develop stronger water skills and there are several ways to do that. The City of Charlottesville’s summer group lessons are already well underway, but private lessons are still possible, and if you find a friend or two to do it with you, the per person price drops. (Two people can get five 30 minute lessons for $188; three will pay just $248, and nonresidents pay just a bit more.) 970-3073
You can also check into lessons through ACAC (Albemarle Square: 978-3800; Downtown: 984-3800), and then you’ll truly be ready to enjoy all the water activities this area has to offer.
Swimming holes
Once you’ve learned to swim, you’ll be ready to take a dip in one of the swimming holes located in the Charlottesville area. Short hikes from the base of Sugar Hollow Reservoir will lead visitors to two of the most popular swimming spots in the area: Blue Hole and Snake Hole (and yes, the latter is named that for a reason, so if you suffer from ophidiophobia, you may want to reconsider). Another natural pool can be accessed by a more strenuous hike along Riprap Hollow in the Shenandoah National Park. The prize after a tough 3.4 miles on foot? A 50-foot wide swimming hole, offering a break to hikers hoping to complete the total 9.5 mile trail, or a reprieve from the sun for those wishing to swim.
Tubing (or canoeing or kayaking!) on the James River
Nature’s “lazy river” can be found just 25 minutes outside of Charlottesville in Scottsville, and two companies—James River Reeling and Rafting or James River Runners—offer a variety of ways to travel the river: tubing, kayaking and canoeing. And even though Albemarle County Police have announced a crackdown on misbehaving rivergoers, they’ve promised they’re not going to be busting anyone over 21 for drinking a beer while they float or paddle along. Reservations are required, and check out the overnight camping options if you’re looking to extend the fun.
James River Reeling and Rafting: 286-4386
James River Runners: 286-2338
Row, row, row your boat
The river isn’t the only body of water where recreational activities abound. You can swim of course at all three county lakes: Walnut Creek Park, Mint Springs Valley Park in Crozet or Chris Greene Lake north of town by the airport, but you can also rent canoes at Walnut Creek and Chris Greene for $5/hour. 296-5844
Inside
Comic wonders Amy Schumer and Bill Hader get laughs on the way to love in Trainwreck out later this month. Photo: Universal Pictures
Movies
Summer is blockbuster season, and the big hits keep rolling out through Labor Day. Jurassic World started the summer with a bang, Magic Mike XXL has moviegoers dancing in the aisles, and some of the best is yet to come: Amy Schumer’s sure-to-be hilarious Trainwreck (July 17), the body-swapping thriller Self/less starring Ben Kingsley and Ryan Reynolds (July 10), Jake Gyllenhaal vehicle Southpaw (July 24) and the latest installment of Vacation (July 29). And as summer winds down, there’s Regression, a movie that claims to be turning the thriller genre inside out and starring Emma Watson and Ethan Hawke (August 28).
Stage
Had enough movies? Perhaps you’d rather take in your entertainment live. There are theater productions aplenty this summer starting with Live Arts, which brings Xanadu to the stage July 17-August 8. Heritage Theatre Festival presents I Love a Piano, a celebration of the life and music of Irving Berlin, from July 21-August 1; Violet, a story of a young woman with a disfiguring facial scar who embarks on a healing voyage, July 28-August 1; and Almost Maine, a love story set in a town so far north it’s almost Canada, July 23-August 1 (924-3376). Other live performances include the Ash Lawn Opera’s Madama Butterfly on July 10, 12, 16 an 18, and My Fair Lady on August 1, 2, 5, 7, and 8. Tickets are available at theparamount.net or 979-1333.
Cooking classes
With daily temperatures exceeding 85 degrees, the only place you’ll want to turn up the heat is in the kitchen. And the Charlottesville Cooking School in the Meadowbrook Shopping Centre is a fine place to hone your culinary skills. Summer classes include Paella from Spain on July 10, Greek Summer Grilling on July 17.
Other cooking class opportunities abound at Pippin Hill Farm, Boar’s Head Inn and at the Williams-Sonoma store in The Shops at Stonefield (973-2155).
Museums
Charlottesville has a handful of great museums to explore, including The Fralin Museumof Art at the University of Virginia on Rugby Road, which has several shows hanging this summer. Over at the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection on Pantops, you’ll find Tony Albert’s “Brothers,” a show responding to police violence against aboriginals. And don’t miss the Night at the Museum events on July 16, August 20 and September 17 from 5-9pm.
Other museums include the three presidents’ mansions:
Monticello: A day and house tour pass gets you guided tours of Thomas Jefferson’s home and gardens, access to the Visitor Center and additional exhibitions.
Montpelier: At James Madison’s home, about 25 minutes north of Charlottesville, you’ll find tours of varying lengths daily.
Ash Lawn-Highland: James Monroe’s abode is now owned and operated by the College of William & Mary, and tours are offered throughout the summer.
At night
Gaze into the heavens at McCormick Observatory on the first and third Fridays of each month. Photo: Jack Looney
Stargazing
For millennia, man has looked to the heavens for guidance. Although most of us don’t use the stars to get home anymore, they’re still a pretty sight. Enjoy the original night life at the McCormick Observatory, where the public can peer through professional telescopes on the first and third Friday night of each month. Call the Public Night Hotline at 243-1885.
Starry Night
If you’re satisfied to use nothing but your own eyeballs to view the heavens, and you like your ears to get in on the action too, then try Veritas Starry Nights, a once-a-month outdoor event at the Afton winery that features a live musical act, food and, of course, wine if you’re old enough. The next event is July 11 and features Beatles cover band Abbey Road. On August 8, The Dickens take the stage. $15.
Drink it in
Starr Hill Brewery is just one stop on the Brew Ridge Trail. Photo: Rammelkamp Foto
Hops
Hop on the self-guided Brew Ridge Trail to visit some of the area’s most popular breweries this summer. Included on the trail are Blue Mountain Barrel House (Arrington), Devils Backbone Brewing Company (Roseland), Wild Wolf Brewing Company (Nellysford), Blue Mountain Brewery (Afton), Starr Hill Brewery (Crozet) and South Street Brewery (Charlottesville). Most of the breweries along the trail are full service restaurants and family appropriate. A trail map and itinerary is available on brewridgetrail.com, as is a list of transportation services offering brewery and winery tours in Nelson County and surrounding areas.
Grapes
The question is where to begin when it comes to winery visits in Charlottesville. A good start is the Monticello Wine Trail website, which has links to 32 Central Virginia vineyards from Glass House Winery in Free Union to Prince Michel Vineyards and Winery to Blenheim and Cardinal Point, and lists events including Keswick’s dog friendly Yappy Hours, musical events and more.
Apples
If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, it seems pretty clear you’ll feel much better if you down some cold, fresh cider this summer. From Bold Rock Hard Cider in Nellysford to Castle Hill Cider in Keswick (castlehillcider.com) and Albemarle Cider Works in North Garden, ciders are surging as one of this area’s biggest attractions.
Underground
Check out how creative nature gets underground at Luray Caverns. Photo: Luray Caverns
Cave people
As earth’s surface temperature soars, deep underground in Luray Caverns, it remains a cool and steady 54 degrees. Located about 90 minutes from Charlottesville in Luray, the caverns offer numerous spectacular features: Giant’s Hall, a massive calcite formation known as Titania’s Veil, and the world’s largest stalacpipe organ. There’s also the Luray Valley Museum on site.
If you’ve already done Luray but are yearning for a new subterranean exploration, there are a couple that are even closer to town. Grand Caverns in Grottoes (540-249-5705) is about an hour from downtown Charlottesville and has features including the Bridal Chamber and a red-lit space called Dante’s Inferno. You can also check out Shenandoah Caverns in Quicksburg (540-477-3115) or Endless Caverns in New Market (540-896-2283) for more stay-cool adventures.
Cool kids
Swimming is always a blast with kids, but if it’s raining, someone’s sunburned or has swimmer’s ear, you need indoor options, so here are a few:
Bruce A. Elder Antique and Classic Automobiles This Staunton museum includes an original Ford dealership that dates to 1911 and boasts rare finds like a 1926 Model T, a Richard Petty race car and a 1968 Mercury Cyclone GT. It’s open most Fridays and Saturdays (call ahead to check), and tours are given throughout the day. 114 S. New St., Staunton. (540) 885-0500
Jump Kids bouncing off the walls? No worries at Jump, a trampoline emporium located in the former Carmike theater. 284-8248
Bounce & Play The littler ones in your life can play safely and mom and dad can chill in a comfortable seating area. Seminole Square. 973-1111
Laser Tag After they outgrow Bounce & Play, kids can head over to the former Office Depot store at Seminole Square for Laser tag. Summer hours are Mondays from 9:30am-1:30pm, and Friday-Sunday 9:30am-1:30pm. 973-1111
AMF Keglers Lanes Keglers’ newly renovated bowling facility on 29N is always cool. 978-3999
Discovery Museum A classic on the Downtown Mall that features a series of rotating exhibits and activities as well as some permanent displays. 977-1025
Up in the mountains
Outdoor summer fun at Wintergreen includes a zip line. Photo: Wintergreen Resort
Wintergreen
Don’t think you should wait until ski season to visit Wintergreen Resort. You’re guaranteed a slight heat reprieve as you gain altitude, and in addition to the Wintergreen Performing Arts Festival, which brings a slew of nationally renowned musicians to the mountain for a series of concerts and events, there are a variety of ways to beat the heat. Summer tubing will send you flying down the hill on inner tubes with special plastic tracks taking the place of snow. A full list of activities and booking options can be accessed on the Wintergreen Resort website.
Massanutten
Not much further away than Wintergreen—about an hour’s drive northwest in McGaheysville—Massanutten is another mountain resort that keeps you busy and cool year round. The biggest non-snow attraction is the Massanutten Water Park, a sprawling indoor/outdoor complex of water slides and other wet and wild activities. And just like Wintergreen, there’s zip lining, a climbing wall and summer tubing.—Timothy DeSimone and Kathleen Smith
Police say they're not targeting tubers with coolers unless they're doing something dangerous and/or disorderly. Photo: Tom Daly
Albemarle County Police announced increased enforcement on the James River this summer, including cops in kayaks, and C-VILLE immediately asked the question on the minds of potential tubers: If I have a beer while floating down the James, am I going to be busted?
“My police officers aren’t going down there to arrest you for having a beer while tubing,” says Captain Greg Jenkins, even though Virginia code does make it illegal to drink in public places.
Operation James River RATT is there to target illegal activities like public intoxication, littering, fights, larcenies from vehicles and in one case last summer, attempted murder, says Jenkins. “Two guys were trying to drown a guy in the river,” he explains. “We’re trying to curb dangerous behavior and educate people.”
Jenkins said last year, his phone started ringing in January with complaints from the river community about aggravated reckless behavior. “They weren’t happy with behavior on the road and on the river,” he says. “Some people I’ve talked to have stopped taking their families down there. We routinely get calls for fights and breaking into cars.” Last July, a man was stabbed in a disorder involving around 50 people.
There can be between 700 and 1,000 people on the river in a day, says Albemarle police spokesperson Carter Johnson. “We don’t want to scare people from going,” she says. “It’s the blatant, obvious violations” police will be targeting.
Says Captain Jenkins, “I guarantee you’re not going to get arrested having a beer on the river—as long as you’re not endangering anyone.”
You can view the Albemarle County Police Department press release here: Operation River RATT
As the third-oldest in the country, the spring-fed pool at Blue Ridge Swim Club earned historic landmark status earlier this year. Photo: Tom Daly
Whether you’re a believer of climate change or not, there’s no denying that it gets hot as Hades here during the summer. The Charlottesville/Albemarle area has its share of holes in the ground filled with water where you can get a respite from the sweltering heat and so-thick-you-can-taste-it humidity, but there’s at least one pool in the area with natural spring water that rarely exceeds temperatures above the 70s. And with less concrete, more grass and 100-year-old trees surrounding the swimming and lounging areas, the Blue Ridge Swim Club may be one of the coolest (and oldest) spots in town.
Built in 1913, owner Todd Barnett says the property was originally intended to be a summer camp. Tucked away among tulip poplar and chestnut trees in the western part of the county, it’s the only natural spring-fed swimming pool in the area. Earlier this year, according to Barnett, who bought the property about five years ago, the club was recognized as a Virginia historic landmark, and as far as he knows, it’s the third-oldest pool in the country.
It’s beloved for sure. But despite its following for the past 10 decades, Barnett admitted that the swimming experience at the Blue Ridge Swim Club may not be for everybody.
“The natural water looks like lake water, which doesn’t appeal to some people,” Barnett says. “Our water is natural water so it has a green appearance, and some people don’t like that.”
The water, filtered as it goes into the pool, flows at a rate of about a gallon per second, which, Barnett says, is how the water is able to remain so clean, even in a 102-year-old facility.
“It’s actually a lot healthier and cleaner [than other pools],” Barnett says. “I feel like it’s healthier in the long run to be swimming in natural water.”
Barnett described the atmosphere as relaxed and vacation-like. The club also features a picnic pavilion with grills and tables, plus a couple of soccer fields. And nothing says summertime quite like an evening concert—at the Blue Ridge Swim Club, you can float around on a noodle while listening to a live acoustic band on the weekends. The club also hosts an art program during the summer.
There are plenty of reasons for a pool like the Blue Ridge Swim Club to close down—modern pools can be expensive to maintain, and building a new one across the street is often easier and cheaper than maintaining an old one. But there’s something about this pool that makes it different.
“It was well-built in the first place, which is why it’s held up this long. A lot of people have wanted to protect it and take care of it over the years,” he says. “I’m hoping we can keep it going for another 100.”
Dive on in
Memorial Day has come and gone, which means one thing: The pools are open! Here’s where to take a dip in the area.
City pools Crow Indoor Pool and Smith Aquatic & Fitness Center are open year-round, but for summertime splashing in city limits, check out Washington Park Pool and Onesty Family Aquatic Center at Meade Park. You’ll get your classic play-Marco-Polo-or-swim-laps experience at Washington Park, and Meade Park features a small lazy river, in-water playgrounds and water slides.
County beaches We may be a couple of hours from an ocean, but that doesn’t mean you can’t dig your toes into the sand this summer. Albemarle County offers season passes to Chris Greene Lake, Walnut Creek and Mint Springs Valley Park, all of which feature sandy beaches and swimming areas. They opened for the weekends on Memorial Day, and beginning June 10, they’ll be open seven days a week for the rest of the summer.
Sherando Lake You can get your swim on at Sherando Lake, located southwest of town in Lyndhurst, which has a sandy beach and a little island to which you can swim or boat. If hanging out on the water appeals to you but you don’t want to actually get wet, you can also take to the lake in a boat, or try your hand at fishing.
Hike ‘n’ swim If you really want to earn your dip in the water, check out one of the area’s several hiking trails that lead you to creek-fed natural swimming holes.
Rip Rap Hollow Trail, in Shenandoah National Park, is an intense trip with a swimming hole tucked away about four miles in.
St. Mary’s River flows over a ledge into a picturesque little pool that’s the perfect spot for a mid-hike dip in the St. Mary’s Wilderness area.
If you follow the South Fork of the Moorman’s River about a mile and a half up the hollow, you’ll find Blue Hole, a cold, clear pool about 12′ deep.
