Richmond MORE volunteers are tough & dedicated to trails

I spent a little time this past weekend watching the James River Park staff and Richmond MORE volunteers work on a re-route of the Buttermilk Trail in an area below Riverside Drive at 42nd Street.

Trail reroute cutting erosion, lengthening popular Buttermilk

The Buttermilk Trail is being reworking in the Main Area of the James River Park below the 42nd Street intersection with Riverside Drive. The small parking area on the eastbound side of the Riverside has had a steep and slippery trail that runs straight down the hill to connect to the Buttermilk.

Buttermilk Trail staircase/ramp area to get re-route

Volunteer with Richmond MORE Saturday on the Buttermilk Trail:

This Saturday we will be meeting at Reedy Creek at 9am again and continuing work on the Buttermilk East re-route. Please park at Reedy Creek and head along the trail to the Red Clay Hill. For those of you not familiar with the “Red Clay Hill” section this is the section of trail that also has the small pedestrian staircase and wooden ramp with the bricks in the center. The guys will be working on a short re-route in that are to help reduce some erosion problems. Nathan expects that the re-route will take upwards of 3-4 Saturdays’ worth of trail work. We can shorten that time frame with more volunteers and hands in the mix.
 
What: Buttermilk East Re-Route work part 2.
 
When: Saturday 3-19-11 starting at 9am ending..? Come out for as long as you like.
 
Where: Park in the Reedy Creek parking lot just off of Riverside Drive and Nathan will divide up the groups in the morning. If you like to sleep in a bit then go ahead and park at Reedy and walk West along Buttermilk East (Towards the Nickel Bridge/Dog Park) and come on over to “Red Clay Hill” to catch up with the crew.
 
Bring: Gloves, work boots or shoes, water or coffee (if that’s your thing), a small snack to keep the blood sugar in check and an open mind.

Two volunteer opportunities on the Buttermilk Saturday

From Richmond MORE:

This Saturday 3-12-11 we will be meeting at Reedy Creek at 9am again and will have one small crew head over to the board walk section of Buttermilk to finish up some small work while a much larger crew heads along Buttermilk East (that’s leaving Reedy Creek and heading down the “other” Buttermilk trail towards the Nickel Bridge/Dog park) over towards the “Red Clay Hill.”

New Buttermilk Trail boardwalk has a “skinny” spur

Credit: Richmond MORE

If you haven’t been mountain biking, hiking or running on the Buttermilk Trail lately, you may not know about the recent work just east of the Reedy Creek Parking lot. In addition to all the ivy being cut by volunteers, Richmond MORE and the James River Park crew have been working on more permanent upgrades and have added a fun, challenging technical trail feature. Check the photos on our facebook page, and check this update from Richmond MORE: