Steve Frey
With the recent winter weather trying to hold on as long as possible, it seems that spring is really struggling to find a way to take hold this year.
Rumor has it that it was so cold on the first day of spring that even Smokey the Bear started a big bonfire to stay warm!
One thing’s for sure: once spring does get here, we will be hitting the parks and trails for some outdoor recreation.
We are very fortunate to have so many trails and parks around the New River Valley. Sometimes people have donated land; sometimes towns or the state bought the land; sometimes parks have grown up around man-made lakes and sometimes railroads donated the land for trails where tracks used to be.
No matter what the origin, we certainly benefit from our forefathers’ foresight in planning.
We enjoy walking on the trail through Bisset Park. When our grandchildren come to visit, they love to go to the playground there, and we always take some time to explore the river nearby.
They also like to go over to Riverside Park and Belle Heth to explore those playgrounds.
You see, even though they are in primary school, they have become quite the playground aficionados. They are choosy about finding good ones, and they can spend hours swinging, sliding, playing chase and other make-believe games at those parks once they find one.
Afterward, we often take the kids downtown for some ice cream. It is always easier to relax after a playground visit on a warm evening with an ice-cream cone in your hand.
We could not imagine Radford without Bisset and Riverside Parks. It would be great if the city could explore ways to continue to improve those assets along the river for both residents and tourists. There is so much recreation potential waiting to be developed along that river.
Our grandkids also love the Blacksburg Municipal Park with the cool red caboose. They feel like they double their fun because they can play on all the metal and plastic fixtures in the lower part and then have a whole new experience on the big wooden playground up the hill. That visit usually includes a picnic in the park.
We’re really excited to see what the proposed new Christiansburg park at the Truman Wilson tract will be like.
It looks pretty amazing in the plans! If you need volunteers to try out a new playground, our grandchildren are always available.
We also like to bicycle on the New River Trail and the Huckleberry Trail. With the New River Trail, no matter where we start or how far we go, we ultimately end up at the Draper Mercantile.
There is nothing better after a fun ride through the woods and fields than relaxing on the Mercantile’s porch in a comfortable chair drinking an ice-cold soda pop.
There always seems to be a cool breeze, and the music pumped out to the porch adds to the relaxing ambiance.
The Huckleberry Trail is also fun. We start at the New River Mall and wind our way through the lovely countryside. Afterward, we have a self-created frozen yogurt sundae at a close-by shop.
As you can see, any exercise we do is probably canceled out immediately by the mandated refreshments we have later, but that is part of the fun and a way to top off the perfect southwest Virginia day.
We often go over to Claytor Lake State Park, too. With the white sand beach, you feel like you’re on the Gulf Coast of Florida, except you have the beautiful mountains rising all around. Our grandkids will play for hours in the water, and, you guessed it, they always spend some time on the nice playground there.
It’s also wonderful that it’s only about 10 minutes from our home, so it’s not like there is a long ride for them. We escape the, “When are we going to get there?” ughs.
We always go for a hike up to the Cascades a couple times a year. We try to go in the summer when everything is green and alive and in the fall to take pictures of the autumn colors. We pick a Goldilocks day that’s not too cold and not too hot with plenty of sunshine.
We like to kayak several times a year, too. Again, we look for that quintessential day on the water. We enjoy going in on the New River at Riverside Park and kayaking upstream so that it’s an easier float coming back.
Kayaking is always fun, and you never know what you’ll see around the next bend. We also like going in by the Radford Dam and up the Little River.
Whenever we go, the river is pretty empty, so you can paddle along the quiet water like people have probably done for any number of years.
We often take the kids down to Randolph Park in Dublin. Yes, they have the mandatory playground, but they also have that great water park. We have yet to try out the Frog Pond swimming area in Christiansburg, but they love the aquatic center!
These are just a few of the big attractions we frequent close to our home. My wife is also an expert at researching and finding every trail and path within a 30-mile radius, and I believe we have hiked almost all of them ourselves or with the grandkids.
Now, you probably could guess that not only are we thankful for all the natural areas that have been set aside in our neck of the woods, but we would hope that municipalities will work on expanding areas and offerings.
You can never have enough green space in a country that seems to not value it as much as it used to.
There is a real balancing act between maintaining natural areas and the extraction of natural resources or land use for business purposes.
The current crew in Washington seems bent on expanding the business side of things exponentially without much concern for the green space side.
Do we want to have oilrigs off of Virginia Beach or Myrtle Beach? Have we forgotten what happened to Florida’s beaches, tourism and its seafood industry after oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico?
It took many years and millions of dollars to clean up the coast and have tourists and wildlife return. Is it worth it?
It was sad to see the Monuments parkland eliminated or reduced out west so oil and gas companies can speculate on resources.
Closer to home, the natural gas pipeline coming through Giles County could be a problem for the future. It is going to have to be built through the mountains, so the hillsides will never look the same. I’m not a geologist, but it sounds kind of risky to be building a pipeline through karst and minor earthquake country. What could go wrong?
Then there is that little matter of allowing coal companies to dump processing waste in streams again. Isn’t that creating a probability of tainted drinking water with the added possibility of cancer and other medical risks to the people in the area?
Our legislators don’t seem too concerned since many haven’t been too vocal in opposition. Are they putting business interests ahead of the welfare of the people and the preservation of our natural areas?
We all need to be vigilant about opportunities to expand green space and the actions of those who see beautiful Virginia mountains, lakes and trails as just so much land to exploit for natural resources and quick cash.
I’ve only touched on some of the green spaces and recreation areas we like to visit in our region. We also look for outdoor recreation on every vacation or trip we take, and people who visit the New River Valley are doing the same thing. Those tourist dollars could really help pump up the local economy.
Hmmm…Wonderful parks for locals and tourists adding to the quality of life for our communities or open mines, gas leaks, and oil spills.
Is it really a hard decision when we have an endless supply of renewable energy available to us right up in the sky each and every day?
Well, as for us, say hello if you see us along the trail or if you see our grandkids sporting a chocolate ice-cream drip “beard” after a fun afternoon at the playground.
I’ll try not to have one myself—chocolate beard that is—but a post-activity treat will be mandatory.
As Roy and Dale used to sing, “Happy trails to you…”
Steve Frey is a writer and CEO of Ascendant Educational Services based in Radford.
