Category Archives: Advocacy

On Monday, March 1, the first of 3 public meetings was held in regard to the master plan for and allowable uses at Ragged Mountain at the Trinity Church on Fontaine Ave. Extended in Charlottesville. The first meeting was informational, with City Parks and Recreation and RWSA giving a presentation that recapped the history of the Ragged Mountain Reservoir area since the late 1800’s and up to the present.  Approximately 40 people were in attendance, including a member of City Council.  Besides providing history and facts about the land and water at Ragged Mountain, the presentation also made it clear that the … Continue reading →

Trails are one of the earliest and clearest markers of society, CAMBC president David Stackhouse reminds us. To move about efficiently, early humans created trails. Trails provide protection to our surrounding natural resources by concentrating travel patterns as we explore our world. And above all, trails unite communities. Dave shared this message of unity to kick off a trail building workshop led by the International Mountain Bicycling Association’s Trail Care Crew. The attendees included mountain bikers, hikers, and trail runners from various areas of Virginia. Our IMBA Trail Care Crew leaders, Lani and Jordan reinforced this message as they discussed the … Continue reading →

Fellow bikers,So many great biking activities going on right now with this beautiful autumn weather.  I hope that you will take the time to support the new City Parks and Rec “shared use” ordinance to allow a shared use trail system at Ragged Mt.   What can you do to support the Parks and Rec “shared use” ordinance?Please share and help spread the biking goodness. Vote for shared use:  http://www.cvilletomorrow.org/news/article/22233-poll-should-the-trails-at-the-ragged-mountain-be-o/ Contact your City Council to voice your support for the share use ordinance.  The Councilors really pay attention to these emails *Send a single email to all the City Councilors:  council@charlottesville.org*Send … Continue reading →

In November of 2014, the City of Charlottesville held an open forum to discuss the trails at Ragged Mountain. Ragged Mountain was in the process of changing hands and coming under City management, and the issue of trail use was on the table. Roughly 100 citizens representing multiple public land use interests showed up. The overwhelming response was a resounding push for multi-use trails at Ragged. Since then, CAMBC has begun working with the city of Charlottesville to begin planning and laying out trail. The club also hosted a two day engagement with professional trail builders to teach local trail builders how to install … Continue reading →

O-Hill. It’s rocky, it’s steep, and it is as “in-town” as Charlottesville mountain biking gets. And now CAMBC can help maintain the trail network on O-Hill as well as some other UVA properties. After 5 years of negotiating we’ve finally signed an MOU with UVA that allows us to build and maintain trails on undeveloped UVA property.  This is significant for several reasons.  First, UVA is the largest land owner in the City of Charlottesville and has the largest undeveloped land holdings in the City.  This leads to the second significance… there are existing primitive trails (single track) on much of … Continue reading →

CAMBC crew; You’ve heard us talking about the huge opportunity that is the Ragged Mountain Reservoir property.  This is the land out reservoir road from Ohill, formally managed by the Ivy Creek Foundation.  Ivy Creek Foundation is no longer managing this property as of the completion of the new dam and reservoir.  The City of Charlottesville Parks and Recreation Department are hosting a public meeting this Wednesday, November 12, 6 pm at City Space on the downtown mall.  They are considering rule changes at Ragged Mountain, which could include, among other things, access for cycling.  As many of you already … Continue reading →

Come out and support the next generation of ripper-snappers at Preddy Creek. We need club members there to lead rides, cheer the kids on, and show them real trail riding! This event is FREE! If you have a moment to help up spread the word, please print this flyer and post publicly. We really hope for a big turnout this year! Take a Kid Mountain Biking Flyer

The Rivanna Trail Foundation is an important CAMBC partner, whose volunteers keep the RTF trail beautifully maintained. Recently, they had some tools stolen from their shed, severely limiting their ability to remove overgrowth from the trails, and keep the trail corridor open. Because of their dedication to local trails, and our ongoing partnership, CAMBC has donated $500 to the RTF to replace their stolen tools. Blue Ridge Cyclery has also provided a matching $500 donation as well. Speaking on behalf of the CAMBC board, I am proud of our club and its members. It is your membership dollars, and volunteer hours … Continue reading →

This coming Wednesday evening at 6pm the Virginia Festival of the Book presents Ralph Buehler, author of City Cycling and academic research papers such as “Making Cycling Irresistible.” Ruth Stornetta of Bike Charlottesville and Scott Paisley will be on the panel.

This is especially pertinent with the rapidly developing plans to re-design West Main Street and to design the new Belmont bridge, not to mention the city’s Strategic Investment Area of ‘south downtown’ and the city’s small area plans. The city has re-committed this year to the Complete Streets principles (you can find a link to this document on the city’s webpage or at www.cvilletomorrow.org), but how do we help insure that all of this community input and planning leads to real on the ground improvements for all members of the transportation mix? Continue reading →