Blacksburg VA Remote Work Week 2021: Brush Mountain Park, Hahn Horticulture Garden & the Huckleberry Trail

Blacksburg Remote Work Week: Brush Mountain Park, Hahn Horticulture Garden &
 the Huckleberry Trail – 6/17 & 6/18/21

The remaining two days of our remote work week in Blacksburg, VA were wide-ranging, checking out more hiking venues, riding on a familiar bike trail, and one discovery that had escaped our attention for 30+ years of campus visits.

On Thursday’s lunch break we hiked around the McDonald Hollow section of Brush Mountain Park, created by conservation efforts of the New River Land Trust. The trail system includes an old roadbed that traverses the mountain, alongside criss-crossed trails built with a mountain biking focus. It is a multi-use system, also welcoming foot and horse traffic. 

Since our visit in June 2021, an update on the website: “We closed on a 3rd property of 208 acres on Brush Mountain in December 2021 and are working on the site plan. With this land, we’ll add another 6 miles of new multi-use trails to Brush Mountain Park for a future total of 617 acres of new public parkland and 18 miles of trails.”

Amazing work, y’all! Support land conservation organizations!

On the dinner menu was a new-to-us brewery, Moon Hollow Brewing, part of the reimagining of old Prices Fork Elementary School. While waiting in the food truck line, Jim struck up a conversation with a fellow from the Charlotte area who moved here in retirement. Seems he loves Blacksburg like we do and has made a lot of friends, some of whom he was hanging out with at the brewery tonight. Why don’t we live here?

With a couple of hours of daylight still to go, we visited the Hahn Horticulture Garden on the Virginia Tech campus. We enjoyed a revelatory twilight wander in this amazing botanical world, 5.5 acres that felt infinite in design - how have we missed this? 

“Maid in the Mud” Garden Sprite by Frank Lloyd Wright, gift of Warren and Margie Kark 2007

“Rosalyn the Rustic Ruminant" gift of T. Marshall Hahn 2015

Relax and enjoy the sunset

On Friday morning Jim and I had to leave Shangri-La, but we stretched out our departure to ease the pain. First up was a bike ride on the Huckleberry Trail, a paved rail trail that includes connecting Blacksburg and Christiansburg. [Be advised, there are a number of spur trails off of the Huckleberry so know your route before you go. This website is most helpful for info and links for parking and route-finding.]

We started from the trailhead by the Blacksburg library and rode out to Highway 460, where the trail splits north and south. North goes to Heritage Community Park where we had explored earlier in the week. Today we took the south branch rolling up and down hills towards Christiansburg. At Coal Mining Heritage Park we turned around. Going back seemed harder and I walked my bike up one long stretch…what tired legs? Me?

Huckleberries

Last gasp: We stopped at Beliveau Farm Winery/Brewery as we drove out of town, a spectacular setting with those front row Blue Ridge Mountains. 

Very few folks were there in the early afternoon and we had the view to ourselves as we toasted to a unique adventure that we hope to repeat often.

Our expectations of a remote work week in Blacksburg were for nostalgia and comfort of a familiar place. Jim and I know that the university and the town continue to grow – after all, we visit a couple of times a year for home football games (more nostalgia). We were both surprised, though, at the abundance of outdoor recreation right outside our door. Breweries and restaurants come and go, but public lands well stewarded for all to enjoy are a gift that the New River Valley in southwestern Virginia does extremely well.

I returned home with the notion that any hometown has much to offer if you just look hard enough for parks, greenways, nature preserves, interpretive homesites, museums, galleries, and on and on. What are the top 10 natural/cultural/gastronomical points of interest where you live? Go deeper - what are the next 10, the next 20? Go ahead, surprise yourself!

"What is such a resource worth? Anything it costs. If we never hike it or step into its shade, if we only drive by occasionally and see the textures of green mountainside change under wind and sun, or the fog move soft feathers down the gulches, or the last sunset on the continent redden the sky beyond the ridge, we have our money's worth."
 ~Wallace Stegner

Blacksburg VA Remote Work Week 2021: Exploring Old & New - VT Nostalgia and Falls Ridge Preserve

Blacksburg Remote Work Week: Exploring Old & New – 6/14-6/16/21

The “work” part of our week in Blacksburg dictated our weekday mornings, but Jim and I took extended lunch breaks each day and/or knocked off early.

On Monday afternoon, we visited a small nature preserve in Montgomery County, VA. [Have you checked out the nature preserves in your home county? They may be a little under the radar compared to county parks. Go find those little gems!] 

Falls Ridge Preserve is extraordinary. On its 655 acres, the most prominent feature is an 80-foot spring-fed travertine waterfall; the stone looks like cooled lava, melted mud. There are also large sinkholes in the preserve suggesting underground caverns. Read about the property’s history, geology and natural features. Fascinating!

NOTE: We visited the preserve on June 14, 2021. This notice now appears on the website:

As of January 27, 2022, Falls Ridge Preserve is closed until further notice.

We are repairing the trails and allowing nature to recover following an extended period of high visitation and overuse of the trails. Want to help by volunteering? Contact: vapreservestewards@tnc.org. For all other inquiries about Falls Ridge please call:      434-951-0579.

On Monday night we carried lawn chairs and adult beverages to the front yard of our home-away-from-home and waited for sunset while soaking in the pastoral scene at Walnut Spring Stables across the way. Ahhhh.

On Tuesday’s lunch break, I introduced Jim to Heritage Community Park. We walked on mowed grass trails through the meadows down to Tom’s Creek. 

Tucked in a corner of the park is Nature Play Space, where several children and their adults were exploring the pollinator garden and interpretive signs.

When we were students at Virginia Tech, from time to time Jim and I would carry cheese and crackers, our backgammon board, a blanket, and a bottle of Lancer’s wine (don’t judge) to the campus Duck Pond. After dinner on Tuesday, we walked down this “memory lane,” enjoying the nostalgia of our idea of sophisticated interludes. We gave ourselves grace for our youth and gratitude for all the years between then and now. How lucky we were (are).

Wednesday was a full work day, except for Jim’s lunchtime bike ride. After the whistle blew, we strolled around another part of the VT campus (it’s a big place, y’all) including Burruss Hall and the April 16 Memorial Monument. 

Remember that dinner invitation? Bountiful hospitality, delicious Greek food, good wine and wide-ranging conversation on a cool evening in the Virginia mountains, all from a chance meeting at a brewery.

These experiences are giving us a lot to think about.

“You can’t force people to care about the natural environment, but if you encourage them to connect with it, they just might.” ~Jennifer Nini 

Blacksburg VA Remote Work Week 2021: Cascades Hike & Cruising Giles County

Blacksburg Remote Work Week: Cascades Hike – 6/13/21 - 4 miles

Today Jim and I headed just a few miles west of Blacksburg to a special spot for all Hokies: Cascades Waterfall in Jefferson National Forest. 

I’ve blogged about this hike several times (here and here) so I won’t get into great detail. We took the more scenic Lower Trail to the Falls and the Upper Trail to return to the parking lot. Little Stony Creek was flowing beautifully and even the air was saturated with early summer green.

Since we didn’t have to rush back to anywhere (we live here this week, remember?) we took a scenic drive around Giles County. We had lunch on the veranda at Mountain Lake Lodge of “Dirty Dancing” fame.

Did Baby dance down these steps?

There are still a couple of covered bridges in Giles County. We stopped to look at the Link Farm Covered Bridge over Sinking Creek, built in 1912. (This bridge is on private property so we zoomed in from the road.)

Is there a brewery open on Sunday night in Blacksburg? Why, yes, there is: Eastern Divide Brewery on the east side of town, a new industrial space with a wide grassy outdoor space for kids to run around. 

A couple of folks sitting at nearby tables struck up conversation and we were so immersed in the fellowship that we forgot to eat supper! We ordered takeout as the brewery was closing.  One of our new friends invited us to his home for dinner with friends later in the week.

Building community, checking off boxes, adding reasons why Blacksburg is the best place on earth…

“What if the Hokie Pokey really is 
what it’s all about?”
 ~a Virginia Tech fan