On any given good-weather weekend day, the Virginia Capital Trail is bustling with activity. As you head west from Rocketts with our downtown city-scape in full view, the cobblestone parking area at the Wharf and bridge to the Kickstand leads you to the beautiful new James A. Buzzard River Education Center, and the whole area starts to feel like the gateway to the City. Continue along the Low Line and choose your own adventure: head into Shockoe, follow the Canal toward Brown’s Island, cross the river and roll South, or head further uptown toward the Fan.
We always want to enhance the Kickstand experience, create amenities for trail users to enjoy that our bicycle rental customers would also find helpful. With that in mind, we started writing up a project plan to increase shade (it gets HOT down there in the full sun), provide seating and rest spots, and add bike racks for anyone to use.
The Kickstand sees more unsavory behavior than we’d like to admit: the amount of litter, smashed glass, and unmentionable human organic matter that we regularly clean up is pretty stunning. (Ask us about our next big goal: fundraising for a Portable Toilet and changing stall on site.) We feel like helping to make the area more utilized, encouraging more trail users to hang out and be present, might help alleviate some of the less favorable activity. Plus, with so many trail users starting their journey nearby, we want to offer the best hospitality we can. We mapped out a three-fold workday: install four more bike racks, paint parking stripes for Kickstand customers, and create our picnic area with shade structure supports installed.
We assembled an all-star team of super-strong volunteers, booked a rental for a gas-powered auger, had all utility lines marked, mapped out our post-hole spots, gathered supplies, and set to work early Saturday morning. One team started marking new parking lines in chalk, while another set to work with the auger - digging holes for the bike racks. We took occasional quick breaks to repair a few walk-up flat tires and check out bikes to our customers that had reservations. Thank goodness for coffee!
Like any good project, something always deviates from the plan.
We pulled the cord to restart our auger after a little break and the whole assembly popped off, pull rope unfurled and spring ejected. UH OH! A quick pivot in planning, and our incredible team got to work hand-digging the rest of the holes.
Absolutely unbelievable. Didn’t we mention already that they were super-strong?
While our DIG! team was using huge prybars, pick axes, and shovels to start their 4-foot-deep goals, our parking lot team was starting to paint. Stripes were going down, and we were saving a last triangular area for a suggested “no parking” zone.
What a better place to use our creativity?
We were thinking of fun, triangular ways to suggest that drivers leave space - our minds quickly went to PIZZA.
Before you knew it, we had a large pepperoni slice for all to see. Pizza parking only, please!
The DIG! team was putting in a ton of work, and pulling some substantial rocks out of the ground as they continued deeper. Huge prybars were necessary to break through the layers of gravel, stone, and brick underground. We anxiously checked depth, hole by hole, until we hit our goal and could start setting posts. It was a joyous moment for all: sweaty, tired, and anticipating some next-day soreness.
Posts installed, we carried our picnic tables over and set them in place. We took a step back to really take in everything we’d accomplished in five short hours.
A car drove into the parking lot and pulled right into one of the new spaces - we had to smile.
Our shade support posts will take a little time to cure, but we can’t wait to enjoy the break from the sun with our upcoming season of programming. And when you go for a roll or stroll on the Capital Trail, be sure to check it out!
Stop in for a snack break, lock up and take a walk around the nearby new parklet, and enjoy the views.
A huge THANK YOU to our volunteers, we could never have accomplished this much without you!