Dear Greenway Supporters,
I hope all of you joined us in celebrating the long-awaited completion of the “Bridge the Gap” section of the Greenway linking Salem and Roanoke City with over 9 continuous miles. We are using $172,500 of prior Bridge the Gap donations to support Roanoke City in constructing a parking lot at the new trail head at Bridge Street. By the time you read this email, it should be fully open. This section is a major milestone in the history of our Greenway system and it would not have been possible without your generous support over the years!
Our Rock-N-Roll and MidWeek trail building volunteer crews logged nearly 4,000 hours this year, the majority of which occurred in Carvins Cove. If you haven’t paid a visit to this amazing park, I strongly encourage you to do so whether it’s to hike, bike or run on the over 60 miles of trails. We also had volunteers work at the Iron Man and Cardinal Bicycle’s 20k for the Greenway. Finally, our monthly litter pickup has been a great success. If you are interested in volunteering, please click on the “meetup” link below.
Moving over to Vinton, we donated $30,000 to support the completion of Phase 2B of the Glade Creek Greenway. This was in addition to a prior year donation of $30,000 for the same section as inflation significantly impacted original cost estimates.
Inflation has affected every locality resulting in budget over-runs for practically all greenway projects. Recent paved surface projects have cost between $1.5MM and $6.5MM per mile compared to $100K to $300K per mile just 10 years ago, an increase of 15x to 21x! Your continued support of Pathfinders provides us with the funds to support the localities in new projects to expand our Greenway system to reach more of the community and further connect our neighborhoods.
The growth of our greenway system would not be possible without each of you. On behalf of the Pathfinders, I sincerely thank you for your past and future support! Gratefully, Brian R. McCahill
President Pathfinders for Greenways |
| New Bridge Street parking lot |
New bridge linking Roanoke City and Salem |
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Volunteer Accomplishments 2023 3,816 Total Volunteer Hours 118 Total Project Days Main Projects: – Laurel Canyon construction at Carvins Cove, 1,341 hours
– Arrowhead Trail maintenance at Carvins Cove, 703 hours – Big Spring Park Trail Fincastle, 482 hours – Mill Mountain Trail #10, 204 hours – Fern Park Trail #13, 188 hours
– Happy Valley Road Repairs at Carvins Cove, 152 hours – Brushy Mountain Culvert Replacement at Carvins Cove, 133 hours – Gladetown Trail Vinton, 105 hours – Catawba Greenway Maintenance, 71 hours
– Greenway Trash Pick Up on First Thursdays, 65 hours |
Interested In Volunteering? No Experience Necessary! – Please join us every Thursday for Trail Care in Carvins Cove – Help us clean up the Greenways the first Thursday of every month – Support staff at local events |
Thank You to Our Fundraising Partners! – IRONMAN hosted by Carilion Clinic
– 20K for the Greenway hosted by Cardinal Bicycle – GIVE Roanoke hosted by Council of Community Services |
| Volunteer Of The Year 2023: Janet Scheid |
A biker at 20K for the Greenway |
Volunteer booth at 20K for the Greenway |
20K for the Greenway finish |
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Frank speaking at the Bridge Street opening ceremony
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Bicycle art on the Greenway |
Bikers at the 20K for the Greenway event |
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As we head into 2024, momentum is building towards great things on the Greenways in the Roanoke Valley. Since the original grand vision of a greenway corridor along the Roanoke River was first put forward, we can confidently say that the end is in sight. With the completion of the “Bridge the Gap” section this Summer, the cities of Salem and Roanoke are linked by over nine miles of completed Greenway. At the same time, no less than five projects in Salem and Roanoke County took significant steps towards construction, with the likelihood that all five will be completed by the time that I sit down to write the 2026 version of this letter. Those projects will add nearly 6 miles to the Roanoke River Greenway, and although a few gaps will remain, I am happy to report that studies and plans are underway to close those sections, making a region spanning greenway a near-future reality.
With all that in mind, the Greenway Commission is undertaking a five-year update to our Greenway Plan. This plan will give us a chance to elevate other Greenways and better understand the potential for connectivity across the region. A greenway such as Glade Creek, currently in two sections and just over a mile, is likely to advance quite quickly in the next five years and has the potential to connect the Bonsack area with the Roanoke River Greenway (via Tinker Creek). And a little further afield, the Craig-Botetourt Scenic Trail, a proposed 26-mile rail-trail, has the potential to truly change the trail experience in the area. The update to our plan will help us bring focus to these projects and make them the successes we know they can be.
None of this continued progress and bright future would be possible without the continued contributions by you all to the Pathfinders. Donations to the Pathfinders have helped secure right of way along the Roanoke River, fund the latest railroad underpass along Glade Creek, and purchase tools for the volunteers of the Mid-Week Crew who are committed to helping open up sections of the Craig-Botetourt Scenic trail this coming Spring. In ways big and small, your support for the Pathfinders for Greenways keeps the momentum rolling along!
Best, Frank Maguire Roanoke Valley Greenway Coordinator |
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The Mid-Week Crew had a diverse group of projects this year, coordinating with multiple localities to construct new trails and maintain existing trails. One of our “big” projects was installation of a 36” culvert on Brushy Mountain Fire Road at Carvins Cove. This required backhoe, skid steer, and compactor operation, building a retaining wall out of cement bags, and reshaping the road to drain to the culverts. At Fincastle we built a cinder surface trail, connecting Big Spring Park to the elementary school. Fern Park Trail was a combo project, with both cinder surface sections and natural surface trail, plus a significant drainage crossing. Other new natural surface trails included Eastern Towhee at Mill Mountain and sections of Laurel Canyon at Carvins Cove.
We also tried to help localities with maintenance, including Catawba Greenway, Gladetown Trail, and Wolf Creek Greenway. The MWC works on Wednesdays and shares the joy of being in the woods and building trails, bridges, and features. |
| MWC constructing a bridge at the Gladetown trail in Vinton |
MWC at the Fincastle trail opening |
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RnR Crew rerouting the top of Arrowhead trail at Carvins Cove |
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The Rock-N-Roll Crew kept busy this year at Carvins Cove mainly on two projects. One was improvements to drainage on half of Arrowhead Trail. We rerouted two sections of trail and added a bunch of large water diverter humps and drainages. The upper reroute took a lot of work as it is still a steep trail and needed diverter humps and drainages to keep water from running down the trail.
The crew also spent many days working on two long wet areas of the Happy Valley fire road establishing better ditches and crowning the road again. We have started working on phase 2 of Rock-N-Roll trail now heading towards the boat dock at Carvins Cove. We will mostly be focusing on that project next year and possibly some more trail and road maintenance when needed.
The Rock-N-Roll Crew works mostly every Thursday and on some weekends. We use a Meetup group to organize our work days. We are always happy to have new volunteers join us and past volunteers to come out and help whenever they can. |
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Our Contributions in 2023
– Vinton Glade Creek Greenway Phase 2B: $30,000, $60,000 cumulative gift – Roanoke City Bridge Street Trailhead Parking Lot: $172,000 from BTG funds |
Ceremony for the Glade Creek donation to the Vinton Town Council |
Ceremony for the Bridge Street parking lot donation to the Roanoke City Council |
| Call for Board Members
Want a bigger voice in the process? Please join our Board! Email pathfinders@greenways.org to learn more. |
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McAfee Knob parking lot bench |
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New Greenway section near Bridge Street |
MWC replacing a culvert at Carvins Cove on the Brushy Mountain fire road |
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