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PETE'S PICKS
Dang it's hot out there...so my recommendation this week keeps you in your vehicle for a portion of the time and only hiking for 30-40 minutes (but you are rewarded with an amazing view).
If you've never heard of, or been to, the Hanging Rock Raptor Observatory this is the trip for you. The observatory is located along the WV/VA border and is worth the trip (photos). Here's my recommended itinerary:
- Take Rt. 311N. from Roanoke (through Catawba and New Castle) to the tiny town of Paint Bank and have lunch at the Swinging Bridge Restaurant
- After lunch continue on to the Hanging Rock Raptor Observatory (directions)
- For your return trip, pull out your gazetteer and choose a route home that takes you on some small back roads
Get Outside!
Pete Eshelman
Director of Outdoor Branding
Roanoke Regional Partnership
  
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BIG BELLY SOLAR TRASH CANS
via the Roanoke Times... A pilot project that brought solar-powered trash compactors to street corners in Roanoke's Hurt Park neighborhood may expand to the downtown area by year's end. Roanoke's Solid Waste Management department installed five of the electric trash cans on Patterson and Salem avenues Southwest last month, department manager Skip Decker said. The $2,500 receptacles, built by Massachusetts-based BigBelly Solar, were purchased through a federal Community Development Block Grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The 32-gallon compactors recharge during the day and send waste management officials an email when a bin is 80 percent full, Decker said. That means garbage crews don't have to check them every week, as they do with many trash receptacles in the city. "They're more attractive, and they're using what God gives us -- sunlight," he said. "They save a lot of labor." The cans that were previously on some Hurt Park street corners and currently in the downtown area cost $650 each and have a 24 gallon capacity, Decker said. The BigBelly receptacles are considerably more expensive but can hold more refuse thanks to the 1,250-pound crushing force of their electric compactors. Continue reading>>>
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RIVER ACCESS PETITION
Virginia state river access laws are among the least boater-friendly in the nation. While such laws are rare in other states, Virginia's laws allow private landowners to prevent paddlers from using many rivers and creeks throughout the state. Access to certain rivers and creeks have been deadlocked in debate for years, and remain in legal limbo. Throughout the state, paddlers have been escorted off rivers and access has been blocked.
To be clear, everyone agrees that if you get out of your boat, and step onto the river banks that you are indeed trespassing. What is at debate is whether you are trespassing if you float (while remaining in your boat) through sections of private land.
Neighboring states, such as West Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Maryland have more nationally consistent river laws which support the public use of rivers. As a result, these states have bustling river-based economies, great quality of life for residents, good public health, and a high societal value on healthy rivers.
A petition is being circulated that requests the State of Virginia re-evaluate its laws regarding river access. If you support a change to Virginia's laws which will give paddlers the right to freely float the rivers and streams of Virginia please consider signing the petition.
Steps to Sign:
- Download the petition (pdf)
- Print the petition
- Sign the petition (get your friends and coworkers to sign it too)
- Mail to provided address (hard copies of petition carry more clout than online petitions which is why it is necessary to mail the petition)
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10 SANITY-SAVING FAMILY TRAVEL TIPS
via Outside Magazine blogger Raising Rippers...
When I was pregnant with my first daughter, I decided it might fun to travel internationally as a family once a year. This was all part of my start-off-as-you-mean-to-go-on program, and in the hazy, abstract months before parenthood hit me over the head and truly began kicking my ass, it felt like an entirely reasonable goal.
But now that I'm three years in, it seems, for lack of a better word, nuts. The farthest we've dared to venture is Mexico and Canada-no complaints, but not exactly far-flung. Our last flight home from visiting family on the East Coast featured a tantrum so epic and desperate that for the first time I understood why many seasoned parents forego all non-essential travel and still others rarely leave the house! Never had staying home-for the next five years-seemed so appealing.
And yet as train-wrecked as I was, I refuse to buy into the notion that the potential nightmare of an eight-hour flight across the ocean should trump the probable amazing-ness of eight days overseas. So I called an inveterate globetrotter and father of two for his advice on traveling long distances with little ones. As founder and owner of ROAM (Rivers, Oceans and Mountains), a boutique adventure outfitter based in British Columbia, he's crisscrossed the globe scouting new trips with his daughters, Georgia and Grace, when they were 2 and 4. Now they're seasoned wanderers who love to surf in Ecuador and sail in the Galapagos.
Nice. So how'd he do it? Continue reading to find out>>>
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FLOYDFEST GIVEAWAY WINNERS
For the past few weeks we've been holding a contest where the winners will walk away with a pair of four-day passes to FloydFest.
There were two ways to enter: 1). the old fashioned way of just giving us your name and 2). by posting a creative post to Facebook.
To pick the old-fashioned winners we took all the entries, assigned them a number  (1, 2, 3...), and then used an online random number generator to pick two numbers. These number corresponded to our winners Gwyn Kinsey and Meg DeLapp (congrats, check your email).
And the winning Facebook entry, that we are especially proud of, was submitted by Anjie Henley:
"Almost heaven, FLOYD Virginia,
Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River.
Life is FREE there, Free-er than the breeze,
Music by the mountains,
I'm begging , on my knees.
Country roads, Take me home to the place I belong.
FLOYD Virginia, Mountain momma, Country roads take me home
All my mem'ries, will be blogged and photographed,
got my nikon, and suitcase packed
Dark room ready, pen in hand,
misty taste of moonshine
waiting for the bands!"
A big thank you to everyone who entered and we hope to see you at FloydFest. We'll have a tent set up near the Global Village so be sure to stop by. We'll have a contest going there where you can win gear and a trip or two.
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Upcoming events to keep your eye oN
- Weekly bike rides throughout Roanoke & NRV Valley
- Weekly ultimate frisbee pickup games (Sundays & Wednesdays)
- Hikes too numerous to list
- Monday Bike Polo
- Tuesday Tune Ups
- Thursday Happy Hour Floats
- Six Hours of Dirty Dawg - 7/23
- Adult Intro. to Rock Climbing - 7/23
- New River Paddle Fishing Tournament - 7/23
- FloydFest - 7/28-31
- Odyssey Land Navigation Clinic - 8/6
- Tubing on the Maury River - 8/6
- Intro. to Whitewater Kayaking - 8/6
- Artie Levin Memorial Century Ride - 8/7
- Microfestivus - 8/13
- Smith River Fest - 8/13-14
- 37th Annual Salem Distance Run - 8/13
- Rolling Down the River - 8/20
- Carvins Cove Backcountry Mtn. Bike Shuttle - 8/20
- 15th Annual Fab 5K - 8/20
- Sea Kayaking on Carvins Cove - 8/27
- Mountain Road Wine Experience - 8/27
- Wilderness Survival Skills Clinic - 8/27
- Bass Pro Shops River Bassin' Trail Tournament - 9/10
- Banff Radical Reels Film Festival & Get Outside Expo - 9/14
- The Roanoke Outdoor Circus - 10/21-23
- Into The Darkness Trail Run - 10/22
- Gear Junkie $40,000 Outdoor Gear Treasure Hunt - 10/23
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Roanoke Regional Partnership · 111 Franklin Plaza, Suite 333 · Roanoke, VA 24011540.343.1550 X 104 · www.roanoke.org
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