MY 15 YEARS WITH THE VIRGINIA CAPITAL TRAIL:
THE recent YEARS 2012-2019
PART TWO OF A THREE PART SERIES
NOVEMBER 19, 2019
Memoir Part I ended the “go ahead” to start the Trail Ambassadors group in the Fall of 2012.
However, before I continue the Trail Ambassador story, I need to backtrack to 2011 and 2012 and pick up two items.
After the trail surveys of 2010 and 2011, it was clear there was a need to get user count statistics as a measure of success for the VCTF Board and to use in outreach and grant applications. In 2011, the VCTF purchased three electronic counters for placement along the Trail. These were electric eyes to be placed about 18 inches off the ground that would count every time something (think bicycle) or being (think human or dog or deer) crossed the path. (Note: these counters were later replaced by a VDOT system.)
Michael Luchs, a professor at William & Mary and I did a survey of the 6.5 miles of completed Trail in James City County. Upon survey results, one location decided upon was the Battle of Green Spring parking lot. We did have an “oops” moment as the sign post in which we installed the counter belonged to the local chapter of a national historic organization! I checked with them to get “after-the-fact” permission. They requested a formal letter signed by the Executive Director. Upon receipt, the President sent me an email: “unacceptable” as I had spelled the “Battle of Green Spring” as one word “Greensprings” and it must be Green Spring. But, low and behold, the returned approval letter we received had misspelled the Trail name, using the word “Capitol” (the building) versus the correct “Capital” (the seat of government). I consulted with Beth Weisbrod and asked her, “Should I?” (tell him to correct the spelling), but we both laughed and just declared it a success.
My first recollection of a CAP2CAP event was from May 2011. However, it had already been an event since 2006. This year I got involved in doing signage for the routes in Charles City for the start out of Chickahominy Riverfront Park in James City County. I did signage duty for about 5-6 years until it was assigned to a contractor. This involved placement and uninstallation of about 50 route signs along the 25 and 50 mile routes. After a lot of help from Neal Robinson and others, it involved probably 8 hours of road duty each year.
Now back to the Ambassadors...the approach was to recruit volunteers who would be trained to improve the Trail user experience by providing mechanical, medical and information assistance to those using the Trail. Of course, in 2012, this was largely a James City County activity, but as Co-Founder Chan Mohney lives in the Richmond area, he brought in two Richmond based folks to round out the ones from Williamsburg for a total of seven Ambassadors in the initial training classes.
Ambassador training, after a brief history of the Trail, was basically borrowed from the W&OD (Washington & Old Dominion Trail) “best practices” which Chan was granted permission to use. Things to do and not do…avoid confrontation, make suggestions about safety, assist those in need (mechanical and medical), and provide information (location of water, restrooms and other amenities).
Ambassadors received one hour of classroom training, followed by three hours of “on the trail” experience with Chan pointing out things to observe and report. At the end of the training, Ambassadors were provided with a logoed vest, first aid kit, business cards with Trail Rules and a QR code link to the Trail maps on the website. They are expected to wear a helmet as a good example, do two patrols a month April through October, and file a report within 48 hours. Until 2018, the reporting was done the old-fashioned way, writing an email to me with mileage, hours, sections covered and observations and hopefully photos. Yours truly then manually posted this data to an EXCEL and reported the results quarterly. (In 2018 VCTF staff automated these processes, Yeah!)
In three years, the Ambassador ranks grew from those 7 “Founding Members” in November 2012 to 30 plus members by the end of 2015. That year the Ambassadors did 213 patrols for 560 hours and over 5000 miles!
Larry Skalak was a legendary Williamsburg area cyclist (his day job was as a home-building contractor). He passed away in 2014 while starting his fourth cross country bicycling trek. The Williamsburg Area Bicyclist (WAB) bike club decided to do something to remember Larry and his love of cycling. I have no recollection of how I got into this project, but I was soon leading the project with Dean Dunbar. After several meeting with Larry’s widow, June, we had a concept, a bench alongside the VCT. After nearly a year of planning and construction, the result was a world class pavilion with a bike rack, bench and Fixit station, alongside the VCT at Chickahominy Riverfront Park in James City County.
In 2017, I decided it was time after five years, to transition the leadership of the Trail Ambassadors to someone with a new vision and leadership direction. Before I could make this desire known, Beth Weisbrod announced that after 10 years leading the Trail from concept to completion, she would be “retiring”. When Cat Anthony came on board, she reached out to stakeholders in the VCT and asked to meet with me. In that meeting, I committed to delay my “retirement” for one year. Cat, true to her word, remembered our agreement and in the Fall of 2018, I transitioned into the role of East-End Ambassador Coordinator. But in a gratifying development since then, I regularly work with VCTF’s 2018 hire, Claire, to consult on Trail issues and concerns as well as outreach and marketing (to be continued…)!
Ted Hanson
Virginia Capital Trail Ambassador
East-End Coordinator
