Work Days

August 13:
Trail Maintenance Behind Henley & Brownsville

On Saturday, August 13, we will meet at 8:30 a.m. for a joint work day with Henley PaTSO to clear and widen the trail network between Old Trail Drive and The Meadows behind Henley and Brownsville Schools.

Meet at the entrance to Henley Middle School, which is about a 5 minute walk to the trail entrance. If you arrive late, go behind the school and walk past the soccer field to the trail system.

As always, there are both ticks and poison ivy, so long pants, socks, and sturdy shoes are recommended. Bring your own gloves, hat, and water, and be sure to use bug spray. Use our tools or bring your own. Under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or responsible adult. 

Please sign up here so we can notify you in case bad weather changes our plans, and so we know if we need to borrow tools.

August 27:
Trail Maintenance at Chesterfield Landing and Sparrow Hill

On Saturday, August 27, we will meet at 8:30 a.m. to work on clearing and widening the trail along Lickinghole Creek behind Chesterfield Landing and Sparrow Hill. We will need people who are willing to work with mowers and string trimmers, as well as pruners, loppers, and hand saws. This is another very pretty section of trail that you may not have seen yet, so it’s a good opportunity to explore another corner of Crozet.

COME WHEN YOU CAN, LEAVE WHEN YOU MUST. We’re very flexible that way!

Meet at the trail entrance on Oxbow Drive in Chesterfield Landing at 8:30 a.m. (put 5436 Oxbow Drive in your GPS). If you need to come later, head out the trail to find us. As always, there are ticks, so long pants, socks, and sturdy shoes are recommended. Bring your own gloves, hat, and water, and be sure to use bug spray. Use our tools or bring your own. Under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or responsible adult. 

PLEASE BE SURE NOT TO BLOCK MAILBOXES OR DRIVEWAYS WHEN PARKING ON THE ROAD.

If you sign up here, we will be able to notify you in case we have to reschedule due to weather. 

Directions: Oxbow Drive is on the east side of Crozet Avenue, across from the Meadows, about 1/4 mile north of Route 250.

NOTE: DATE CHANGED FROM JULY 9 DUE TO WEATHER

On Saturday, July 16, we will meet at 8:30 a.m. to do regular trail maintenance along the southern expanse of the Crozet Connector Trail. It’s growing season, and the grass and weeds are taking full advantage! We need people who can prune and trim with hand tools, as well as people willing to operate trimmers and mowers. 

COME WHEN YOU CAN, LEAVE WHEN YOU MUST. We’re very flexible that way!

Meet at the trailhead at Nicolet Court (directions below or use 5937 Nicolet Ct. in your GPS) at 8:30 a.m. If you need to come later, head left down the trail to find us. As always, it’s tick season, so long pants, socks, and sturdy shoes are recommended. Bring your own gloves, hat, and water, and be sure to use bug spray. Use our tools or bring your own. Under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or responsible adult. 

PLEASE BE SURE NOT TO BLOCK MAILBOXES OR DRIVEWAYS WHEN PARKING ON THE CUL DE SAC.

If you sign up here, we will be able to notify you in case we have to reschedule due to weather. 

Directions:

From Crozet Park: Continue east on Park Road through Westhall continuing past Westhall Drive. Take the next right onto Nicolet Court. The trail is marked by a sign on the left side of the road.

On Saturday we will meet in Western Ridge to work on the trail out towards Lickinghole Basin and to clear an area around a beautiful tree which will be highlighted by the Trails Crew and Charlottesville Area Tree Stewards. We need people who can prune and trim with hand tools, as well as people willing to operate trimmers and (maybe) mowers.

COME WHEN YOU CAN, LEAVE WHEN YOU MUST. We’re very flexible that way!

Meet at the trailhead at Fairwinds Lane (directions below or use 922 Fairwinds Lane in your GPS) at 9 a.m. If you need to come later, head left down the trail to find us. As always, it’s tick season, so long pants, socks, and sturdy shoes are recommended. Bring your own gloves, hat, and water, and be sure to use bug spray. Use our tools or bring your own. Under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or responsible adult.

PLEASE BE SURE NOT TO BLOCK MAILBOXES OR DRIVEWAYS WHEN PARKING ON THE CUL DE SAC.

If you sign up here, we will be able to notify you in case we have to reschedule due to weather.

Directions:

From downtown Crozet: Take Three Notch’d Road towards Charlottesville. Turn right on Park Ridge Drive (at the Sentara medical office). After the bridge over the train tracks, turn left on Lake Tree Lane, then take the third right on to Fairwinds. Park at the end of the cul de sac.

From Crozet Park: Continue east on Park Road through Westhall to Westhall Drive. Turn left, then the first left onto Eastern Ave. Continue on Eastern Avenue to near the end, then turn right on Park Ridge Drive. Just before the bridge over the train tracks, turn right onto Lake Tree Lane, then take the third right on to Fairwinds. Park at the end of the cul de sac.

Here’s the “& MORE”

Lots of announcements in our latest email. If you didn’t get it, and want to see other ways to help out, you can look at it here. You’ll find how to join in the Independence Day parade, how to help the Trails Crew if you can’t do work days, and a map for walking to/from the Independence Day celebration at Crozet Park.

As Crozet Park continues its efforts to encourage people to walk and bike, they are looking at the access points into the park from surrounding neighborhoods. We will help out by improving the short social trail from Myrtle Street into the park. Meet at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday, May 18, to help with leveling the area, laying down timber edging, and spreading and tamping gravel. The materials will be delivered adjacent to the work site, so for once there won’t be a lot of rolling wheelbarrows up and down hills.

 Please sign up here so we know who’s coming, and can get in touch in case weather makes us change.

Directions: Meet at the CTC shed behind the Community Building at Crozet Park. If driving, come through the main entrance then go to the left around the pool and head straight back to the far parking lot. Please do not park on Hilltop St or Indigo Rd.

It’s time for our almost annual spring cleaning of the Henley Hornets Trail in Beaver Creek Park. This winter’s storms have brought down some trees and branches, and there will be brambles and brush to cut back. Many people are surprised there’s a trail at Beaver Creek; if that includes you, consider this an opportunity to find a new place to explore!

We will meet at 9:00 a.m. at the small parking lot above the dam, to the right of Browns Gap Turnpike (directions below). Long pants and sleeves, sturdy shoes, and work gloves strongly recommended. Also, bug spray! We will have tools or you can bring your own. Come when you can, leave when you must. Check our Facebook page after 8 that morning for rescheduling if the weather looks iffy.

Directions:
From Crozet go east (toward Charlottesville) on Three Notch’d Rd past the water treatment plant. Turn left on Old Three Notch’d Road. At the end, take a sharp left onto Brown’s Gap Turnpike. Cross dam and parking is in the lot immediately on the right. Trail entrance is at the bottom of the opposite side of the dam.

Our October work day is coming up! On Saturday, October 16, we will prepare the length of the Crozet Connector Trail for our annual 5K trail run the next Saturday.

Meet at 9:00 a.m. at the Trails Crew shed in Crozet Park (directions below). Be prepared to break up into smaller groups that may be sent to various sections of the trail with your tools to address specific problem areas. The focus of this work day is to get the trail in its best possible condition – primarily trimming back brambles and branches in places that tend to get overgrown, and using the string trimmer on places the mowers don’t reach.

If we can get a good turnout, this won’t take us too long! Long pants and sleeves recommended, as well as work gloves and a hat. Carry your own water. Bring your own tools or use ours. Don’t forget your bug spray!

Sign up here is optional, but it lets us get in touch with you if we need to make changes due to weather. Come even if you haven’t signed up!

Directions: Enter Crozet Park from Park Road. Take the internal road to the left of the swimming pool to the back of the parking area where the basketball nets are set up. Please park away from the basketball courts so kids can still play. Meet at the small storage shed adjacent to the white Community Center (formerly Radio Building).

It’s time to beat back the summer’s growth on the trail from Chesterfield Landing to Lickinghole Creek. We will be using loppers, pruners, string trimmers and maybe a saw or two to widen and freshen up the trail we opened up last fall. We may also work on the beginning of a trail from the creek up towards Sparrow Hill. Everyone is welcome! Come when you can and leave when you must.

Meet at 9:00 a.m. at the trail entrance in Chesterfield Landing, across the street from 5436 Oxbow Drive. Please be careful not to block mailboxes or driveways!

Wear sturdy shoes and BUG SPRAY! Long pants and sleeves recommended. Bring your own water, and plenty of it. We have tools, or bring your own favorites if you prefer. We should be done in approximately 2 hours.

Sign up is not required, but if you do, we can get in touch with you if needed for a change in weather or other unforeseen circumstance. Sign up here.

On Saturday, November 7 at 9:00 a.m. we will work on the second step of building a trail out toward Chesterfield Landing. In October we cleared a section from the existing trail to Lickinghole Creek. Saturday we’ll walk to the county property below Sparrow Hill and work on extending it on the other side of the creek. We’ll be doing pruning, string trimming, and some leveling and building up the trail with shovels and rakes. In other words, whether you’re up for heavy work or more comfortable with a lopper, we can use the help! As always, we ask you to bring your own water; hat, bug spray, long pants, and sturdy shoes are always wise.

Please be sure to sign up here — if we have to cancel  because of weather or if anything changes I’ll be able to reach you.

Please remember to bring a mask for our initial gathering to discuss the job, then keep appropriate social distancing while working. I recommend work gloves, plus we will have hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes available.

Meeting Location;
We will meet at Chesterfield Landing then walk to the work site. Please note that parking is limited. DO NOT BLOCK THE MAILBOXES OR DRIVEWAYS!

Directions: From Downtown Crozet, take Crozet Avenue south (toward Rt 250) to Chesterfield Landing on the left. Turn left into the first street in the development, Watervale Drive. At the end turn left onto Oxbow Drive. The trail entrance is at the far end of the cul de sac.

We’ve been depending on individual workers to keep the trails in shape since March, but we’re going to try to step up our game, and start scheduling some small work days. Needless to say, things won’t be like they were before, and we have developed these guidelines to help keep us all safe and healthy.

1. Work groups will be limited in size
   All groups will be limited to 10 people or fewer, depending on the space we will be working in. When we go out to prune and trim a trail, we’re able to spread out, so as many as 10 people may be OK. If we are working in a smaller space, the numbers will be smaller.
   
2. Everyone must sign up in advance
   This allows us to control the size of groups, and to follow up with you in case contact tracing is needed. I will link to Sign Up Genius pages for each work day.
   PLEASE: If you sign up and then have to cancel, remove your Sign Up so we have enough workers for every project!
   
3. Masks are required; work gloves are encouraged
   We will need to wear masks when we are close together–I anticipate this will be when we gather to discuss the work to be done. Once we are spread out, and are not within a few feet of each other, masks can be removed. Please be aware of trail users, though, and make sure to step aside to allow space if people pass on the trail.
   
4. Tools will be cleaned with disinfectant wipes at the beginning and end of work, and when transferred between people. The Trails Crew doesn’t have an unlimited supply, so it would be great if you bring your own.
   
5. A hand washing station will be available with soap, water, and paper towels. If you can bring your own hand sanitizer, please do!
   
6. Social Distancing will be required.

Work Days Scheduled in June

Wednesday, June 3, 9 a.m.
Transport Lumber from street to boardwalk construction site
We need 6 people to carry pieces of lumber in wheelbarrows from the street to the site where we will be building a small boardwalk (less than 1/4 mile). Meet at the corner of Rowcross St and Fielding Run Dr in Old Trail (directions below) at 9 a.m. This project will probably take no more than an hour. Sign up here.
Directions: From Jarmans Gap Rd, turn on to Old Trail Drive. Pass through three roundabouts, then take the second left on to Glen Valley Drive, then the second right on to Fielding Run Drive. The trail entrance is at the end of the street.

Sunday, June 14, 9 a.m.
Trim trails around the Dog Park in Crozet Park
We need 4-5 people to weed whack and prune the trails that run outside the dog park fences at Crozet Park. This will be a quick project, maybe an hour or two. Meet at the Crozet Trails Crew shed behind the Community Room (aka Radio Building) at Crozet Park (directions below) to choose your tools, then walk to the Dog Park for the work. Sign up here.
Directions: Enter Crozet Park from Park Ave then follow the road to the left of the swimming pool, to the small white building at the very back of the park. Park in the lot near the white shed.

Wednesday, June 10, 9 a.m.
Construct small boardwalk in Old Trail
Looking for 4-5 people to assemble a three-section boardwalk to improve the Rowcross Trail where it is often muddy. This project involves the use of tools such as drills, hammers. levels. and clamps, as well as moving pieces of lumber short distances. Meet at the corner of Rowcross St and Fielding Run Drive to help carry tools to the construction area (less than 1/4 mile). This project is likely to take several hours. Sign up here.
Directions: From Jarmans Gap Rd, turn on to Old Trail Drive. Pass through three roundabouts, then take the second left on to Glen Valley Drive, then the second right on to Fielding Run Drive. The trail entrance is at the end of the street.