Outdoor Adventure Information
Hiking
James River Park Hiking Trails Great trails just a couple minutes away from campus! More info here. There are also mountain bike trails in the park too.
Belle Island is about fifteen minutes away. The island is a popular destination when the weather is nice.
Dragon's Tooth is a nice and easy hike right by Blacksburg. The hike gets its name from the iconic tooth shaped boulders at the top. You can really get a full 360 view of the mountains around you.
McAfee's Knob one of the most famous and frequented Virginia hikes and one of the most photographed places on the Appalachian Trail. Old Rag The hike up Old Rag Mountain is popular but can be strenuous. There are great views at the top as well.
Climbing
Rockclimbing.com is a gear resource for all kinds of information on gear, climbing locations and more!
Read about climbs and try and get a guidebook for areas you want to visit.
Manchester Wall is just about fifteen minutes away and is a great way to start climbing outdoors somewhere very close to home.
Moorman's Boulders is just over an hour away in Charlottesville. You don't have to abide precisely by routes but can make a lot of the climbing as easy or as hard as you want. Its a great day trip for outdoor bouldering, and can be a nice stop on the way to or from West Virginia. The Climbing & Caving Club has bouldering pads you can borrow and you should always boulder with at least one pad. We are lucky enough to be very close to the Seneca Rocks, New River Gorge and Summersville in West Virginia. Both are about four hours away and have great climbing. Seneca is all trad climbing. The Climbing & Caving club has a trad rack, but you should be VERY comfortable and confident with setting pieces before you climb at Seneca. Its an amazing formation and definitely worth seeing even if you don't climb it. During the summer, Summersville Lake is filled and you can deep water solo there. This is about the best climbing experience you can have, but do it when its warm! Cliff jumping here is NOT okay though; its illegal. You should always be "falling" into the lake, meaning you are facing the wall when you fall.
There is also good bouldering on the McAfee's Knob hike, especially at the top. The top of Dragon's Tooth has fun bouldering too, but its much less extensive. Its a great fairly short hike minutes from McAfee and fun to do if you are there.
Kayaking & Rafting
The Huguenot Flatwater is a five minute drive from campus and a great place to relax and watch the sunset as well as a launch. If you drive two cars you can park one and the other end of the river (turn right after the entrance ramp and go down until the large parking lot), pick up the driver of this car, and all drive to the flatwater (to the left after the ramp) to launch the boat. Then you can get downstream and have a car waiting for you if you want.
Caving
Island Ford Cave (Covington, VA) is a nice beginner cave. While we have explored many other caves, due to the information about them is not published here to protect these delicate and beautiful environments. Email the Climbing & Caving Club president (information on home page) for more information.
There are several precautions to take before, after and during caving to keep yourself and the delicate environment you are entering safe. You should be practicing Leave No Trace to the fullest ability you can. Cavers like to call it "caving softly." Touching formations in the cave damages them and stagnates formation in the area you touch, so try and avoid it! This cave has been infected with White Nose (This has no effects on humans, only bats; humans are believed to spread it between caves). Caves were closed for awhile, but as most all caves in this region have been infected, they were reopened seeing as you can't reinfect something that has already been infected. THIS DOES NOT MEAN YOU SHOULD NOT DECONTAMINATE CLOTHES AND GEAR. The disease is not everywhere. Caves in the TAG area (Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia) are still clean, and we want to keep it that way! All this to emphasize and explain the most important part of caving: caring for the cave you enter. This is a simple cave that has incurred a lot of damage, but serves as a great introduction to the awe of discovering an underground world. Once you see other caves you will appreciate the tragedy of damaging their millions of years of work. So, here's what you need to do to prepare:
- Wear clothes that cover your body. This will protect you from dirt, mud and light scratches. Gloves (water resistent ones like gardening gloves are great) are not a bad idea either.
- Wear shoes that provide you a good amount of traction and can handle mud, like boots.
- You need to always wear a helmet and a headlamp.
- Bring extra batteries and lights, as well as water and food.
- Bring Lysol wipes and paper towels and plastic bags (to put your dirty clothes in). Leave these and a change of clothes in the car in a very-easy-to-grab spot. Put a few wipes in a Ziploc and put this in your pack to take with you (see the Decontamination section for more on this).
- Bring a compass. As soon as you enter see what direction "out" is. If you ever get lost, even in a maze cave, knowing this can get you out.
- CALL SOMEONE before you enter the cave to leave a trip report, telling them about when you will call again after getting out (give yourself enough time). Don't think its necessary? Watch 127 hours.
- Don't go in alone!
- Be caution and safe.
- Look ahead of you to see where your path is taking you. Don't get yourself into any place that you can't backtrack out of if necessary.
- Always watch out for the other person or people with you.
- Be gentle with the cave. Don't touch things unless you need to keep from falling. Don't scratch your name into things or leave any other trace you you being there.
- Before you do anything else, get out your Lysol wipes and wipe down your hands.
- Grad the plastic bags and other decon gear.
- Bag your old clothes, shoes and gear. You will need to wash ALL of this. Seal the bags to prevent this gear from contaminating other things in the car.
- Put on clean clothes and head home! Be sure to clean your gear and clothes soon.
Sustainability