The long-anticipated opening of the Blue Ridge Tunnel trail will soon be a reality.

The roughly 2.25-mile trail is scheduled to open to pedestrians and bicyclists Saturday November 21. A portion of the trail runs through a railroad tunnel that was constructed between 1850 to 1858, which was led by engineer Claudius Crozet. At a distance of nearly 1 mile, it was the longest tunnel in America at the time of its completion.

The trail project has been in the works since 2001.

“You know, we did have to postpone quite a few times, but now we just can’t wait for people to come and see it. You know folks will visit from all over the United States and even beyond,” Claire Richardson, director of Nelson County Parks and Recreation, said.

The eastern entrance of the trail is in Afton, while the western entrance is in Augusta County, near Waynesboro. There are parking lots at both ends.

It is recommended folks bring a flashlight or headlamp for the tunnel portion of the trail. The trail hours will be from sunrise to sunset.

Richardson does urge anyone visiting the trail to adhere to COVID-19 precautions and stay 6 feet away and wear a mask while visiting the trail.

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According to Duffield Fire Chief Roger Carter, all of the hikers were rescued on trails around the Devil’s Bathtub before 10 a.m. Monday, May 25, 2020.

Emergency crews responded to the scene around 7:15 p.m. Sunday. Emergency crews say 20 people were rescued after being trapped on the trails after heavy rains that caused flash flooding.

Crews from multiple departments were called in to assist with the rescues, requiring various locations during the rescue operations.

At least two swift water rescue teams were called in from across southwest Virginia, including Appalachia Fire Department and Bristol, Virginia Fire Department.

Carter said only minor injuries, like mild hypothermia, were reported. Carter said they were treated at the scene.

According to the Fort Blackmore Volunteer Fire Department, the U.S. Forest Service closed Devil’s Bathtub for the remainder of the day.

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The company building a natural gas pipeline through Southwest Virginia violated environmental regulations more than 300 times, a lawsuit filed by Virginia’s top lawyer alleges.

Mountain Valley Pipeline is facing “the maximum allowable civil penalties and a court order to force MVP to comply with environmental laws and regulations,” according to a statement from Attorney General Mark Herring.

Since work began earlier this year, inspections have found that crews failed to prevent muddy water from flowing off pipeline construction easements, often leaving harmful sediment in nearby streams and properties.

Covering a span of seven months and nearly 100 miles of the pipeline’s route through five counties, the lawsuit is one of the most comprehensive summaries to date of the environmental toll taken by running a 42-inch diameter pipeline across rugged slopes and through pure mountain streams.

Herring’s office filed the case on behalf of the Department of Environmental Quality and the State Water Control Board. Pipeline opponents have called on DEQ to issue a stop-work order, which the agency is allowed by state law to do if there is a “substantial adverse impact” to water quality or if such an impact is eminent.

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The department issued an emergency closure order affecting land in Giles County and Montgomery County in Virginia, and Monroe County in West Virginia.

According to a release from the Forest Service, the closure order “was enacted to protect public safety due to hazards associated with constructing the Mountain Valley Pipeline.”

The order is set to last for 12 months and prohibits going into or to be upon Forest Service lands within 200 feet of the centerline of the pipeline right-of-way, excluding the footpath of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail and Brush Mountain East Road.

Also off-limits are access roads Mountain Valley will use during construction. It will be prohibited to operate, park, leave, or simply possess a vehicle on Mystery Ridge Road for its entire length, and Pocahontas Road from the first Forest Service gate to the intersection with Mystery Ridge Road.

The forest service says the Appalachian Trail, which will be crossed by the approximately 300-mile natural gas pipeline, will stay open during construction.

Any federal, state, or local officer, as well as any member of an organized rescue or firefighting force engaged in the performance of an official duty, will be exempt from the order, as well as anyone working under a permit issued by federal, state, or local regulatory entities that authorize activity within the area.

For more than 40 years, visitors to the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park have walked among the ghosts of history over seven miles of trails through the park’s historic village and interpretive sites.

The park now is seeking public input for plans to expand the current trails to create a comprehensive, site-wide trail system. Appomattox Court House National Historical Park Superintendent Robin Snyder said plans are to add about two miles to the existing system, which serves about 75,000 visitors annually.

“The whole purpose is to provide better visitor access in the park,” she explained. “We have great stories, and this would enable people to get out to areas they haven’t seen before.”

Many of these important anecdotes are not part of the current trail system, so they may be unknown to visitors, according to Appomattox Court House National Historical Park Natural Resource Manager Brian Eick. Some of these accounts include the last fighting on the morning of the surrender and the site where Hannah Reynolds, an enslaved woman and the only civilian casualty of the Battle of Appomattox Court House, was wounded.

The park, which is located in Appomattox County, Virginia, covers 1,770 acres around the site where the Confederate Army surrendered to the Union Army in April 1865, effectively ending the Civil War.

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The Mountain Valley Pipeline, spearheaded by EQT Corporation, is proposed to carry fracked natural gas for over 300 miles through the Virginia and West Virginia countryside, crossing over dozens of water sources, through protected areas and breaching the A.T. corridor. The pipeline will run parallel to the Appalachian Trail for over 90 miles and carve ugly gashes in the landscape that will be seen from 20 miles away.

The proposed pipeline route would require the creation of a 125-foot swath up and down steep slopes in hazardous areas, which would destroy thousands of acres of pristine forest, visible for 60 miles away. Multiple iconic viewpoints in Virginia will be severely impacted, including Angels Rest, Kelly Knob, Rice Fields, and Dragons Tooth — some of the most visited and photographed locations on the entire A.T.

To accommodate the visual and environmental damage that would be caused by the Mountain Valley Pipeline, the U.S. Forest Service would also need to lower the Jefferson National Forest Management Plan standards for water quality, visual impacts and the removal of old-growth forest. Modifying the forest management plan will open the door for Mountain Valley Pipeline to destroy heritage landscapes and disregard public interests.

Situated on land that is unstable, crossing over a known and active seismic zone, the risk of severe erosion, landslides and pipeline failure are extremely high. Such instability also poses a high likelihood of natural gas leaks, which could poison the surrounding environment and contaminate the drinking water used by nearby communities.

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Exploring Crow’s Nest Natural Area Preserve’s mature forests and scenic overlooks by foot has finally gotten easier.

Nearly a decade after its nearly 3,000 acres nestled between Accokeek and Potomac creeks in Stafford County, Virginia were dedicated as a preserve, eight miles of hiking trails have officially opened to the public. They can be used Thursdays through Sundays.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe was on hand for the ceremony, and helped unveil the new “Hiking Crow’s Nest” sign. It features a map showing the trails through some of the best deciduous hardwood forests remaining in the state’s coastal plains.

“This is a great day for Virginia,” he told the approximately 40 attendees. “This is such a special place for us.”

Protecting Crow’s Nest has been one of Stafford’s, and the state’s, highest land conservation priorities for years. The high, narrow peninsula contains 50 acres of tidal and non-tidal wetlands, which account for 60 percent of all the marshes in the county. It also includes 2,200 acres of mature hardwood forest, including two forest types recognized as globally rare by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Natural Heritage Program.

Bald eagles nest there; it provides habitat for numerous plant species—Dutchman’s breeches and spring beauty are currently in bloom; and the land played an important role in National American, Colonial and Civil War histories in Virginia.

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They wake up early, prepare for a long day of hiking through the woods and traipse through a different stretch of the trail each day. These excursions are not for fun. This is business.

Jim Webb, volunteer trail supervisor with the Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club, and Conner McBane, invasive species coordinator for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, are conducting an in-depth inventory of various man-made features along the trail near Roanoke.

“It gives you a new appreciation for what is out here,” said McBane, who has hiked various sections of the trail. “I think it really shows all the work that all the volunteers have put in for decades and decades.”

The section the pair was studying last week stretches about 120 miles and holds shelters, bridges, campsites and parking lots.

The goal is to get a thorough documentation of what the section of trail in Southwest Virginia holds. McBane is studying an additional 280 miles in Virginia with the help of trail clubs that maintain those sections.

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Bears in the Smoky Mountains long ago figured out how to raid food bags hanging from trees. But until this year, the bears in the Blue Ridge didn’t know how. Now, mama bears are teaching the baby bears how to do it.

Are the black bears in the areas of McAfee Knob and Tinker Cliffs in Virginia growing smarter? At the least, they seem cagier and more socialized to humans in those Appalachian Trail areas. And that can be dangerous for both man and beast.

Signs warning of bear encounters along that trail stretch first went up in the summer of 2015. Then early this past May, a series of food raids by bears raised alarms among trail administrators and enthusiasts. After closing one popular shelter and campsite near Tinker Cliffs, they raised $4,000 to buy bear-resistant food-storage lockers.

The hard part came last weekend: Moving the four heavy steel Bear Saver boxes to their remote destinations. That effort involved more than a dozen volunteers working for two days with an all-terrain vehicle and hand carts.

They installed food lockers at the Catawba shelter (about 2 miles northeast of Virginia 311); the Campbell shelter (which is just northeast of McAfee Knob), and the Lamberts Meadow shelter and campsite in southern Botetourt County. The four AT stopping points are along the trail between U.S. 311 in Catawba and U.S. 220 in Daleville.

That allowed for the reopening of the Lamberts Meadow shelter and campsite, which had been closed since three incidents on successive days in May.

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The new route will significantly improve the hiking experience for Trail users. It eliminates two road crossings, is no longer in close proximity to private homes, and hikers can enjoy a gently graded woodland walk between Cross Avenue and Route 100. The Trail now traverses the face of the stone wall from which the Bluff City neighborhood takes its name, and the steep terrain, thriving forest, and views of the New River provide a rich and scenic hiking experience along the new route.

Construction of the section was a significant undertaking, as the Trail was cut into the side of a bluff and elevated with numerous sections of stone cribbing. The project, which took more than 15 years to complete, represents thousands of volunteer hours from the RATC and the ATC’s Konnarock Trail Crew. Crews from the RATC put the final touches on the footpath.

“Community members and Appalachian Trail enthusiasts from near and far are invited to be among the first to explore the new section and celebrate with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, the Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club, and the official Appalachian Trail Community of Pearisburg,” said Andrew Downs, regional director for the ATC. “The Town of Pearisburg has been very supportive of this relocation project and the many crews of volunteers who helped build it.”

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