This was supposed to be a 6.1 mile linear hike but it ended up being around 5.25. It took place on Tuesday, March 25, 2025. It was just me on this one.
I arrived at the Emmit Road Shopping Center in Charlottesville, VA around 8:30 AM. I had a fantastic breakfast at the
I had Eggs Benedict. It was excellent! Afterwards I parked my vehicle at the far end of the parking lot in front of a Kroger grocery store, used the facilities there, then called an Uber to take me to the intersection of Locust and River RDS. The driver showed up in about 15 minutes. It was a nice white Tesla. First time that I had ridden in one. I liked it! I told him that I had no issues with Teslas but I did have issues with Elon Musk.
I was on the trail by about 9:30 AM. It was at the end of Megan CT in Charlottesville, VA. I would mostly be hiking alongside of Meadow Creek today. The trail bed itself was in good shape. The temps were in the high forties when I started this hike. Verizon cell service was between 4 and 5 bars. I saw a number of people running, hiking and walking their dogs. I even saw one guy walking both his dog and his cat. The dog was on a leash. The cat kept close to both of them.
After .2 miles I reached the intersection with the North Rivanna Trail. That one is on my list to come back and hike. The trees were starting to bloom. There were wild crokases and daffodils along the trail. It looks like spring is here! After .7 miles I reached my first road crossing at Holmes AVE. There were houses built very close to the edge above this stream valley that I was hiking through. Some were modern, some were traditional and some looked very expensive.
At 1.2 miles I crossed the intersection of Rio/Park RDS and Melborne RD. The trail was closed immediately past this intersection due to a new cell tower that was recently built along this stretch. Cell phone reception was great: 5 bars but I was detoured out to Melbourne RD and had to walk on the side walk. Half way down Melbourne RD I had to cross the street and walk on the other side of the road due to fiber optics construction. At 1.3 miles I got to the intersection of Melbourne Rd and John Warner Parkway.
Here’s where I started thinking about shortening this trip. The trail went .9 miles north on Warner Parkway, then .9 miles south on it. If one looks at the map, one is just east of Greenbrier Park at the north end of the parkway. But there is a railroad track in the way. If they could either tunnel under the tracks or build a bridge over them, they could eliminate 1.5 miles of walking. But I’m sure that a bridge or a tunnel over/under the tracks would be expensive. So they brought you back down Warner Parkway, took you up a big up and marched you around the border of the Charlottesville High School ball fields.
When I got back to Melbourne I felt terrible. So I sat under a tree, ate some snacks and drank some water. I even drank an Ensure to get some energy. At this point, I had hiked hiked about 3 miles. I had to decide whether to hike an additional 3 miles or take a shortcut back to my vehicle. I estimated that the shortcut would shave about .8 miles off of my trip. So I took it. This looked like an older RT route or an alternative trail. I was supposed to road walk .6 miles up Melbourne RD to Greenbrier Park.
So I took this older trail that went around Charlottesville High School and eventually came out to US250. What’s weird is that half way through this 1 mile alternative, this trail changed from the Rivanna Trail to the Triangle Trail. I was confused at first. However, I kept following the RLT map on the Avenza app, along with Google Maps and they eventually got me back out to US250.
I walked along US250 for about a quarter mile and then had to cross the Hydraulic RD. The map had me turn right onto Hydraulic, walk about .2 miles and then cross Hydraulic due to the large amount of traffic turning to get onto US29 north. I lucked out as the right turn traffic was backed up. I just crossed Hydraulic and US250 right at the intersection. I continued on a sidewalk paralleling US250. The RLT came in from the right in .2 miles. In another .1 the RLT turned left and went through a culvert under US250.
There was some neat grafitti within the tunnel under US250. And they placed long concrete blocks along it so one could walk through it. Again I was walking along Meadow Creek. I then walked through a frisbee golf course and came out between the English Inn and a professional building of some sort. I was now at the intersection of Cedar CT and Emmit RD.
I was supposed to walk another .1 miles to Barracks RD and then .1 miles back to the shopping center and my vehicle. But I was tired and was craving a milkshake. I knew that there was an Arbys on Emmit. But there was a Cookout before it. So I stopped there, got a Heath Bar milkshake and drank it on the way back to my vehicle. I left around 1:30 PM for the trip home.
Now, this was supposed to be my last section of this trail to hike. I had even crafted a recap web page to accompany this page. However, since I took the shortcut back to my vehicle, I now still have about 1.7 miles of this trail to complete. Since I enjoy coming to Charlottesville, I will be back. But I will drive the .6 miles between C’ville High and Greenbrier park.
Mike C
< Previous Trip Log | << Outdoors | Next Trip Log >
