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With the goal of getting youths and adults to enjoy and appreciate the outdoors and resources in the area, the Rockbridge Area Recreation Organization held its first-ever kayaking program in early June.
If there is enough interest, RARO is hoping to add another adventure camp, hiking, next week.
With high hopes for what is known as RARO Adventures, third-year RARO executive director Chad Coffey said, “The vision behind it is to offer the programs to adults and kids alike … helping people understand the wealth of resources that we have here in our area, between streams and hiking trails and outdoor recreation activities.”
In addition, Coffey said, a goal is to provide safety education. “We wanted to answer two questions with our programs,” he said. “One is, for anybody that wants to get started, how do I get started? Two is, how do I do it safely?”
During the school year, Coffey said, RARO’s programs include team sports, such as football, volleyball soccer, basketball, baseball and softball, as well as running and wrestling. In the summer, he and the other staff members at RARO wanted to try something different.
“I wanted to see how much we offer, what we did offer, and how the summers would play out,” said Coffey. “A lot of our staff is on vacation, so we wanted to find a way to offer these recreational programs but not burden current staff.”
About a year ago, Coffey began talking with Bryan and Christina Volpe, owners of the local canoe and kayak store Journey Outdoors. Later, RARO and Journey Outdoors teamed up with Maury River Smallmouth LLC, a canoe and kayak rental service in Natural Bridge, to plan the camp, which took place June 5-8 in Rockbridge County. Jamie Childress is the owner and guide for Maury River Smallmouth, LLC. “We planned it for about a year,” said Coffey. “The planning that went into it paid off. We got everything accomplished that we hoped to accomplish.”
The camps are focused on youths, with the hope of adding camps in future years for youths and their parents. There were 21 youths in the kayaking camp, and Journey Outdoors and Maury River Smallmouth LLC provided kayaks, and there were some personal kayaks there as well.
Coffey said that part of the process was “to expose people to different areas of the county.” There were five instructors from RARO, Journey Outdoors and Maury River Smallmouth, LLC.
On the first day, the instructors took the youths to Lake Robertson for small basic lessons. Day two of the camp took place at the Ben Salem Wayside boat lock.
The third day of the camp took place at the Glen Maury Park pool in Buena Vista, “where we could control the environment and work on some safety things,” said Coffey.
On the fourth and final day, the kayakers went along the Maury River from Beans Bottom to Jordans Point, a 2.2-mile course that is also the canoe/kayak section of the annual Lexington Road and Relay that takes place in early May. The challenging sections were the first set of rapids and then at the Jordans Point Dam, but the day went smoothly.
Coffey said that, to make sure the Maury River kayaking was safe, it helped that the child-to-adult ratio on the final day was almost one-to-one.
Reviewing the week, Coffey said he was glad it went well and that the weather cooperated. “Any time you’re dealing with the rivers, the water levels and Mother Nature are key. It ended up being a fantastic week, weather-wise, and the program went as smoothly as we could’ve expected.”
RARO is partnering with local outdoor clothing and gear retail store Walkabout Outfitter to plan its hiking camp for next Monday through Thursday, July 1013. The plan is to hold the camp at Walkabout Outfitter in downtown Lexington on Monday, talking about hiking and looking at gear. On Tuesday, the hikers will probably be at Glen Maury Park in Buena Vista. They’ll go somewhere in the county on Wednesday before taking a hike on a local trail on Thursday, the final day.
The cost of the camp is $40. “When you break it down, it’s actually pretty cheap,” said Coffey. “It’s $10 a day, and it’s two hours a day, so it’s $5 an hour to get outdoors and get education.”
Depending on the turnout, Coffey said RARO plans to make a decision by this Friday whether to hold the camp or not.
In the future, Coffey said RARO is hoping to hold adventure camps that children can do with their parents, with the goal of adding one or two camps next summer.
To register or find out more information about the hiking camp, call the RARO office at (540) 463-9525 or email [email protected]. More information and updates will be at www.rarorec.org and at www.facebook.com/ rarorec.
