Collegiate Times

Plans remain in the works to extend one of the most popular pedestrian trails in Montgomery County. The Huckleberry Trail, an asphalt-paved bike and pedestrian path, currently runs all the way from Blacksburg Library to the New River Valley Mall shopping center.

Click here to see a map with proposed extensions to the Huckleberry Trail.

With distance markers at every half-mile, it currently tops out at 5.762 miles. The trail also has several benches so pedestrians can sit and enjoy the scenery when not walking.

"I think that people, for a variety of reasons, are thinking of easier ways to commute to and from campus," said Debby Freed, Tech's Alternative Transportation manager. She is primarily responsible for the extension of the trail relative to Tech.

"They are looking at their bicycles and thinking it's a good way to do it," Freed said. "It's environmentally friendly. It's a great source of exercise."

The Huckleberry Trail project doesn't just have support on campus. A non-profit organization, Friends of the Huckleberry, is instrumental in endorsing the extension and promotion of the trail. Current plans are to extend the trail along Route 460 to the Hethwood community.

Bill Ellenbogen, twice a Tech graduate, is president of Friends of the Huckleberry.

"We organized this particularly for the purpose of extending the Huckleberry Trail and promoting it to the community," Ellenbogen said.

To make it easier for pedestrians, work is being done so that all of these trails can travel through town, county and university property.

"One of my jobs on campus is to promote bicycle use, and one of the ways to do that is to extend the trail network," Freed said. "I'm really excited about it."

In 1990, the year Friends was founded, the Huckleberry consisted of a mile of trail from Blacksburg Library to Margaret Beeks Elementary School. At the time, the goal was to extend the trail all the way to Christiansburg. With the railroad that already ran such a path, there was a lot of right of way available. This would also make the trail more functional and recreational.

"I was very avid and interested in recreation and still am," Ellenbogen said. "I wanted to see a nice trail developed that could serve more people in a better way."

With the new Hethwood-community stretch, many hope to turn the trail toward the north instead of its present path to the south. Some of the land for this particular project goes through Tech's property. To make this link, the school received some federal funding. It is also known as phase four of Hokie Bikeways.

"That's going to be a very important link, and we have received notification for funding for that," Freed said.

Extending the trail poses problems of right-of-way over private property.

"The most difficult thing to do is to acquire the right-of-way, or the dirt path that would be built on top of," Ellenbogen said. "There is private property there; it's always very sensitive. People like their property that way, and if you put a trail on it, it's no longer as private as it was."

Funds to extend the trail come from private donations, local government contributions and grant money from the Federal Transportation Enhancement Act. Ellenbogen said that federal funds have constituted the majority of the trail's extension funding.

Joe Meredith, president of Tech's Corporate Research Center, is an advocate of the project and future extension. He has worked with Ellenbogen continuously in providing funds and strategy for the trail.

"I think it's a huge part of the quality of life in the area," Meredith said. "It's something that I'd definitely love to see grow."

Hopefully, two new sections of trail will be in place in the next three or four years. Once the trail is extended to the National Forest, it will be nearly nine miles in length. This is a large change from its initial one-mile length. There are also plans to connect it to an additional 30 miles of trail once it reaches the forest.

"On a nice day in the spring or summer, it's used by a ton of people," Ellenbogen said.