By Taylor Boyd
Even in the quieter winter months, the Mayo River Rail Trail continues to draw walkers, families and visitors — and recent enhancements are designed to encourage even more people to explore the community asset year-round.
Upgrades along the trail focus on adding amenities that support recreation, education and visual interest, building on what users already value about the space.
Sarah Wray, regional outreach coordinator at the Reynolds Homestead, said the work grew out of the Appalachian Gateway Community Initiative, which is funded through the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Conservation Fund.
It works “to provide communities with technical assistance and support as they think about ways to connect their public lands to economic sectors and downtowns and to build some long-term vitality and sustainability in communities all across the country,” Wray said.
The initiative comprises the Patrick County Chamber of Commerce, Master Naturalists, the Town of Stuart, the Dan River Basin Association, the Reynolds Homestead, Bull Mountain Arts and Patrick County Tourism.
Planning for long-term use
In April 2024, Patrick County was one of seven communities across the nation selected to attend a workshop in Alabama.
“During that week, we learned from a lot of professionals that are doing outdoor recreation works, they’re doing cultural tourism work, and they’re really trying to find out ways that they can amplify their natural assets and their public lands,” Wray said.
While at the workshop, participants developed a plan to enhance the Mayo River Rail Trail.
“We really identified early on that this is a community asset. It’s something that people find a lot of peace and solitude in, they use this as recreation, for exploration, and curiosity. We just wanted to amplify what was already taking place, add a few amenities, and encourage more people to come and utilize this incredible trail,” Wray said.
The group is also looking ahead to developing a comprehensive plan to help extend and expand the trail to connect it with other assets across the county.
New features along the trail
One of the first enhancements added was a Little Free Library box built and donated by Nelson and Ann McConnell. The box is located beside the trail’s parking lot off Commerce Street.
“They’ve been really strong advocates for literacy and little free libraries across Patrick County and in their neighborhood and we’re really grateful they were able to donate this to us,” Wray said.
She noted the library had been full the week before but was then half-empty.
“We’ve got some restocking to do,” she said.
Nearby are River Ranger boxes funded by the Dan River Basin Association.
“They are river exploration kits that families, youth, or individuals can check them out, take them to the river, and explore the natural habitats,” Wray said.
The boxes include small hand fishing nets, informational booklets, macroinvertebrate identification sheets and clipboards that can be used to document findings.
“To help us make sure that we are maintaining a healthy ecosystem for our rivers,” Wray said.
The River Ranger boxes were launched on Trout Fishing Day in April.
Education and ecology
Master Naturalist Norma Bozenmayer said seeing children use the kits has been particularly rewarding.
“They’re out in the river and they’ve looking for macros and learning that macroinvertebrates are related to water quality. That’s probably the thing that excites me the most about that project. It’s also making them excited about ecology in general and how to protect the environment and that’s our passion as well, so we’re really excited that it has worked so far,” she said.
The Master Naturalists also installed a monarch waystation pollinator garden near the Little Free Library.
Bozenmayer said the location was selected because it met the requirements for a waystation, including proximity to water and trees and access to sunlight.
“The Town of Stuart helped us bring in a lot of mulch, and we put cardboard out and unloaded the mulch, and it was quite a project. Then I think we planted about 110 different plants. You can’t see them all now, some of them bloom at different times of the year, some of them look weedy, some of them probably have died,” she said.
Over the summer, Bozenmayer said monarch butterflies were observed at the site.
“The monarchs showed up, and they actually consumed all of our milkweed, which isn’t necessarily a good thing, but it shows if you plant it they’ll come. I saw the eggs, I saw the caterpillars, then I saw the butterflies,” she said.
Art adds visual interest
The final enhancement was a mural placed on the back of a kiosk at the end of the trail.
As the backs of the kiosks were left open, Wray said the group saw an opportunity to add artwork to the space.
“We worked with Bull Mountain Arts and a SEED grant that we received from our participation” in the initiative, she said. “Bull Mountain Arts went to their membership and put out a call for proposals, and Lisa Garrett stepped up to the plate and made this beautiful piece of artwork that just a few minutes ago she titled, ‘Stop and Smell the Flowers.’”
The mural depicts three bears in a field with the Blue Ridge Mountains in the background. One bear cub is shown in the foreground smelling wildflowers.
Ribbon cutting held
A ribbon cutting was held Oct. 18 to celebrate the enhancements made along the Mayo River Rail Trail.
Organizers said the upgrades are intended to encourage continued use of the trail throughout the year, offering visitors something new to experience even during the colder months.
